SB Nation User Blog: Doc Manhattan

UFL assures Mets won't be worst semi-pro team to play in CitiField this year.

Doc Manhattan — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 21:51:49 -0000

UFL assures Mets won't be worst semi-pro team to play in CitiField this year.

Good thing we missed the playoffs--there could be a scheduling conflict with the New York Sentinels. Ugh. Here's hoping the gate receipts cover the cost of converting the field for this trainwreck.

Making the simple difficult since 1962.

Doc Manhattan — Tue, 19 May 2009 12:48:10 -0000

Making the simple difficult since 1962.

New York Times recap suggests a new Mets motto.

First Phils Fan Kicked out of CitiField

Doc Manhattan — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 14:08:42 -0000

First Phils Fan Kicked out of CitiField

Headline: "College student takes stand for totally pointless cause." Also in news: "Sun rises in east."

Will Citi live to see its Field?

Doc Manhattan — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 04:03:42 -0000

Will Citi live to see its Field?

September collapse of a different sort: Citigroup owns a bunch of Lehman's debt. What happens to Citi Field if they go belly up? And what happens to the $400M the Mets expected from them?

Shea 2 = CitiField

Doc Manhattan — Sat, 11 Nov 2006 21:48:21 -0000

ESPN.com reports that the sponsorship and naming rights for the new Mets stadium will be bought by CitiBank/CitiGroup for some staggering sum of money.

It seemed pretty unikely that the Mets would build a boutique stadium without selling off the naming rights, and CitiField could be much much worse. Still, it would've been nice to have a commerce-free name.

Roger & Me (Well, not "me"... the Braves)

Doc Manhattan — Mon, 31 Oct 2005 03:04:01 -0000

The Braves have replaced legendary pitching coach Leo Mazzone with... Roger McDowell?

Roger's done some coaching, but--face it--even when he helped win the chip in '86, we all remember him as "pants on his head guy," or possible "pie in the face guy."

I'd try to cast more doubt, but it's the friggin' Braves. Every time the Braves do, um, anything, they win the division (and then turn into Sisyphus in the playoffs.)

Good luck, Rog. Can't wish you wins on principle, but how about a lot of 1-0 losses?

Pedro: If Elected I Will Not Serve

Doc Manhattan — Fri, 08 Jul 2005 21:33:58 -0000

Citing his start on Sunday, Pedro has declined his invitation to the NL All-Star team for this year's affair in scenic Detroit.

I had all manner of eloquent thoughts on this issue, but the Internets ate my post, so I'll answer with more questions:

Good for the Mets?

Good for the fans?

Good for the game?

Good for the Pedro?

Met Fan, Yankee Fan: A Softball Parable

Doc Manhattan — Mon, 27 Jun 2005 01:19:19 -0000

Today I played in a friend's birthday softball game--a friendly, beer-league affair which was mostly an afternoon of mediocre play and joking on people. It was Mets fans vs. Yankees fans.

Hoewever, there was one incident which stuck in my head, and it serves as a sort of parable about Yankee fans and Met fans, or perhaps simply an object lesson about why I am a Mets fan.

It was blazing hot and we were playing "two swings"--any two swings to put a ball into play or the batter strikes out. We Met fans were also up by two runs.

Now, one of the Yankee players was an 8-year-old girl, a friend's daughter. Well, when she came up with a runner on first--the tying run at the plate--we did what we had done all afternoon: we stowed the rules. This poor kid had it hard enough against a team of able-bodied twentysomethings (and she was already at a disadvantage, being raised a Yanks fan.) She got as many strikes as she needed to put the ball in play. I think it was six in this at-bat.

The girl at last hit a dribbler up the first base line (slow roller!) and our first-baseman weakly charged the ball. He leaned for the tag, but--"whoops"--he "missed" the tag and she was safe at first. Smiles all 'round.

Meanwhile, as this 8-year-old girl was running her legs off to first... the Yankee runner forced to second ADVANCED TO THIRD on the "error." What. The. Heck.

I just turned to the runner and said, "Nice sportsmanship, chief." The truth is, I didn't expect any better.

He was forced in by a ground-rule double, so it became a moot point. But that's where the line is drawn for that certain sort of Yankee fan. Nothing is sacred before the win--fairness, fun, the innocence of the game. Even on a tiny stage with an 8-year-old girl at bat.

Oh, and the Met fans won, 9-8. (Your boy had an RBI and two runs. But that's not really relevant to this story.)

NYT: Brooks Turns Quisling on Mets

Doc Manhattan — Tue, 29 Mar 2005 22:15:00 -0000

Times columnist David Brooks has publically dumped the Mets in favor of the Nats.

The logic appears to be "I live in DC now" and "The Mets have abandoned their archetype of 'loveable losers' by attempting not to suck."

I'm particularly unimpressed with Brooks' coda that the Metropolitans could win his heart back with enough young talent. As if we want him crawling back after dissing the team, appropos of nothing, to a million of his closest friends. What's love got to do with it, Ike?

They shoot traitors, don't they?