I don't hate the Mets.  I don't dislike Mets fans.  In fact, I really like their new Stadium, especially since it has a Shake Shack. 

What I don't like is all the crap I've been getting from my friends who are Mets fans.

"Way to buy another championship!"

"A-ROIDS!"

I can see why they're bitter.  They had a terrible season.  Abysmal.  Injury bug worse than the swine flu.  Terrible plays and errors and incidents that made 2009 a cursed season.  Look back at how their previous three seasons ended:

2008 - Blew a late season lead and missed the playoffs.

2007 - Blew a late season lead and missed the playoffs.

2006 - Carlos Beltran freezes and watches a called strike three end their season.

So without further ado, "How to Anger a Mets Fan"

1) (Refer to any of the three incidents mentioned above.)

2) "Luis Castillo" and "Pop-ups"

3) David Wright's new helmet and Lord Helmet from "Spaceballs"

4) Omar Minaya

5) Bobby Bonilla and Mo Vaughn

6) Cocaine + Daryll Strawberry + Doc Gooden

7) Oliver Perez

8) Braden Looper/Armando Benitez

9) Chipper Jones and/or John Rocker

10) and Finally, Scott Kazmir and Victor Zambrano.

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Nothing gets them more riled up than the Zambrano trade.  I almost got into a fistfight over it last night at a bar.  SO if you want to press the buttons of those occasionally annoying Mets fans, choose any of the above.

Or, send them to the following article: http://www.writingthepine.com/2009/11/13/victor_zambrano_trade/

It's like shooting fish in a barrel.

Hey guys.  I'm visiting from over at PinstripeAlley (as if my name wasn't a dead giveaway).  Don't worry, I'm not here to gloat or cause trouble.  Just thought I'd share a post about our dear friend Victor Zambrano.

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There I said.  Heck, even Jimmy Rollins said it on Leno.

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There are three things in this world everybody seems to like — Italian restaurants, refund checks and Nick Swisher, especially "Gossip Girl" actress Joanna Garcia. She’s dating the 28-year-old Swisher and can be seen at most Yankees home games.

"She understands baseball," Swisher says. "I’ll come home some nights after an oh-fer and she’ll go, ‘Your swing looked a little different tonight, Honey. Maybe your hands didn’t get back early enough?’ So I’m like, dang, maybe I need to start my swing a little earlier?"

 

 (Quote from Rick Reilly's latest piece on Swisher)

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We'd be amiss if we didn't mention it.  We all saw Pat Sajak and Kate Hudson.  Who cares?

We need to discuss Arod's blatant ass grabbing of the Captain after Jorge's homerun last night.  Face it.  The whole world knows.  It was on live national TV. 

Is their friendship renewed?  Is it more than a friendship?

http://www.writingthepine.com/2009/10/20/a-rod-ass-grab/

FYI, I think the picture is a lot worse than the whole video shows.  That picture shows a moment frozen in time.  Arod focused on Jeter's ass like it was a fat fastball left over the outer part of the plate by Brian Fuentes.

Also, this is all meant in light-hearted jest.  We need to take a deep breath and just hope we take at least one of the three Anaheim games.

Go Yanks!

Hey guys.  Visiting from PinstripeAlley and decided to drop a line on this Ross Ohlendorf interview at Writingthepine.com

Enjoyed Ross while he was with NY and it was especially a treat watching him pitch a gem against the Cubbies the other day. 

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Interview with former Yankee pitcher Ross Ohlendorf, which can be found here.


Here's what he had to say about his Yankee debut back in 2007:

WtP: You made your major league debut on September 11th, 2007 for the New York Yankees at Rogers Centre. I was actually watching that game. You’re on the mound wearing your road-grays pitching for the New York Yankees. If I’m not mistaken, Lyle Overbay steps up to the plate. Describe that moment. How did it feel to make it to The Show?

RO: We got to a big lead early in the game, so I figured there was a good chance I would get in at some point. The bullpen phone rang for the first time in the 5th inning and I had a serious rush of butterflies. The butterflies reemerged each time the phone rang afterward, though they weren’t as strong. By the time they finally told me I was going to pitch the 9th inning they were pretty much gone. I still had a lot of adrenaline for that inning though and I certainly won’t forget the way it went. It was extra special to make my debut on September 11th for the Yankees.

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News has broken out that former MLB-slugger Sammy Sosa tested positive for PED's in 2003, the same year Alex Rodriguez tested positive.  They were just 2 of the 104 that tested positive that year.

While it's no surprise Sammy Sosa might have cheated, it always hurts America's favorite pastime when something like this occurs.

Links:

1) NY Times Article by Michael S. Schmidt

2) Writing the Pine Article

Credit goes to Mike Schmidt for breaking the news.

The boys over at WritingThePine.com have featured the ballpark foods at the New Yankee Stadium in a season-long battle against the New York Mets.  Not only will we beat the New York Mets on the field, I'm confidence we'll take them down in a battle of ballpark foods.

Check out the link

Personally, I love the garlic fries and jimmy's bbq sandwiches. 

What are your favorites at the new Stadium?

We all need to calm down.  We've been decimated by injuries and poor weather.  Our biggest problem was not having a long reliever out of the pen for those terrible blowouts early in the year.  The ramifications of wearing your bullpen so thin early in the year reverberates for weeks if not months.

Anyhow, thought this column by Jason Whitlock was interesting.  Its calling into question the credibility of Selena Roberts, who wrote the new A-Rod book.  I totally forgot she was involved in the public lynching of the Duke lacrosse players four years ago.

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/9542614/Bio-hazard:-A-Rod-author-has-credibility-issues

We will battle back.  With our caliber of talent, depth, and payroll, we'll be fine.  If all of our pitchers get rolling, we'll peel off these 7-8 game winning streaks left and right.  Trust me.