5 Sox, 2 Phillies

Well at least we got one.

This game could have been a lot more exciting, but then our friend Adrian knocked Cole Hamels out of the game. Hamels had only given up 2 hits in 4 innings. The Sox then took advantage of the Phillies bullpen as Sutton and Ellsbury both drove in runs in the 5th. Jason Varitek was on point, hitting a solo shot in the 6th, then going back-to-back with Pedroia by following his solo shot with one of the 2-run variety.

Jon Lester came through when the Red Sox needed him the most. Lester threw 120 pitches over 7 shutout innings, giving up only 2 hits, 2 walks and striking out 5.

Red Sox @ Phillies Preview

Well, this series has gone bad so far, and it doesn't get any easier tonight with Lester taking on Hamels. Hamels is 3-0 with a 1.71 ERA with 21 strikeouts in three starts against Boston, and 5-2 with a 1.85 ERA in his last eight outings. I have always liked Hamels and am actually happy he is having such a great year.

Lester is 1-0 with a 0.64 ERA in two starts against the Phillies, but has lost two straight. I believe Lester will have a strong game tonight, but I am worried about the Sox being able to score any runs. I would hate to see them fall anymore behind the Yankees, and my hope is Gonzalez, Youk, Pedroia just have enough to get them through this game.

Red Sox win 3-1
Player of the Game: Lester
Game starts at 1:05pm

Red Sox 1 Phillies 2

The Red Sox just aren't hitting right now. Last night Lackey was really their only offense... yea, that's the kind of game it was. This time it was Vance Worley who shut the Red Sox down going 7 innings allowing only 5 hits, 1 run, with 5 Ks. I have been making he excuse that the Red Sox really aren't going to be very good until they have Ortiz and Gonzalez in the lineup, well last night they did starting Gonzalez in RF and Ortiz at first and it still didn't make much of a difference. Maybe it's that Ortiz (0-4) was just out of sink after having to sit so much, or maybe it's just the Red Sox are once again in a funk. They have been an up and down team all year, so it could just be one of the down times.

What is lost in all this is how well Lackey pitched. He went 7 2/3 allowing 2 runs on 8 hits with 5 K's, much better then anything the Sox have been getting from him this year. There were rumors Lackey was going to need Tommy John, but after this performance and Francona and Lackey coming out saying that is false, I would say that it is unlikely.

Lackey was rolling until Ibanez homered to right in the 7th. Still, It's not Lackey's fault the Sox could put more then 1 run on the board. I think they will be fine, and they just need to get out of this NL schedule and back into Fenway. Still, being 2 1/2 games back of the Yankees already the Sox don't want to lose too much ground.

5 Phillies, 0 Red Sox

Cliff Lee is pretty good, huh?

And like our buddy in Hotlanta sent us in a e-mail, thank god the Yankees don't have him.

That's all you can say after Cliff Lee went up against the best lineup in baseball and made them look like a High School team. Lee didn't give up a hit until the sixth to Marco Scutaro. The Sox were completely over matched and this was for his 3rd straight shut out. And on top of it he got an RBI hit, literally beating the Sox by himself. He ends the month of June, going 5-0 while allowing only a single earned run in 42 innings (0.21 ERA).

As from Josh Beckett, he was obviously rusty after the 13 day lay off. giving up 5 runs in 6 innings.

Oh well. Philly is still an awful place.

Red Sox @ Phillies Preview

One of the best pitching matchups you are going to get tonight as Beckett vs. Cliff Lee. Beckett has been out sick for over a week, but is finally feeling better and that's great news for the Red Sox, because he has flat out been their best pitcher this season (6-2 1.86 ERA).

Lee has thrown consecutive shutouts and hasn't allowed a run in 23 innings, but he has struggled against the Red Sox in his career going 2-4 with a 4.06 ERA. Still, with Ortiz most likely out of the lineup tonight he will most likely be tough to score on. Beckett on the other hand has has some success against the Phillies (8-4 3.98 ERA).

The Sox haven't been hitting as well since they have had to start playing NL teams on the road. It's not hard to figure out why. With Ortiz not being able to play much, Crawford out hurt, and everyone in the OF (with the exception of Ellsbury) sucking there just isn't much offense. That could really hurt the Sox tonight, but the Phillies aren't a great offensive team anymore either. I think Boston gets just enough, since they have stepped up against good pitching all year.

Red Sox win 4-2
Player of the Game: Beckett
Game starts at 7:05pm

Surprise, Surprise, Philly Wants To Be Us

Philly.com - If there’s a reason to end interleague play, this is it. The next few days figure to test our collective patience and sanity. Brace yourself: Boston fans are coming. They’ve gotten out of control, these Boston fans. They’ve mutated. There was a time when they took a perverse pride in their suffering, when they romanticized their lack of sports luck. Then the Pats won and the Sox won and the Celtics won and, more recently, the Bruins won. The people in Boston have become obnoxious, arrogant, condescending. After the Bruins won the Stanley Cup, I asked my buddy Flan, who lives up there, whether people were rioting in Central Square – a particularly lawless area of Cambridge where Flan and I once watched two hobos fight in the middle of Massachusetts Avenue. (True story.)”Nope,” Flan said. “We act like we’ve been there before.” Boston Globe and SportsIllustrated.com columnist Dan Shaughnessy – a man who’s written about Boston sports for decades – summed up the vomit-inducing situation perfectly in the first sentence of a recent piece. The story appeared under the obligatory headline you might expect: “Being a sports fan in Boston has become an embarrassment of riches.” “The rest of the country,” Shaughnessy wrote, “must be sick of us in Boston.” Pass the Pepto.

It's so obvious that Philly is the little brother to the best sports town in America, so obviously this guy would come out with a extremely jealous article pointing fingers at fans from Titletown. I have been saying this for a while recently, Philadelphia is a city full of scumbags and they deserve another ringless run. I was happy for the city when they won, now they are trying to play the us against the world card which actually goes to show how actually pathetic they are.

How dare this guy go after our fans, when they have some of the most classless people in America representing their city. They embrace booing little kids, injured players and throwing up on little girls. Maybe they are just upset because their city is a step above New Orleans after the hurricane hit. Honestly have you ever been there? There are 2 cool streets, steak and cheese subs and then a bunch of ugly women. So calm down Philly and embrace the role of the little sister because that's all you'll ever be.

Oh yea Flyers, smooth move, trading 2 of your best players for a ehhh goalie isn't winning you the cup any time soon.

Now That's An Entrance. And An Exit.

Let's assume for a second that last night, Friday, May 13th, you were actually watching the Mets-Astros game. No, I know, no sane, rational person would be doing that on a nice Friday night in the spring time, but that's not the point of the exercise. Let's assume that you saw fit to watch to baseball teams that are probably going nowhere duke it out for three hours.

Although, as I point that the Mets are going nowhere I should also note that aside from an interminable 2-12 stretch earlier this season the Amazins are actually 16-8. And their four-run eighth inning last night did show off some rather exciting moxie.

But I digress. These are not good baseball teams. And given that we know that already in May, it's pretty clear that this game is not worth watching when you could do more productive things with your Friday night like see friends or stare at a wall.

However, one of the great things about baseball is that every game gives you the opportunity to see something you've never seen before, and while a late comeback to win a baseball game, or even a Mets victory, are things I've seen before, I had never seen something like this.

Yeah, that's a crazy fan running onto the field, something that has happened numerous times before, and while this particular incident won't inspire a silly debate about the necessity of tasers, or point out just how dumb Philadephia sports fans are, it's easily the greatest attempt to evade the authorities that I've ever seen from a stands jumper. That's what the Astros get for having that stupid hill in center field. And the best thing about it, beyond the acrobatics shown by the fan in question, is that, seemingly, no one really got hurt. It was just a fun-loving fan livening up the crowd.



Steve McQueen would be proud.

Now that said I don't want to imply that I'm suddenly encouraging fans to jump the stands and run onto the field. Far from it. More often than not these events wind up being potentially or actually dangerous to at least one if not both people involved.

Obviously we don't want that.

But if you, as a fan, absolutely have to be a reckless ass and run out on the field, when you do it, at least do it in a way that is most importantly not dangerous and almost as importantly, awesome. And this was pretty damn awesome. Even some of the players enjoyed it.

Of course, the one big problem with this is that all 15 Major League games today might get stopped by some schmuck hoping to duplicate the impressive feat. I'm guessing that it'll happen at at least one game somewhere this week. While that will be infinitely irritating, I'm at least going to revel and cherish this moment, almost as much as the Mets actually playing sort of ok lately or Geelong winning its big showdown with Collingwood Friday.

After all, how could I not enjoy the second funniest news item to come out this week?

Waiting On A Sunny Day

I was telling dirty jokes in my study hall with Brian Caliccio when the planes hit the towers on September 11th. It's truly bizarre years later to look back at that exact moment, to know what was happening and not have had a clue. In fact I didn't even get a whiff of the attacks until I walked to my fifth-period English class when on the way there, Harry Shuldman stopped me to warn of concern that a plane might crash into the school. I was blissfully unaware, and being my snarky self -- and in a big Manchurian Candidate phase -- I told him to "play a little solitaire" continued to class, and at that moment my friend Mike Wong told me the news.

I was naturally baffled and incredulous to it all, as was another classmate, Anoosh Montasser, who like me refused to believe this was feasible, but I soon found out it was and then found that the entire school was being released at noon though, for some reason, we were never told why.

The details of that day are permanently etched in my brain and will be until I die or Alzheimer's gets the better of me some decades down the road, and while I was fortunate enough to lose no one personally connected to me that day, it was and still is impossible to think that anyone in the New York area didn't lose something, be it a loved one, their innocence or their naivete. This was a day no one who lived near this city will ever forget for better or worse.

Last night it was impossible not to have my mind go back to that day when I heard the news that Osama bin Laden had been killed in a firefight with U.S. forces. There is an immediate part of me that wanted to relish vindictively. After all, this was the man who orchestrated the greatest horror our country had seen in my lifetime, and anyone who has lived in New York knows that it is a weight that sits on our shoulders -- always -- even if we don't realize it.

I first became aware of the news, like any good Mets fan, while I was in the middle of watching the Mets play the Phillies on Sunday Night Baseball. The game itself wasn't where the news came from, a friend IMed me to tell me to turn on the news, but watching it through that lens was as interesting a picture of the American reaction as any. In no uncertain terms, the visuals of fans chanting U-S-A as the word spread through the crowd was highly surreal, and it took me back to a Mets-Braves game I attended on the first weekend that baseball was back in New York after the attacks. Throughout the game, montages of first responders were shown on the jumbotron and jingoistic cheers rippled through Shea Stadium.

If the hair didn't stand on your neck, you weren't human.

But what happened last night was different for me. Unabashed national pride was the obvious reaction after September 11th, but last night was a far more complex emotion to interpret, particularly since nearly a decade has passed since 9/11. So much has happened both in my own personal life and the world -- though the Mets still haven't won the World Series and the Knicks still haven't won a playoff game. To be someone whose formative years -- high school and college -- came in the shadow of 9/11 this is a highly significant and intense event to acknowledge and the sanctimonious and vindictive immediate reaction most would, and did have was to celebrate. I don't fault people for celebrating. To take joy in society being rid of a monster is human. But to take joy in a man's death is a different matter, one I'm not sure I am comfortable with.

Furthermore, while many scenes of people cheering in massive crowds with American flags were uncomfortable for me to witness -- particularly since tons of college students cheering and high-fiving that were seven years old in some cases when the attacks happened seemed ignorant and disingenuous to me -- I can't say I was bereft of some satisfaction.

I don't like the idea of celebrating a man's death, but in my mind for points of justification the thought is clear. Osama bin Laden deserved to die. When you deliberately murder thousands of innocents you have lost your right to be part of a free society, and while bin Laden's death doesn't bring men, women or children back who passed away at his behest, it does bring a measure of justice to the occasion. This was an evil man, who got 14 more years on this Earth than he deserved, and I say 14 because he lost his chance to participate in the circus that is humanity with killings that took place even before he orchestrating bombings of U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam.

To relish the salving of death with more death is odd, but we're all prone to a human response, and I know that I uncomfortably cracked open a beer to mark the moment as I watch President Obama's speech to the nation late last night. I wasn't sure if it was the right move, but as a friend of mine who pays more attention to the War on Terror than anyone else I know said, this was an execution of justice. Today is a good day.

Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. I'm still bothered by the videos I saw of hordes of college students, most of them probably drunk, screaming in celebration. Images of firefighters cheering the news bother me less so, as they understand the price that was paid by the colleagues and brothers that lost their lives in the World Trade Center. But to ignore the obvious catharsis this was for most, 10 years in the making, would be foolish.

In a somewhat odd twist for me, the first sporting event in New York after bin Laden's death will be a Mets-Giants game on Tuesday night, a game that I, and Mike Wong, who was the first to break the news of the attacks to me, had already made plans to attend. The Mets played a memorable role in the recovery of New York's psyche in the weeks' following the attacks, and I'm interested to see what the scene will be like, but it's odd that life sometimes has these full circle types of events.

Either way, I, and I'm sure others, are left with a bizarre and uncomfortable feeling of satisfaction through it all. As kids we're always told that two wrongs don't make a right, and one would have to assume that murder begetting murder falls under that heading. But as I keep telling myself and those around me, I am comfortable with the feeling and understanding that this is justice carried out. Whether or not this is victory in the War on Terror is subject to debate, and people are quickly jumping to both sides of the argument, but regardless of what happens now, there is no denying that all of us have witnessed a moment we will remember and tell our children about.

I got home at noon on September 11th and immediately began calling my brother, who was a junior at New York University. Phone calls were nearly impossible to get into the city in the early hours, and I got nothing but busy signals as I started to panic, not knowing where my brother was or if he was ok -- though in retrospect it seems irrational to think he might have been near the financial district. I called my father next, who told me immediately that Elliott was ok -- he had sent my parents an e-mail -- and he then told me words that stuck with me. They were simply: "You're going to remember this day for the rest of your life."

Truer words. It was no exaggeration to say that 9/11 was the JFK assassination for my generation, but what the death of bin Laden becomes in stature is unsure, as is the impact that it will have on all of our lives, though one newscaster this morning called it my generation's V-E Day. I think that might be a bit extreme. But it's hard not to think that the world is a better place today than it was yesterday.

And as I walked to work this morning, there was no doubt in my mind that New York has its chin up today.

Super Happy Baseball Fun Time Hour 2011

Surely some of you have seen some advertisement in your years for a Japanese imported TV show with a title that doesn't quite translate to the U.S. One episode of Seinfeld made particular light of this because a brief clip of Jerry on a Japanese TV show meant he was going to receive countless royalty checks for a whopping 12 cents, which led him to have a serious case of writer's cramp. I title this post this way because, in case you hadn't noticed, the 2011 Major League Baseball season started today and like I do in most years, I probably need to write some sort of preview detailing how I think these things will go. And really, considering the team that I follow and put my irrational faith in, well, I'd rather not talk about how things will go. That's because I'm unlikely to see a baseball season that goes how I want it to unless I start following a team from Japan, where baseball might actually be a super happy fun time this year.

And really, if I wanted to do just that, I do already have the appropriate merchandise for a team to support.

However, while I do follow two sports teams in foreign countries fairly closely, adding a third that is in a country that doesn't speak English is probably too much work. So .... I'm stuck with the Mets. And this year that doesn't look like it's going to be too good a situation. And what would give me that idea beyond the whole "bloated-roster-with-aging-expensive-ineffective-players-coupled-with-a-painfully-thin-farm-system-and-an-ownership-group-that-is-currently-being-sued-for-a-billion-dollars-because-of-its-connection-with-a-ponzi-scheme" thing?

Well, if you read the Sports Illustrated baseball preview this week and its scouting report on New York, it included really positive nuggets like, "Their system is really thin and there's not a lot there. I don't see an impact player coming from within and they have to change the climate. If they're smart, they'll blow the club up and start over," and "God help them." Not making that last one up, either. Fortunately, Terry Collins sent me a letter this morning letting me know that everything's cool, which I can only assume is some sort of misguided April Fool's joke. So basically the Mets are widely expected to be terrible this season, which I suppose isn't surprising, but I can at least take solace in the fact that the Phillies won't be winning the World Series.

And how do I know this?

Well, I could go into detail about how their historically impressive pitching staff is currently just masking an offense that will be nowhere near what it was three years ago when they won the World Series, but really I'm simply relying on the fact that the Phils were the cover subject of this year's Major League Baseball preview issue. And we know how I feel about Sports Illustrated and its supposedly nonsensical cover curse. But also, let's take a look at SI Cover subjects for their baseball previews over the years. If you do your research, you'll see that with the bizarre exception of an impressive three of four stretch that included the 2006 St. Louis Cardinals, 2007 Boston Red Sox and 2009 New York Yankees, Sports Illustrated hasn't featured the eventual champ on its baseball preview cover in my lifetime. Though it did curiously predict the 1998 home run chase. That's a going rate of 3 for 25 right now, an average which is, to say the least, not good enough for Cooperstown.

So, uh, yeah, I'm not worried based on that entirely irrelevant statistic. Some of you may say that the picks I'm about to make are somewhat biased because the season already started today, but, uh, for the 12 teams that did open their season, there's still 99.4% of the season to go. I'm pretty sure it will matter about as much as it would have if I wrote this yesterday.

Let's make some awful predictions.

NL EAST

1. Philadelphia
2. Atlanta
3. Florida
4. NY Mets
5. Washington

The upsetting thing here is that putting the Mets ahead of the Nationals, who are actually building quite well, might be optimistic of me. God, I hope that's not the case, but I couldn't swear to it at this point. Either way, I will maintain hope that New York does something, anything well. In the meantime, I'll just get bitter about seeing the Phillies win another division title despite an aging offensive with several holes now that Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley are older and Jayson Werth has taken his act to D.C.

NL Central

1. Milwaukee
2. Cincinnati
3. Chicago
4. St. Louis
5. Pittsburgh
6. Houston

I've been waiting quite some time for the Brewers to finally break through and take a division title, and with Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder still in the lineup and Zach Greinke now joining the rotation, if it isn't happening this year, it isn't happening any year. Plus, my favorite beer is from Wisconsin and they're generally nice people so sure, let's give 'em this one. I'll put my chips on the Crew this time, why not?

NL West

1. San Francisco
2. Colorado (WC)
3. Los Angeles
4. San Diego
5. Arizona

The smart money says that a lot of people don't really think the Giants have a chance at repeating their unlikely run as World Series champions from last year, but I actually think they've got a decent shot for the obvious reason that their pitching is absurdly stacked -- and for many years at that. Lincecum, Cain and the newcomer Bumgarner will all be a part of the equation for years, and while the Phillies' rotation may boast more names, Philadelphia's pitchers will ply their trade in a park built for offense. AT&T Park in San Francisco is the best pitchers' park in the NL west of Queens.

AL East

1. Boston
2. Tampa Bay (WC)
3. NY Yankees
4. Baltimore
5. Toronto

I have a lot of friends who are Yankees fans. A lot of them will not be pleased that I don't have the Yankees making the playoffs. And that prediction is, I'm sure, probably the most obviously wrong one about this whole thing. But I have a hunch that New York's offensive studs -- Cano, Teixeira, et al -- are going to be offset by the declining offensive skills and defensive black hole that happens to sit on the left side of the infield. But it's cool because he got a totally necessary, rational and reasonably priced contract this winter for a 36-year-old who hit .270 last season. I know, I know. It's payback for all he's given you. Good thing, too since he didn't get paid very well on his last contract. Oh, and their pitching rotation has one bona fide ace and four question marks, one of whom has started all of seven games in the Majors. Oh yeah, and the Rays are totally loaded with cheap young talent. So there's that.

AL Central

1. Minnesota
2. Detroit
3. Chicago
4. Kansas City
5. Cleveland

I don't think your eventual champ is coming from this division, I sort of like the relatively well-rounded make up of the Twins, and I don't like a whole lot else. But as every magazine seems to be noting, the Royals just might be primed for a run at the World Series.... in 2015. Seriously, that team is going to kick some serious ass when I'm 30 with the prospects they've got coming up. And the real amusing thing? They could go to that World Series to face another team that has put a large amount of money in its farm system lately... Pittsburgh. Yeah, a Royals-Pirates World Series. Of course this year that would be, you know, nonsense.

AL West

1. Texas
2. Oakland
3. Anaheim
4. Seattle

A lot of people think the Rangers made the World Series last year for the first time in franchise history because they caught a lot of lucky breaks, which is right about the fact that they, well, caught some lucky breaks. But they were also, you know, really good. And that offense is downright scary. And the rest of the this division isn't. So, lucky or not, why isn't this team an obvious choice to repeat exactly? I guess we'll find out in October when I look back and see that I'm wrong on this.

Ok, so now we've basically got something like this, right?

NLDS
(4) Colorado over (1) Philadelphia
(2) San Francisco over (3) Milwaukee

ALDS

(1) Boston over (3) Minnesota
(4) Tampa Bay over (2) Texas

NLCS
(2) San Francisco over (4) Colorado

ALCS
(1) Boston over (4) Tampa Bay

2011 World Series
(1) Boston over (2) San Francisco

So yeah. The Red Sox are going to win the World Series for the third time in eight seasons. That's my prediction, and it's highly uninspired and boring -- and it seems like something that would be completely unbelievable if I were still in my childhood -- but, well, it's probably right. Unless the Mets pull a 1969, but I don't see that coming. And neither do the experts.

Barring a miracle, I'm looking at next year. But hey, maybe it'll shock me. I guess I'll find out at 7 p.m. tonight.

The Curious Case of Bengie Molina

When the always interesting Brian Wilson struck out Ryan Howard looking to end Game 6 of the 2010 NLCS, several noteworthy things were accomplished. Perhaps most importantly, the Philadelphia Phillies were stopped in their hunt for a third consecutive National League pennant, which means that a measure of sanity and justice has been restored to the world, and that I can watch the World Series again without contemplating if I'm a masochist.

All good things.

This will also provide us the chance to see a new and interesting World Series champion, either the Texas Rangers, who were previously one of three franchises -- along with Seattle and Washington -- to never appear in the World Series, or the San Francisco Giants, who have not won a championship in 56 years and not once since moving to San Francisco.

But perhaps most interestingly, this matchup is providing us with the perplexing situation of those always ubiquitous Molina brothers. Bengie and Jose Molina already have World Series rings from their years in Anaheim and Jose's season in New York last year, while Yadier Molina won a title with St. Louis in 2006. Interestingly, the three always tend to wind up with a big hit, or at least as good as a .274, .236 and .268 career light-hitting catcher can, and this time Bengie didn't disappoint, whopping a massive three-run homer in Game 4 of the ALCS that woudl eventually help to topple the mighty Yankees and send the Rangers to their first ever World Series. And perhaps his biggest reward is that he gets to see his old teammates and is guaranteed a Championship ring in what might be his final season.

Wait, what? Doesn't he still have to win four more games to do that? Apparently, the answer is, no, not really.

See, Bengie's Texas teammates will have to scratch and claw their way towards a ring, but for the last three seasons he was helping to groom a young pair of pitchers named Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain while playing behind the plate for San Francisco. And in January, the career defensive wiz ponied up for one more go-around with San Francisco at the bargain rate of $4.5 million. But that Giants bullpen needed some help, so with Buster Posey needing no more seasoning at the minor league level, Bengie Molina was shipped off to Arlington in exchange for reliever Chris Ray and a player to be named later, and the paths of Bengie Molina and the San Francisco Giants were never to cross again.

Right? Right.

Well, that isn't exactly how it turned out, and this most unusual of World Series matchups has now pitted the elder Molina against his old mates, which should add an interesting wrinkle considering that few people are probably more capable of breaking down the strengths and weaknesses of San Francisco's tremendous pitching rotation than the almost defensively legendary Molina.

I don't know about you, but that certainly seems like quite the edge to me. But then again, Lincecum and Cain are pretty nasty when they want to be, so the fact that Texas will still have to, you know, swing the bat, could give the edge back to Gigantes.

Either way, I think this will be a great series because it is two older franchises with relatively little to claim in the way of championships in the past 50 years that happen to be playing extremely well right now. I'm also pretty sure I'm the only person in the city of New York who cares.

But regardless, the most interesting thing to me is Molina, who aside from being, potentially, an extremely valuable X-Factor, also seems to be guaranteed a ring no matter what, considering he was on both of these teams for significant chunks of the season. Molina is only the sixth to turn the trick in baseball history, and the first in 12 years since journeyman reliever Jim Bruske spent parts of 1998 with both the Yankees and Padres -- though not on a World Series roster.

In case you're wondering, the immortal Jack Kramer, Johnny Schmitz, Sid Monge and Lonnie Smith are the other four.

While Molina might have some complex emotional feelings regarding the Series since he is certainly friendly with most of the players in the Giants' locker room, as a professional he'll certainly be trying his best. And frankly, knowing that he essentially can do no wrong doesn't hurt either, though one might think the Giants could be wary of being so friendly to Molina considering their last World Series appearance.

So what do you people think? Molina gets a ring no matter what happens? Fair? Foul? I'm curious as to what the four people who read this think. Lay it on me.

Oh yeah, and let's say, um, Giants in six.

NFL Picks Week Seven: In Which I Tell You About Buffalo

Yes, some of you might have noticed that I didn't write anything at all this week. One of you, in fact, demanded to know why I hadn't said anything about the Giants' impressive 3-1 (now 3-2) series lead over the Phillies. Come to think of it, that person may be the only one who reads this with any regularity. Either way, fear not, because I have a justified reason for being so damn lazy with updating this little-trafficked writing space.

And that is because of the beautiful city of Buffalo, which you see to your right. The Queen City is a remarkable place in just about every way and if you have a chance to visit, well, the food is pretty good.

The beer, too.

Either way, I was unable to write and entertain you all because I was on a business trip up to the shores of Lake Erie in Western New York where I got to see the 2010 U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Inductions. And if you didn't know that, you clearly weren't talking to me at all this week. Or at least you weren't having me foist my stories in your face the entire time. Either is possible.

I won't begrudge you for not having read them, but know that you missed out on brilliance.

In any event, I'm back now, and fear not, I have, in fact been paying attention to those wild and crazy stories of the day, namely the fact that if the San Francisco Giants can win one more game I will officially be able to watch the World Series this year, but also the very interesting debate going on over the new rules the NFL has levied regarding dangerous hits and tackles.

I have my own ideas regarding a fairly unorthodox solution, which would be to decrease the effectiveness of pads. Why? Because if you don't feel like your body is covered in armor, you won't use it as a missile. Aussie Rules Football and Rugby are fraught with tons of tackling with almost no padding whatsoever. And that's because it's tackling, not body launching. Players are taught proper form where they square up and wrap an opposing player before taking him to the ground because they have to defend themselves as well as their opponent from injury. American football has grown into a game where this is considered unnecessary by men who feel so protected by their equipment that they assume an air of invincibility.

Now, that said, do I really think the NFL should decrease the protectiveness of its equipment? No, of course not. I think the NFL should accept that its a violent game they make their bread with, that split-second defensive reactions will inevitably lead to injuries and that simply fining a player won't undo years of ingrained psychological training to value toughness and intensity above personal safety.

Punishing the players financially, is not the answer, and the fact that these dangers are an inherent risk of the game is simply evidence that an 18-game schedule is a foolish idea.

The 16-game schedule works out just fine, however. And we've got plenty of those 16 games to talk about this weekend, so let's get on with it.

Last Week: 5-8-1
Season: 41-44-5

ATLANTA (-4) over Cincinnati
Washington (+3) over CHICAGO
TENNESSEE (-3) over Philadelphia
Jacksonville (+10) over KANSAS CITY
Pittsburgh (-3) over MIAMI
NEW ORLEANS (-14) over Cleveland
St. Louis (+3) over TAMPA BAY
San Francisco (-3) over CAROLINA
BALTIMORE (-14) over Buffalo
SEATTLE (-7) over Arizona
DENVER  (-9) over Oakland
SAN DIEGO (-3) over New England
GREEN BAY (-3) over Minnesota
NY Giants (+4) over DALLAS

Those are your ironclad locks, people. Enjoy the weekend.

NFL Picks Week Six: In Which I Mostly Talk Hockey

As you've all no-doubt noticed, hockey season is underway, and that means any of you who see me socially will probably seeing a lot less of me because I'll be busy churning out exciting stories like this one. I hope you're able to handle it. One of those days in which I will not be in the office, however, is tonight, and I am celebrating the occasion in the only way I possibly know how.

I'm going to a hockey game.

Yes, it seems like an odd choice, but I do enjoy seeing them in person once in a while, particularly since my Devils actually got off the shnide and won a game on Wednesday. Hopefully that'll be the release that gets the team moving, and I suppose I'll be finding out tonight when I take my mother to see the glory that is the Prudential Center. Tonight's foe will be the Colorado Avalanche, which almost certainly will stir up angry memories in me of the 2001 Stanley Cup Finals, but what can you do? More than anything, I'm just happy to get out to my first hockey game of the year, even if it isn't a new or exciting arena.

Sometimes you go with what you're comfortable with. I'll get to those new buildings eventually.

Now, I know going to this game will cause me to miss the first half of Game One of the ALCS, but I'm prepared to except this eventuality as the cost of seeing one team I care about immeasurably as opposed to two teams I'm highly ambivalent about. Besides, I'll still catch the back end of it, and while I'll be watching both the ALCS and the NLCS, where the Giants will be taking on the Fighting Satans, most of the next 48 hours really just involve counting down the minutes until I get to watch football.

Don't worry, though. When rooting for the San Francisco Gigantes, I will have the best charm anyone could need at my side courtesy of one Stephanie Bowen.

As for football, and those other Giants -- you know, my Giants -- I'm reaching the point where one needs to both be excited and yet temper their expectations. They've looked good the past two weeks and last Sunday's solid whipping of the highly touted Texans has got people talking about that No. 1-ranked defense. I enjoy the good feelings, but maybe they're talking a little too much. Don't get me wrong. I like how Big Blue is playing and a strong defense is the backbone of nearly any championship team, but when even Adam Schefter is talking about the Super Bowl potential of New York's defense, the idea is clearly no longer held to just the minds of irrational and hyper excessive fans.

But I get antsy.

So, in the interests of my own sanity, can we wait until we're past, you know, Week Six of a 17-week season before we start bouncing around all the Super Bowl talk? Pretty please? My anxiety issues depend on us all consuming a dose of reality until at least Thanksgiving. Then maybe we'll chat, but until then, lets keeping assuming the Giants are underdogs.

And speaking of underdogs, let's do some picking.
Last Week: 8-6-0
Season: 36-36-4 (Back to .500!)

NY GIANTS (-10) over Detroit
CHICAGO (-7) over Seattle
GREEN BAY (even) over Miami
San Diego (-9) over ST. LOUIS
Baltimore (+3) over NEW ENGLAND
Atlanta (+3) over PHILADELPHIA
PITTSBURGH (-14) over Cleveland
New Orleans (-5) over TAMPA BAY
HOUSTON (-5) over Kansas City
NY Jets (-3) over DENVER
Oakland (+7) over SAN FRANCISCO
MINNESOTA (-2) over Dallas
Indianapolis (-4) over WASHINGTON
Tennessee (-3) over JACKSONVILLE

Alright, I'm spent, kids. And off to the hockey game. Have a good weekend, everybody.

Lightning Strikes In The Meadowlands

Alright kids, if you can pull yourselves away from that awesome Blackhawks-Predators preview you're reading, I've got two things I'd like to talk to you about. The first one has to deal with that oh so irritating presence of thunder and lightning at the Meadowlands. I'm not sure if you've noticed, but the Jets have been on national TV twice this year and both times they had to put off their start times because of weather.

Now, for a sport that prides itself on playing in the elements this has raised some irritation both over the decision not to build a roof at the New Meadowlands Stadium and the concern over lightning. These complaints are silly. Lets point out a few things.

A) Retractable roofs are nice, but watching football outside is nicer. As someone who has seen football under a retractable roof just one month ago in Indianapolis, I can attest to the fact that the feeling of being connected to the elements simply isn't there even with the roof open. Also, weren't those images of the Vikings and Jets playing through a rainstorm totally awesome to see in HD?

B) You may want to go to bed and the fans may have places to go so they can be at work in the morning hours, but you can't play through lightning. Why? Well, it's pretty damn dangerous. No that's not a joke. An entire soccer team was killed by lightning in a match in the Congo 12 years ago.

I think it's ok to delay the kickoff. You'll all be a little tired in the morning, but that's the price you pay for being a fan sometimes.

Elsewhere some of you might have noticed this baseball game last night. I was always aware of the fact that the Texas Rangers were one of only three teams to have never appeared in the World Series, along with Washington/Montreal and Seattle, but until last night I hadn't realized that Texas was the only franchise to never even win a postseason series.

In a 40-year history that has included Nolan Ryan, Rafael Palmiero, Juan Gonzalez and Alex Rodriguez, you've got to wonder how on Earth that happened. Particularly since the franchise has been run by such able people for large swaths of its history. Apparently all the team really needed was other-worldly ace Cliff Lee and a delightful curly-haired Jewish boy named Ian Kinsler to finally pull off the task against a Rays team that I had winning the World Series until Sports Illustrated got their messy hands involved.

Not that I'm bitter.

It should be interesting to see if Lee can repeat his magic in the next round against his maybe-future teammates in the ALCS, but considering Texas has been to the postseason three times before this year and lost each time -- to the Yankees -- the fates may be against them. The bigger question is just who am I going to be rooting for for the rest of the postseason. And since I've been looking for ways to ignore the Devils' poor start, I've been spending a lot of my free time pondering just that. Though I should note, the Giants and their No. 1-ranked defense have been helping with that.

Well, I will obviously be rooting for the Giants over the Phillies in the NLCS, with little hesitation. As for the AL, I'm pretty ambivalent about this one after discarding my Yankee hatred for a girlfriend five years ago. Let's say I'm rotting for Texas for variety's sake, though I'm sure the Yankees will find some way to win, since they always do. Everyone seems to think we're headed for a Yankees-Phillies World Series again -- and they're probably right, but I'm holding out hope.

Giants-Rangers it is. Oh and hell, let's say the Giants take it in six. At least then I'll have gotten one of my pennant winners right.

Even The Mets Get To Play October Baseball

Ah, October. The leaves are changing color, the temperatures are dropping, college football provides endless entertainment, political races obscure our sense of reality with an endless stream of TV ads and baseball reaches its climax: The postseason.

Now, some of you may be scoffing at my acknowledgment that the Mets are playing baseball in October, because, you know, they aren't playing baseball anymore.

Oh, but God Bless the schedule makers who decided to start baseball season a week late this year. Because of that peculiar delay, the Mets -- and the rest of the Major Leagues -- didn't play their last game until October 3, which, it should be noted, was the 12th anniversary of my Bar Mitzvah, a Bar Mitzvah-versary if you will. And so, because of that scheduling quirk, Omar Minaya and Jerry Manuel will always be able to tell people that they took the Mets into October in their last year with the organization. Then again, considering Minaya's legacy it's probably better to have that as his final act than some other instances. As for Manuel, he's probably going to be remembered best for somehow assuming he wasn't going to get fired because he hadn't been told it yet, even though everyone seemed to know it was coming and Joe Torre had already publicly campaigned for his job. That may not be the wisest decision for Torre of course. He should already know what he'd have coming for him in Queens.

Wait, what's that? You don't care and want to hear about the teams that are actually playing?

Ugh. Fine.

So, if you've been paying close attention, there are actually eight other teams in the Major Leagues that matter. Sort of. And they'll be starting play in MLB's annual postseason playoff tournament Wednesday at 1:37 p.m., when Cliff Lee and David Price take the mound in a humdinger of a series opener between the Rangers and Rays at Tropicana Field. Now, I don't want to alarm all of you, but if the Rays wind up winning the World Series it may be less than legitimate. A woman in Florida appears to have cracked the code and blown the doors open on a vast Zionist conspiracy that is causing the Rays to start James Shields in Game 2 Thursday because he's Jewish. Why would this matter? Well, the team's ownership is Jewish and we bastards band together of course. Just listen to the kindly Floridian who's uncovered the scandal. She sounds very sure of herself.

First CNN and now this.

As a Jewish person, I am going to recuse myself from commenting on the nature of our vast conspiracy to get only Jewish pitchers on the mound, but I do think the radio host makes a valid point in that Gabe Kapler is nowhere to be found in tomorrow's starting lineup. Of course, it should be noted that there is also a question as to whether or not Shields is even Jewish, though he certainly fights like one. If he isn't, clearly we Jews aren't as smart as we think when it comes to these conspiracies. It's kind of like how we still claim Sage Rosenfels even though he's raising his kids to be Christian. Essentially what all of this boils down to is that our presumed Jewish conspiracy has officially supplanted what I thought was the most embarrassing thing I had seen this week.

The only thing more embarrassing that you might see this October? Probably how badly my picks fare over the next four weeks. Nonetheless, here we go. If you're impatient, I say Tampa Bay finally wipes the stink of Jose Canseco from its franchise highlights.

ALDS
(1) Tampa Bay over (3) Texas in four games
(2) Minnesota over (4) NY Yankees in five games

NLDS
(1) Philadelphia over (3) Cincinnati in three games
(2) San Francisco over (4) Atlanta in four games

ALCS
(1) Tampa Bay over (2) Minnesota in six games

NLCS
(2) San Francisco over (1) Philadelphia in seven games

2010 World Series
(1) Tampa Bay over (2) San Francisco in six games

I know, it seems peculiar, but for some reason I've got a hunch the Giants could pull off the upset as the only team in the NL with pitching that comes close to matching Philadelphia's. It may just be wishful thinking on my part, but if there's any chance for someone to stop the Phillies from taking a third straight National league Pennant, this would be it. As for the American League, Minnesota has been on fire for the second half despite not having Justin Morneau around. Morneau is out for the postseason, and the Twins have slowed down in the last two weeks, but so have the Yankees, whose pitching seems to be discombobulated. Not that it'll matter, because for the Rays, this is their time. They are talented offensively and in the rotation, have a sharp manager in Joe Maddon and have one last shot to go for it all with Carl Crawford in tow, which means, to me, that all signs point to the Rays winning their first-ever World Championship in front of all 38 of their fans.

It's probably a Jewish conspiracy. We won't know for sure until the franchise moves to Tel Aviv.

Some Brief Updates

It's been a crazy couple of days here and so while I'm distracted by the Mets absolutely killing it out of the All-Star Break -- and by "killing it" I mean "killing their season" -- I'm still going to get you a few piece of valuable information. Once you're done reading about the Devils re-signing massive free agent Ilya Kovalchuk, a move that very well might define the franchise for 20 years -- and save all of us from a long process of LeBron-like proportions -- after they shocked most of the hockey world by acquiring him via trade in February.

No matter. I have more important information afoot.

First of all, when I first started writing a book about my adventures where I went from one place to the next seeing ports arenas, I began scribbling about them in April of 2009. At the time I had seen some 24 teams and set the rather auspicious goal of having all of them written about by the time I went on my massive vacation out west last June. This did not happen. Instead, I was lazy, bumbling, and actually wound up spending some four months suffering through writer's block on my chapter about the Philadelphia Phillies. A rough combination of being daunted by the job and just being outstandingly lazy.

More the latter.

Well, my dear readers, get excited because now, at long last, I have finally reached the unreachable star. Sort of. I still have some 89 teams left to see and write about, but after finally polishing off a story about my trip to see the Mets visit the Orioles in Baltimore last month this Sunday I am now entirely caught up the present in penning my adventures. Don't get me wrong, there are many more to come, but at the very least I am no longer behind the eight ball.

I'm sure you're all breathing a little sigh of relief now.

The other big news is that my brother's impending wedding is warranting a transcontinental bachelor party. The big day is only six weeks or so off, and in the meantime, Elliott, myself and some friends will be heading to San Diego on Thursday for the purposes of celebrating his last days as a free man in a typical and totally not outrageously nerdy way at all. I'll bet all of you wish you could spend this Friday listening to a bunch of Hasbro designers talk about fashioning Star Wars action figures.

Who needs strippers?

The reason this has warranted mention here on my sports-centric blog is because after my time at the San Diego Comic-Con I will be heading up to Los Angeles where, if all the planning goes well, I will make the Los Angeles Dodgers the 34th team I cross off the list when they host my hot-as-pistols New York Mets Sunday at Dodger Stadium. There are still details to be hammered out, like seeing if the Amazins can find their heads and stop being an embarrassment, but I'm hopeful it all gets taken care of and yet another stop is taken care of.

Of course, at that point, the only problem is I'll be back behind schedule.... But don't worry, I have a long plane flight to occupy myself with after the game. And unlike a certain New Jersey Devils left winger, it won't take me three weeks to make up my mind on how to write it.

Because Philadelphians Need Reasons To Look Stupider

I had been trying to avoid talking about this young boy being tased in Philadelphia nonsense for a few reasons. For one, I'm bored with it. It's a pretty straight forward story: Boy stupidly runs on field, boy gets tased to protect athletes on the field, boy is fine, Philadelphia fans look dumb, we all move on with our lives while ESPN doesn't stop talking about it for days.

I was a little annoyed at that I had to keep hearing about it whenever a different former athlete cum studio analyst was asked his opinion on Sportscenter yesterday -- particularly since they all had the same opinion -- and then when ESPN decided to show a montage of the analysts reiterating their opinion, well, it was overkill.

But now I'm going to talk about it. Why? Because it got more interesting yesterday. And moreover, it got funnier.

Now, Philadelphia sports fans have done more than their fair share of stupid things in the past two years, but this, for reason of both immediate timing and for how it affected the game, might have, by far, been the stupidest.

When you go to a sporting event, one of the dumbest things you can do, is leave your seat and run onto the playing field. For one, it's illegal. More likely than not, you will spend your night in jail after making a dash from the stands for home. Incidents involving fans running on the field have ranged from the hilarious to the downright frightening. Given the event of the Monica Seles' stabbing in 1993, anyone who runs on the field, out of concern for the safety of the players, is likely to get the crap kicked out of them. And rightfully so.

So yeah. It's pretty stupid to run out onto the field. This we know.

But there is something even dumber.

The only thing stupider than running out on the field might be running out on the field the night after another fan was tased to the ground at that very same stadium. And the only thing stupider than that? Doing so in the top of the ninth inning when your tired and fading starter is trying to close out a 1-0 complete game shutout. Sure enough, Cole Hamels was near the tail end of his best start in a while against a potent St. Louis Cardinals team that he had dominated to that point, when a second Phillies fan jumped the fence and sprinted across center field.

Say what you will about how important it is for a pitcher to maintain his rhythm, but in this case it seems pretty valid. The game paused while the fan was apprehended -- Hamels was mid-delivery when time was called -- and five pitches later Hamels had surrendered two doubles that tied the game.

Now, one could say no harm, no foul, particularly since the Phillies won the game anyway on a Carlos Ruiz solo shot in the 11th inning,but, really, how dumb can someone be? Much as I'd love to paint all Philly fans with the same brush as this moron -- though there is something of a history of this at this park -- it should be noted that the sellout crowd booed him when he was apprehended.

Also, it bears noting that the man was charged with narcotics possession, which made it even more absurd that he would put himself in a position where he was almost certain to be arrested if he had drugs on him at the time. Oh yeah, and he announced that he was going to run on the field on twitter beforehand.

This was a bright guy.

If this debacle doesn't simply show you that, sometimes, people are really stupid, it should at least show you that running on the field, aside from leaving you potentially bruised, can clearly have a deleterious effect on the team you claim to support. If you claim to be a Phillies fan, why would you disrupt your team during a game that could potentially keep Philadelphia in first place and have a dramatic effect on the confidence of Hamels, who had been less than stellar of late?

Were I to screw up a start that brought Johan Santana to form, I'd be pretty angry at myself. Even Steve Bartman wasn't intentionally trying to ruin the Cubs' shot at a pennant when he interfered.

The idea that no one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people never seemed so prescient. My only regret is that Matt Chatham wasn't there to level him to the ground.



Now that would have been a sight.

Welcome to Round 2

Yes, I know many of you would probably expect me to continue talking about the Mets, who, amazingly won their seventh in a row yesterday to stay atop the NL East by completing their first sweep of the Dodgers in 15 years. Exciting time are afoot in Queens, as New York takes its 1/2-game lead into Philadelphia this weekend for the first major challenge of the season. Of course, it would have been 1 1/2 games were it not for a late rally by the Phils in San Francisco yesterday, but I'm not looking a gift horse in the mouth.

First place is first place, even if April is still April.

But the more pressing an exciting news comes in the way of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, which, after a wild Game 7 that saw the No. 1 team in the League blow a 3-1 series lead in the opening round, hits Round 2 tonight with no break whatsoever -- a rarity for the NHL. Instead Mega Shark Versus Giant Octopus gets underway in San Jose tonight, with the rest of the second round following suit tomorrow and Saturday. These aren't exactly the matchups I was expecting, peculiarly the 4, 6, 7 and 8 seeds were the ones to advance in the Eastern Conference, and with no Devils and no Capitals getting in the way I can't possibly imagine a scenario in which Sidney Crosby and the Penguins don't get to the Stanley Cup Finals.

And a rematch with the Wings for the third straight year doesn't seem all that crazy either. But of course, that's why they play the games.

And to that end, here are my certain to be just as wrong as they were in the first round predictions for the second round of your Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Eastern Conference
(4) Pittsburgh over (8) Montreal in five games
(6) Boston over (7) Philadelphia in six games

Western Conference
(1) San Jose over (5) Detroit in seven games
(2) Chicago over (3) Vancouver in six games

Yeah, I'm willing to bet at least on of those doesn't turn out right, probably Boston and Philadelphia, which some of you may recall is a rematch of this year's Winter Classic, and while I make no secret of disdaining Philadelphia, my only real hope for the rest of the playoffs is that the Blackhawks win the Stanley Cup.

Of course, knowing my luck in the playoffs so far, they'll probably get swept.

Lastly, I came across this news item on ESPN.com today stating that, according to a report by the Nielsen Company, the most hated team in Major League Baseball is... wait for it .... yep, just who you thought it'd be.

The Cleveland Indians.

Wait, what? A team that continually has its heart broken and hasn't won a World Series in 62 years is the most hated franchise in the sport? I see no way that this is feasibly possible. For one thing, I've had nothing but pleasant experiences seeing the Indians in person. For another, Cleveland isn't exactly a city that overwhelms you with its power and arrogance.

It's Cleveland, for heaven's sake.

And lastly, their mascot, Slider, is adorable. I mean look at him. As I told a friend earlier today, the only thought in my mind when I see him is to pinch his cheek and call him "Shookums".

Even that Roger Dorn, is kind of fun in his own assholish way. Now, I know the Indians lose some cache now that Pedro Cerrano has called it quits, but seriously, someone please explain to me what is eminently hateable about this team in anyway.

I'll buy you a cookie if you can convince me. Let the contest begin.

That's all for today. Enjoy the hockey.

The City Of Brotherly Disdain

Originally written July 31, 2009

It is one of my deep regrets in life that I never saw Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. Supposedly it was one of the worst places to see a baseball game, but I am a firm believer in the inability to understand joy if we don’t experience pain. That said, I have no idea how to appreciate new baseball wunderkinds without being familiar with their lesser predecessors.

And the Vet was, by all accounts, lesser. A soul-less cylindrical wasteland not unlike Shea, its most exciting characteristic was its on-site courtroom and jail cell for Philadelphia’s more animated fans. Those particular animated fans may be more the norm than the exception in my mind, but that is, I ought to admit, perhaps unfair.

I come into this story with an ax to grind. As a lifelong Mets, Giants and Devils fan, the city of Philadelphia is not my favorite. Throughout the late 1990s, the Devils and Flyers regularly battled for the Atlantic Division, and on two occasions, Eastern Conference Championship. As a Giants fan, my hatred of the Eagles is an unspoken certainty. As a Mets fan, the Phillies broke my heart with late season comebacks to take the National League East in both 2007 and 2008. Both years I had tickets to the first round of the playoffs to boot.

Of course, those two incidents happened after my first trip to the Phillies’ not so much warmer, gentler home of Citizens Bank Park on August 17, 2006. At that point, the city of Philadelphia had not won a title in my lifetime. And I was damn happy about that. As I was born in 1985 I had just missed titles by the 1980 Philadelphia Phillies and the 1983 Sixers. The Flyers’ last Cup was in 1975 and before that, the Eagles, perhaps my most hated of all sports teams, hadn’t snagged an NFL Championship since 1960, six years before the first Super Bowl. While the Phillies did finally end the city’s title drought in 2008 in a bizarre rain-interrupted Game Five, it was still of great satisfaction to me that the rest of the teams were unable to reach the top of the mountain.
The summer of 2006 was winding down and I was preparing for my senior year of college when Weg and I had a Sunday to kill and decided to spend it checking out the Phillies’ home park as they wrapped up a four-game set against the Mets. As it currently stands, I can’t exactly remember what the impetus for the trip was aside from wanting to watch the Amazins at the top of their game. That season was, to that point in my life, probably the best I had ever seen for the Metropolitans. Jose Reyes and David Wright were finally recognizing their potential, Carlos Beltran had bounced back from a mediocre first season with New York and Carlos Delgado was providing the powerful bat to the middle of the lineup the Mets had missed since Mike Piazza was in his prime.

This would be the season I truly familiarized myself with the crapshoot nature of baseball’s postseason. New York would finish the season with 97 wins, the most in baseball along with, well, New York, as the Yankees, too, would win 97. This prompted some publications, such as The Sporting News, to wonder in early October if another Subway Series was inevitable. And if the odds bore themselves out as they should have, it would be.

But that’s why they play the games.

The Yankees would surprisingly fall to the Tigers in the opening round of the playoffs, while the Mets would be eliminated in an excruciating seven-game NLCS against St. Louis. It was at that point that I realized the true sign of a team’s greatness is merely making the postseason. The playoffs themselves are too short and prone to random variation. Anything beyond a postseason berth is gravy.

Of course, the analytical side of my mind tells me that. In my heart I pine for the ultimate prize, which I’ve yet to see. But in my mind I know building a team to win the World Series is a fool’s errand. Too much can happen, too much can change and in my brain I know that when the Mets finally do win the World Series it will merely be a product of luck and chance.

But what glorious luck it will be.

Of course, that day in 2006, I was less convinced of luck affecting the Mets’ chances than I was their skill. The Mets were running away from their NL East competition to such a length that even with six weeks left in the season, the division title was a foregone conclusion. I thought about this as I drove down to New Brunswick, New Jersey, where Weg was living for the summer along with some of his classmates from Rutgers University. After I picked him up we made sure to make a stop at the notorious grease trucks.

For those uninitiated, the grease trucks are a staple of undergraduate life for the Scarlet Knights. Each truck makes sandwiches that include a combination of just about any cellulite packing food you could want all thrown into the same bun with inspiring names like “Fat Darrell” or “Fat Bitch”. I first became familiar with the grease trucks when I was a junior in high school as I traveled to Rutgers with the Millburn High School Academic Quiz Bowl team for a tournament.

That’s right, I’m a nerd.

My personal favorite was a sandwich called the Fat Knight, a heart-clogging combination of cheesesteak, mozzarella sticks, chicken fingers, french fries and marinara sauce. As Weg and I made our purchases, we hit the road for Philadelphia, eating our multiple-thousand calorie sandwiches en route. New York and Philadelphia are not particularly far. A cheesesteak vendor in the East Village of Manhattan proudly calls itself “99 Miles to Philly” and it is approximately just that far. Philadelphia’s proximity makes it an ideal candidate for a day trip – the ride is rarely more than two hours – but some days the traffic can get heavy.

This was one of those days.

Indeed a number of construction delays sidetracked us and we hastily made up a new route using a map and some side roads, which, somehow, actually got us to park well in advance of game time.

Citizens Bank Park comes up in the horizon much like any other in the wave of faux-retro stadiums, with its old-timey steel banks of stadium lights high above it. The drive into the stadium parking lots is uninspiring. It rests in a complex of all the city’s major sports teams, and indeed, Lincoln Financial Field, home of the Eagles, and the Flyers and Sixers’ home, the Wachovia Center, are all within close walking distance. This is extremely convenient, but it also makes the area look like three gigantic stadiums surrounded by dozens of vacant lots.

That’s because it is. The lots are there not because Philadelphia can’t find businesses to fill the ground, but because the parked cars have to go somewhere. While the placement of the stadiums is not as aesthetically pleasing as most new stadiums that are intended to revitalize depressed downtowns, such as Coors Field in Denver, it does make getting in and leaving a whole lot easier if you’re driving – perhaps the only benefit of the rash of suburban arenas that popped up in the 1960s and 70s.

Weg and I parked my beige 1994 Camry Wagon in a dirt lot not far from the Park and began our walk. From afar, the stadium looks very nice, with its red-brick walls, and its intimate environs, supposedly far different from the spacious Vet. But it also includes those delightful Philly fans. This would be my first time walking into Philadelphia wearing the other team’s colors.

The baptism came quickly.

As Weg and I approached decked in our blue and orange, a group of Philly fans was tailgating in the parking lot, and they immediately began hollering. Perhaps they had a right to. Despite their superb play for most of the season, the Mets were currently in the midst of a four-game series in the City of Brotherly Love in which they had lost the first three. The Mets still led the season series 9-6 at the time, but the Fightins felt emboldened.

One of them cried out to us, “Did you guys bring your brooms? For the sweep?!”

We paused for a second, slightly dumbfounded at some unexpected ribbing and dramatically dumbfounded at arrogance that can come despite being nowhere near the top of the standings.

“No,” I replied. “… But we brought our 12 ½-game lead in first place.”

Silence.

As so often is the case when we feel cornered, the fan relied on the only trump card he had left.

“Ah….. well, fuck you!”

Thoroughly bested, Weg and I proceeded to the stadium where we noticed long lines for walkups at the stadium box office. Apparently summer Sundays and beautiful weather are recipes for crowds, and at 45,775 this would be the largest in the three-year history of Citizens Bank Park. Weg and I, however, had no use for lines, and rather than wait through the first three innings with the plebeians, we quickly scoured for scalpers and found one who appeared to have no idea what he was doing.

He was more boy than man, with an unshaven lightly-grown in pre-pubescent mustache, a backwards Phillies hat and a constant look of “Huh?” on his face. One would surmise this was not your typical vendor. In fact, when he offered us $45 face-value tickets at merely $25 a pop, it became apparent he wasn’t a vendor at all – just a random kid trying to unload two extra tickets. Unfortunately for us, an actual scalper sensed the chance to make a huge score, re-selling the tickets at face value to make a sizeable return on his investment.

“SIXTY!” he jumped in with.

Fortunately for Weg and I, the kid clearly wasn’t comfortable dealing with the scalper, and when we informed him that we, too, would pay $60 for the pair, he gave us the tickets prompting outrage from the scalper. Weg and I sensed it wise to get into the park as quickly as possible.

We entered the stadium and passed by the Phillie Phun Zone, a children’s play area with a delightful plastic sculpture of the Phillie Phanatic – just about the only thing I like about this franchise – riding a roller coaster car. While walking to our seats, it quickly became apparent that we were not sitting in a typical section. We had somehow landed ducats to the Hall of Fame Club, the first snazzy club I had ever seen in a baseball stadium. Upscale bars, red baseball-themed carpeting, Phillies memorabilia and air conditioning stretched as far as the eye could see.

To boot, for a city so reputed for its crass fans, it was a shockingly environmentally conscious building – the beer cups were made of processed corn. A year after our trip, PETA would name it the most vegetarian-friendly park in the majors.

We walked out of the club to our seats, which were cushioned and in a private elevated section behind first base, and settled in to watch the game. Say, what you will about its inhabitants – and I do – Citizens Bank Park is a beautiful place to watch baseball. The park does indeed feel intimate and its ubiquitous brick facades everywhere give it a character and warmth that was unlike Miller Park, the other newer stadium I had been to at the time. It had plenty of what many new buildings do so well in that it had quirks and characteristics that reminded you that this was where the Phillies called home.

Along centerfield was Ashburn Alley, a collection of restaurants, shops and Phillies memorabilia named for Richie Ashburn, considered by many the greatest to ever play in Philadelphia’s pinstripes. The park also features a Phillies Wall of Fame and exhibits commemorating Philadelphia’s baseball history. As if those weren’t strong enough indicators, there were two remaining items that are uniquely Philly. For one there is a giant electric Liberty Bell that rings after each Phillie home run, and for another, and perhaps most endemic of its hometown fans, is the open-air stacked bullpens in right field.

Rather than having bullpens side by side, the Phillies built them one on top of the other, with the upper bullpen set back from the lower bullpen. The argument is that this enables both teams’ relievers a better view of the action on the field, but ulterior motives lurk. The upper bullpen happens to be right beneath a standing room passageway where fans either watch the game or walk by to get around the stadium. The location leaves visiting relievers in perfect position to be heckled, a practice which is allowed so long as they keep it clean.

That a stadium would be built with a fan’s ability to heckle visiting players in mind is stunning in my mind. Those fans might want to watch themselves if they aren’t paying attention to the field, however, as they might be hit by a home run ball that flies out of the stadium.

And fly they do.

In its infancy, Citizens Bank Park has gained a warranted reputation as a notorious hitter’s park. The stadium has been among the National League leaders in home runs each of its first six seasons, often leading the pack. The balls jet out of the building so often that the left field wall was actually moved back five feet after its first season. So prone to the long ball is the stadium, that two days before Weg and I showed up, Mets leadoff hitter Jose Reyes, a man far more reputed for his stolen bases than his power stroke, hit three home runs in one game.

It did little good as the Mets would lose that game 11-4, and while Reyes didn’t bring his power stroke along when I was in the stands, he didn’t have to worry about carrying the load.  Carlos Delgado did. Delgado clocked two homers that day, as the Mets scored in the first three innings to jump out to a four-run lead. With John Maine delivering six solid innings, New York would breeze to a 7-2 win, snapping its three-game skid and starting a seven-game winning streak. Beginning that day the Mets would win 13 of their next 15 games, effectively ending the race for the NL East pennant that year. While Philadelphia’s slugging first baseman Ryan Howard would hit his 42nd home run of the year that day, tying Boston’s David Ortiz for the Major League lead, there was little else good on the day for the Philly fans, who were unable to drown out a “Let’s Go Mets!” chant from the traveling New York crowd that had driven down for the Sunday matinee.

With a nice win in our back pockets, Weg and I left the park with smug looks on our faces. The only problem with the day was the eons-long wait to get out of the parking lot and back on the New Jersey Turnpike. While we had our hearts broken in October, August of 2006 was a good time to be a Mets fan. Yes, a year later the Phillies would cap a remarkable comeback in the standings to rob the Mets of consecutive division titles, forever putting fuel in the rivalry’s fire. But some days you’re able to waltz into enemy territory, take their barbs and leave with a smile on your face after taking over their building.

My first visit to Citizens Bank Park was one of those days. Were I clairvoyant enough to see what would happen the next three seasons, well, I probably wouldn’t have been so arrogant when I left the stadium. But I claim no guilt in that. Being surrounded by Philadelphia sports fans will always bring the worst out of me.