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NEW YORK METS MANIA

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May 2019

May 2019 (2)

New York Mets Major League Baseball scores, news, and player updates from May 2019

Saturday, 11 May 2019 17:13

Just Keep Running 'Em Out There!

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For the second year in a row, the Mets started out looking like they were going to take the league by storm. Instead, they look overmatched everywhere they go.

The roster is constructed poorly no matter how you look at it. The complaint following the last game in Milwaukee was that there was no lefty on the bench to pinch hit late in the game. That’s because the Mets are too left handed in their starting lineup to begin with. They have too many infielders and not enough outfielders.

Their best fielding (and hitting) second baseman is playing left field. Their best fielding first baseman was relegated to the minor leagues because he can’t effectively play left field. Their star shortstop is a fielding nightmare and even I could get him out as long as I threw a breaking pitch a foot off the outside corner of the plate. The star catcher who came in to make us try to forget how bad Travis d’Arnaud has been hasn’t hit much at all and is brutal behind the plate, actually making d’Arnaud seem somewhat functional. Todd Frazier, who I never considered an everyday player, is proving that he is not an everyday player. He swings for the fences on every pitch. Speaking of swing for the fences on every pitch - the apparent success that the Mets experienced by hitting the ball to the opposite field and putting the ball in play has…suddenly…disappeared. Once again, every hitter - with the exception of Jeff McNeil - clearly appears to be swinging for the fences again. I guess Chili Davis’ advice was only good for a few games.

Saturday, 11 May 2019 16:26

Baseball Like It Ought To Be?

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The game has obviously changed. I never thought of baseball as a dangerous game. I thought of football as a dangerous game, but not baseball. I learned how to take out a second baseman to break up a double play in Little League. I learned how to barrel into a catcher if he had the ball and was blocking the plate. And I learned that I was going to GET BARRELED INTO if I was blocking the plate when I was catching. I got some of the eight broken noses I suffered over the years that way.

There are things that were just a part of baseball. There are things that were not in the rule book. It was just understood. It was the “code.” One thing I was always good at was stealing signs. It helped that I had a photographic memory. But I paid attention while everyone else was jerking around. I didn’t have to guess what pitch was coming when I was hitting, I often knew what was coming. And, no, I didn’t always peek back at the catcher, I wouldn’t do that. I picked up on the odd habits and, perhaps, tics that a pitcher might have that would give away what he was about to do. In fact, if a batter peeked back at MY signs, he got buzzed behind the ear on a throw back to my battery mate.

 

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About New York Mets Mania

Alan Karmin is an award-winning journalist and author. He was born in Brooklyn, New York and spent most of his life growing up in the New Jersey suburbs. Alan's family were avid Brooklyn Dodgers fans and when the Dodgers moved west, the Mets became the team to root for. The Mets have always been a true focal point, Alan even wrote a term paper in high school to analyze what was wrong with the Mets. While at the University of Miami, Alan honed his craft covering the, gulp, Yankees during spring trainings in Fort Lauderdale for a local NBC affiliate, as well as the Associated Press and UPI. He broadcasted baseball games for the University of Miami, and spring training games for the Baltimore Orioles and Montreal Expos. New York Mets Mania is a forum for Alan to write about his favorite team and for baseball fans to chime in and provide their thoughts and ideas about New York's Amazin' Mets.