As Predicted, Mets Lose to Braves

One game after an impressive comeback over the Pirates, the Mets fell tonight to the Atlanta Braves at home 6-3. I predicted in my game recap yesterday that Terry Collins’s speech from two nights ago would only be good for one game and that the Mets would lose tonight. I was right, and it was in such typical Mets fashion. The starter for the game, Jon Niese, pitched very well for the Mets, giving up two runs in 7.2 innings. As usual, Terry Collins made a managerial mistake and left Niese in the game too long. He gave up a homer to the ultimate Mets killer Chipper Jones in the 8th inning to cut the Mets lead to 3-2. Now it was time for the Mets bullpen collapse. Izzy entered the game. He actually did not pitch that badly, but of course the Mets made an error. Jose Reyes let a ground ball slip under his glove and a run score from second to tie the game at 3. And then in the 9th inning, K-Rod blew any chance of a Mets win. He gave up a home run to Eric Hinske to break the tie and then allowed two more runs to score to solidify the Mets loss. Shockingly, he still has a 2.89 ERA on the season even though he has pitched so badly in the last week. This was such a Mets game and I regret not going to it. Maybe we will go on Sunday night if the ticket prices are low and our parents don’t make us stay in because we are graduating high school on Monday. If we do go, we will see a great pitching matchup of Tim Hudson and The Dick (R.A. Dickey). Tomorrow will be Jair Jurrjens and Alonzo (Dillon Gee).

K-Rod After Giving Up a Home Run to Eric Hinske in the 9th Inning

Mets – Peggle Comparisons

During the past few years of high school, the KHH bloggers have often found themselves mired in complete boredom. Sometimes we had nothing to do during free periods. Other times we needed something to do during joke classes. On (many) occasions, we were bored during serious classes. Faced with each of these situations, the KHH bloggers often played Peggle.

Peggle is a very addicting game. It involves firing a magical ball at different colored pegs. It’s sometimes fun and always challenging.

Today, I will compare all your 2011 Mets players to Peggle characters. Without further ado, let’s begin!

Mets Pitchers
RP – Pedro Beato: Pyramid Ball

 

KAT TUT - Pyramid Ball

RP – Tim Byrdak: Gopher Ball

 

JIMMY LIGHTNING - Gopher Ball (Multiball)

SP – Chris Capuano: Lobster Ball

 

CLAUDE - Lobster Ball (Flippers)

SP – R.A. Dickey: Flower Ball

 

TULA - Flower Ball (Flower Power)

SP – Dillon Gee: Magic Hat

 

WARREN - Magic Hat (Lucky Spin)

RP – Jason Isringhausen: Zen Master Hayon

 

MASTER HU - Zen Master Hayon Ball (Zen Ball)

SP – Jon Niese: Unicorn Ball

BJORN - Unicorn Ball (Super Guide)

RP – Michael O’Connor: Gopher Ball

JIMMY LIGHTNING - Gopher Ball (Multiball)

RP – Bobby Parnell: Dragon BallZ

LORD CINDERBOTTOM - Dragon BallZ (Fireball)

SP – Mike Pelfrey: Lobster Ball

CLAUDE - Lobster Ball (Flippers)

RP – Francisco Rodriguez: Spooky

RENFIELD - Spooky Ball

RP – Dale Thayer: Flower Ball

TULA - Flower Ball (Flower Power)

Mets Batters
C – Ronny Paulino: Space Blast

SPLORK - Space Blast

C – Josh Thole: Unicorn Ball

BJORN - Unicorn Ball (Super Guide)

1B – Nick Evans: Pyramid Ball

KAT TUT - Pyramid Ball

1B – Daniel Murphy: Zen Master Hayon

MASTER HU - Zen Master Hayon Ball (Zen Ball)

SS – Jose Reyes: Magic Hat

WARREN - Magic Hat (Lucky Spin)

2B – Ruben Tejada: Flower Ball

TULA - Flower Ball (Flower Power)

IF – Justin Turner: Dragon BallZ

LORD CINDERBOTTOM - Dragon BallZ (Fireball)

LF – Jason Bay: Gopher Ball

JIMMY LIGHTNING - Gopher Ball (Multiball)

RF – Carlos Beltran: Spooky

RENFIELD - Spooky Ball

OF – Scott Hairston: Unicorn Ball

BJORN - Unicorn Ball (Super Guide)

OF – Willie Harris: Space Blast

SPLORK - Space Blast

CF – Angel Pagan: Magic Hat

WARREN - Magic Hat (Lucky Spin)

OF – Jason Pridie: Lobster Ball

CLAUDE - Lobster Ball (Flippers)

And the Ultra Extreme Fever award for best Peggle player belongs to…

Daniel Murphy!  Congratulations!!

Mets-Pirates Game 4 Recap

This was the most impressive game that we have seen the Mets play all season. I think that they really responded to Terry Collins’s rant last night, but this response may only last one game. The game was played in two parts. The first part of the game was the first 2.5 innings and the second part was the last 6.5 innings of the game. The first part of the game completely belonged to the Pirates. In the top of the first inning, the Pirates had some lucky hits, but ultimately killed Pelfrey. They had two steals before the Mets recorded an out and 3 steals in the game. There was a meeting on the mound in the first inning as well. The big blows in the inning were singles by Andrew McCutchen and Matt Diaz. The Pirates scored 3 runs in the inning. After a 1-2-3 bottom of the 1st, the Pirates were at it again. Andrew McCutchen hit another RBI single and then Neil Walker hit an absolute bomb to right-center. It went over the 415 sign, the deepest part of the park, and continued on to hit the Dunkin’ Donuts sign. It probably traveled close to 440 feet and it scored 2 runs. The Pirates were leading 6-0, and then tacked on one more run in the third. It was 7-0 Pirates. To make things worse, Paul Maholm who came into the game batting .050 went 2-3 in the game. This was very typical Mets and every single person at Shea thought the game was over. We were in for our second Mets blowout loss in 2 games.

Paul Maholm at bat. He is about to get a single.

Now on to the second part of the game. This part belonged to the Mets. In the bottom of the third inning and down 7-0, Carlos Beltran hit a ball off of the facing of the left field middle deck and cut the score to 7-3. It was the first ball that I had ever seen hit past the lower deck in left field at Citi Field. This was nice, but so what. Nobody thought that the Mets would come back and win. But the Mets were not done. After a couple of boring innings, the Mets put together a great two-out rally in the 6th inning. With the bases loaded and two outs, Ruben Tejada hit a single to right to cut the Pirate lead to 7-5. Then, a pinch hitting Daniel Murphy singled as well to make it a one run deficit. In typical Mets-Pirates fashion, Ruben Tejada scored to tie the game on a passed ball by Pirates catcher Dusty Brown (who?). This was on the first pitch be Pirates reliever Chris Resop. Both pitcher and catcher were kind of a joke. At this point, Mets fans had a lot of confidence in their team. In the 8th inning, more disasters struck for the Pirates. First off, Jose Veras, the Pirates reliever was awful to say the least. In the 7 batters he pitched to, he got 2 out, gave up 1 hit, and walked 4 of them. After Ronny Paulino led off the inning with a single, he was pinch run for by Willie Harris. After this, Chris Capuano pinch hit for Jason Isringhausen. I was shocked when I saw Cappuccino pinch hitting, but he was only there to lay down a bunt. In typical Mets fashion, he was unable to get the bunt down, though Willie Harris did force a Veras balk and got to second. When Capuano had two strikes on him, something I never saw happened. Terry Collins pinch hit Josh Thole for Capuano in the middle of the at bat. Thole walked and then Ruben Tejada hit a sacrifice fly and Willie scored from third. Later in the inning, Veras gave up a bases loaded walk to Beltran to make the score 9-7 Mets. But the game was not over because K-Rod always makes games interesting. He gave up a leadoff triple to Xavier Paul, but Pittsburgh only scored once in the inning to give the Mets an impressive 9-8 victory. One thing to note about the final score is that Raphi, half-jokingly, predicted this score in the first inning. The first correct score prediction of the year goes to Raphi in a very strange game.

Jose Reyes Warming Up

To talk about the pitching briefly, Paul Maholm was fine except for the 3 run homer to Beltran and the 6th inning. Other than that, he was very impressive, but those things really hurt him. Pelfrey was pretty disgusting in this game giving up 7 runs in 5 innings, but luckily the Mets bailed him out and he avoided the loss. For the first time in a long time, the Mets bullpen did not blow the game. They were actually quite good. Congrats Tim Byrdak, Bobby Parnell, and Izzy. This was a big win for the Mets because if they lost this game, they would have lost 3/4 at home to the lowly Pirates. Even though it is not enough, at least they got 2 wins. This was the Mets biggest comeback in a game since June 30, 2000 when they came back from down 8-1 to the Braves. After Terry Collins’s rant last night, I expected the Mets to win this game, but not in this crazy fashion. I expect Collins’s rant to last one game and the Mets will return to their bad ways tomorrow night when they host the Braves. Terry was very happy about the win, almost too happy. He might have taken it as more than it actually was. I’m sorry, but all you did was beat the Pirates at home.

Pelfery on the Mound

Now on to the jokes from the game.

• Today’s Mets promotion was a Dunkin’ Donuts gift card. It is worth $2 at any Dunkin’ Donuts if you buy something there. It was a pretty meager reward for sitting through Mets-Pirates. Raphi was so disgusted with it that he gave his card to me. I am doubtful that I will use either card. Here is a picture of the card:

The Mets Dunkin' Donuts Give Away Card

• We wanted to go to Mets-Pirates batting practice today, but Raphi was 40 minutes late so we missed it. Fortunately though, we did get to the game in time for a softball home run derby. Even though they used metal bats, these guys were really able to smack the ball. I was actually surprised at how good they were. They hit many home runs. There were kids in the outfield trying to catch the balls and they all failed. See pictures and video below:

Kids in the outfield during the softball home run derby.

The Home Run Derby

• People actually sat in the upper deck of left field today! I was very surprised because this should have been the least attended game of the season. It was a Mets-Pirates day game. But people were out at the ballgame today. There were also a lot of schools that came out to Shea. Each school wore a different colored shirt and they all sat in a huge group so they were easily spotted. See pictures of upper deck left field and schools at the ballpark below:

Upper Deck Left Field

Upper Deck Left Field. People actually sat under the scoreboard!

Yellow Shirt School. Worst possible seats ever.

Some More Schools

Purple School in the Pepsi Porch

• After the home run derby and before the game started, there was really nothing going on. The Mets groundscrew was randomly watering the infield and the Mets were playing the radio in the background. They were popular songs and very unlike the Mets. See pictures of the groundscrew below:

Great picture of groundscrew. This is my favorite of the day.

• After the home run derby we decided to not leave our very good seats and go to our bad seats. Even though we got moved a few times, we never had to leave the area and we had very nice seats in the 10th row behind first base for the entire game.
• The highlight of the game for us was the paper, napkins, and plastic bags that blew onto the field. They just made the game even more of a joke. It was a very windy day and because of this, the field was covered with these things throughout the game. And they always huddled together. Sometimes there was a huge clump of napkins in left field, sometimes the plastic bags surrounded Angel Pagan in center, or sometimes they attacked Pelfrey on the mound. They also sometimes chased baserunners around the basepaths. See pictures and video below (Raphi claims that he was crying from laughter during the filming of the video):

Paper and Plastic Everywhere

Groundscrew working to get the field free of paper and plastic in between the innings. Needless to say, they failed.

More Paper and Plastic

• Because of all the wind, one of the security guards lost his light blue Mets hat and it blew onto the field. It was on the field for a good 5 minutes during game action. I wish it interfered with one of the plays. See picture below:

The Security Guard's Hat on the Field

• In the 7th inning stretch, Raphi got a shirt. I maybe should have gotten one also, but I had already caught 3 this year (I gave the first one I caught to Raphi). I already have 3 Mets shirts and I don’t know if I can stand any more of them. The shirts are wrapped with one of those long balloons that clowns use (we call it Petro’s armband) and after the last pitch of the game, I “fired away” the balloon. This expression comes from Peggle when you have such a big lead that you can just fire away and you will still win. Speaking of Peggle, I had a great shot on the train ride home from last night’s game. See a video of it below. Also see how Raphi used his caught shirt:

Raphi's Mets t-shirt catch. He decided to use this shirt to protect his legs from getting sunburned. Typical usage of a Mets prize.

• Here are a few more pictures from the game:

Jose Reyes Warming Up

Nick Evans Being Nick

Pelfrey Preparing for his Terrible Start

Matt Diaz, a Right Field Fan Favorite

Dusty Brown, Pirates Catcher. He had 4 at bats on the season coming into today and he has a great name.

Paul Maholm. He came into the game batting .050 and he still got 2 hits.

• After the game ended, we went behind the Mets dugout to try to get something from one of the players. I was sort of expecting something because they won, but I got nothing. I was kind of disappointed, but that is because I am very spoiled. In the 10 or so games that we have went to, we have caught 4 throw away Pepsi Max Shirts, got two Chevrolet Mets black shirts, 4 free tickets (to Mets-Phillies and Mets-Pirates), got 3 balls, and Angel Pagan’s hat. That is an impressive list, if I do say so myself.

If the Mets lost this game, Terry Collins would have been so angry with them, but I guess the pressure will be off them for one more day. I can’t see them beating the Braves tomorrow night, though. Here at KHH, we have some exciting events coming up. On Saturday, we will likely attend Red Bulls-Columbus Crew, possibly with Sam. Then, on Sunday night, it is possible (but unlikely) that we will go to Mets-Braves. If we do not go to this game, our last chance to see the Mets will be the day before I leave to go to camp on Friday, June 17 when they play the Angels. Next Tuesday, we will be back at Citi for Greece Ecuador. I am really looking forward to this and it should be great.

Soccer at Citi!

Mets-Pirates Game 1 Recap

Memorial Day Baseball!

The Mets won their second game in a row tonight with a 7-3 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates. They outplayed the Pirates in all aspects of the game and had a fairly easy win, though there were some nervous moments. The scoring started in the game with a long 2-run homer to left by Chris Snyder, the Pirates’ catcher, of all people. However, the Mets came back with 2 runs in the bottom of the inning. It was one of the most disgusting innings of baseball I have seen all season, but more on that later. The Mets added a run in the 5th, but Pittsburgh countered with a run in the top of the 7th to tie the score. In the bottom of the 7th, Josh Thole had a clutch double, bringing in two runs and giving the Mets the lead for good. It was one of Josh’s first clutch moments of the year. He has been terrible in crunch time until tonight. The Mets hitting tonight was impressive. 5 players had multi-hit games, and the only players who did not record hits were Dillon Gee and Willie Harris, though Willie made up for it with his defense (more on that later). For the first time this year, I was actually a little bit impressed with the Mets. They actually played well and closed out a game for once. Even though they should have scored a few more runs with all the hits they got, they scored enough to win. Also to note is that of the Mets 15 hits, 13 of them were singles and the other two were doubles. Interestingly enough, they did this without Jose Reyes and Jason Bay in the lineup.

Carlos Beltran, who went 2-4

Now on to the pitching. Dillon Gee was pretty excellent tonight, giving up 3 runs (2 on a home run in the second inning), 5 hits, no walks, and 8 strikeouts. The strikeout/walk ratio there was key to his great performance, and 5 base runners in 7 innings is good as well. The Mets bullpen finished off the game with Izzy and K-Rod pitching scoreless innings. For the Pirates, Charlie Morton was good enough. He pitched 6 innings and gave up 3 runs (only 1 earned) and did not walk a batter, though he gave up 11 hits. The problem for the Pirates was the bullpen. It gave up 4 runs to the Mets in 3 innings and Daniel McCutchen got the loss.

K-Rod

It is time for the Shea Experience and the jokes from the game. I will start at the beginning.

• As we arrived at Shea, we noticed the Chevrolet shirt give-away located outside the stadium. We had arrived early to see batting practice because we were bored out of our minds at home. We filled out a form and got a free Mets shirt. I love ripping people off like that. I wonder how many people will actually buy a Chevrolet after visiting that booth and not just doing it for the shirt. Raphi decided to put his shirt in his Mets Tote Bag from Saturday. It was still covered in peanuts and it covered the shirt in peanut grossness. More on peanuts later. Raphi, I still have your shirt, by the way.
• Because we were so early, we decided to go to the Mets box office and ask about tickets for the Ecuador-Greece soccer match at Citi Field on June 7th. We ended up buying tickets and we will be in attendance. We are looking forward to it. Also, we will be sitting in section 401!!! If you do not know about this, I think that this will be all you need to learn about it.
• When we arrived to batting practice, the Pirates were practicing. The mets practiced before we arrived so we did not get the chance to observe them. The Pirates were extremely boring, so after watching a while in the first row, we went up to sit in the shade. The Pirates hit very few home runs during batting practice. No wonder they are so bad. See pictures below:

Pirates Batting Practice

Pirates Batting Practice

• Raphi got Shea Fries for dinner. As he went to the ketchup stand to put ketchup on his fries, he pushed on the ketchup knob too hard and squirted ketchup all over the Mets employee standing by the stand. Luckily, she did not get mad but she definitely could of. Raphi was embarrassed and I thought it was very funny.
• Today was Memorial Day. To open the game, planes flew over the stadium after the national anthem and they were extremely loud and annoying. See video below. Also, Memorial Day baseball is kind of a joke. People make too big a deal about it. People came here to see baseball (if you consider Mets-Pirates baseball) not honor soldiers. Just play ball!

• We tried to Gadzuric our peanuts in Raphi’s Tote Bag again tonight, but we were less successful because of the people in front of us. Still, here are the peanut pictures:

Peanuts in our Tote Bag with Peanut Bag and All Star Ballots

Peanuts in our Tote Bag with Peanut Bag and All Star Ballots

Peanuts in our Tote Bag with Peanut Bag and All Star Ballots

• Just a note from the game, the cleanup (4th place) hitters tonight were second baseman Neil Walker for the Pirates and Daniel Murphy for the Mets. All I can say about that is ew. No wonder these teams are so bad.
• We noticed while looking at the scoreboard tonight that Pittsburgh shortstop Ronny Cedeno may have braces. I checked on the internet for it and found nothing, but I have my suspicions. We’re on to you, Ronny.
• The bottom of the second inning tonight might be the worst inning of baseball I had ever seen. The badness started with runners on second and third and Jason Pridie at the plate. Pridie strikes out on a normal pitch, but the ball goes past the catcher. I have no idea why he didn’t catch it. Pridie was safe at first and a run scored. But that was not all. The next batter, Ruben Tejada swung and hit the ball about 5 feet. A run scored from third and Ruben was safe at first. Then, with Dillon Gee at the plate, there was a wild pitch and the runners went to second and third. Gee then missed a bunt and ended up striking out. It was truly a terrible inning.
• Do you know those annoying guys who walk down the aisles at sporting events trying to sell memorabilia? Well tonight, we witnessed a very honest vendor. He was selling foam fingers and baseball pennants on sticks. While he was walking by, he was saying, and I quote, “Get your overpriced items here!”. What a great and honest guy. People still ended up buying from him.
• In between innings the Mets have something called “Mets Phrase Game” which is a little like hangman. Tonight, the clue they gave was something like “a holiday celebrated in America for our soldiers”. Hmmm… I wonder what that can be on Memorial Day. The guy playing the game obviously won.
• The singers singing “God Bless America” in the 7th inning stretch were awful to say the least. See pictures below:

Memorial Day Baseball!

Awful 7th Inning Stretch Singers

• Despite going 0-5 from the plate, Willie Harris had a few great defensive plays. See his best play from ESPN’s Web Gems below. It was number 2 tonight.

• Both teams tonight wore Memorial Day hats. The Pirates’ hats were especially bad, as they were red. They were really disgusting. The Mets’ hats were better but not great. See pictures of this as well as other pictures of the game below.

Justin Turner

Carmelo the Ball Boy

Murph in Action, Dillon "Alonzo" Gee on the Mound

Lyle Overbay

Garrett Jones

Pirates Outfield

Murphy and Tejada

Pirates Garrett Jones

K-Rod and Willie Harris

Andrew McCutchen on First

Andrew McCutchen on First

Lyle Overbay

• Before the Pirates batted in the 9th inning, we stealthily sneaked our way from close to the right field foul pole to behind the Mets dugout. We did this so that we can get a better view and also see the Mets players exit after the game was over. When the players left, they were happy that they won. When this happens, once in a while a player throws something of his into the crowd. Tonight, Angel Pagan was happy because he had just made a great catch in the 9th inning that didn’t save the game, but it did preserve the win. I was in the second row of people behind the dugout so I did not think that I would have a chance at catching Angel’s hat as he was throwing it. I was wrong. I leaped into the air (yes, it was this dramatic) and got my fingers on it. I tugged it away from 5 other hands and brought it low where I ripped it away from one last person. It was mine. I took it away with authority just like Dan Gadzuric would. It was basically the same thing as GadZoom dunking over Kwame Brown, the other people in the stands being Kwame Brown. Yes, I am declaring myself Dan Gadzuric. This is among the coolest things that I have gotten at sporting events, along with Jason Kidd’s armband with a #5 on it and Cliff Robinson’s shoes. It was kind of sweaty and gross, but I washed it when I got home. It was a great moment for me and KHH fans everywhere. See pictures below:

Angel Pagan's Hat

Angel Pagan, #16

Our next KHH event will be either Wednesday, Thursday, or both when the Mets host the Pirates again. The Mets do not return home again after that until the day before I go to camp, so we will be off from Mets action for a while. However, we will be returning to the Citi on June 7th to see Ecuador and Greece in a soccer game and we might also see some Red Bulls action one of the next two weekends. Until next time, so long.

Mets-Phillies Recap

Let's Go Mets!

This might have been my favorite Mets game of the year so far. One reason this is is because it felt like a real baseball game and not just Mets terribleness. First of all, the weather was good for the first time in a very long time. It was neither pouring rain, freezing cold, or snowing. Even Section 401 was somewhat full. Because of the weather, people actually showed up to this game. In fact, there were very few seats (unless you wanted to sit in the upper deck in left field, but more on that later). I would say that about 25% of the fans attending the game were Phillies fans. And why shouldn’t they come up to New York for a weekend series? It is a 2 hour trip by train and they get to see their team for cheaper than they would in Philadelphia. And their team has a better chance of winning because they are playing the Mets. The tickets for this game were very expensive on Stubhub because of all the fans, but luckily I chose this game as my free tickets for a rain out earlier in the year and these were our best seats at a baseball game in a while.

Now on to the actual game. The Phillies won 5-2 with Cole Hamels picking up the win to improve to 7-2, Mike O’Connor very deservedly getting the loss, and Ryan Madson securing the save. This game was a Mets bullpen catastrophe on every level after the starter, Mike Pelfrey pitched a beautiful game for the Mets. The disaster begun fairly unassumingly. After a pretty unwatchable and boring game, the Phillies had 2 outs in the 8th inning and nobody on base. Pelfrey was still on the mound and the Mets held a 2-1 lead. Unfortunately for Mike, he gave up a single to Jimmy Rollins and was pulled from the game. He received a huge standing ovation as he exited and this will probably cause him to pitch terribly in his next game because he will be overconfident. Anyway, enter Mike O’Connor. After allowing Rollins to steal second, Chase Utley hit a single to left. Keep in mind that the only reason O’Connor was brought into the game was to get a lefty, Utley, out, and he gave him a game-tying hit. He will probably be sent back down to the minors after this performance. Enter Jason Isringhausen. Utley attempts to steal second and Ronny Paulino’s throw sails into center field. Utley is now at third and there are still two outs. Issy (or should I say Sissy) then walks Placido Polanco and leaves the game without recording an out. Enter Tim Byrdak. He comes in as the lefty specialist to get Ryan Howard out and keep the game tied at 2. However, Howard doubles down the right field line and 2 runs score. In the 9th inning, Dale Thayer (who made his Mets debut) gave up 1 more run and the Mets were officially out of the game. They did absolutely nothing in the bottom of the 9th against Ryan Madson. One of the reasons that this was my favorite game so far this season is that this is such a typical Mets-Phillies game. This is exactly what I expected. I thought the Mets would take a lead, but of course disappoint the fans in the end like usual. They did the exact same thing yesterday as well. I don’t know how die-hard Mets fans are able to survive this. Even though I try to root for them, I can’t get myself to do it. They are just too terrible.

Dale Thayer. He is now apparently a reliever for the Mets.

Now on to the jokes from the game:

• As we arrived at Shea, we realized that Pepsi Max was unfortunately back, and they were back with a vengeance. There was tons of Pepsi Max stuff outside the stadium including an annoying DJ yelling at everyone. There were also huge bottles of Pepsi Max looming over everyone and girls with free samples of Pepsi Max. It was disgusting and horrifying. I refused the temptation to participate in the devilish activities before the game, but after the game I took a free can of Pepsi Max as I was leaving the stadium. I had about 4 sips of it before throwing it out in a subway garbage can. It was as bad as I thought it would be if not worse. However, it probably gave me the caffeine to be writing this article right now. As we were walking up the staircase to the subway, the stairs were littered with unopened and one-sip-taken-out-of Pepsi Max cans. It was terrifying. I should have knocked one of them over by accident and then the Pepsi Max would drip down the stairs grossing everyone out. It would have been quite funny. Also, after wearing my Mets throw-away shirt tonight to the game, I realized that I am a walking advertisement for Pepsi Max because it has an advertisement on the back. Maybe I should just cross it out with a black marker. Any better suggestions? See Pepsi Max Pictures below:

Pepsi Max Stand

Pepsi Max Bottle

• As we entered Citi Field, the Mets gave us free “Tote Bags”. It is really just a bag with a belt around it and it looks pretty feminine. It also has an advertisement for Harrah’s Casino. We took our bags into the stadium with us and used them in various ways. I will talk more about these Tote Bags later on. See pictures below:

Mets Tote Bags

Mets Tote Bags With Peanuts

Mets Tote Bag

Mets Tote Bag With Peanuts

Mets Tote Bags with Peanuts

Mets Logo On Mets Tote Bag

Mets Tote Bag Belt

Peanuts Inside Mets Tote Bag

• As we arrived we noticed the annoying foam finger guy. People actually bought stuff for him today. They could have spent that money on a lower level Nets ticket! Idiots…

Annoying Foam Finger Guy (people actually buy these things)

• As part of rewarding their season ticket holders, the Mets chose some season ticket holders to go on the field before the game. It was mostly just old people. Each person went to a position and when the Mets went onto the field they shook hands with the Met who played their position. It was kind of a joke. See pictures below:

Random Season Ticket Holders on Field

Random Season Ticket Holder on Field

• After arriving to our very good seats, we noticed the upper deck in left field. In every game we have went to so far this season, nobody has sat in those seats. They are always empty. The Mets just never sell those tickets. This was for the most part the same tonight except for one section. I assume that there must have been a birthday party or something like that in this one section because there were almost no people in the other sections. It is pretty hilarious. Also, during the 7th inning stretch, there was one guy sitting under the out-of-town scoreboard in the left field upper deck and he was standing up and dancing and wanting to get a shirt. Good luck, because you will need a miracle. See pictures of the left field upper deck below:

Shea Stadium Upper Deck Left Field

Shea Stadium Upper Deck Left Field

• After the 1st inning we decided to break out the peanuts. They were as disgusting as we remember them being (we haven’t been to Shea in a few weeks) but luckily there were less than there are at Yankee Stadium. There weren’t many perfume nuts, however I did get one that was pitch black after being burned in an oven for probably 5 days. It was super perfumy. After we opened the peanuts, I thought of a great idea. We will put all of our peanut shells in Raphi’s Tote Bag and then Raphi will have to decide what to do with all of them. We carefully positioned the bag under Petro/GadZoom’s dunking bucket (AKA cup holder) so that when we dunked or shot, the peanuts would go into the bag. I suggested dumping them all in one urinal in the Citi Field bathroom but Raphi was too scared. He still has yet to make a decision and still has possession of all of the peanuts. See peanut pictures below:

Peanut Shells in Tote Bag Close Up

Peanut Shells in Tote Bag Close Up With Peanut Bag

Peanut Shells in Tote Bag with Peanut Bag

Peanut Shell in Tote Bag

• In the 4th inning, Mike Pelfrey had a balk with runners on 1st and 2nd. Unfortunately neither runner scored which would have made this a lot funnier. Still, a balk is a balk, and it made this game a little more of a joke.
• In the 6th inning, a fan won 6 months of Tide laundry detergent courtesy of BJ’s. Congratulations. This was a terrible Mets giveaway and I am thankful that I did not win it. Have fun washing clothes for 6 months. Is that a reward or a punishment? Probably punishment.
• Raphi claims that he got bit by a Shea mosquito during the game. Mosquitos usually love my blood but I have not yet noticed any bites. I’m glad Citi Field mosquitos like Raphi more than me.
• After the 7th inning, I noted that the Mets defense had been surprisingly good tonight. That is, until the 7th inning. In the 8th inning it was disgustingly bad including Ronny Paulino’s awful throwing error.
• After 2 outs were recorded in the 8th inning, it took the Mets 4 pitchers to get out of the inning. The foursome are Mike Pelfrey, Mike O’Connor, Jason Isringhausen, and Tim Byrdak. All those terrible pitchers just to get one out.
• During the later innings of the game, Raphi and I moved up successfully 3 or 4 times. I was pretty impressed with it and was not expecting it. I guess the reason we were able to do this was because the Mets fans were so disgusted with their team after the top of the 8th inning. They just wanted to leave Shea immediately. That was good news for us, and I got some nice close-up shots at the end of the game. You will see the pictures from the game towards the end of this article.
• After the game was over and the Phillies won, we were one of the first ones to get to the Phillies dugout. We saw all the players leave and we did not get any balls. However, the pitching coach and the people from the bullpen had yet to leave. We waited for them and I believe the Phillies pitching coach threw a ball in our direction. I had no shot at it, but Raphi had a small chance. He reached out as far as he could and knocked the ball closer to him and made an impressive grab, stealing it away from some Phillies fans. I was impressed to say the least. I didn’t know he had it in him. After getting the ball, he then put it into his peanut bag to make it even more disgusting. It now smells like peanuts. Ew. See picture below:

Peanut Shells in Tote Bag with Baseball!

Here are some pictures from the actual game:

Jimmy Rollins

Placido Polanco Stretching

Placido Polanco

 

Justin Turner

 

Jose Reyes

Carlos Ruiz

Philly Fielders

 

Justin Turner

Raphi's Favorite Ben Francisco

 

Ryan Madson

Our next KHH event will be on Monday, Memorial Day, as the Mets host the Pirates at Shea. We received these tickets for free for sitting through Mets-Nationals a few weeks ago and we picked up our tickets for this game today. It is sure to be a great one, and we will probably go to at least one more Mets-Pirates game in the series. That is all for now, but look out for a video of the announcement of the Mets starting lineup coming soon. Also, Mets-Nets comparisons will finish up tomorrow!

Yankees-Mets Recap

As Raphi put it, this was our first baseball surprise of the year and it was not predictable at all. The Mets won 2-1 in the Bronx to improve to a somewhat respectable 3-5 when we have attended their games and more importantly for them, 22-22 on the year. That is surprising enough. The Yankees fell to 1-1 in front of the KHH bloggers and 23-20 overall. After we saw R.A. Dickey lose at home to the Rockies, Astros, and Giants, he was able to win on the road at Yankee Stadium. Do you get what I mean by unpredictable? Freddy Garcia pitched well, but still got hit with the loss. There were plenty more surprises from this game but I will start from the beginning.

The first surprise of the night was that Raphi was less than 20 minutes late. This gave us enough time to go buy pizza before arriving at the Stadium. I had 2 slices and Raphi had 0, probably a very wise choice. As we were walking to the Stadium, we passed someone selling bags of peanuts on the street. There was one that was salted for $3 and one that was unsalted for $2. The cheaper one was also the much bigger one, so we thought, why not? and bought the unsalted peanuts and took them into the stadium with us. I don’t like to start eating them until at least the end of the first inning, especially because I had just eaten 2 slices of pizza, but we started eating them at 7:25, just as the 2nd inning was beginning. Before long, we had realized what we had just gotten ourselves into. This bag was ginormous, much bigger than any other peanut bag that we had had prior (and some of those were too big to handle). By the time we were a third of the way done, I was already completely sick of them and wanted to throw the rest away, but I could not disrespect the peanuts like that. We had to finish them. During the 7th inning stretch, I looked down at the peanuts and thought that I was finally almost done. The problem was that I felt that way until the top of the 9th inning when we finally finished them. We had been eating them nonstop and we only finished them at 9:45. We had been constantly eating them the whole game and it took us almost two and a half hours to finish them. Raphi deserves a lot of credit for finishing the peanuts, but I deserve to be in the Hall of Fame of peanut eaters for my performance tonight. Here are some pictures to give you an idea of how many peanuts we ate:

Full Bag of Peanuts

Empty Bag of Peanuts

Ripped Peanuts

What a Catastrophe

So Gross

Even though we ate all those peanuts, there was still more food that we ate. As I mentioned before, I ate 2 slices of pizza before the game. Raphi also bought a hot dog midway through the game to get the peanut taste out of his mouth. He should enter a Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating contest. He can compete against Mark Sanchez (it was against the Raiders, by the way).

Also from Mark Sanchez (we need some football in this blog):

Once the game started and I had already eaten many of the peanuts, my mouth longed for something other than the peanuty badness. I decided to go search for a drink. The first drink I saw that didn’t have a huge line and wasn’t water was a lemonade stand. I didn’t really want this, but I had no other options. And it looked bad too. It looked like they just put a lemon in a cup of water. But I was very wrong. It was delicious; maybe the best lemonade I had ever drank. It was so good that Raphi also got one later. Here’s a picture of our almost finished lemonades:

Delicious Lemonades

We have calculated that we must have eaten about 3,500 calories combined tonight. That is 1,750 each, almost the amount that you are supposed to have for a day in 4 hours. When I got home I looked at my stomach in the mirror and it looked bigger than it was before, I’m not lying. And I feel like I have to throw up. Enough about food; on to the game.

The Mets lineup was pretty gross tonight. The 5-9 hitters were Fernando Martinez (also the DH, what a joke), Justin Turner, Josh Thole, Jason Pridie, and Ruben Tejada. How that team beats the Yankees, I have no idea. Justin Turner had a bunt single in his first at-bat and had 3 hits in the game. He also broke a Mets record for the most consecutive games with an RBI for a rookie with 6. Wow, Justin Turner now holds a Mets record. Another surprise was that the only run the Yankees scored the whole game came on a Mark Teixeira first row home run in the third inning. Their offense was pretty disgusting to say the least. Yet another surprise: the Mets bullpen was shockingly good. If you remember my article from a few days ago, Mike O’Connor pitched a great 7th inning and Izzy and K-Rod shut the door for the Yankees. However, Joba and David Robertson pitched well out of the Yankees’ pen.

After attending this game, I feel the need to rant at Mets fans. First, I want to take you back to a few days ago on Wednesday. There must have been less than 1,000 people at Shea to watch the Mets take on the Nationals, and the fans that were there were very unspirited. There was not much cheering. Heck, I was able to distract Gorzy to make a terrible pick off throw. Now fast forward to today. There were probably at least 10,000 Mets fans at Yankee Stadium. And most of them didn’t honestly care about the Mets. They just want the Yankees to lose. They want to prove to all the Yankees fans that their team is bad because they lost to the lowly Mets. They don’t even think that their own team is good. They only want to annoy Yankees fans. They know that their team has no chance at the playoffs, so they might as well try to ruin the Yankees’ chance. That is all. Now it’s time for a few more pictures:

Random Fernando Martinez Stat

Yankees

The Field

Our Seats

K-Rod

In other baseball news, after the Nationals were blanked 2 nights in a row against the Mets, they scored 17 tonight against the Orioles. Typical. Blue Jays pitcher Jo-Jo Reyes pitched 7 innings and had a 2-0 lead, but the bullpen could not hang on and the Blue Jays still lost. Of note is that Jo-Jo Reyes has not gotten a win in 26 straight starts. That’s 26. Reyes is 5-18 for his career in 45 starts and his last win came on June 13, 2008 against you guessed it, the Mets (just kidding, the Angels, but I wish it was the Mets). Did you think that Jason Giambi’s power streak was just good for one game? Well it wasn’t. The Giambino went yard again tonight in Milwaukee. Keep it going big fella!

Mets-Astros Game 2 Recap

What a terrible classic Mets game. They gave us all the hope we could have wanted and eventually disappointed us. The game was both boring and disgusting, featuring plays that I didn’t think would be possible in major league baseball. I will first start with the plot of the game.

In the 2nd inning, Houston got on the board first. The first run of the game was scored on a wild pitch that Chris Johnson was able to score on. Whenever a run is scored on a wild pitch, you know the game is a joke. The Mets got on the board in the third with an RBI double by Beltran, who had 3 hits in the game. Jose had 4 hits and Daniel Murphy even had 3 hits (no, I can’t believe it either), so the Mets were able to put some good swings on the ball in this game, but in the end, it did not help them. In the 6th inning, with the Mets down 3-1, Daniel Murphy hit a 2 run homer right down the right field line to tie the score. However, it wasn’t before long that Hunter Pence won the game for Houston with a solo shot in the 8th. Mark Melancon (ew) got the win, R.A. got the loss, and Brandon “As strong as a” Lyon got the save. Unfortunately, fan favorite Chin Lung Hu did not make an appearance in this game. Hopefully we will see him tomorrow, when Raphi will bring his Nelkin posterboard if he isn’t too lazy. R.A. wasn’t terrible because he threw 8 innings, but he didn’t blow anybody away. Jason Isringhausen (oh boy) made an appearance in the 9th. Bud Norris gave up 10 hits to the Mets in 6 innings, but only 3 runs, and the Houston bullpen was good again.

Now on to the jokes of the game:

• The wild pitch that Houston scored on in the 3rd inning was awful. You just can’t throw terrible pitches with runners on third.
• Bud Norris looks like a fat frog. Right after I said this, he had a line drive RBI single. I think he heard me because of the lack of people at the game and he got mad enough to get a hit.
• The Mets’ Kiss Cam is sponsored by 1800flowers.com. Wow. They couldn’t have just chosen either the website or the phone number? They had to do both? This is typical Mets advertising, putting the most advertisements into as little a space as possible. And the kissers weren’t even good tonight.
• In one of Hunter Pence’s at bats, he got called out on strikes. There is a rule in baseball that if the ball hits the ground of the third strike, you are allowed to run to first. On a strike 3 looking call, Josh Thole, who sucks, dropped the ball and Hunter Pence was safe at first. You don’t see this every day because any catcher with a brain would not let this happen.
• In one of the boringest parts of the game, Angel Pagan had a 10 pitch at bat. It was torturous. He then grounded out.
• Willie Harris missed two bunts consecutively. This means he squared around to bunt two times in a row and failed both times.
• Today there was another peanut disaster under our chairs. The Shea maintenance staff are in for a long night. See below.
  

  Peanut Disaster

• In the 8th inning, the Mets had one of the worst double plays you will ever see. Pinch hitter Justin Turner struck out with a runner on third and one out. The pitch was in the dirt, so Angel Pagan decided to try to run home. He was promptly thrown out and the inning was over. The Mets were down by 1 run.
• In the 9th inning, the Mets had one of the worst double plays you will ever see. Josh Thole was up at the plate with Jose Reyes on first. The Mets had already popped up a bunt once tonight. Josh Thole then popped up the bunt while Jose was already dashing for second. Before Jose knew it, the ball was caught and he was picked off first. After a lead off single by Jose, fans had hope, but Josh Thole took away all the hope and cemented the loss.

Now I feel the need to go on a rant at the Mets. Mets. You are awful. You give your fans hope, just to take it away again. You make it so so so difficult to root for you and this is why you have lost fans every year since the year you made it to the NLCS. The next year, you had your typical Mets collapse at the end of the year. The year after was the same. After that, you just sucked. You had a random mix of former talented people and random white people and people from Latin America. You had no identity at all. Now, your fans know and accept that you suck and you aren’t doing anything to get better. You continue to not try and disappoint at every possible time. It is very hard not to root against you.

Now that that is out of my system, we look ahead to tomorrow. The pitching matchup feature Chris Cappuccino and J.A. Happ. Expect to see many runs scored and more terrible plays. On a high note, there were no actual errors in the game tonight. That will likely not be the case tomorrow. See you then!

Preview of Mets – Astros

Jonah and I will be in attendance at tonight’s Mets – Astros game. Thus, a preview is in order.

To begin, here are some depressing Mets interviews after the Mets – Astros game: (It’s so easy to laugh at (not with) Terry Collins.)

http://service.twistage.com/plugins/player.swf?p=link&v=e5610270e287e

Next, 2 articles of sad news:

• Pat Misch was waived, cleared waivers, and demoted to Triple A Buffalo. (Metsblog.com)
• Bobby Parnell was placed on the 15 day DL for numbness in his right, middle finger. The Mets training staff believes it has to do with poor blood circulation. (NBCSports.com)

R.A. Dickey

And, tonight’s Mets starting lineup (according to Metsblog.com):

1. Jose Reyes (.299)
2. Josh Thole (.260)
3. David Wright (.254)
4. Carlos Beltran (.250)
5. Ike Davis (.291)
6. Angel Pagan (.169)
7. Willie Harris (.273)
8. Daniel Murphy (.226)
9. R.A. Dickey (.200)

Other notes:

• According to Mets.com, tonight’s pitching matchup is: Bud Norris (1-1, 5.06 ERA) vs. R.A. Dickey (1-2, 3.93 ERA).
• Scott Hairston will come off the bench for the Mets.
• Jason Isringhausen will serve as the 8th inning set up man tonight.
• R.A. stands for Robert Allen, according to Wikipedia.org.

We’ll post some sort of recap after the game, unless the game is so awful that it must be immediately forgotten.