Sad a statement as this may be, for
many of us our world begins and ends with the
Mets. But, alas, there are only so many times
in a day that we can refresh our browsers over
on our favorite Mets related blogs and expect to
see something new.
The Metwork was created for
the spaces in-between. Of course, we'll always
post important Mets updates throughout the day
but here you'll also find posts on current
events/breaking news, film, T.V.,
original essays and other weapons of mass distraction.
Who's Running this Ship Anyway?
The Metwork was conceived by Internet-a-phobe Benjamin Truman with the encouragement of his consiglieres Gardner Sparks and Siddhartha Finch. Gardner and Siddhartha live in Los Angeles while Ben lives in an underground bunker at an
undisclosed location.
Comments Policy
Inappropriate comments are sort of like pornography--we'll know it when we see it, and it will probably turn us on. That being said, please show some class and try to keep it together.
In honor of Lost finally returning to my life last Thursday (okay, I'm a few days behind reality), and the Mets finally finding a way to get a couple of hits in a row in the 4th inning of yesterday's game against the Braves, here are some other people and things who have been lost and/or found....
1. LOST: My computer. The bastards at HP have had this thing for the past 3 weeks and my loaner barely does word processing. Hence, the dearth of posts.
2. LOST: Jose Reyes. Last April Reyes hit .356 with 17 stolen bases and 26 runs. So far, he's hitting .237 with 5 stolen bases and 13 runs. I haven't been able to catch any games lately due to Lost item #1, but from what I have read it seems like he can't get the ball out of the infield. Can't someone make up some more handshakes with the guy? I know they're all probably sick of the tens of handshakes they have to memorize for Jose, but it's worth it. (Though, to be fair, at least Reyes isn't as bad as Troy Tulowitzki, who's hitting a mere .157... that's basically a county away from the wrong side of the Mendoza line.)
3. LOST: John McCain's priorities.
Actually, wait, can you lose something you've never had?? (Sorry, I
know I shouldn't talk about politics, but I just...can't... resist.)
4. FOUND: Carlos Delgado (hopefully). Knocking two out of the park against John Smoltz is a great way to silence your critics, Carlos. And for the record, this whole "curtain call controversy" is beyond me. If you're going to boo a player for a month straight, don't expect him to jump up and pound his fist in the air when you finally stop. Carlos Delgado is not Armando Benitez, Braden Looper, or Mo Vaughn - he's a leader (see: him talking to Heilman in the dugout on Saturday), and he gives a shit about the team. End of rant.
5. LOST: My fellow Metworkers and likely the readership of this blog.
6. LOST: Ramon Castro. No, really, where is he? Don't get me wrong, Raul Casanova had a great game yesterday, but I'm genuinely concerned for Ramon's well-being. Come back, Ramon, I miss hearing the Imperial Death March. The last I heard of him, he was in "extended spring training" working on his hamstring, but I'm beginning to think that "extended spring training" is on the same farm that my parents brought my old dog Sam when I was 6.
7. FOUND: A little less hatred for Chipper Jones after reading this. Larry said if he could take back one comment he made in his entire career, it would be saying that the Mets fans could go ahead and put on their Yankee gear. Thanks, Chip! We appreciate your apology 9 years later. I do find it surprising, however, that Larry wouldn't take back whatever comment he said that got that Hooters waitress to bang him. I feel like that's probably had a bigger impact on his life than talking smack about Mets fans, but who am I to judge?
(Yes, I will continue to bring up the Hooters-waitress-adultery-thing every time I talk about Larry Jones both on the Internet and in real life because it's such a hilarious cliche. I guarantee you I can fit it into every conversation in which Chipper comes up. Seriously, try me.)
So the Metwork had been very quiet in the offseason months... I took some finals, watched my fantasy football team suck, and eagerly awaited the 2008 season.
October: As I may have mentioned before, I stayed away from anything that would show baseball. Halloween was ruined, as I couldn't dress up as any baseball character without hearing it from someone (although, in retrospect, Jose Canseco could have worked..). When approached by a Phillies' fan about the Mets collapse, I replied with my favorite clever retort - "Yeah, well here's an interesting fact, the Mets won as many post season games as the Phillies did!" This was usually met with sympathetic laughter, as it was not nearly as clever as I thought it was.
November: When we all went around the table saying what we were thankful for, I said that I was thankful that Guillermo Mota would not not be a Met next season. And that there is no way Jose Reyes could have a worse month than he had in September. My family was not pleased at my "frivolous" priorities. I was not pleased with the lack of home-made pumpkin pie.
December: I asked Santa for Johan Santana and a bicycle. Instead Andy Petite admitted to using HGH. Not everything I asked for, but better than the Christmas I got the gift certificate for a make-over. How are you supposed to take that??
January: January 29 - You know what happened, I know what happened. Finally the Mets pulled the trigger. Santa delivered on his promise. I really liked Gomez, I did. I love speed, so he's my type of player. But the fact that the Mets didn't have to give up F-Mart is beyond amazing. Also, I skied in West Virginia. There were mullets, but there were also $3 Miller Lights. And a girl in front of us for the lift pass named Channel. Seriously. Channel. In West Virginia.
February: After days of making me sweat and using up all my cell minutes, Santana was signed until 2013. That's truly all I remember about February - the rest was spent trying to recover from those 72 hours of tense horror.
March: I went to Thailand and pontificated on the virtues of baseball over rugby to drunk Australians. I drafted my fantasy team and managed to have no Phillies, Braves, or Yankees on my team. I tried to forget about 2007. That first pitch on March 31st nearly did it for me.
Tonight the Mets kicked the crap out of the Marlins, 13-0. I won't lie, I didn't catch any of this game past the third inning and it's a little too late to watch the replay on MLB.tv, so I'll just do my best...
- Carlos Beltran went 3-4, with 2 runs scored. He is apparently the only offensive contributor to my fantasy team, so thanks for that Carlos. Beltran hit one off the top of the wall in the 5th that was initially ruled a home run, but then was overruled to be called a ground rule double.
- David Wright was 3-5 with a 3-run homerun. Everyone joined in on the fun tonight - every starting position player had a hit and Ryan Church contributed big time by going 3-5 and notching his first homer as a Met.
- Oliver Perez limited the Marlins to 5 hits through 6 innings while striking out 8... almost making me forget that Pedro will be out 4-6 weeks for the hamstring injury. Almost.
The Phillies have yet to win a game and are in last place... just saying. Yes, Tim Redding (who??) one-hit the Phillies tonight and outpitched Cole Hamels. The Nationals are in first place at 3-0, so it might be time to start preparing for the apocalypse. I know it's the third game of the season, but still.... I just think it's always good to be ready and pick up some canned foods and freeze dried ice cream.
Tonight the Mets beat the Marlins 7-2 on OPENING DAY. Did you find yourself wishing the Mets had this run production on September 29th of last year? Because I sure did. I swear.. 2007 is like herpes... you might temporarily forget about it, you might try to suppress it, but it always comes back to haunt you.
- Also, did anyone notice that JOHAN SANTANA was wearing a Mets jersey tonight? It was unreal. Santana went 7 innings and struck out 8. Other than the Willingham 2 run HR he seemed untouchable.
- Heilman was back to his old self, shutting down the Marlins in the 9th with two strikeouts.
- My God. Could the polos in the announcers' booth be any worse? I was watching the game with friends and was embarrassed by what SNY was making Gary, Keith, and Ron wear. Come on. Let them put on a suit.
- David Wright was 2-4 with 3 RBI. Carlos Beltran, aka, man of terrible haircut but great away from Shea numbers, was 2-5. Jose Reyes who was SAFE despite being called out stealing in the 6th inning, was 2-4.
Thank god baseball is back. Tomorrow I will let you all know what I was doing this off season. It won't be pretty, but then again, neither is Dolphin Stadium.
With that football mumbo-jumbo behind us, we can finally settle in with what's really important: pitchers and catchers in sunny Florida.
In case you hadn't heard, the Mets traded for and signed the greatest pitcher in the sport. And good thing it happened when it did, especially with the Schilling news coming out today. The nuts and bolts of the story is that Schilling has a serious shoulder injury that requires surgery which would end his year, and Schilling has said this will surely be his last. The Sox are trying to void the 8 mil of his contract. If Theo had known about this last week, you can be sure the ante would've been upped a pretty penny for Santana -- namely Ellsbury AND Lester? Who knows, but Johan's a Met, and also a damn good salesman. Here's a MetWeird to get you juiced for spring training:
In the wake of posting a couple of articles over on Hotfoot, I've received some e-mails wanting to know why there has been so little activity here on the Metwork.
A couple months back I basically changed careers--i.e., went from the non-profit industry to the decidedly for-profit film industry. The hours have been crazy, and the opportunity to consistently blog just isn't there anymore.
As I am basically the administrator of this site, when I disappear so does pretty much everyone else.
That being said, I'm in the process of sniffing around to see if anyone is interested in taking over the reigns. Needless to say, if Omar continues to make trades like the one he made the other day, the Mets blogging community is going to need a voice with a sense of humor.
If you're interested in administering the site, drop me me line...
ESPN is reporting that the Mets have traded Lastings Milledge for Nationals' OF Ryan Church and C Brian Schneider.
I am absolutely baffled by this move. It really makes no sense to me AT ALL. Hopefully this is part of some genius plan by Omar, but if not.... well....
I don't even know what to say. And let's not forget about the Milledge People! What's going to happen to the Milledge People? Do they turn into the Church Boys? This is horrible.
After sweeping the Arizona Diamondbacks out of the NLCS and winning 21 out of their last 22 games, the Colorado Rockies will make their first ever appearance in the World Series.
21 out of 22? Now THAT, Willie Randolph, is what I call a "nice little rhythm."
The Metwork geek department is getting pretty hot and bothered as casting of J.J. Abrams' Star Trek "reboot" nears completion. A few days ago we were all blown away to learn that Eric Bana had signed on to play to the film's villain, but today J.J. went boldly where know man has gone before---casting Shaun of the Dead'sSimon Pegg as Scotty. Sure, there's zero resemblance, but you have to admit that's some pretty inspired casting. Also announced today: Harold and Kumar'sJohn Cho has been cast to play Sulu.
As for Kirk---all signs point to relative unknown Chris Pine. Still no word on Bones.
Here's a complete list of the casting to date complete with imdb profile links:
According to ESPN the Mitchell Report will be released between October 31st and the end of the year. It will list "well known" players. "This is going to be enormous ... it's going to be a huge story when these names come out."
Well this is what every news agency in the world has been waiting for. I'm going to be honest, I'm seriously scared that Mike Piazza is going to wind up on this list....which would just be terrible.
Former Vice President Al Gore and the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for their work to raise awareness about global warming.
Now that Gore has his Nobel Peace Prize that leaves only "blowj@b from Angelina Jolie" and "my very own rocketship" on his list of unreasonable demands to jump into the 2008 presidential race.
Word on the street is that Braves GM John Schuerholzis expected to step down at 3:30 p.m. EST today. He would be replaced by his assistant, Frank Wren.
I don't know what I'm more excited about--John Schuerholz leaving or the prospect of being able to refer to Frank Wren and Bobby Cox as "Wren and Stumpy"...
When it first happened, I was inconsolable. But it wasn't like last year... I wasn't sad. I was, and still am, pissed off. Last year I wasn't willing to talk about it because I thought I would get depressed or maybe even cry. This year I wasn't willing to talk about it because I was afraid I would kick a puppy. But I've been feeling better, lately, as I think a lot of Mets fans are. The Phillies got swept (and I was at a bar sitting next to 4 obnoxious Phillies fans during game 3, so I made sure to twist the knife a bit), the Yankees got eliminated, and Pushing Daisies premiered. But there are still those moments that sort of creep up on me. I'll be in the shower, and a thought will come into my head about some reading I did for Labor Law then... unions... then... the MLB Players' Association... then... Tom Glavine... GODDAMNIT!
Yesterday I finally got my refund for the NLDS tickets I was "fortunate" enough to win the opportunity to buy. Wow, thanks Mets. Only 3 weeks since I purchased them and a week and a half since the Mets were eliminated and three days after the NLDS was complete. Thanks. While we're at it, can I have some more refunds?
I'd like to get refunded for the $200 I spent on the train ticket to New York on the last weekend of September. All that time and money going up there was wasted, as it was spent seeing the worst baseball game I have ever attended. I went to the game expecting that it would take a miracle to get the crowd out of it and it sure did, in the form of 7 runs in the first inning. Really, Tom Glavine? You wouldn't do anything differently? Really, offense? You can't score off the Marlins' bullpen?
I would also like the Mets to refund me the money I spent going a game in Philadelphia to see the Mets get their collective asses kicked. I also went to some games in Chicago and Detroit, but at least there the Mets actually showed up and I wasn't getting heckled by fat, unemployed, cheesesteak eating machines. So I don't need that money back. Just the Philadelphia game would be great, thanks.
Oh, and I'd appreciate some of the money I spent on alcohol during the past week and a half. Every time I've been in a bar recently, there's been some sort of playoff baseball game on. I thought that if I drank enough I would hallucinate and see some Met uniforms on the screen, but alas, it didn't work, and I wound up instead with pictures of strangers on my camera and some really awful headaches (which reminds me, money for Advil would be appreciated as well).
I understand with the bureaucracy that is the Mets organization that I might not get this money for a couple of months, but I'll wait. Just like I waited for my first refund. Just like I waited for Delgado to get out of his slump all year. Just like I waited for Milledge to get playing time. Just like I waited for Mota and Schoeneweis to show me why they're worth anything more than a small slurpee from 7-11. Just like I waited for Reyes to get out of his second half slump and play like the MVP candidate I know he is. Just like I waited for the Mets to actually play to their potential for 5 months.
You know, Manuel never stirred up much angst in me... that is until the Phillies did what they did to us this year. Now he's slowly gaining on Bobby Cox as the manager I'd most enjoy punching in the face.
Was the extension justified? When you really think about it it's a tough call as to whether Manuel did a great job with a mediocre team or a mediocre job with a great team. Granted, the Phillies pitching was abysmal for most of the year, but by the same token they pretty much had the best offense in the league and still wouldn't have made the playoffs if it weren't for one of the most epic collapses in baseball history by the Mets.
Just a thought if the Mets were placing an ad for a new bench coach...
National League team seeks experienced baseball manager with a winning record for bench coach position. Must be experienced with the New York market. Good pay in a fun work environment.
Comments or Suggestions?
In honor of Lost finally returning to my life last Thursday (okay, I'm a few days behind reality), and the Mets finally finding a way to get a couple of hits in a row in the 4th inning of yesterday's game against the Braves, here are some other people and things who have been lost and/or found....
So the Metwork had been very quiet in the offseason months... I took some finals, watched my fantasy football team suck, and eagerly awaited the 2008 season. 
Tonight the Mets kicked the crap out of the Marlins, 13-0. I won't lie, I didn't catch any of this game past the third inning and it's a little too late to watch the replay on MLB.tv, so I'll just do my best...
With that football mumbo-jumbo behind us, we can finally settle in with what's really important: pitchers and catchers in sunny Florida.
In the wake of posting a couple of articles over on Hotfoot, I've received some e-mails wanting to know why there has been so little activity here on the Metwork.
Just to put it out there... we're only one game away from a potential 
After sweeping the 
The Metwork geek department is getting pretty hot and bothered as casting of 
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