How Do You Like Them Apples

Mets News- two homers in one inning at Citi Field today. Which means the apple makes an appearance, or not.


First, Brian Schneider hits one out, which is the first Met homer in 9 or 10 days, so I guess you could call this a bit of a dry spell. And the apple makes an appearance. Then Mr. Tatis cranks one out (break up the Mets!), and...

the apple does not work. Tired from the earlier appearance, no doubt.

JV if you ask me.

Swapping Right Fielders

The Mets e-mailed me to tell me the BIG NEWS! They traded Ryan Church to the Braves for Jeff Francoeur (had to look that one up spelling-wise!)

So when I received the missive, all it says was 'Mets Acquire Outfielder Jeff Francoeur' - OK good deal. Then we see he was traded for Church, which is essentially a swap of guys who play terrific D. There offensive stats are almost the same. Here's a look:

Church - 67 games, 232 AB, .280 BA, 2 HR, 22 RBI, .707 OPS, 36 K
Francoeur - 82 games, 304 AB, .250 BA, 5 HR, 35 RBI, .634 OPS, 46 K

I guess Frenchy is younger by a few, so he's got that going for him. Great defensive player (but Church wasn't bad either). I guess you have to do something to shake up the troops. I'm sure Jerry is very happy.

The Sipper

Do you know who this is? In the immortal words of Desi Arnaz - "let me'splain'.

Long ago I wrote this, and I guess you can call this the companion piece, the follow-up, the sequel. I'm talking about that very annoying coffee-drinking personality, who will be known as The Sipper. These troglodytespark their enormous (usually)keesters in the way of the working man so they can get that cup of joe just so. Puh-lease.

YOU ARE IN MY WAY! GET OUT OF MY WAY! I HAVE A LIFE I HAVE TO GET TO! I CANNOT HANG OUT IN A CONVENIENCE STORE WAITING FOR YOU TO PERFECT YOUR BREW! LOSER!!!

If you are The Sipper in your neck of the woods, you need to stop. Pour yourself a tall black, put in anything and tough it out, cowboy. Aversion Therapy works.

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I see we have a comment. We welcome comments, since SoulSlam is equal opportunity with his venom. But be forewarned, if you invite abuse, it is rude not to accept.

Day Off

My J-O-B usually gives us an extra day off for the 4th holiday, which is very sweet. Woke up this morning and had to log-in to make sure I didn't just dream it.

10U travel team has 4 games this week. Hopefully we can put 6 innings together (in a row) and come up with a win, for the boys sake.

Mets spit the bit in the friendly (NOT) confines of Citizens Bank Park. I guess Omar is watching the team through rose-colored glasses, because they need somebody, but apparently nobody is coming.

New Blood

In my town's and program's efforts to strengthen baseball participation, we have started an 8U summer travel team - no league affiliation, just setting up scrimmages, which is harder than it sounds. Today we played game one of the journey.

We lost, but the effort was definitely there, and the boys had a great game. It was amazing watching a new group of (younger)boys compete and play some baseball. Their enthusiasm is great to watch.

I had to ump since we couldn't get a guy on short notice. Gave me a different perspective than I get from the dugout and baselines. Threw a K on my kid twice too. Gotta swing at the strikes.

And so you don't say I'm heartless - I tell the boys there is no shame in striking out and have never yelled at a boy for swinging the bat and missing.

Mets are on. Maybe we can get a hit or two.

Happy 233, America!

The 4th of July is here. Beach weather here in Jersey (North)! Hitting the lake today early, then poolside in the backyard oasis for the remainder. Got some fireworks to go to as well, but I'm not the type to go gaga over some sparklers in the sky.

I was thinking last night as I watched a movie for the 100th time (or so it seems), what movies do I always stop at if they are on, no matter how many times I've seen them. Here's an incomplete list:

Hoosiers

The Final Season

The Natural

Jaws and Jaws 2

30 Days of Night (I have no explanation for this one)

Terminator

JFK

Platoon

The Seven-Ups

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (The Walter Matthau version)

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Not everything, but a pretty good representation I guess.

In holiday weekend baseball news - Mets are in the City of Brotherly Love for a showdown with the hated Phils. Phils laid the lumber on 'em last night. Hopefully we get something going today.

Not Hiding

Just quiet here is the land of Slam.

Mets are exasperating, particularly the inability of the GM to get anything done.

My travel team is 0-3, and basically let's one inning get out of hand every game.

It's raining on an almost daily basis.

Check you out this weekend.