A Metropolitan Manuscript- Apples, Queens and Numbers

[royals19]

Re: A Metropolitan Manuscript- Apples, Queens and Numbers



I can't quite put my finger on it but there's something about playing Opening Day in the final stages of July that sets a competitive air about things. Maybe it's from watching too much baseball and feeling the heat of the playoff race... I don't know. But what I do know is that it's time for some good 'ol fashioned New York Mets baseball here on Opening Day against the San Diego Padres.

So after the introductions and the National Anthem and all that jazz, we get kick of the 2013 season and year one of this dynasty.



... Do I really need to say this? Do I really need to tell you that David Wright is the face of the franchise? Probably not. But I figure that we might as well get this out of the way so that everybody here is on the same page. David Wright is the king of this franchise. He is Mr. Met.

During the game, We were down by 1 run against a dealing Andrew Cashner and David Wight came up. I sat there and thought "Man, this would be a perfect time for a David Wright homer" 98 mph + Inside = 3rd Deck, 480 ft. shoot. Boom ball game tied.



But it wasn't meant to be. Matt Harvey held the Pads to 1 run and had 10 strikeouts over 8 innings but Germen blew it for him in the 9th inning on a Yonder Alonso homerun. We can't pin this whole thing on Germen though. Cashner was throwing gas all day long.

His high 90s heat would come over the middle of the plate and we swing with all our might and we'd whiff on it. "Timing-Good, Contact-Just Missed" Every single time. He had us fooled. Sometimes he'd switch on over to the 2 seam and throw that in the mid 90s and then he'd throw that circle change 55 ft and we'd look like idiots. It wasn't fair... our guys didn't even know what him 'em...

[royals19]

Re: A Metropolitan Manuscript- Apples, Queens and Numbers

After that sour loss to the Pads on Opening Day, we're gonna head down to Philly to get a quick series in... It's just another series against an interdivision opponent in April right? Wrong.

This is something much bigger... much bigger.

This is one of Baseball's hottest rivalries dating all the way back to 1964.

I think we are the team to beat in the NL East… but that's only on paper.

Without Santana, we felt, as a team, that we had a chance to win in our division. With him now, I have no doubt that we're going to win in our division. I have no doubt in that. We've got what it takes. To Jimmy Rollins: We are the team to beat

There isn't a team in the National League that's better than us. The pressure's back on them if you ask me. They were on paper the best team in the division last year and they were supposed to win, and they didn’t. One, there are four other teams in our division who are going to make sure that doesn't happen, and two, has anyone ever heard of plagiarism? That was pretty good, especially coming from him. He's a quiet guy, so it was probably shocking when he said it. Not shocking in a bad way, like 'Wow, I can't believe he said that.' More like, 'Wow, he finally said something because he's a leader on that team and you definitely need to be a vocal leader.

A lot of things were made in the offseason," Rollins said. "We can talk about the New York Mets. They brought in that great pitcher, Johan Santana, but they forgot that it takes more than one player to bring home a championship.

For the past two years they've been choke artists.

Of course we're going to be the frontrunner. Of course we're going to be the team to beat, I don't want there to be a controversy. I don't want the other team to take it personally, or take it in a bad way. But I'm a really competitive guy. I like to win. If they ask me, 'Oh, which ballclub is going to win the National League East?' It's going to be the Mets. Easy question

On top of that, they've traded blows signed each other's house hold players like the Mets signing Billy Wagner from under the Phillies nose or the Phillies bringing Pedro Martinez back from the dead to lead them to the postseason... Both these teams were at their peaks during this stage and now they're both shadows of their former selves. The Phillies still have all the old instigators and then some but the Mets don't really have anyone. Maybe David Wright, Lucas Duda and Johan Santana.

Believe you me though, the David Wright will remind the young players of the **** that Philly pulls and we'll be ready for it this time... Something is about to go down this series... mark my words.

[royals19]

Re: A Metropolitan Manuscript- Apples, Queens and Numbers

So with all that jazz on our minds, we head down to Philly not really knowing what to expect. Will the rivalry be renewed? Will we shake hands and move on? Haha.... this isn't a Disney movie or whatever... This is freakin' pro baseball where we throw gas at people just for kicks!

OK, OK... enough of this small talk, let's get onto the game.



We got on Cole Hamels early, loading the bases with walks in the first but failed to score. We got another leadoff walk and John Buck came in and did the job hitting a 2 run blast into the right field seats.

It's actually pretty funny to watch John Buck go ham trying to keep his roster spot. Little does he know, no matter what he does, he's gonna lose his starting job for two reasons:

1. I never liked him when he was with the Royals.
2. Travis d'Arnaud is the future of this franchise.

Tough luck but that's what you do when you stir people's grits Johnny.

The real story though... is Kirk Neinhocker.


To be blunt, I don't like his last name because its too hard to spell consistently and I don't like how he looks like a hippie... where's Sparky Anderson when you need him?

But boy, the kid can hit the ball a country mile and he's fast. He's a ball player, that's for sure though. He's been our best defensive outfielder and while he's nothing special, he's proving to be a very serviceable option until we can get something long term out there.

Any way, Captain Kirk.... It has a nice ring to it. I'm not a very big Star Trek fan but I suppose that it'll do for now.

******

Nothing went wrong in today's game and I figured we'd get out this series without and incident... however, it was not to be. In Game 3, the **** hit the fan.

Ha, the two biggest showboats on the team get the fastball... haha. Love it...



Now, it isn't clear who fired the first shot but John Buck got hit so now we're gonna have to go. The rivalry is renewed and the situation with the Phillies just got hot it's definitely a situation we're gonna have to follow in the coming months and seasons.

[CameRoN0407]

Re: A Metropolitan Manuscript- Apples, Queens and Numbers

Is Buck looking like he did at the begining of the season IRL? Perfect example of SSS!

[royals19]

Re: A Metropolitan Manuscript- Apples, Queens and Numbers

So after giving the Phils the business down in Philly, we head out West to Colorado. The Amazins' have had this marked on their calendars since Spring Training. Aside from the baseball, we've got a team Ski trip planned that everyone is looking forward to. So we're gonna try to get these games over quick so we can hit the slopes.

I'm curious to see how good Kirk Newhousner is with the skis...



But on to baseball. Today's an important day my friends... for today is Jackie Robinson day. The day where everybody gets to wear the 42.

I think this is the place that we need to go. We haven't been able to jump start our offense and I think playing on the snow capped slopes of Colorado is just the thing we need to jump start this entire ball club.

On the image above, it looks like there's ice all over the place... In fact there is. Ice was hanging from the ceiling when our guys arrived at the clubhouse...

Take a look at the game time temp:


35 f'n degrees? You can't be serious... Our guys aren't getting paid enough for this... OK, maybe David Wright is but this is insane... If it wasn't a clear sky I'd think we were minutes away from seeing the snow storm of the century. Regardless though, we gotta grind through it and show the world that we have character....



And apparently we don't because we blew the game on 2 errors. A bases loaded overthrow by Neise in the first cost us a pair and a miss play here by Valdespin cost us another 2... We've played some bad defense in our season so far but this is the crown jewel of it all. You can't mess things up this bad...

Awful... just awful...

We did have one good bright spot though.



Marlyn "Byrdman" Byrd went off tonight, going 3-4 with a 2 run homerun and a pair of doubles. Outside of David Wright and Lucas Duda, he's been our best player. He's been playing in a platoon type roll but with Valdespin struggling, we're probably gonna make Byrd the everyday right fielder.

I like that nickname. "Byrdman" It's fitting for this dude... He's arguably the best all around athlete on the team... Well I guess we're just gonna have to play around with it.

[royals19]

Re: A Metropolitan Manuscript- Apples, Queens and Numbers



....Aaaaand we're at .500 in all actuality this will probably be the high point of our season. Don't expect this team to win the division with teams like the Braves and Nats ahead of us. Our goal this season is to continue the rebuilding process by acquiring more impact talent and to do that, wins are going to have to be sacrificed.

For today's marquee matchup, we'd head back to the friendly confines of Citi Field and play the first place Washington Nationals. Let's just say, this series was over before it even started.



I'll be honest, Bryce Harper scares the livin' daylights out of me. He's just so unpredictable and it seems like he went off every single game of this series. If you hit a ball into left field, he'll make some ridiculous play or if you throw a 55 ft curveball he'll golf it into the upper deck... there is no way to beat this dude. He's easily the best impact player in the division and that's saying a lot considering we've got guys like B.J. Up.... I mean Justin Upton, Jason Heyward, Ryan Zimmerman, Gincarlo Stanton... etc.



When a player hits the cycle not once... but twice in the same series, you've gotta tip your cap. That is absolutely insane. The fact that he did it against the Mets sort of wears off the shine but still, that's an impressive feat.

As for us, the Mets, add that to the list of embarrassments for the season. I can't help but think that things will come to a head here if we keep embarrassing ourselves. At the moment, we're stuck between a rock and a hard place. We aren't good enough to post a winning record but we aren't bad enough to get a top 10 draft pick. I hate to say it but I'm really hoping this ball club does bad enough to win a top 10 pick... we need it desperately.

[royals19]

Re: A Metropolitan Manuscript- Apples, Queens and Numbers

So after getting throttled by Bryce Harper and the Nationals, we played the Dodgers and got throttled some more... However, things are looking up. See, we're playing a 3 game set against Philly and here in the last game of the series we're going for the sweep... This could be the rallying cry that we need, 2 straight sweeps against the arch rival Phillies.



Ohh.... so its gonna be one of "those" games...

I'm gonna be blunt, we got our *** kicked by Philly today. The root cause? Errors... Again, we made 2 errors with bases loaded and 2 outs. You can't let these sorts of things happen! Teams pick up momentum off of it and put the smack down on you.

To make matters worse, our bullpen is already exhausted and today's starter Jeremy Hefner was already tired after 69 pitches! 69! I know it's early in the season but you can't tire down that easily. Today, we just had to bite the bullet and watch as Philly laughed their way to victory...



Damn it though, if we were gonna get blown out we were gonna let Philly know it ain't all right.

In the image above, Ryan Howard just hit a bomb OFF the big screen out there in center field in the 4th inning. He casually flips his bat like always but then stares at Hefner as he walks up the first base line... no, no, no, no.... You can't get away with that... Not even Ryan Howard can get away with that!



Next AB for Howard, he struts on into the batter's box. Terry Collins throws his hat across the dugout giving John Buck the signal. Buck puts down the middle finger and Hefner launches a 2 seam fastball into Ryan Howard's neck...

It's on Jack!

So while we reclaimed some of our pride, we were still fully embarrassed... this whole game was probably featured on Sports Center's Not top 10... we'll never know because Terry Collins smashed all the TVs in the clubhouse with a bat.



I would love to pull a stat out of no where to be able to salvage this game... but that just isn't gonna happen. It's one thing to be blown out but to lose to your arch rival in a blowout when you've got your heel on their throat is another...

After the loss, we had to find a fall guy and Mr. Hefner was it, we also optioned Carlos Torres and recalled Bobby Parnell to take over the closing duties. They'll both be optioned to AAA... in the meantime, we need to look for a 5th starter and we have quite the unlikely candidate working his way to the bigs in AA...

[Bluejaysfan65]

Re: A Metropolitan Manuscript- Apples, Queens and Numbers

Looks like "Bean Me Maybe" is back...

[royals19]

Re: A Metropolitan Manuscript- Apples, Queens and Numbers

Looks like "Bean Me Maybe" is back...

You better believe it!

For those of you new to my literary works, let me fill you in on the history of "Bean me Maybe".

In my San Diego Padres franchise I did last year, I was playing the Angels in the 2012 World Series. Throughout the entire series, Mike Trout was doing his usual antics and then some to bring the World Series trophy to LA instead of it's rightful place in San Diego.



From robbing me of a game winning homerun in Game 5 to send it back to LA to hitting 3 homeruns in Game 6... I'd had my fill. I decided something needed to be done.

Thus, we proceeded to bean Mike Trout in every single on of his ABs in Game 7... Needless to say, he was never quite the same player again.

Here's my brief spoof of "Call Me Maybe" staring Mike Trout.

Spoiler

And now this time around, I made one featuring the Phillies.

Spoiler

[Bluejaysfan65]

Re: A Metropolitan Manuscript- Apples, Queens and Numbers

Its back alright... And bigger and better than before!!

[royals19]

Re: A Metropolitan Manuscript- Apples, Queens and Numbers



Citi Field
April 26th, 2013
Meeting Room 2-A
Mets' monthly situational meeting

The Mets were in 4th place. At the quick bat of an eye, things didn't look that bad... maybe another sub .500 finish but it wouldn't be that bad. However to the Mets Front Office, this was their worst nightmare, not being good enough to win and not being bad enough to get a high draft pick. Not being able to spend and weary of calling up players and starting their service clocks, there hadn't been really any roster moves made outside of optioning Hefner and Torres.

Owner Fred Wilpon sat at the head of the table leaning back in his chair, not really seeming to give a care. Sandy Alderson was traveling with the team on their roadtrip so it was Willie Singleton, Paul DePodesta and J.P. Riccardi informing the owner along with a handful of scouts.

Alright, what's the situation... and please put it in lamens terms.

Well Mr. Wilpon, we're in a tight spot. We're playing middle of the road baseball. What I mean is that, we're not bad enough to build for the future but we aren't good enough to win right now. We're stuck in this gray area in between.

So what exactly do you need?

We need more money... plain and simple.

Look, I told you guys before the season, that you need to work with what you have... We've got guys like Johan Santana, Francisco Cordero and David Aardsma coming back. On top of that you've got Wheeler and d'Arnaud. Surely you can make lemonade with that!

That's the problem Mr. Wilpon, you aren't giving us enough lemons. In order to create a winning team, we need money to invest in player development, scouting and the international market. We need to invest in finding players for our big league roster and Mr. Wilpon, that is completely inconceivable at this point. It's only April and we're struggling to find players that can be productive at the big league level.

To just piggy back off of what Willie said, we're willing to work with the money you gave us but we need you're authorization to begin selling off pieces on this team. That's the only way we're going to be able to free up enough money to start doing things the way we want to.

Absolutely not... I'm not going to allow you to trade the pieces off of this team... I'm... I'm confident we can win with this group.... Now how about you quit giving me excuses and give me results! Everybody but Mr. Singleton leave.

Wilpon got up out of his chair and slammed the door shut and went over to the mini fridge and got a water.

Please Mr. Singleton, help yourself to anything you'd like.

Willie got up and grabbed a Gatorade from the fridge and sat at the opposite end of the table.

We aren't selling off any of the players because it's not my choice to make any more.

Wait what?

I just got another court order in the mail. They've found more dirt on me so I've decided to sell the team to pay for this court case and to go out on my terms. I will control the team for the rest of the year and the new group will take over the day following the World Series. I promised them that I wouldn't make any drastic changes to the team until they consulted you.

So, who exactly are you selling us to and why do they wanna talk to me?

I sold it to Patrick Ewing. He's some sort of basketball player who's backed by the television network MSNBC. I'm going to get about 800 millions dollars for the team...

As for why they want to talk to you, they're going to make you their Vice President of Baseball Operations and they want to confer with you about what direction they want the team to go in.

But what about Sandy?

Mr. Alderson is probably going to be fired. They want to clean out all nonessential personnel who are affiliated with the old regime. First, however they want to talk to you about who to keep and who to show the door to.

Willie couldn't believe it. He was finally going to get his shot to run a pro baseball team. He was upset that things weren't going to work out this season but he was excited that it was his team to rebuild and build his legacy around...

[beamerball811]

Re: A Metropolitan Manuscript- Apples, Queens and Numbers

Good work with this so far. I'm interested in seeing what you do under the Ewing ownership.

[royals19]

Re: A Metropolitan Manuscript- Apples, Queens and Numbers

I'll be honest... the Phillies and Mets rivalry has been pretty intense but if there's probably another less intense rivalry out there. Braves vs. Mets. It used to be scolding hot, probably hotter than the Mets and Phillies rivalry but you know, things change and people change.

It all started with one player... Tom Seaver. Tom terrific had signed with the Braves but was ruled ineligible by the commissioner's office. Seaver intended to return to school but was ruled ineligible by the NCAA... Seaver's family petitioned Commissioner Eckert and eventually teams were allowed to match the Braves offer and the Mets won the lottery, effectively stealing him from the Braves...



While this served as a launching pad for the rivalry, it was furthered by John Rocker who said some highly critical and explicit things about New York. This in turn would lead to people throwing stuff at the Braves' players, namely batteries.

However, things cooled with the opening of Turner Field and the rivalry didn't wasn't really an issue any more. In fact, Chipper Jones named his son "Shea" in honor of the Mets' old stadium because it played a special role in his career...

I'm not writing this to say that we're going to start something with the Braves... if anything, I admire the Braves and consider them the model franchise. I'm writing this because the people need to be informed of the Mets' past and just in case something kicks up again. We're in a "Cold War" of sorts... things could blow up at any minute... I really hope that doesn't happen but hey, we gotta be prepared for everything.

[royals19]

Re: A Metropolitan Manuscript- Apples, Queens and Numbers

Good work with this so far. I'm interested in seeing what you do under the Ewing ownership.

Thanks dude, it's just one step in the right direction for this troubled franchise. However, it will make things more interesting and we'll finally be able to turn this ship upside down.

[beamerball811]

Re: A Metropolitan Manuscript- Apples, Queens and Numbers

Thanks dude, it's just one step in the right direction for this troubled franchise. However, it will make things more interesting and we'll finally be able to turn this ship upside down.

Hopefully so. Interested in seeing what you do with this club.