Mets

[Amazin69]

First series victory since May 7th! Woo-hoo!

Therefore, it is reasonably likely that the Mets will win another series before the ASG. (Maybe.)

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Amazin69

First series victory since May 7th! Woo-hoo!

Therefore, it is reasonably likely that the Mets will win another series before the ASG. (Maybe.)

Please watch your sugar intake.

[Amazin69]

All I know is that the Mets are red-hot as they head off to Europe. So don't screw it up!

(Granted, playing a Phillies team with a current record of 48-14* might also damage the Mets-mentum, but still. I trust the Euro-Mets to you.)

*-not really, but you bought it for a second, right?

[Westheim]

Well, they beat up Corbin in the finale. If you ever wanna bet on a baseball game, bet on the Mets beating up Corbin. That's the one guy they can get under their wheels.

Fun fact (probably): If you ask any person in Europe about the baseball team from New York, if you can answer at all, they will say Yankees.

The Mets are virtually unknown unless to diehards. It's like trying to have a conversation about soccerball side 1860 Munich with you. - "Munich? You mean Bayern?" - No, I mean *1860*.

[Amazin69]

Happens to the best of us. Take it up with Everton. Still, Man City made the worm turn and one hopes the Mets (who have done it before) will one day do it again.

And let's not pretend that the Mets have some special hoodoo they apply to Corbin (as they did to Cole Hamels back in the day, and Brad Penny before him). Patrick has been historically bad since 2019; everybody has his number.

Ever since distant cousin Jeremy lost the general election that December…

(Okay, probably not. On several counts.)

[Westheim]

London can get it. And FOX can get it more than most.

[Amazin69]

I can not tell you how much fun it is to watch The Broken Corpse of Starling Marte employing his "ah, let it drop" defense. I grant you that didn't directly lead to Manaearrhea serving up the gopher ball to Whit Merrifield-we-roll-along, but that's basically four (edit:five) unearned runs, right there.

You know, McNeil can play right field…hell, The Immortal Demetreus Jerome Stewart might have had that one. That was just bloody embarrassing, Marte.

[Amazin69]

Mets score 2 runs, leave 8 in scoring position. As you would expect.

Meanwhile, FOX's Amalgamation of Adams (Suck-up Smoltz stayed home for Dodgers-Yankees, thankfully) kept telling us that the Mets were "playing some of their best baseball of the season".

1. It was one 3-game sweep.
2. It was only the Gnats
3. We did go 12-3 back in the misty depths of Aprille, just so you know.

I understand the need to hype the game, but that was just sad.

[Westheim]

The entire ******* broadcast was just ******* sad, and I very much ******** don't look forward to another one today.

Every time the Mets are on FOX or ESPN I catch myself thinking, oh well, at least it's not *the other*, the other is even worse than this channel. No. No. Nonono. Don't do it. That's the trap you fall in. There are no favorites here. They are just as bad as each other. They are both the ugliest child. They are both the worst they could possibly be! THE WORST!

We now know who everyone's favorite Prem team is, we know that the share of Phillies fans in the stadium was at least 75%, we know that "the Phanatic is the best, but Mr. Met is okay", we know that Harper only needs that triple for the cycle, and BOY were the dimwits rooting for that triple, just so that they could scream "HISTORY! HISTORY".

The word "history" has lost ALL meaning in sports.

There are degrees to what is now termed "history" by headline-hungry keyboard punchers, and not all of it deserves the term, and it is one of my pet peeves with sports these days. It's one of those trigger words in their analytics, and they will get out of their way to cram it into you.

Let's look at a few items of baseball-related history, and I will rank them, from top to bottom, from most important to are-you-*******-********-me, because believe it or not, the monumentality of achievements is rankable, even though they scream so loud about item #6 that they have no room for upscaling anymore. The first are actual facts, and at the bottom are a few neutered examples because I am too lazy to google actual ones but you know you have heard them before:

(1) Jackie Robinson was the first black player to break the color barrier in modern AL/NL

(2) Frank Robinson in 1966 became the only player to win the MVP in both the AL and NL, and is still the only one to do so

(3) Nolan Ryan threw seven no-hitters, and the only pitcher to throw more than four

(4) Pete Alonso is the first Mets player to hit at least 50 home runs in a season

(5) Carlos Delgado is the first player from Puerto Rico to hit four home runs in a game

(6) Anthony Volpe is the first Yankees rookie to have 20 home runs and 20 stolen bases in a season

(7) "He was the first player from Twinglewood High School to be selected in the first five rounds of the draft and get a base hit in the major leagues"

(X) "Bryce Harper could make history as the first player to hit for the cycle in an MLB game in London"

(8) "They are making history here, the first time a South Dakota State alumnus is pitching to another South Dakota State alumnus in MLB"

Yes, it works by introducing increasingly more ridiculous qualifiers, applying an ever finer filter just to have something, anything, rise to the top that can get plonked onto the main page on MLB.com or elsewhere, no matter how silly it is. Even if it is as silly as the goobers in the broadcast booth!

[Amazin69]

So far today, ESPn has subjected us to Michael Kay struggling through the opening (wtf is he doing here? Doesn't he have a Yankees telecast to ruin?) and Doug Glanville reciting a poem about scoring a run that seems as though it wanted to be about civil rights, but passed.

And they haven't even thrown a pitch.

(Belated congratulations to Anthony Volpe for the 20/20 season. It may be lower-case history, but he's still probably proud.)

I will give FOX credit in that I did not know that there was a replica Philadelphia sports bar in London. I'm not sure why I needed to know that, but it was moderately cool.

[Amazin69]

Apparently, Michael Kay does not eat eggs.

Which is surprising, as those who have listen to M'Kay will tell you he certainly sucks eggs. (IMO, the Yankees switching from Kitty and Kenny to Michael Kay and Suzyn Waldman may have been the greatest downgrade in broadcasting history. And very little of that was on Suzyn.)

Starling Marte's Official Excuse for not trying to get the pop fly that broke yesterday's game open was that he lost it in the sun. Odd that he didn't act as if he had, though. No frozen in place, calling out, gesticulating wildly for The Broken Corpse. He got there. He just took his sweet time.

The Phillies' 2B is named "Weston Wilson". I heartily approve.

(At least until he gets three hits against Quintana et seq.)

[Westheim]

Michael Kay is a hopeless homer and has a very annoying voice. The Yankees aren't even in the game, but I am sure he'll manage to point out repeatedly how superior they are to the Mess. Mets.

[Amazin69]

Michael Kay tells us that The Immortal Demetreus Jerome Stewart is hitting .186 "but batting average isn't as important as it used to be". Gee, thanks, Mike!

Previously, Doug Glanville said there were Phillies fans "literally everywhere" in London. Doug Glanville literally does not know what "literally" means. Literally.

[Westheim]

The rabbling is so dumb and I have a DTM race to watch at the same time (NEITHER belong into the 16:00 slot!), so I have turned the volume down on the game. I am just watching the Mets get clobbered on the second screen.

[Amazin69]

Clearly, the ESPn crew was going to take advantage of Lindor being mic'd up to talk to Frankie through the entire 3rd inning, no matter how long it took.

Thank heavens the Phils didn't score 6 runs or they would have been asking Frankie who is his "favourite" Spice Girl.

(Tim Kurkjian did not know that the Spice Girls were British. I did not care that he did not know.)

[Amazin69]

The ESPn crew noted the prevalence of Phillies fans in the stands and said they "traveled" well. They then noted that one of the players was booed during introductions for supporting a Prem club other than West Ham…without connecting the dots and "realising" that many of the Phillies jerseys in the stands were therefore from (front-running) locals, rather than cash-splashing Pennsylvanians.

Kyle Schwarber could not comprehend how the clocks on Big Ben were placed at such a height before the invention of modern cranes and such. Nobody tell Schwarber about the pyramids, please!

Ottavi-NO "explained" that they had to complete Big Ben, or the King would have them executed. Apparently none of the ESPinheads could note the difference between "WHY they did it" and "HOW they did it".

On the double by Sosa, Castellanos was dead at the plate and the throw was on target. Except that Torrens let the ball bounce right over his glove. Another "defensive stud" behind the dish, I see.

[Westheim]

Every ESPN game should be watched without sound.

I have to hold my breath for another eight minutes though, then maybe the BMW leading the DTM race, which has had two of its four corners ripped off in seperate crashes, might actually win. Something the Mets won't achieve today.

[Westheim]

Wittmann wins in half a BMW!

In other news, the New York Dedniels are still losing.

Doesn't look much worse than Quintana on the hill:

[Amazin69]

One assumes that BMW will now redesign the cars to shed the unnecessary corners without needing to do so on the track, no?

What you missed: Doug Glanville was talking about how disappointed he was that a visiting American couldn't identify a photograph of Pete Alonso, even with hints about his nickname: "there's three types of bears…brown bear, black bear and ?"

The tourist thus completely flummoxed Glanville by guessing "koala bear". Grizzly bears and panda bears everywhere hung their heads in shame. To say nothing of our California Golden Bears, who thought they were, well, golden, what with being the official state animal and on the flag and everything.

I'm beginning to think that Brandi Glanville would be preferable to Doug.

(Note for the overseas audience: Brandi is a "celebrity" veteran of various shows, perhaps best known for performing oral sex on Demi Moore during the wedding reception for Demi's ex-, Bruce Willis, and Bruce's new wife, Emma Something. Not actually at the reception, in private, although Bruce and Emma were allegedly in the next room. She's also known for being very nearly an alcoholic.

So several grades above Doug, obviously.)

[Amazin69]

Mets rally for three in the top of the sixth, tying the game and shutting up the ESPn graphic that listed their "win probability" at 12%

I know, it's arguable that the Mets only have a 12% win probability even when leading in the 9th, but still.

Harrison Bader is "now" pinch-hitting (I'm on delay, for self-care reasons) for DJ Stewart, and the ESPinheads are wondering why. One suggests that DJ hurt himself crashing into the wall to catch a ball, and another suggests that it's because it's getting late in the game and Bader is a better defender.

The thought that the Phillies have replaced the righty Taijuan Walker with a lefty reliever and thus Mendoza Line is having Bader (rhb) hit for Stewart (lhb) in that platoon I spent much of February requesting has apparently never crossed the ESPinheads' minds.

And that's why they get the big bucks!

(Bader walked. Taylor whiffed. End of rally.)