It’s now time to at least have some diversion after the disappointing Mets season to welcome back the New York Rangers and the NHL season as the Rangers take on the Tampa Bay Mullets in Prague today. I’m looking forward to this Rangers season as Ranger fans have no real idea what kind of team we have. There is youth and more speed and some very good experienced vets with Capt Drury, Scott Gomez and Markus Nasland on board and the great King Henrik in goal but the consenus about this team is they could be one of the biggest stories in the league this year or they could struggle all I know is I can’t wait until 12 noon today.

In a post on NY Baseball Digest Mike Silva links to a must read story by the artist formerly known as the Boston Sports Guy a/k/a Bill Simmons (another of my inspirations to start this blog as I was a faithful reader of his when dial up was in) on Manny Ramirez and how and why Manny was shown the Beantown door and shockingly Manny is not the villain. Also in the post is is an interview Mike did with the Curly Haired Boyfirend (Dan Shaughnessy) back in the summer and is a good listen as he disses our Metsies.

GANGSTA’S IN DA HOUSE BOYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!! I guess Bobby V can cancel that flight as J-Man will be at the helm of the SS Skil Set  for at least 2 more seasons.

WOW it’s not like your team shit the bed two years in a row like our beloved Amazin’s but the Cub fans, fuled by gallons of Old Stlye and pounds Brats are fucking, Fukadome mad that their team is on the verge of ending their season against a team led  by a team led by a Domnican baseball savant and an elderly Italian-American from Brooklyn, kinda takes a little bit of the sting off our little mess of a team. Enjoy!

Good stuff from Can’t Stop The Bleeding as they give the lowdown on the J-Man stalemate with word that Andrew Marchand of 1050 AM in NYC reporting that Bobby V would come back to the USA if the Mets job is open. What J Man has to realize as of right now the Mets have NO manager, so the longer J Man thinks of himselfas irreplaceable he may get a rude awakening.

As I was pursuing the various stories across the web I ran across this on the great site MLB TRADE RUMORS.. It seems that the Padres are sending out feelers on interest in Jake Peavey and the Brewers J J Hardy feels his is as good as gone from the Schlitz City. So if you are the GM of the Mets (a job we all want and feel we’d be outstanding at) would you call SD GM Kevin Towers and offer Jose Reyes in a deal for Peavey? Or would you deal David Wright in a package for Peavey and RHP Mike Adams? I’d do it with Reyes as the centerpiece but for Wright I’d have to think that over because it would be much tougher for me to deal Wright than Reyes. If you could get Jake Peavey for Reyes I’d have to do it and then call Doug Melvin and work out a deal for JJ Hardy.

J-Man better be careful with this hard line stance he’s taking with his new contract. It seems J-Man’s thinking is no matter who the Mets go after to be manager they would have to go 3yr/$3mil minimum and he’s right but when the team you are associated with just collapsed for the second year in a row and the fans and media are questioning if your team has the heart and balls to win a championship you really are not negotiating from strength here. As I said yesterday Gary Carter would be here on the red eye tomorrow morning to take the Mets managers job. Don’t over play your hand here Warlord.

Ok, read this story about my latest man-crush A J Pierzynski and tell me that he is not just what the Mets need. Here is a blurb from Ron Gardenhire one of AJ’s former mangers and and ex-Met:

“A.J. comes to beat you everyday,” said Twins manager Ron Gardenhire, who managed Pierzynski for two seasons before he was traded to the Giants. “No matter how you look at him and how you feel about him. He comes to figure out a way to beat you, irritate you. …

“People don’t like him and all those things, but when he’s on the baseball field you better respect him because he knows how to play and he knows how to beat you and he’ll do all those goofy little things to try and get in your head.”

Read the whole article and tell me I’m wrong to be cam paging for Pierzynski to the Mets in ‘09

Big thank you to Pacjr for the link

Take a listen to last night’s NY Baseball Digest show as Joey DeMayo dished out some great dirt on the off season plans of our Amazin’s. I listened to the show and three things made me sit up straight and listen. First, Ryan Church LOVES NY and Mike Francesa is full of shit (and cheeseburgers too) what pissed Church off was the fact that Dirty Duaner and Ricardo Rincon showed up late for games the last week of the season,  then there is a Jason Issringhausen mention. Remember Izzy?  His deal with the Cardinals is up and he could come to the Mets with a spring training invite to prove his elbow has been repaired and in good operating order, and then the one that had me going was the fact that the Mets will be in the Manny Ramirez hunt. In fact Omar tried hard to make a match when Manny was sent to LA so now that all it cost is money look for the Mets to make a move with Manny. I know I just ruined the day for a lot of you but I am and unabashed Manny fan and I vote yes for Manny to the Mets. Flame away, y’all!

Ambirorix Burgos is finished as a Met and a professional baseball player and a free man. Good riddance.

The can’t tear our house does fast enough; it seems as the back page of the Daily News show us. Click here for the multimedia show of the Shea dismantling  My wife came up with a great question the other day when she asked me “ Why didn’t the Mets let us walk on the field after the game on Sunday”?  Why dear ?, because that would be something  the fans would have cherished and Mets management is against us being happy. Really how could they not have done this? They had about 1,000 cops on duty and they could have let the fans line up with one line of fans walking from the third base side to center field and another line of fans go from the first base side to center field . I guess they were afraid that Mets fans would have the unmitigated gall to take some stadium dirt or some grass because as we all know that dirt and that grass will be used to raise funds for “charity” Yeah right.

I think I’ll be rooting for the Tampa Rays and maybe we all should as the owner Stuart Steinberg is a Mets fan and a season ticket holder and of course there is the Scott Kazmir scenario.

Howard Megdal has a plan to get the bullpen back in shape for 2009 in today’s New York Observer. It’s too bad the people who run the team don’t have the insight like people who cover team like Howard.

So today we get official word that Omar Minaya gets a 3 yr extension but according to Newsday, J-Man might be playing hardball with the Mets and if I were J-Man I’d slow down a bit as  Gary Carter is just a phone call away.

I received this from the site What Would Oakley Do and it compares a story in Greek Mythology to the plight of the Mets read it through and comp template

Not only did Johan Santana pitch on three days rest but he also did it with a torn meniscus. Santana had arthroscopic surgery today in the city and should be ready to head to St.Lonesome this spring VIVA SANTANA