Ya Gotta Believe

Mike Piazza, the greatest position player the Mets have ever had, recently hit his 400th home run as a member of the San Diego Padres. He becomes the 41rst player in Major League history to join the 400 home runs club. Piazza passed Andres Galarraga and is seven home runs behind Duke Snider.

Not bad for the 1,390th pick in the 1988 draft.

While this is a great day for Piazza and all Mets fans, there is a sense of sadness too. When we first got him in 1998, I thought for sure he would finish his career in New York and retire as the greatest Mets hitter of all-time. The last two seasons, however, made it a sad reality that he was not part of the Mets future.

He has given me some of my fondest memories as a Mets fan. From his Game 6 home run against the Braves in the 1999 NLCS to carrying a lackluster offense to the World Series in 2000, he was a big game player who never folded under pressure.

Not to mention he hit the greatest home run I have ever seen when he hit a game-winner against the Braves in the first major sporting even in NYC after the 9/11 attacks.

I could not be happier for a classier guy. Although he was never a overt vocal leader, he always carried himself with dignity. Between the rumors of his sexual orientation and Clemens' being a moron, Piazza never stooped to the level of his detractors.

When we played the Padres recently, Piazza his a moon shot of Pedro Martinez for about 423 ft. Although it was against us, I could not help but cheer for a guy who brought the Mets to a new level of competition.

congratulation Mike! Keep on murdering the ball (unless you're at Shea).
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The Mets recently promoted Mike Pelfrey, a star pitching prospect in their minor league system, from their Class A team to their Double-A team. The supposed "phenom" posted a 2-1 record with a 1.64 ERA during his tenure and looks to be a future star for us.

With the erratic nature of the way Victor Zambrano is pitching, the vulnerability of Pedro Martinez, and the age of Tom Glavine, another starting pitcher would be needed if any one of these guys goes down. Pelfrey may follow the same path as a young Doc Gooden, meaning he could be called right to the majors from Double-A. Many believe, however, that Gooden was too good too early, meaning that he did not continue to learn and mature, which led to his downfall.

Omar Minaya, the Mets GM, has insisted that this does not mean Pelfrey will shoot right up to the majors at some point this year, but does belive that promotions like these are important because they challenge a player to be at his best.

"You want him to do well. But you want him to be challenged and you want to
see how he handles adversity." -Omar Minaya to Mets.com

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This is a funny little clip of Game 6 of the 1986 World Series replayed on RBI Baseball for the old Nintendo game system.

They have all the lineups and pitches down perfectly. They even use the original sound bites from the television broadcast dubbed over it. Enjoy!

"Ya Gotta Believe"
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Carlos Delgado is proving to be the most important off-season acquisition the Mets have made this past winter. With an assortment of injuries and struggles at the plate, lately the one true bright spot offensivley has been out 13.5 million dollar man.

His average is well above .300 (.329) and he is absolutely crushing the ball. During the Padres series, he hit a home run in three of the four games and his RBI total is increasing every game.

His role is especially important with the recent injuries to Carlos Delgado and Cliff Floyd. David Wright looks like he forgets the object is to hit the ball with the bat, and Jose Reyes looks like Kaz Matsui when he bats now. Besides Xavier Nady and Paul Lo Duca, Delgado is the only dangerous bat in the lineup at this moment.

Although is inevitable that Wright and Floyd with come around and Beltran will return, Delgado's shoulders must be killing him because he's carrying the whole team on them.

He is a guy who strikes out a lot and often at shady pitches, but he is the offenseive glue right now. Hopefully come June and July, the other hitters in the lineup come down with the same sickness that Delgado is demonstrating at the dish this early in the season.

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Well, they did it again. The Braves beat us in yet another season series for the eighth straight year. This was a telling series which proves that although we have made improvements, we have a long way to go.

The series had all the signs that it would be in the Mets favor. Chipper Jones was hurt and John Smoltz would not be pitching so this would have been a great time for the Mets to perhaps "get over the hump" of losing to the Braves. Pedro pitched well enough in the first game to earn his 200th career win and things looked like they would go our way.....

Then, God's curse on the Mets, Victor Zambrano, took the mound. Zambrano must be great around Christmas time because he is so giving. Like how he gave up three home runs. That's great. He's great. I wish he could start every game this year, but I know that is just silly! HAHAHAHAhahaha. Am I crazy? Do you have to be the Tampa Bay Devil Rays management to see that the guy cannot pitch a tent let alone a Major League game!

Tom Glavine, who couldn't beat the Braves in RBI Baseball on the Sega Genesis console, threw an absolute gem finally. Too bad that Tim "I look like I'm gonna have a hernia everytime I throw" Hudson threw better because the equipment managers must have given the Mets those old nerf swords to hit with by accident.

David Wright certainly wet the bed with his three errors, but how can you stay mad at a face like that. All he would have to say is "Oops! Did i do that" with a sad face, and I swear the entire stadium would go "awww" and clap like my baby cousin Katlynn gets when she sings take me out to the ballgame (Even though my Uncle helps her with all the words. I'm never that impressed).

All in all, life will be unfair until we beat those miserable guys from Georgia. This was a series where we could have made a statement and earned the title of "the best team in baseball" so many had given us. The Mets screwed up and hopefully in two weeks, we can send the message we were supposed to send when we visit the dirty south....
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