2015 NLDS Game 3: Mets 13 Dodgers 7

Thanks to the connections of Master Bates, I was able to attend Game 3 of the NLDS at Citifield.
After the controversial Utley slide, emotions were running high, especially when Ruben Tejada limped onto the field in pregame introductions.

The game got off to a rough start as Matt Harvey, clearly without his best stuff, allowed 4 straight hits and 3 runs in the second inning.

But the Mets immediately turned that around and Curtis Granderson got a huge hit off a lefty (he struggled vs lefties all season, finishing with a 559 OPS against them), a bases-clearing double.

Harvey settled down a little, and then d'Arnaud homered to make it 6-3 and Cespedes put the final nail in the coffin with a three run homer to make it 10-3.

From our seats in left field

we had a great view of both home runs, passing right in front of us. d'Arnaud's was in doubt, but Cespedes's was a bomb.

Cespedes with quite the bat flip, justifiably excited.

The atmosphere for the entire game was awesome. Mets fans being happy and excited to have such a good team and such a good chance to win this series now.

And I was thrilled to have gotten to share this special moment with my family.

Sic Semper Mets Fans

Everything seemed to be going the Mets way, up 1-0 in games, 2-0 in Game 2 with Syndergaard dealing, but if you've been a Mets fan for more than five minutes you know stuff like this happens to us.
For the quick review, Syndergaard allows two base runners in the 7th (I thought Terry should have yanked him), Colon gets Kendrick to hit one back up the middle, Murphy flips to Tejada who gets destroyed by Utley as the tying run scores. As Tejada is being carted off, the umpires review the play and say Tejada never touched the base. They put Utley back, making it 1st and 2nd with one out, and Addison Reed came in and allowed 3 runs to score.

Here are some quick thoughts:

1) The slide was borderline, but on the dirty side. Excessive force to break up the double play, and he slid as late as you can to possibly be considered starting to slide before the base.

2) The ruling to put Utley back on second even though he touch the bag makes a little sense. If you're going to have replay you have to give umpires the latitude to make reasonable corrections in conjunction with their calls.

For instance, a running back fumbles, defender, the only player near it picks it up. But refs blow the play dead so they can't grant a recovery after the whistle. On review they see it was a fumble but can't grant a change of possession. That used to be the case in the NFL. It sucked, so they have to give umpires some leeway.

3) Terry Collins still should have appealed to second base and played the game under protest because both are no-risk propositions.

4) I have no problem with bringing Colon in. He had a great record against Kendrick and he got him to hit a potentially inning-ending double play.

As for the series going forward:
1) The loss of Tejada hurts, but I love Flores and think his defense at short has been just as good or better than Tejada's this season. And his bat is far superior even though he never walks. Let's see if Wilmer can have another magical moment to further cement his status as a fan favorite.

2) The bullpen is absolutely awful. They pretty much need every starter to go 8 innings, or have a 3-run lead to win a game. That's not a recipe for postseason success. If you're Terry Collins can you really trust Addison Reed or Tyler Clippard in the next big spot in the 7th or 8th inning.

3) The core of the Mets lineup is not hitting. Cespedes is 1-7 (the one was a huge home run), Wright is 1-7 (the 1 being the game-winning hit), Duda is 1-6 and D'Arnaud is 0-7. I know it was against Kershaw and Greinke but if those guys don't hit, and the bullpen sucks this bad, they Mets have no chance.

But this is the Mets fan experience: hope, hope, hope, crushing defeat. But this is what we signed up for. And when we ever do win, or IF we ever do win, all that pain will be turned to a feeling so wonderful we'll all agree it was worth it.

Remember this one last thing though,

Momentum is only as good as the next game's starting pitcher and they have Brett Anderson and we have Matt Harvey.

Let's Go Mets!

Weekly Picks

A promising start to the week until the Cardinals went down in flames. As always with my seasons I do much better on regular picks (11-5) as opposed to best bets. Let's see what Week 5 holds.

BALTIMORE -7 cleveland
Remember when the Ravens were a Super Bowl contender? They could easily be 0-4 right now. But I still think they are a good team. And should be able to beat a bad one at home.

KANSAS CITY -8 1/2 chicago
I correctly picked the Bears last week and Jay Cutler came back like a hero and led them to their first game. Well, the Bears still stink. And even though there's a lot of points to lay here, I like the Chefs, great googley-moogley, the Chiefs.

seattle +3 CINCINNATI
All of the sudden the Bengals are world-beaters? Well, they still have Andy Dalton and the Seahawks still have a good defense.

arizona -3 DETROIT
The Cardinals are still good. The Lions still suck.

BEST BET
new england -8 DALLAS
I've just got a feeling the Patriots are going to kill the Cowboys.

Last week: 3-2 (2 points)
Season: 13-7 (13 points)
Best Bets: 0-1 (2-2)
Home Favorites: 1-2 (5-2)
Home Underdogs: 1-0 (1-1)
Road Favorites: 0-0 (5-4)
Road Underdogs: 1-0 (2-0)

Song of the Week

"Wet Dreamz" - J. Cole
I don't know whether to be amused or disgusted about the use of the dogs in the video.

It's like a rap version of Betty Wright's "Tonight is the Night" without the awesome live set up.

2015 Playoff Predictions

AL Wild Card: Houston Astros over New York Yankees
AL Division Series: Toronto Blue Jays over Texas Rangers, Kansas City Royals over Houston Astros
AL Championship Series: Toronto Blue Jays over Kansas City Royals

NL Wild Card: Chicago Cubs over Pittsburgh Pirates
NL Division Series: St. Louis Cardinals over Chicago Cubs, Los Angeles Dodgers over New York Mets
NL Championship Series: St. Louis Cardinals over Los Angeles Dodgers

World Series: St. Louis Cardinals over Toronto Blue Jays

I did get half the division winners correct in my preseason predictions, not terrible.

Good Thing I Didn't Die While Mike Piazza Was on the Mets

85-year-old Helen Fowler of Cranford, NJ passed away recently and in her obituary she (and/or her surviving family members) wanted the world to know how much Helen loved the New York Yankees.

Except for that miserable bum, Alex Rodriguez.
God bless you Helen.

Niggling Worries

I don't believe in momentum but I have some serious concerns about the way the Mets limped into the playoffs and what that portends for their chances to beat the Dodgers.

1) The offense is back to July levels of ineptitude. I know the Mets fielded a Triple A lineup against Max Scherzer, but he essentially threw a perfect game and struck out 17. The Mets August hot streak wasn't caused solely by the presence of Yoenis Cespedes. It was that Cespedes was hitting, which helped everyone around him hit as well. Even a 2-game slump in the Division Series is enough to knock you out of the playoffs.

2) The bullpen has been horrible. Tyler Clippard was horrible in September and October (6.14 ERA), Hansel Robles allowed runs in 4 of his last 6 outings, Jon Niese had 4 relief appearances and allowed 6 hits to 15 batters faced. Addison Reed has been good, and I trust Familia, but these are going to be close games and the Mets starters tend to falter in the 7th and 8th innings.

3) Terry Collins is a moron. I really dislike the way Collins manages this team, both from the broad view and from the specific in game moves. I am flabbergasted and befuddled as to why he rested all his regular position players down the stretch, but felt the need to keep his fragile starters "fresh" forgoing innings limits, doctors' warnings and common sense. If home field and staying fresh was important, why weren't some real hitters playing those games?

4) Thor on the road. The main job of the manager is to put his players in the best position to perform at their best. Noah Syndergaard is much more likely to perform at his best in CitiField compared to Dodger Stadium. I don't know why this is, I just know that it is. Sure it could change next year, and for the rest of his career, but for right now, it makes no sense to throw him out there in Game 2, and maybe again in Game 5 on the road when he clearly pitches much better at home.

5) Kershaw and Greinke. Even if the Mets were playing their best ball right now, it would still be a monumental task to face the Dodgers, the one team with a better top 2 than the Mets have. I know Kershaw hasn't done so great in the postseason, but he's still one of the best pitchers in the majors and can be absolutely unhittable at times. I pity Granderson, Murphy and Duda if they are forced to face him.

Weekly Picks

Another good week, two fives in a row, and a late touchdown robbed us of a perfect 6. The only problem is, I don't love any of the games this week.

ATLANTA -6 houston
I already like the way the Falcons were playing with a great offense and Julio Jones and a big comeback against the Cowboys. But then I saw that the spread on this game moved heavy towards Houston throughout the week. I enjoy going against the crowd.

carolina -3 TAMPA BAY
I hate picking all these 3-0 teams to keep winning but I really think this line is just too attractive.

CHICAGO +3 oakland
Ok, this might seem crazy but I am going on on a limb here because the Bears looked so bad and all of the sudden everyone loves the Raiders. Again, bucking the crowd here.

SAN DIEGO -6 1/2 cleveland
Ok, let's take one more bad team. The Chargers are 1-2 and giving up a lot of points at home, but I think the Browns are a pretty weak opponent.

BEST BET
ARIZONA -6 1/2 st. louis
The rest of the world is starting to wake up to how good the Cardinals are. I hate this spread. Hate it. But the Cards have been killing people and I don't see any better options out there.

Last week: 4-1 (5 points)
Season: 10-5 (11 points)
Best Bets: 1-0 (2-1)
Home Favorites: 2-0 (4-0)
Home Underdogs: 0-0 (0-1)
Road Favorites: 1-1 (5-4)
Road Underdogs: 1-0 (1-0)

Song of the Week

"September Morn" - Neil Diamond

Weekly Picks

One of the craziest weeks in recent history, the top 6 teams in ESPN.com's eliminator pool all lost (Saints, Ravens, Dolphins, Colts, Rams & Titans) knocking out 87% of the field, but I avoided most of those games.

But here's where the hard part comes in. First off, in order to do well in this format you need to string together strong weeks, can't go 1 and 1. Also, you know I love good teams coming off a loss, and bad teams coming off a win, but not all the matchups turned out the way I would have liked them.

atlanta -1 DALLAS
I normally don't pick against a team solely because they lost their quarterback, because I feel the impact is generally overrated. But I feel like the Cowboys at 2-0 and a couple lucky wins at that, could be in trouble this week.

indianapolis -3 TENNESSEE
The Colts have to turn this around? Don't they?

ARIZONA -6 1/2 san francisco
I really like the Cardinals and continue to hate the 49ers.

SEATTLE -14 1/2 chicago
I know Seattle is going to win this game. The only question is, will they win by enough. I think the answer is yes.

BEST BET
philadelphia +1 NEW YORK JETS
I know this pick is going to upset some of you but this is exactly what I want, a team that seems like the world is ending, against a team that is suddenly hot. The Eagles offense can't possibly be this bad and the Jets are not this good. They are benefiting from 10 turnovers so far, that cannot continue.

Last week: 4-1 (5 points)
Season: 6-4 (6 points)
Best Bets: 1-0 (1-1)
Home Favorites: 2-0 (2-0)
Home Underdogs: 0-0 (0-1)
Road Favorites: 2-1 (4-3)
Road Underdogs: 0-0 (0-0)

I Better Go To His Funeral

Or he won't come to mine.

Yogi Berra passed away at age 90 and he will best be remembered for his funny one-liners and malaprops.

"My wife said he took my son to see Dr. Zhivago. I said 'what's wrong with him now?'"

"No one goes there anymore, it's too crowded."

"Baseball is 90% mental. The other half is physical."

It's like deja vu all over again."

"I didn't say all those things they said I said."

And of course "it ain't over til it's over."

As much as I love a funny quip, I am saddened that his humor overshadowed what was an incredible baseball career.
From 1950 through 1956, Berra posted WARs of 6.0, 5.3, 5.8, 5.4, 5.9, 5.2 and 6.4.
In 1950, he played 151 out of 154 games, making 656 plate appearances and striking out only 12 times. That's 1.8% strikeout rate. In 2015, Daniel Murphy has the lowest strikeout rate in the majors at 6.9%.

But we have a policy here at The Poop to post something ridiculous or trivial about people when they die. So here is Yogi Berra in a Miller Lite commercial from 1987, alongside a young Jason Alexander.

Song of the Week

"Cool for the Summer" - Demi Lovato
Can someone please tell me what this song is about?

Weekly Picks

The hot start I was hoping for did not materialize as my Bill Cosby (sleeper) team, the Vikings, let me down. And San Francisco which is starting 21 new players after everyone from last year's team except Colin Kaepernick left or retired, shocked me as well. No time to lick our wounds, another slate of games is upon us.

new england -2 1/2 BUFFALO
As you know by now, I place very little value on intangibles like Rex Ryan's attitude, or the Patriots wanting to come out hot in week 1 to stick in to the league. I believe in Tom Brady vs. Tyrod Taylor. Taylor may well turn into the black Tom Brady someday, but he's gonna have to prove it to me first.

tennessee -1 1/2 CLEVELAND
This is a tricky one for me because I know Mariota is not going to play like that again. But this is a pick against Manziel. He is not a NFL level starting QB. He's very Tebow-like in his ability, great college player, not NFL-caliber.

arizona -2 CHICAGO
I really like the Cardinals offense and hate just about everything about the Bears.

PITTSBURGH -6 1/2 san francisco
I'll give picking against the 49ers one more chance.

BEST BET
CAROLINA -3 houston
Maybe I put a little too much faith in the Texans defense. It can't be a good sign that they changed QBs after one week.

Last week: 2-3 (1 point)
Season: 2-3 (1 point)
Best Bets: 0-1 (0-1)
Home Favorites: 0-0 (0-0)
Home Underdogs: 0-1 (0-1)
Road Favorites: 2-2 (2-2)
Road Underdogs: 0-0 (0-0)

3000 Words

A high school football field in Illinois was treated with weed killer and not fertilizer.

A seal hitches a ride on the back of a humpback whale.

Former President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalyn share a smooch on "Kiss Cam" during an Atlanta Braves game.

Song of the Week

"I Do" - The Marvelows
Classic doo-wop song. Took me a long time to track down the name of it with only these lyrics "do I love you? I do (doo-doo doo-doo)" in my head.

Weekly Picks

Each new season provides a new opportunity. An opportunity for what? That remains to be seen. I haven't been doing well the past few seasons but I trust this is my year to turn it around.

indianapolis -2 1/2 BUFFALO
The Colts are my Super Bowl pick and Andrew Luck is my MVP. And Buffalo doesn't have a QB anywhere close.

carolina -3 JACKSONVILLE
The Jaguars are still really bad, thought I don't love the Panthers this year I do think they are better than the Jags.

HOUSTON +1 kansas city
I don't like Alex Smith going up against this defense. Though with Foster and without a real QB, the Texans might have trouble scoring.

green bay -7 CHICAGO
This is a pretty big spread but I trust the Packers to put up enough points to cover.

BEST BET
minnesota -2 1/2 SAN FRANCISCO
Pretty sure the 49ers have 100% turnover rate on their roster from last season, and no Harbaugh either. The Vikings are my Bill Cosby (sleeper) pick this year thanks to Teddy PuenteAgua (Spanish for Bridgewater).

The Matt Harvey Mess

"Pitchers recovering from Tommy John surgery should limit innings to 180-185." - Dr. James Andrews, the man who invented Tommy John surgery "Pitchers recovering from Tommy John surgery should shut up and act like a man.' - Asshole Sports Radio Caller


Whom would you listen to?

Matt Harvey is doing exactly the right thing here for his own future and the future of the franchise. He's not being greedy or selfish, and even if he were, can you blame him? Stay healthy and pretty much assure yourself a huge contract or ignore doctor's advice and risk not only all that money but also everything you've worked for your entire life.

Now there are a couple problems here, but I don't know exactly who deserves how much of the blame.
First of all, why wasn't a clear and coherent plan made from spring training? Were the Mets expecting to be out of it by September at which point they could just shut him down? Was Harvey suddenly feeling tired and asking for time off?
We'll probably never know but I would suspect the Mets are more worthy of blame than Harvey.

And those idiotic Mets fans who want him traded are exactly the fans I fear the team is listening to when doing or almost doing things like signing Cuddyer or trading Flores and Wheeler for Carlos Gomez.

Matt Harvey is the centerpiece of what could be one of the greatest rotations we've seen in a long time, if they stay health and stay together.
The Mets need to do everything they can to protect him even if it means lessening their chances to win a few regular season games.

But come playoff time I think Harvey and the Mets would be willing to take their chances and push themselves 15-20 innings past the doctor prescribed limit, if that's ok with all the doctors in the stands at CitiField.

2015 NFL Season Predictions

AFC East: New England Patriots
AFC North: Pittsburgh Steelers
AFC South: Indianapolis Colts
AFC West: Denver Broncos
AFC Wild Cards: Miami Dolphins, Baltimore Ravens

AFC Championship: Indianapolis over New England

NFC East: Philadelphia Eagles
NFC North: Green Bay Packers
NFC South: Atlanta Falcons
NFC West: Seattle Seahawks
NFC Wild Cards: St. Louis Rams, Minnesota Vikings

NFC Championship: Green Bay over Philadelphia

Super Bowl: Indianapolis over Green Bay

Off. Player of the Year: Andrew Luck
Def. Player of the Year: JJ Watt
Off. Rookie of the Year: Melvin Gordon
Def. Rookie of the Year: Randy Gregory
Coach of the Year: Mike Zimmer
Comeback Player of the Year: Sam bradford

The Old Dog's Still Got It

I hope I'm this spry when I'm 77.

Song of the Week

"Get Right Back To My Baby" - Vivian Green
Excellent use of a sample from "Before I Let Go" (SOTW, 3/21/12) by Frankie Beverly and Maze.
Plus I don't remember Vivian looking this good in her previous videos.

Another Redskins Embarrassment

The city of Washington took a break from obsessing over the future of RGIII (at this point he has none) for some good old gossip.
Here's what happened, Jessica McCloughan, the wife of GM Scott McCloughan

sent a couple nasty messages to a local reporter, Dianna Russini, on Twitter.

She asked Russini how many blow jobs she gave to get a story

And she accused Russini of sleeping with her husband.

The Redskins made her apologize, which she did, but a family member said she has been long suspicious of an affair between her husband and Russini.

Have You Ever Loved Something This Much?

Through various TV shows and stuff Jules has become quite interested in Star Wars and I showed them "A New Hope" and they loved it.
Since then, the countdown has been on for the new movie.

I took the kids to a special Star Wars event at the Disney Store. It was quite cool. The taught the kids to use Jedi Mind tricks to trick a storm trooper, and eventually they received the Medal of Bravery from the Galactic Republic.

Note: I did my parental duty and reminded them of the racial injustice that denied Chewbacca his rightful medal.

After that, they learned to draw R2-D2 (neither of them follows in my artistic footsteps) and were given a cardboard 3-d puzzle of Artoo (which was very difficult to put together).

It was quite cool to be let into the mall an hour early for this special event (mainly because we got a good parking spot), but the real goal was to get the big shoppers into the store.

Ever since we saw the first trailer for "The Force Awakens" Julian loved BB-8, the roly poly new droid, though he kept calling him "BBQ."
He said he liked him "because he's cute like me!"

So I bought him a stuffed action figure, and bought Chase the figurine set.

And for the rest of the day he carried around this little BB-8 everywhere saying "I'm obsessed with him."

And then when Mrs. Poop went to check on him during the night, this is what she saw.

I wish I could get back to those innocent days of childhood when a ten dollar toy provided so much joy and happiness that I couldn't bear to be away from it, not even for a second, not even while sleeping.

Incidentally the other BB-8 we saw while we were in the store was fuckin awesome.

It's very similar to a remote control car, except you use an app through your phone to move it around the house. And it does cool things like create a map of your house based on things it runs into, including you. And it can even play messages hologram style, I think.

Read the review to understand more.

Only problems: it costs $150, and Julian would want to sleep with it in his bed.

3000 Cars

This is the fleet of cars required for Saudi Arabia's King Salman's visit to Washington:

Another Hit To Personal Responsibility

The New England Patriots' balls were deflated in the AFC Championship game. It is almost certain that this was due to purposeful actions by members of organization. And it's hard to envision any scenario in which someone would do something like that without at the very least, being sure Tom Brady would want it that way.

The problem here with Roger Goodell is that he tried to make a statement. Instead of enforcing the penalties on the books for such an offense, he went way beyond what was collectively bargained (perhaps to dispel criticism that he is too hard on black players, perhaps because of negative publicity when he went with the defined punishment for Ray Rice) and a judge ruled he didn't have the authority to do so.

Yet somehow, Tom Brady is escaping this scot-free even though any sane person has to believe he at least "generally aware" of the plot to deflate the balls, and likely more involved in that.

Which once again reinforces the preferred attitude when doing something wrong: deny it, cover it up and when you get caught, blame the person who caught you for being overzealous. Worked for Bill Clinton.

Song of the Week

"Day One" - Tamia
"If I could do it all again I would
Give me the bad days along with the good
My heart is even more in love
Then it was on day one"

What Do You Give Me For? Harris Faulkner and Harris Faulkner, The Hamster

Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner is suing Hasbro for using her name for her a hamster in its Littlest Pet Shop series of toys.
"Hasbro's portrayal of Faulkner as a rodent is demeaning and insulting," says the lawsuit, which was filed Monday in U.S. District Court in New Jersey.
Her lawsuit says that in addition to sharing her name, the toy bears a physical resemblance to Faulkner's traditional professional appearance, including its complexion, eye shape and eye makeup design.

I don't agree that it looks like her, but no way should Hasbro have used her the exact name of a public figure. She doesn't deserve $5M for this but Hasbro should have known better.

Money Can't Buy Happiness

Maybe I'm going soft in my old age but I actually feel sorry for Markus Persson, the guy who created Minecraft, sold it and pocketed roughly a billion dollars in the process.
Persson, known as Notch to cool people like me, recently tweeted a series of unhappy thoughts about life as a famous billionaire.
"The problem with getting everything is you run out of reasons to keep trying, and human interaction becomes impossible due to imbalance.
Hanging out in ibiza with a bunch of friends and partying with famous people, able to do whatever I want, and I've never felt more isolated.
In sweden, I will sit around and wait for my friends with jobs and families to have time to do shit, watching my reflection in the monitor.
When we sold the company, the biggest effort went into making sure the employees got taken care of, and they all hate me now.
Found a great girl, but she's afraid of me and my life style and went with a normal person instead.
I would Musk and try to save the world, but that just exposes me to the same type of assholes that made me sell Minecraft again."

Half the internet thinks he is clinically depressed and needs medication and talk therapy. The other half thinks he's a whiny little baby who should shut up and realize how good he has it.

But on my little corner of the internet I think he's just a guy going through some things that he doesn't know how to process.
He probably never wanted to sell Mojang (Minecraft), but did so because it would greatly enrich his partners, investors and employees.
He's just lacking direction and purpose in his life right now.
He probably has a great time at these fancy parties and hanging out with his cool famous friends (Zedd tweeted at him and invited him to his show when he plays LA next month) but when he's at home and his friends are busy with work and family, he gets lonely and feels isolated. And in this case he decided to let it out.

This is Markus Persson's house. He paid 70 million dollars for it.

But I think we need to remember that in life you need a certain amount of money to live a comfortable life. But once you have food and shelter covered, and some money to buy stuff and go on vacation, each additional dollar like has a very small incremental impact on your happiness.

So I do feel for Notch, and hope that he can find something to fulfill him, give him worth and help him make meaningful personal relationships.

Song of the Week

"Made for You" - Alexander Cardinale
"there's not much that I know
been searchin' high and low
but one thing that is true
darling I was made for you"

Somewhere In Japan There is a Very Disappointed Teenage Boy

You may have heard the recent news that One Direction is breaking up. Maybe for only a brief time but I don't want to Google it to confirm.
Either way it has to come as shock to Nagiru Hiramatsu.
Two years ago when competing in the Little League World Series Hiramatsu told ESPN his favorite singer was One Direction.

Only problem is, between his accent and an idiot ESPN producer, it came out as Wandai Wrection.

Three Things You May Not Have Known About Body by Jake

Remember "Body by Jake" the 1990s fitness show? Well, Jake, whose real last name is Steinfeld, has had an interesting life.

Here are three things you might not have known about him:

1) He was the cab driver who picked up Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall in "Coming to America"



2) He founded Major League Lacrosse

3) His niece, Hailee Steinfeld is an actress and pop star and her song "Love Myself" is blowing up big right now



Bonus thing you may not have known: the song is about masturbation.

Here's a sampling of the lyrics:

"When I get chills at night
I feel it deep inside without you, yeah
Know how to satisfy"

"I'm gonna touch the pain away
I know how to scream my own name"

"I'll take it nice and slow
Feeling good on my phone without you, yeah"

"The beautiful, it comes without you"

"I'm gonna put my body first
And love me so hard 'til it hurts"

Family Swims in a Backyard Pool

Did I mention it was a family of bears? This happened in Rockaway, New Jersey.

Song of the Week

"The Matrimony" - Wale featuring Usher
I'm actually quite surprised we haven't heard more about this collaboration between Wale and Jerry Seinfeild.

I Don't Know How Many Words There Are in a Video

Three videos from the internet that are worth watching:

San Francisco Giants remake the "Full House" opening theme


Daniel Negreanu does a clean version of NWA's "Fuck Tha Police"


Best video of the Chinese Explosion. I strongly recommend you watch the entire thing

Song of the Week

"Can't Feel My Face" - The Weekend
This one goes out to IK, from Geno

Who Are These Guys?

Player A: .159 BA, .196 OBP, .227 SLG, 88 AB/HR, 17 wRC+
Player B: .285 BA, .386 OBP, .512 SLG, 18 AB/HR, 153 wRC+ (100 is league average)

Player C: 57 1/3 inn, 1.57 ERA, 10.0 K/BB
Player D: 41 1/3 inn, 5.01 ERA, 2.9 K/BB

Eternal Optimist

Many times I am considered a pessimist when it comes to my favorite sports teams. But consider the Redskins, Mets and Knicks have won a title in 23, 28 and 42 years, you could argue that I am actually a realist.
And when I fired off my overly emotional and reactionary piece entitled "The Mets Will Never Win" I certainly lived up to my reputation.
But when you take a step back and analyze it, I am the most optimistic of all.
I am the one who thinks the front office has done a great job.
I am the one who thinks we should keep the guys we have.
I am the one who thinks the Mets are poised to be very very good for a very long time.
I am the one who thinks that when our good young players hit free agency (or before) the Mets will sign them to longer contracts.

The only thing that I was a little pessimistic about was the Mets chances to make the playoffs this year. But a sweep of the Nationals changes a lot. The Mets odds to make the playoffs after that heart-breaker against the Padres were 22%. Now, a 6-game winning streak has boosted them to 52%.

And once you get in the playoffs, you never know what can happen.

But you can always hope.

Song of the Week

"Say I'm Your Number One" - Princess

Julian's First Mets Game

I love the Mets. I don't know why, I just do. So many of my good childhood memories involve watching the Mets with Papa Poop. Obviously the entire 1986 season and of course World Series Game 6, just cemented it. When God made me, he tapped me on the head and said "Mets fan."
As a father there is nothing better than spending time with your kids. If you can do that while sharing something you love, and seeing them love it too, well, that feeling is better than just about anything I could possibly describe.
It's why I decided to make my children wait until they were five years old to take them to a live sporting event. And that event would have to be a Mets game. Just me and my son. This caused much controversy and tears, and I almost went back on it several times.
But I followed through and bought tickets for the Sunday game right before his birthday. Sunday, August 2nd. At 1pm. Until about two weeks before, when ESPN decided it would like to air the contest between the top two teams in the National League East to a national audience.
That delayed the time of the game until 8pm. Yikes. A little late for a youngster. Especially one such as Julian who goes hard all day, doesn't nap, but often asks to go to bed at night so he won't be "cranky all day tomorrow."
I was doubly irritated when I called to see if I could get a refund or an exchange (they said no) and was told the post-game Mr. Met Dash (the only thing he really understood and cared about) would not take place.
But I explained to Julian that neither he nor I deals very well with disappointment and this was just a test for us, to see if we could make the best of it.
I put on my brand new Mitchell & Ness 1986 Mets Keith Hernandez batting practice jersey and we put a blue tint in Jules's faux-hawk and we were ready to roll.

Trivia question for 1986 Mets: A Year to Remember aficionados: Keith is seen at batting practice, wearing this jersey, in one part of the video, what does he say?

The entire ride there he was peppering me with questions about how long it would go and what roads we're on until finally he said "so the cross bronx, the whitestone bridge, the whitestone expressway and Citifield -- BOOM!"

And several times he told me how long he had been waiting for this, each time recalibrating how long, until he just decided it was his whole life.

After stopping for the obligatory CitiField pictures

we headed to Mets plaza where a bunch of kids games and attractions were set up.
There was a Mr. Met Bouncy House,

a pitching area (I love this action shot, looks fundamentally sound),

and an art station where Jules colored a K.

After that we headed inside with a stop in the Mets museum. He enjoyed counting the plaques and I made him stop next to my favorite one.

And he wanted to pose with Casey Stengel.

Then we decided to go to our seats, because the thing he was the second most excited about (after running the bases, and way more than the actual game) was the helmet full of popcorn.

Due to our mutual love of popcorn, I had scouted this location as it appears to be the only one like it in the entire stadium. When purchasing tickets, I specifically picked a section near the stand, located behind Sec. 125, for easy refills. Though we only refilled it once, two big helpings of popcorn and a souvenir helmet for $12 is a downright steal by CitiField prices.

On the way up and down the aisle we noticed three Mets fans who had the same idea we had: Thor hammers. Jules became obsessed with these guys and they seemed to like him equally as much.

Midway during the game Jules asked "can we go back and see my friends? I want to ask them how the game is going?"

Finally the game started, though not well, as the second batter for the Nationals hit a home run to put the Mets down 1-0. By the second inning Jules was asking when the game would be over and I was really starting to worry.

And then it happened!

First it was Granderson, with a man on, to give the Mets the lead.

Then while we were still celebrating and high-fiving, Daniel Murphy hit one. Which I have to admit we didn't even see, or know what was happening until we heard the crowd reaction.

And finally when we started to settle down (and Julian put down his Thor hammer so he could clap more easily), Cespedes singled and then Duda completed the barrage with a home run that looked -- from our seats down the left field line -- like it was going to go foul.

But it stayed fair!

What ensued was a moment I will never forget. Julian, in a sea of screaming fans was shrieking from the bottom of his lungs, eyes popping out of his head, clapping and high-fiving and jumping up and down.

At this moment, I wish I had recorded video to share with you all. Because that was pure joy.

But in that moment, I'm glad I just existed in the moment. I didn't let the moment pass me by as I held up my iPhone.

I was jumping and screaming as loudly as anyone. I swear I will remember that moment, those home runs, the people around us, Julian's face, as long as I live. In 60 years when they wheel me out for my tapioca pudding they could ask me who hit those home runs, and I know I will remember, Granderson, Murphy and Duda.

From then, the game kind of zoomed on uneventfully, which is kind of a shame because Noah Syndergaard pitched a gem. And had it not been for the fashion in which the Mets scored those runs, the biggest memory from this game might have been him striking out Bryce Harper in the 8th inning with a 99 mph fastball.

A couple of times during the game Jules got a little impatient, but I soothed him with a pink lemonade (all the popcorn made him thirsty). And then they announced that there would in fact be the Mr. Met Dash after the game, which bumped his excitement level up, but also his impatience.

When the game finally ended and I slowly packed up our stuff he said "dad, come on, run the bases, let's go!"

When I did this with Chase three years ago, it took forever, we had to leave the Stadium, walk around the block and wait half an hour. This time we went right down the stairs, out the door and right back in. Obviously the security people wanted to go home to bed, because they were rushing parents and kids, and being downright rude about it. But I did manage to get some pictures of Julian on the field

And this video

You can see he got thrown off by the people rushing the kids off the field, he forgot to touch home plate.

But I think he was pretty happy.

Sometimes I feel (and I'm sure many others do) that the world is against me and my whole life is a struggle. But times like these (when something really important exceeds my wildest expectations), I really get this feeling that something out there (I call it the Universe) loves me and wants me to be happy. That's how I felt during this game.

And this feeling was worth waiting for.