Your Mother and I are Going on a Crooooooze

When Papa Poop asked me to drive them to the port in Bayonne I never expected my parents would later become part of an international news story.
But there they were, shut in their state room on Royal Caribbean's Anthem of the Seas while the ship was rocked during a massive storm off the coast of North Carolina. Waves of 30 feet and wind gusts of at least 75 miles per hour were reported.
At about 3pm Sunday afternoon seas started getting rough and all passengers were asked to go to their rooms and stay there. I believe my parents were seeing a show at the time and dinner afterwards (Papa Poop had agreed to skip the Super Bowl).

So they stayed in their room with nothing to eat except the minibar. Papa Poop ate a Snickers bar, some M&Ms and some grapes for dinner during the game (the TV signal never went out) but poor Mama Poop didn't fare as well, getting seasick.

Today it was decided that the ship would skip their appointed route and turn around and come home because of the forecast of more bad weather. The ship was damaged but mostly superficial, nothing that would make the ship unsafe.

So Mama Poop isn't going to Cape Canaveral or the Bahamas and she's probably not going to take them up on their offer for another cruise at a 50% discount (though she will gladly accept the full refund for this aborted cruise).

But Monday afternoon they briefly had an open bar and a frozen margarita helped ease her nerves.

Mama Poop did say she was fine, but wants off the boat, but is accepting this as a free 4-day vacation.

She was actually planning to zipline too, but all activities of that sort have been canceled.

Maybe next time.

Once in a Lifetime

I was blessed this year with the opportunity to attend the All-Star Game Home Run Derby at CitiField. A good friend of mine has connections throughout Major League Baseball and was able to hook me up with tickets. At first he offered me a pair of standing room only tickets but because of Papa Poop's advanced age I elected for a pair of seats. He warned me the seats would be high, but I graciously told him I was just going to be happy to be there. And I was. I was thrilled to be going, until I got to the parking gate.

$35 to park! An outrage! But I was too late to get a spot under the overpass, I didn't want to use Nails's trick and drive into downtown Flushing, so I paid my money and took my spot.

The first thing I discovered was a huge popup Modell's store in a tent in the parking lot. They really did a good job with merchandising, thinking of everything, including an All-Star Game case for your iPhone.

Of course they had All-Star game jerseys and t-shirt jerseys for the local players (Harvey, Wright, Cano, Rivera) and a few other stars (Harper, Cabrera, Davis and surprisingly, Domonic Brown).

I bought the Matt Harvey ($25) shir-zey and immediately changed into it.

On the way out of the store I saw Cecil Fielder signing autographs, but elected not to wait on the long line that was developing.

Eventually I took my seat in the 500 level, midway down the left field line and had a pretty good view of the entire field.

Because I wanted to get there early, I ended up sitting for a while, we saw some players take batting practice, but mostly nothing was going on, so by 7:55 we were anxious for the Derby to get started. But for some reason we had to listen to Pitbull perform. First he did "Don't Stop the Party" and then after 8:00 PM, when we were expecting to get started he performed "Feel This Moment," better known as the song with the "Take On Me" sample.

This is how his stage and pyrotechnics looked from my seat.

And he sounded even worse. It was as if his microphone wasn't hooked up to the speakers, couldn't hear the lyrics, just the pre-taped music they were pumping in.

Finally the Derby started and it was awesome. Sure, it would have been cool to be in the outfield with a chance to catch some homers, but our seats were actually pretty good. It seemed like every homer by a righty was flying right past us. We had a great view of each one of the bombs blasted by Yoenis Cespedes in his amazing first round performance.

I will admit that the Derby did drag on a little in the middle especially because it is a made-for-TV event and the commercial breaks were very long. Also adding to the lull, Cespedes had to hit in the second round (to raise money for charity) even though his first round total was higher than anyone else combined number.

Luckily they did have cool entertainment like a Home Run Derby between two top high school players. These kids were jacking bombs. And aided by their aluminum bats they were pulling more than the Major Leaguers with the wood, the kids were ripping shots high, and straight down the lines. They also had other diversions including Frisbee-catching dogs.

Other than the mid-Derby lull, and the parking fee, there was one more negative to the Derby (and not the heat, which actually wasn't much of a factor after 6pm), the in-stadium announcers, Mike (Greenberg) [corrected] and Mike (Golic). I agree that it's hard to say something interesting about 100+ home runs, but though I dislike their daily schtick, it was turned up even more for this event, with these two saying the dumbest cheesiest shit, including imploring the crowd to cheer at least three times during each player's round.

So we had a transcendent performance in round one, doldrums in round two and then a stirring finale. Bryce Harper put up a decent 8 in his turn then Cespedes blew right through, saving the best for last, with a monster shot to center to clinch the victory.

Though I doubt anything could top Cespedes's performance, I enjoyed the event so much I would gladly go again, even if I have to wait until I'm 85 for it to be back in CitiField.

Great Seats Hey Buddy?

For years I have always laughed at those people who sit behind home plate at a baseball game and flinch when a ball is fouled back into the screen in front of them. Every time, they do it, and every time I laugh. I don't have that right anymore.
I was given incredible seats to Wednesday's Penguins-Rangers game at Madison Square Garden. But before I get to the game, let me first explain the food.
Along with our tickets we were allowed to eat at the exclusive 1879 Club. A recent addition as part of the Garden's renovations, the 1879 Club only has 100 members. It was a very nice room with a few table and a buffet in the corner.

Here's what I ate: some kind of penne with chicken, a cashew chicken spring roll, a Jean Georges crab cake, broccoli and fries. On my second trip I got a burger.



The food was good, but not great. The pasta was excellent, the burger was just delicious, but the crab cake was disappointing. Lots of crab meat, but maybe too much seasoning, not sure, but it was just ok.

Dessert was great however. Brownies and cookies.



So we sat down there for a while, there were only a handful of other people in there with us, but decided to go check out the other club, the less exclusive club, the Delta Sky360 Club.
This place was awesome. It was a little bit like a Bar Mitzvah cocktail hour, stations with great food along the wall, but no place to sit.

There was a sushi station, and a fried chicken station (which I didn't try even though it was buttermilk-battered). A carving station with filet mignon. And shrimp cocktail with jumbo shrimp, which in this case was not an oxymoron. These fuckers were huge. Unfortunately I had already eaten a full meal before we even got up there so I only had a 2 shrimp. But don't worry, because it was so close, we went back in the first intermission and I had 4 more, plus some steak.



That was the best part of this club, the location. You're on the same level as the ice, and there were parts of the club where you could see out to ice to watch the players warming up. So everyone came back during the first intermission (for more steak and shrimp) and then it was dessert during the second intermission (cream puffs, cupcakes and Ben & Jerry's ice cream bars).

The food in the Delta club was better, the location was much better, but it was much nicer in the 1879 club and we didn't have to deal with the rest of the riff-raff.

On the way out of the Delta Club to the ice, there was a huge table of popcorn, over 200 boxes. Believe it or not, I only had 2. I feel like I let everyone down, but there was so much other better food to eat.



Now on to the game, our seats were ridiculous. They weren't in a section, no one was behind us. We were in 3 of 8 or 10 chairs set up right alongside the ice. My nose was less than 6 inches from the glass, closer than if I were watching on TV. And that's where the flinching came. The first time someone was checked into the boards right in front of us, it seemed like they were going to land in our laps. The guy next to us had his phone on the ledge and at one point it got knocked off onto the floor. This picture was taken without zoom.



After a while we got used to the players crashing into our boards, and the puck being fired our way, and we mostly stopped flinching, but the seats were so close we really were part of the action. We were in the corner, to Henrik Lundquist's left (in the 1st and 3rd periods that night).



The Rangers put on an offensive explosion, winning 6-1 against the Penguins who had just had their 15-game winning streak snapped. Most of their goals came at the other end of the ice, which was a little hard to see because we were at ice level, and looking through a maze of bodies. But all in all these were the best seats one could possibly have to a sporting event. Courtside at a Knicks game, or right behind home plate in the first row for the Mets would be equal, but not better.

JLeary and I even made it into a couple of action shots from Getty Images that were posted on espn.com.





In both those shots Papa Poop is blocked, but I swear he was there too.



And if that's not enough proof, who else would have taken a picture like this.



Here's a couple more game shots I took.







Now the problem is, how do I possibly go to another sporting event ever in my life and enjoy it. No free food, no front row seats, no luxury accommodations. The Final Four is going to be a big letdown.

Going Out on Top, Almost

You've heard the testimonials all week, everyone who loves college basketball is saddened by the demise of the Big East. But instead of being sad, I decided to celebrate it. Billy and I made a vow to each other that we would not miss our last chance to see Syracuse play at Madison Square Garden in the Big East Tournament. Everything was going smoothly early in the season, it seemed like a lock that SU would earn a top 4 seed and a double bye, guaranteeing a Thursday game, but the late season slide messed all that up. But still we took our chances and once the seedings were finalized we bought our tickets to Thursday's afternoon session. We got the tickets on Vividseats.com which is just like stubhub, but it is the official secondary market ticket partner of the Big East Tournament. The tickets were $67, not bad considering the face value was $70, but once we paid the fees and shipping (FedEx), they were $87 each.



We had to sweat out a Wednesday victory over Seton Hall, which earned Syracuse a game against Pittsburgh Wednesday at 2pm. Papa Poop arrived at the game on time but Billy and his dad were late while looking for NYC parking. The first game was a blowout by Georgetown of Cincinnati. Very unremarkable game. And then the SU-Pitt game started. Here's the vantage point from our seats:



Not great, very high up, behind the basket, and in the reconfigured Garden there was a section or a suite above and in front of us so we had no view of the scoreboard. But we did have high-definition monitors right in front of us for score checks and replays.



I decided to wear my Kirby Puckett jersey to honor him on what would have been his 53rd birthday. And the late great Puck brought us some luck. SU got our to an early lead thanks to some great shooting by James Southerland (a pattern), but gave it up in the second half (also a pattern), but managed to hold on for a victory.

So I decided to do it again the next night. Master Bates got free tickets so he invited me and Nails and off we went. I left work a little early and parked my car on 38th and 8th at 6:47. The area was restricted parking until 7, so I hung around, check for parking police and took off at 6:52, taking my chances. I got away with it, luckily, and we arrived at our seats just in time for tip. Our seats were much better than the previous day. The Georgetown student section was right behind the basket and we were in the section facing them on the side.



The game followed a similar pattern as the previous day, Syracuse built a big lead thanks to hot shooting by James Southerland (and even more surprisingly, Trevor Cooney) but blew the lead in the second half when Boeheim slowed the offense down and it went stagnant. Some dubious fouls helped Georgetown tie the game and force overtime, but Syracuse held on for the win.

This game was amazing because James Southerland had 13, so did Baye Keita who made 7 of 7 free throws (I was there, and I watched the entire game again on DVR the next day, and I still went to espn.com to check that stat because it was so hard to believe) and Trevor Cooney had 10. Michael Carter-Williams and CJ Fair combined for 9 points on 4 of 23 shooting.

But Fair did throw down this monster jam in the overtime to help seal it.



This win was particularly satisfying because of the obnoxious Georgetown students in front of us. But also because of the sour taste in our mouths after the huge beatdown in the final regular season meeting. This one was a classic, on the biggest stage for the Big East, and it got a large measure of revenge in the rivalry, which is now officially closed.

And I got to wear my "Your Mother's a Hoya" t-shirt one more time.



Now I suppose I have to talked about the Big East Final, a game which I thankfully had the good sense not to attend. SU got off to another hot start and when James Southerland canned a 3 to make it 45-29 with 16 minutes to go, it seemed like SU would certainly blow the lead, but still be able to hold on. What happened next was a total collapse by Syracuse. James Southerland went out with his 4th foul, and the Orange went about 10 minutes without a field goal. Louisville went on a 44-10 run in that span, turning blowout loss into blowout win in record time.

A few reasons I'm not that upset about the loss:
1) The tangible stakes were very low. SU was only playing for seeding. It got a 4, which is what the team deserved, and may not have gotten a 3 even with a win, though probably would have.
2) It had been a good run. I feel the team rebounded from it's late season slide, found its offense again and has renewed confidence going into the tournament that really matters, even though they got blown out in the second half.
3) Better to get an epic collapse out of the way, and hopefully learn something from it. Like take Southerland out when he had 2 fouls late in the second, and continue to be aggressive on offense even with a lead (more from the previous two games than the one against Louisville.)

Two reasons I am upset about the loss:
1) It would have been nice to have the final Big East Tournament title. It would have been very memorable.
2) James Southerland didn't win Most Outstanding Player. He averaged 15.5 points and 5.5 rebounds but more importantly, he made 19 out of 33 3s. Taking nothing away from Peyton Siva, who had a fine tournament and had been in a good player in his 7 years at Louisville, but it is called the Most "Outstanding" Player. Not valuable, not best on winning time, outstanding. Will anyone remember what Siva did in this tournament? No. Are people going to remember the shooting clinic Southerland put on? Yes! 57% from behind the line, on 8 attempts per game. That will stand out in people's minds. Stand out, outstanding, get it?

Sure Took You Long Enough

The 8-thousand and twentieth time is the charm. The New York Mets have their first no-hitter in franchise history.
My father and I have a long-standing debate over whether he can actually jinx no-hitters. He has called me so many times to tell me to put the game on, to ask if I'm watching, and each time the first hit was struck shortly after. He insisted that his calls had nothing to do with it. I told him his success rate was zero on calling and getting me to watch a no-hitter. Might as well try a different strategy. And this time, he was here with me in my house, so he couldn't call me.
And it's a good thing he was. Often on Friday nights I record the Mets game and watch something else with Mrs. Poop. Best case scenario, I would have seen it only delay. But in this case two things were set to record on the DVR. So if not for wanting to watch the game with Papa Poop, I might not have seen it at all.
And it's great that it happened on a Friday night. This could have been a Tuesday 10pm start in San Diego. But it was Friday when Mets fans were home, and even if they weren't watching they got an e-mail (though no one should be e-mailing during a no-hitter) saw a tweet or a Facebook post, and I'm sure by the end every serious Mets fan (except for Damino) was praying for the end of this dreaded streak.
If it couldn't be Tom Seaver, or Dwight Gooden in his short but spectacular prime, I am glad Johan was the pitcher to do it. Some teams have no-hitters by journeymen like Philip Humber, AJ Burnett and Bobo Holloman. The first (and hopefully not the last) no-hitter in Mets history was thrown by one of the best pitchers in franchise history.

Don't be confused by the announcers' talk, there is no way Terry Collins was taking Johan out of this game. Maybe if it were another franchise, but not the Mets. We needed this one, we deserved this one. And Johan said there was no way he was going to give up the ball.
It was funny to watch Santana bat in the 9th inning. It was probably the first time anyone ever went to the plate planning not to swing and hoping to strike out, not walk.
I think we can all agree after having seen the replay that the Beltran foul ball should have been ruled fair and a hit. But that's just part of the game. Maybe this is the Universe giving what it took from Armando Galarraga to a fan base that could really use it. I don't think it should diminish what Johan accomplished because he pitched a great game and still had to get 27 guys out without allowing a hit.

The second most tense moment of the game involved Mike Baxter slamming into the wall but holding on for a catch. Yadier Molina (that fuckin guy) hit one deep to left and Baxter grabbed it before smashing into the wall. It looks like he hurt his arm, maybe shoulder, so hopefully he won't be out very long. But it should surprise no one that overcoming a curse like this required some human sacrifice.
Did you all see the idiot fan in the Gary Carter jersey?

He actually made it into the pile before security beat his ass.

Every Mets game after the first opponent's hit Chris Majkowski, the producer for the Mets radio broadcast on WFAN, tweets out the particulars of the hit followed by the hashtag #nottonightboss. Now he was finally able to send this tweet: Tonight. Boss.

The folks at nonohitters.com updated their website to say "The streak ends at 8,019: Santana no-hits Cards."
What are they going to do now?
What is Majkowski going to do now?
What am I going to do now?

In a big way the experience of being a Mets fan is defined not by success but by failure. Not just abject failure, close-to-the-top, soul-crushing failure. The Mets always make you believe, and usually let you down. The no-hitter streak exemplifies that. The Mets have always been a franchise of great pitchers. And it's not like they haven't had chance, 35 1-hitters in team history.
That's the whole identity of being a Mets fan. Of always being second to the Yankees, always coming up short. But not tonight, Johan changed all that. Next time a Mets pitcher takes a no-hitter into the 7th or 8th, maybe Papa Poop won't even bother calling, and if he doesn't maybe I won't even get upset.
Because finally a New York Mets pitcher has pitched a no-hitter. Something I have been waiting my entire life to see has finally happened.

Lin-Sanity

It's been nearly 40 years since the New York Knicks have won the NBA title. It's been ten since they have even won a playoff game. That is the reason for the sudden Lin-Sanity that is sweeping the tri-state area.



It all started against Nets when Lin played 36 minutes. He had only one game with more than 10 all season to that point. Amare Stoudemire missed the next game, Melo got hurt and Lin took over leading the Knicks to four-straight wins.
His amazing stats:
vs. Nets: 25 points (10-19 FG), 7 assists, 5 rebounds
vs. Jazz: 28 points (10-17 FG), 8 assists, 2 rebounds
vs. Wizards: 23 points (9-14), 10 assists, 4 rebounds
vs. Lakers: 38 points, (13-23), 7 assists, 4 rebounds

Those are absolutely incredible numbers: 28.5 ppg and 8 apg on 57.5% shooting. But there are several reasons why I don't expect this to keep up.

1) Carmelo and Amare will be back eventually. When they come back they will demand the ball and they will clog up the middle taking driving opportunities away from Lin.
2) Teams are going to start to lay off him and make him shoot from the outside. That might be a weakness. Even during this amazing stretch, he has made only 3 of 14 from 3.
3) He's reckless. There are several ways this can manifest itself. First off, he could get hurt. Second, he makes a lot of wild drives resulting in some crazy layups, most have been falling, maybe that will stop. Third, he makes a lot of turnovers, 17 in these 4 games. An assist to turnover ratio of nearly 2 is decent, but if his teammates' shots stop dropping, his ratio will.



4) Nothing like this ever lasts very long. If Lin were the most heralded point guard prospect ever, it would still be implausible for anyone with so little experience to be performing at this high level. The only question remaining, is when he returns to a more normal level of performance will he still be a good NBA point guard, or is his natural level something closer to serviceable backup?
5) If this keeps up we're going to have to put Papa Poop in the Lin-sane asylum. He has the most severe case of Lin-sanity I have ever seen. And he hasn't even been able to watch all the games because of the dispute with Time Warner Cable and the Knicks. After every game he messages me the stat line, followed by a bunch of exclamation points. A few more games like this and he'll end up in a straitjacket that looks like this:

You Can't Say I Never Listened

The cemetery is a popular place. People are dying to get in there.

If Papa Poop taught me anything, that is it.

Happy Fathers' Day to mine and all the other dads out there.

Master Bates and Papa Poop Are in Trouble

The IRS plans to require tax preparers to pass a test and register with the government to better police a largely unregulated industry used by most taxpayers.

The Internal Revenue Service says there could be more than a million people offering tax preparation services. Most offer sound advice, IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman says, but many don't and the agency knows little about them.

The new regulations, announced Monday, won't be in effect for the current filing season -- individual tax returns are due April 15. But Shulman said tax preparers will be held to higher standards in future years as the IRS steps up its oversight to help reduce fraud and errors.

"Taxpayers will get improved service and enhanced standards from tax preparers, and they'll have less risk that they'll get bad advice," Shulman told reporters. "The tax preparation industry will get more consistency and a level playing field."

Shulman said he hopes to have all paid tax preparers registered by the 2011 filing season. Preparers will be given about three years to meet competency requirements, though there is much work to be done to develop standards and tests.

Eventually, tax preparers will be required to complete annual training and will be subject to penalties for unethical conduct, Shulman said. Taxpayers will be able to check the credentials of preparers on a public IRS database.

A Quick Trip Down to Baltimore

Master Bates, Papa Poop, his cousin Michael and I made a quick trip down to Baltimore for Wednesday's game, Mets vs. Orioles.

Having not slept all night I was a little but caught about an hour sleep on the 2 1/2 drive from the Bates Motel to Camden Yards.

When we got to Camden it was raining but we got good parking and decided to wait near an entrance that actually had a covered awning. Turns out it was the employees' entrance and within a couple minutes Keith Hernandez hustled up.

He actually had some poor schlub holding an umbrella for him. When Master Bates said "Hey Keith," Keith just walked right past us without even looking.

The rain finally let up and we walked around the stadium (after picking up our Adam Jones bobbleheads, of course). The smell of Boog's BBQ was too much to resist. I immediately went for the beef sandwich (I was leaning towards turkey but the guy told me beef was better) and I was so happy I did. I can't even explain how delicious it was. The beef was spicy but not too hot. It was moist but not too drippy and messy. Best sandwich I've ever had.

I was planning to go back for the turkey, but we decided to go to our seats first. Through some weird connection MB got us tickets in the club level. We didn't have a suite or a private box, but we were on a restricted level with a much nicer concourse and restaurant quality food. I was going to get a crabcake (when in Rome -- or Maryland) but instead I decided to get the crab bisque. It was delicious. I sat at a baseball stadium eating crab bisque. And best of all it was only $4. That's one thing I noticed about Camden, the prices were ballpark (higher than you'd pay anywhere else, but not outrageous). Our level also had an ice cream stand with real ice cream. So I had a triple scoop in a cup topped with mini M&Ms (I really hope the Conciergette isn't reading this.)

Unfortunately the Mets lost because they can't hit with men on base and because Jerry Manuel overmanages (Tatis for F-Mart, Feliciano for Parnell) with the lefty-righty bullshit).

But I absolutely loved Camden Yards, the setup of the big wide concourse on the lower level with great food, bars/restaurants with table seating, nice shops, it's all perfect. And our seats were amazing --- one level up, just off to the first base side of home plate, a great place to watch a ballgame.

A great trip I'm very happy we made, and I can see why every other team is emulating Camden with their new ballparks.

A Lot of that Did You Ever Notice? Kinda Stuff

Papa Poop (aka Grandpa Shell) was able to get two tickets to see Jerry Seinfeld in Atlantic City Saturday night so we breezed down for a quick trip.
By the time we got there and picked up our tickets it was about 4pm. The show started at 7:30 so we had about 3 hours to play, and since I didn’t want to burn through my money too quickly I played poker instead of craps.

I sat down at a 1-2 no limit table and about the third hand I played I got A-Q and called $15 preflop. The flop brought an ace and two rags. The guy in early position went all for $45. So his $45 plus the $60 already in (the two blinds called) gave me the pot odds to call. Of course he had ace-king and I was already down $60.

Later I got another A-Q raised to $10, bet $15 on a nothing flop, then folded on the turn to a bet of $25.

My other big hand was an A-K suited. The flop came the Kh-5c-Jc. I bet $20 and was called. The turn was the 5 of diamonds. I bet $25 and got raised to $100. I folded.

I also folded another big hand. I guy in early position raised to $25. He got called before it got to me. I had pocket 10s. I laid them down. Then the flop came A-K-2. The early raiser bet $75, so I’m pretty sure I made the right move.

At this point I was down to almost nothing. Then I went on a minirun but every time I bet everyone folded. I raised to $10 with hands like A-7, A-J, K-10 and took them all down preflop. I had pocket 7s a couple times, also raised to $10. Was called then forced to fold on the flop.

My last hand was my undoing. I limped from the small blind (only the button was in) with A-7 of hearts. The flop was J-7-4. I bet $20 and they both called. A 6 hit the turn and we all checked. An 8 hit the river and it brought three diamonds. The button checked so I bet $50 thinking I was the only one who showed any aggression, so maybe I could represent the flush, or jacks but it turns out they both made straights. The guy on my right had 5-3 and was furious that the other guy made his straight to chop on the river. I don’t know why he hung around with an inside straight draw on the flop for $20 more.

That was my last hand, I left before I could lose anymore. I don’t think I played poorly, but as usual I got no big hands, I never connected solidly with a flop and nothing I tried worked because I was always doing it at the wrong time.

Thankfully the night only went up from there.

Seinfeld was hysterical. I had seen bits of his material (the iPhone, “in Bed”) before on late night shows, but they were much better in person. He also did a brief sketch on TV news (breaking news, everything is breaking news) which I thoroughly enjoyed. None of it really stands out in my mind right now but the whole thing (about an hour maybe) was hysterical, basically the whole room was laughing the entire time. I had never seen him live before and it was a real treat, he worked the room really well saying to a couple who came in about 15 minutes after he started (“the show’s about to start”), his mannerisms, his delivery, it was all perfect.

Papa Poop treated me to a nice dinner at Morton’s (I had the scallops wrapped in bacon) and we split a baked potato the size of a football. A nice meal to wrap up a great trip.

Let's Hope Papa Poop is Lucky

The most dedicated Mets fan I know (he wouldn't let me watch the Chargers-Jets game, even though they Mets were losing 9-4 in the 9th) is going to three of the next four games, all of which will be crucial.
Papa Poop is going to see Johan Santana tonight, and he'll also be at Shea Wednesday and Friday.
Hopefully he'll be able to use his tickets for the second home game of the division series.

Dedication

Papa Poop is like Ernie Banks, he loves a good doubleheader. And he passed that love on to me, and he and I have sat through some doozies. We were at a rain soaked double header against the Giants in 2006, when Milledge pinch ran and scored the winning run in game 2, the day before his famous game-tying hand slapping homer. We sat through a freezing doubleheader against the Cubs on Passover a few years before that, when Master Bates's complaining was more difficult to tolerate than the weather.
But even I don't think I could have done what Papa Poop did.
He had tickets for Friday's and Saturday's games against the Reds so when they were rescheduled for a doubleheader he decided he would stay for both.
Brother-in-law Derick joined him for game 1, but none of the people with whom he has the package that had tickets for Friday, decided to come back, so he sat through the 3 hour intermission, and the 7-1 loss, by himself.
Now that's dedication.

An Old Joke

The Mets are relocating to the Phillipines and renaming themselves the Manila Folders.
Credit Papa Poop with that one.

The Incredible Shrinking Sheldon

Papa Poop has lost about 85 pounds in the last 14 months or so.

This is what he used to look like:




This is what he looks like now:

Too Good To Be True

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.