The United States held off elimination Tuesday night with a come from behind win over Puerto Rico, 6-5. Puerto Rico held a 5-3 lead heading into the bottom of the 9th, before closer JC Romero loaded the bases with Shane Victorino, Brian Roberts, and Jimmy Rollins. Fernando Cabrera relieved Romero before walking Kevin Youkilis to bring the US to 5-4. Met 3B David Wright singled to right to drive in Roberts and Rollins to give [...]

Once last season ended and throughout the off-season I thought that Pedro Martinez would be just a memory of days gone by.  I didn’t hold a grudge against Pedro but he was hurt more often than not and did not earn the big contract he was given.  Pedro was brought here to bring the Mets a championship but never delivered one.  In 2006, the one year that the Mets did make the playoffs he was [...]

At the risk of being identified as a “moron” for detracting from the stellar character possessed by one A-Fraud, I figured the base might get a kick out of the NY Post story about how much that excellent baseball player and all-around wonderful NY Yankee, Alexander Rodriguez, spends lots of time admiring himself. (C’mon admit it, you all do this, too!) Seriously, the photos are screamingly funny. I’ve actually never really hated this guy, but [...]

Earlier today it was announced that the Houston Astros signed free agent catcher and future Hall Of Famer, Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez.  The Astros signed him to a 1 year deal valued at $1.5 million with another $1.5 million in incentives.  Pudge who has been playing in the WBC for Puerto Rico looks to be in great shape, perhaps even the best shape of his career.  His bat has been on fire and of course his [...]

Okay, it’s Friday afternoon and my Tuesday column is a trifle overdue. We’ve all just spent the past week worrying, arguing, and moaning about the ST 2009 drawbacks facing our Mets and us. Well, I think it’s time we all had a drink or two and made a serious effort to lighten up and relax. Speaking of a drink or two… I have a friend, one of my favorite people on this here earth actually. [...]

World Baseball Classic On Saturday I attended the USA/Canada game of the World Baseball Classic.  The game was close, with the United States pulling out the win 6-5.  It wasn’t the best day to wear a David Wright jersey though, as he went 0-4.  JJ Putz pitched the ninth and got the save, giving up 1 run. I enjoyed the game a lot.  I was impressed with the Canadian fans – they were a lot [...]

As the Mets worry about Johan Santana’s elbow, and feel pretty good about John Maine, Mike Pelfrey and Ollie Perez in the middle, there are too many guys who can’t seem to win that fifth starter’s role.  A fifth starter is a luxury until May 1, but not if someone gets hurt (or is already hurt), but we wouldn’t be Mets fans if we didn’t look back at what might have been for this rotation.  [...]

A few weeks back fans of the New York Mets nearly went into cardiac arrest when it was announced that Johan Santana was experiencing some stiffness in his left elbow which as we all know is his throwing arm.  Santana was scheduled to fly out of Florida and into New York for an MRI to see what exactly was wrong with the elbow but because of bad weather he did not make that flight. There [...]

After being knocked around yesterday by the Michigan Wolverines, Tim Redding was quoted by the New York Post as saying, “I showed them last year – that’s why I’m here,” said Redding, who was 10-11 for the Nationals in 2008. “I don’t have anything to prove. I’ve proved to myself I belong on this stage, with a ballclub of this caliber, doing the job that I can do.” Who is he kidding here? Redding only [...]

Pedro Martinez said that he would use the World Baseball Classic as an audition for any interested teams, and today’s outing against the Netherlands was a good start. Martinez replaced Rafael Perez for the 5th inning and proceeded to pitch 3 scoreless innings, face the minimum 9 batters, gave up one hit, and struck out four of the final five hitters faced. Martinez threw 40 pitches, a whopping 32 of them for strikes. He gave [...]

Ironically, for my first Mets Merized post I will not be focusing on the Mets, but rather the World Baseball Classic. Love it or hate it, Mets fan might want to pay attention to it – since there is a major league high sixteen Mets participating. Whether its the idea of the world’s best players squaring off in an international format, or I am just starving for some competitive baseball after the winter – I [...]