The New York Akers

Good morning Mets fans,

Not much to say on the baseball front. I am sad they lost but I love that Santana just pitches games by himself now. Screw everybody Johan. This guy has my respect, on the Top 5 Mets I respect list that I just made up. (Seaver, Keith and I will get back to you with two more.)

This Mets vs. the union soap opera should be fun, especially if you have a blog and realize April is a long long way away.

I have gotten a few emails this week about the “ice cream caps” – something is the air about that. I need a good weekend of blog catch-up…fell asleep the chair last night at 9:15. It’s halfway OK to type text on the bus but to start manipulating photos is harder.

Some links of interest:

Jerry Izenberg wrote a nice piece about what it was like to be a Giants fan.

The SF Giants have yet to win, makes me continue to wonder if I will see another championship in Queens before I die.

Carton was saying something about individual non-PSL football Giants tickets going on sale at 10am via Ticketmaster. I cant find any details but you may want to check that out.

Why relocating a team isn’t as easy as just picking a city.

Metsphotos shows us how they make the Mets logo stencil on the mound.

Remember one day I mused about my personal rankings of the Akers announcers over the years?….

….ok see where it says “Akers” – I typed Mets and the iPad spell “corrected” it to Akers. Hilarious. Injoy the floating feeling.

…where was I, oh yeah the Mets announcers? A year ago AmazinAvenue did a cool Tournament of Announcers. Who do you suppose won?

Seems Howie is off. Lukas should work hard on his Fire Wayne Hagin site this week.

There was a closet-quake in my house and the rod fell out of the wall. Mrs. Mets Police is gonna clean up that mess today, and she’s likely to notice that I have bought quite a few jerseys this summer. Heh heh.

A few of you actually seemed to miss the podcast (I couldn’t do one this week) – we’ll be back in the normal Sunday 6:30pm slot this week. You can always punch “Mets Police” into the iTunes store podcast section to subscribe. We’re not that good at radio but getting better – and I’d rather hear from you guys anyway than have me blather away. More on that as the week moves forward.

My email contact is [email protected]

Media Goon can be reached at [email protected] – he had the good suggestion that I share his address since (a) he stays up later than I do and (b) has more of a slacker job than I do – so if you see news break it may make sense to copy him on things.

Thanks for all the stuff y’all send in. I’m trying to keep up, which is a great problem to have. Those of you who get annoyed when Cerrone is slow to reply at Metsblog, I can only imagine what his inbox looks like. Matt’s a good dude.

It’s very hard to blog on a moving bus.

Mets KO K-Rod

Strong. You go Mets.
(This may duplicate what Goon posted below. This is the complete release direct from Jay.)

METS PLACE RHP FRANCISCO RODRIGUEZ ON DISQUALIFIED LIST
AND NULLIFY GUARANTEE FOLLOWING SEASON-ENDING INJURY TO THUMB

FLUSHING, N.Y., August 17, 2010 – The New York Mets today announced that they have placed pitcher Francisco Rodriguez on the Disqualified List for conduct in violation of his Uniform Player’s Contract. In addition, the Mets notified the player, his agent, and the MLB Players Association that it has exercised its right to convert Rodriguez’s contract with the club to a non-guaranteed contract.

The Mets’ decision follows the season-ending injury to the thumb on Rodriguez’s right pitching hand as a result of an altercation following last Wednesday night’s game at Citi Field.

Rodriguez will not be paid or accrue major-league service time while on the Disqualified List.

Dr. Andrew Weiland of the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan this afternoon performed successful surgery to repair the torn ligament in Rodriguez’s thumb this afternoon.

Bobby Thomson and the New York Giants

I am sad to learn that Bobby passed away.

I’m nowhere near old enough to remember Bobby, but the Giants were the team of my father and thus I consider them the team of my ancestors, and when I look at the NY logo on their cap I feel a bind with them. (My dad once said he was at that game, I am not sure I believe it.)

My buddy Osh41 tells me people were talking about the Giants for a change today. Thats a good thing.

People will write far more and far better about Bobby than I can, so I thought I’d take the time to write about the franchise itself.

They didn’t win it all in 1951. They did win in ’54 which you never hear about. For all the blah blah whine whine Dodger crap you hear, nobody seems to care that the Giants won the year before. 10 pennants in New York City in half a century. Compare that to three by their replacements, granted in a bigger league, but without that bigger league you lose the ’73 pennant in exchange for one in 1988.

Hard to imagine a team going to the World Series twice in 4 years and then being another city 4 years later.

Hopefully the New York Nationals will take a moment of silence when they return.

Russ Hodges’ call of the Shot Heard Round The World is basically Sterlingesque (that’s nit a compliment John) but it is somehow iconic.

For more about Bobby (and not the same old stuff) check out Baseball during wartime and I am sure that Centerfield Maz will be writing about him. Maz does a good job with Giants stuff and let’s me borrow complete posts from time to time.

Finally, if you own a team and insist on wearing black caps, this is the way to do it.

Dude from Strokes wants to write Mets a theme song

From MTV..

“I’m totally serious,” he says. “I have some ideas, I have to see if they like it. I’ve got a jar stuffed with songs, all these ideas that are just me humming into a recording device.”…

… A spokesperson for the Mets did not respond to MTV News’ request for comment on the issue — it’s been a pretty busy season for their press department — but Rolling Stone did reach out to SNY broadcaster (and Mets legend) Keith Hernandez to get his take on the situation. And as it turns out, he loves the idea. After all, he’s a fan of Casablancas’ work (more proof that Keith Hernandez is awesome.)

Santana and 8 guys vs Houston lineup

I hope Santana has 10 innings and a home run in him.

Tuesday, August 17

@ Houston

7          Jose Reyes                 SS

26        Fernando Martinez  LF

5          David Wright            3B

15        Carlos Beltran           CF

29        Ike Davis                   1B

12        Jeff Francoeur          RF

30       Josh Thole                 C

11        Ruben Tejada            2B

57        Johan Santana          LHP