Subway Series: The Next Generation

The Mets and Yankees embarked on a four-game series (one in the Bronx, three in Queens) to see who would be crowned king of New York. The younger generation of owners, Hank Steinbrenner and Jeff Wilpon, doesn't seem to hold any animosity toward each other though. In fact they confer with each other all the time, and often look to their mentor, James Dolan, for advice. "The three of us have all earned our positions of power the old-fashioned way. It's our allowance from our fathers," said Wilpon. "We're always running things by each other. When James was looking to hire a new coach, he told me he saw some film of a high school coach named Ken Reeves. He was impressed by how he took control of his team by making his star player, Coolidge, run extra laps after practice for being a wisenheimer. I had to tell him that was just an episode of 'The White Shadow.' He wanted to hire him anyway. I recommended Isiah Thomas. And he's the one who suggested I unload that Kazmir kid. After watching another rerun of that show recently, he confessed he didn't know that David Lee went to Carver High. I didn't have the heart to tell him that was Salami. And Hank was just reminiscing to me about the old great interleague battles between the Yankees and the George Scott/Robin Yount Brewers back in the 1970s." Here are some random notes about the series: Carlos Delgado hit two home runs and drove in nine runs in game one of the series. Yes, Carlos Delgado. The nine RBIs set a new single-game Mets record. Dave Kingman held the previous mark when he drove in eight (and hit three home runs) on June 4, 1976, at Dodger Stadium. Next up for Delgado: Kingman's team record for most consecutive innings played while not giving a crap about fielding the ball. The pitching matchup of Dan Giese vs. Mike Pelfrey wasn't exactly Ron Guidry vs. Dwight Gooden. It wasn't even Jim Beattie vs. Pat Zachry. Pelfrey "out-dueled" Giese by only giving up four runs in five innings to Giese's six runs in four innings. Hey, somebody had to win. In game two, John Daly, er, Sidney Ponson twirled a gem for the Yanks. He threw six scoreless innings, striking out four and walking four. Here are some other highlights from his career: released by Baltimore on 9/1/05, released by St. Louis on 7/7/06, released by the Yankees on 8/23/06, released by Minnesota on 5/18/07 and released by Texas on 6/16/08. Pedro Martinez, on the other hand, just looks old and droopy. Though he discovered he was tipping his changeup, and some Yankee players confirmed that. There was a real pitcher's duel in game three, with Andy Pettitte winning his sixth straight decision. Johan Santana is 0-4 in his last five starts, but has an ERA of 2.53. Why do umpires let Pettitte balk every time he throws to first? In the great NY shortstop debate, Jose Reyes may be more exciting, athletic and a better fielder than Derek Jeter, but Jeter always does the right thing on the field. Would he ever get picked off second with two outs? I listened to part of the game on the radio and the rest on TV. Going from Howie Rose to Joe Buck is like going from Robert De Niro to Ashton Kutcher. Like going from the Beatles to Right Said Fred. Like going from John Belushi to Carrot Top. Like going from "Seinfeld" to "Small Wonder." Like going from Curly to Curly Joe. Oliver Perez was the show in game four. He threw seven innings, giving up one run, striking out eight and he didn't walk anybody. Maybe he should only pitch against the Yankees. He's now 5-1 against them in his career, with a 2.61 ERA. Ryan Church is back. He went two for four. To make room for him, Trot Nixon was placed on the DL with a strained groin. The Mets won the season series, four games to two. The Yankees hold the overall edge with a 37-28 record. But over the last five years the Mets have gotten the better of the Yanks, going 17-13 against them. Final observation: Why are the Mets bat boys all bigger than Kevin James?