Call it Schadenfreude or whatever, I'm really enjoying the way the League Championship Series turned out this year. Although it felt like October just started out with pure misery, just a continuation of what had been a miserable, forgettable season, with an outcome fait accompli, the Texas Rangers and San Francisco Giants refused to cooperate, refused to lay down at the feet...

Fittingly, the guy who was supposedly the best player on the better team, who at one point savaged the prospects of the supposedly lesser team, looked at strike 3 to close out the 2010 ALCS.With that, some of my faith in the game of Baseball was restored after a long summer that tested my patience.Congratulations, and Thank Yous are in order to Josh Hamilton, Nelson Cruz, Michael...

I hadn't been to a game in well over a month for one reason or another. Usually I don't miss the entire month of June, but things happen. Tuesday night's game against the Reds was the next game up on my package, and there was no way in hell I was missing it, no matter who was on the field that night. Turned out it was Johan Santana starting for the Mets. I had only seen...

I guess it doesn't matter where they play, if the Mets ever play a game against the Marlins where they fall behind, peck and scrape and fight back to tie the game in a late inning, it's just about inevitable that the Marlins will somehow anticlimactically win the game in the bottom of the 9th in some stupid fashion. It's a Walk-off HR from Cody Ross (who appears to be...

Nothing like a nice road trip to a US Protectorate to make you start worrying about the Mets again.See, these homestands have been so good for the Mets, and that last road trip where they rolled over a pair of doormats really got us pumped up even further, because you thought maybe the Mets were going to pull out of this road trip funk that has plagued them most of the season. But...

This is #5 of 5 Key Mets Players for the 2010 season.I know late June isn't exactly the time to start talking about Key Mets Players, but, you see, this is a special case.I couldn't quite land on who the 5th and final Key Met should have been for the current season. There were too many players who held too important a role to pick just one. Plus there just wasn't enough...

Hey, let's keep this going! Long as we possibly can!I mean, I know this winning streak won't go on forever, but this is the first time since sometime around May, 2007, that you're going into these games almost expecting the Mets to win. Even when they're going up against the Yankees.Hisanori Takahashi was a little more Hey-Hey-Hisanori, and a little less like the...

Yeah! I mean, what road problems?I know it helps when you're playing miserable teams like Baltimore and Cleveland, but you can't not feel good about the fact that the Mets have gone out on the road and kicked the teams in the nuts that they should be kicking in the nuts. When they left Citi Field, you were sorta worried that they would be something like 3-3 or 2-4 going to...

...or, at least, the Mets are rocking in Cleveland.People in my office have been saying things to me like, "Hey, the Mets are looking good," or "Boy, break up those Mets," and I sort of have to go along with it. Strange as it may sound, the Mets are hot, and they're fun again. Even though I haven't been able to follow any of the games due to my usual summer...

It was a bit of a clinic the Mets put on last night, even if it was only isolated to a 5th inning that saw them erase an early deficit and take a lead over the hapless Indians. But after falling behind 4-1, the Mets basically nagged the Indians to death with a few singles, Jose Reyes, some smart baserunning and a haymaker from Ike Davis. Suddenly, what was looking like an embarrassing...

So it's off to Cleveland for the Mets this week. It's rare that the Mets show up in Cleveland (I believe 2004 was their last appearance there). However, it's worth noting that I have my own connections to Cleveland. See, a sector of my family migrated there years ago, and every so often I have voyaged out there. Last Summer, in fact, I made my first trip to Jacobs Field...

I guess I should have gone to that makeup game last night.We've seen some very encouraging signs from Jonathon Niese thus far this season. While there was certainly no guarantee that he would ascend as the 5th starter this season, he was certainly more worthy of the job than his competitors. But last night's magnificent 1-hitter was something else.First of all, on the heels...

Last night's rainout proved beneficial for me.See, Wednesday's game was part of the Weekday Plan, which as many of you know I have. Unfortunately, due to my usual theatrics, I was unable to attend last night's game. I had even passed the tickets off to El Guapo. But sometime on Wednesday afternoon, someone came into my office and handed me an envelope with Mets tickets...

Once again, turnabout is fair play.The Mets and Padres played a fairly similar game just a week ago in San Diego, where the Mets took an early lead in a taut pitchers duel, but San Diego came back late and won the game on a walkoff HR in the 11th inning of a game that you just knew the Mets had no chance of winning.Last night, the Mets fell behind early in a taut pitchers duel (headlined...

If you haven't been paying too much attention to the Mets, you probably haven't noticed that their ace right now isn't named Johan.The Mets ace is going to take the mound tonight against the San Diego Padres. His name is Mike Pelfrey.I've written plenty about Pelfrey in the past, particularly when he's been going good. It's very easy to get behind Pelfrey...

Alright, we've already established that the Mets play much better at Citi Field than they do on the road, but this is getting a little ridiculous.Not that I'm complaining. Anytime the Marlins, who as any reader here knows I am no fan of, come in here all high and mighty after sweeping 4 from the Mets mere weeks ago, and come out of here having had the revenge sweep handed...

The Mets seem to find an awful lot of ways to lose road games, usually by coughing up a late lead or pecking and scraping back from a deficit only to have some schmo hit a walk-off HR in extra innings, but I think yesterday's game is the first time this season that bad vibes caused the Mets to lose.Consider that Johan Santana just pitched his heart out for 7 innings and 123 pitches...

Well, when in doubt, just give the ball to Mike Pelfrey, let him throw 7-8 innings, give up 1-2 runs and just hope the offense can back him up. More often than not, this strategy seems to work for the Mets, primarily because Pelfrey has been equal to the task just about every time it's been asked of him.Last night's game in San Diego was no different. With the Mets screaming...

I'm starting to think I should just not bother following the Mets when they go on the road. Very little good seems to happen to them there.Following an eminently forgettable weekend series in Milwaukee, where the Mets were undone primarily by the usual problems that have plagued them all season, the Mets steamed into San Diego and Petco Park, where I believe they've never...

That's not some binary code I'm th rowing at you, that's the line score for the Phillies in their most recent trip to Citi Field. Doesn't look like much, does it?You never see these kind of things coming, and usually it's a pleasant surprise when they do. Three straight shutouts of the best offensive team in the NL, however, is something else entirely. I don&...

So, I think it's time we start gushing over Hisanori Takahashi.Last night was my 7th game of the season at Citi Field. After 4 quick wins out of the gate, I'd sat through a pair of games where I either froze my ass off while the Mets looked lifeless, or sat comfortably while the Mets looked lifeless. Last night, I sweated out a rather easy Mets victory.Obviously, I'll...

I wonder if it took facing the Yankees, a familiar foe from his Red Sox days, for Jason Bay to finally start to get on one of his hot streaks. After a 4-hit game on Saturday night, Bay finally flipped that power switch and knocked out a pair of HRs, not only aiding the Mets to a game and series win, but also tripling his HR output for the season and (hopefully) signaling that he...

I think Saturday night's Mets win could fall into the "Holy Crap, they won!" category, primarily because I don't think anyone really figured it would happen.I think we can thank Mike Pelfrey for that one. In fact, if you're Jerry Manuel and the rest of the coaching staff or the other folks I called out on Friday, you're probably ready to kiss Mike Pelfrey...

I seem to have a problem, lately, of starting posts, but not finishing them until a substantial amount of time later. It's either I'm tired because I'm working too late and getting up too early, or I'm tired because I sat through a 3 hour, 18 minute crapfest that masqueraded for last night's Mets/Yankees game.If this is how the Mets are going to come out and start...

This weekend's Subway Series and the 3 game visit from our friends in Philadelphia is basically Jerry Manuel's last stand. I don't think that's being dramatic at all. If things don't go well, he's going to be fired, and I don't think any Mets fans will complain about it.There's a sort of sick, sinking feeling that's surrounding the Mets right now...