Mets are legends in their own minds

October 12, 2008

There's a feeling around the Mets that somehow they are the uncrowned champions of the National League, the best team with the worst luck, or some such nonsense.

Recent columns

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  October 11, 2008

  There's a feeling around the Mets that somehow they are the uncrowned champions of the National League, the best team with the worst luck, or some such nonsense.

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  I had to look up the date - Aug. 14, 1964 - on a Web site, but I can remember the day as if it were yesterday. The Mets played the Phillies in what used to be known as a "twi-night" doubleheader, two more losses in what would turn out to be a 109-loss season.

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  September 23, 2008

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  September 22, 2008

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  There were the requisite 56,000 people in the stands and nearly as many, it seemed, on the field and in the clubhouse and clogging the narrow passageways in the bowels of the old ballpark.

• This Yankee Stadium was House that Boss Built

  September 22, 2008

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• Mets' ride to redemption starts with Jose Reyes

  September 18, 2008

  Ten days from now, the Mets will either have redeemed themselves from the failure of last season, or disgraced themselves again. There is no middle ground here, no moral victories, no "nice try" award for finishing second. In assessing their 2008 season, it's either playoffs or bust, and even that is a case of drastically lowered expectations, considering how confident they all were that this would be a bounce-back year.

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• If only Mets can clinch the NL East now...

  September 15, 2008

  If the baseball season were cut to 144 games and the games were shortened to eight innings, these Mets would be a dynasty.

• If only Mets can clinch the NL East now . . .

  September 14, 2008

  If the baseball season were cut to 144 games and the games were shortened to eight innings, these Mets would be a dynasty.

• It'll take more than Santana to save Mets' season

  September 14, 2008

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  September 12, 2008

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• Eli, not Favre, is No. 1 in town

  September 5, 2008

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  September 3, 2008

  The whole thing was laughable to begin with, the idea that by passing up the chance to trade for Johan Santana, the Yankees - the $209-million, A-Rod for 10 more years at $27.5M-per-year Yankees - were somehow embarking on a new era of fiscal responsibility and building from within.

• Cano's flip flop puts Yanks season on brink

  August 31, 2008

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  August 28, 2008

  PHILADELPHIA

• Bye-bye Willie, bye-bye ball!

  August 28, 2008

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• Manuel has right sense of urgency

  August 27, 2008

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• Let's hope listless Mets aren't back again

  August 24, 2008

  It took awhile - well, only three innings, really - but I succeeded in finding people who wanted to be at Shea Stadium even less than I did last night. Unfortunately, they were wearing Mets uniforms.

• Mets' Pelfrey evolves into one good pitcher

  August 21, 2008

  Joba who?

• Torre deserves apology from Yankees brass

  August 19, 2008

  Last October, the Yankees made Joe Torre an offer he couldn't accept, the chance to be a lame duck in the shooting gallery known as Yankee Stadium.

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  August 13, 2008

  LOS ANGELES

• Yankees aren't the gold standard in '08

  August 11, 2008

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• Thanks to Favre, Jets finally matter again

  August 8, 2008

  It has only taken them 32 years, but the Jets have finally found a replacement for Joe Namath.

• Mets' Heilman closes the door on himself

  August 6, 2008

  It's Aug. 6, Mets. Do you know who your closer is?

• Yankees fans give another ex-Met a curtain call

  August 4, 2008

  It doesn't take much to get a roll call around here, just a spot in the starting lineup wearing the uniform of the home team. It does, however, take a bit more to warrant a Yankee Stadium curtain call, especially if you once were a member of the New York Mets.

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  July 31, 2008

  Someday soon, spending a day at the ballpark will be the equivalent of yachting, playing croquet or pitching darts on the lawn of the family compound, an ultra-costly diversion enjoyed by the rich and privileged, fantasized about by the rest of us.

• New Steinbrenners are not like George

  July 29, 2008

  'It's coming around," the man in the white Yankees polo shirt says. "It's hard not to be happy right now with the way things have been the last month."

• Johan gives a complete answer

  July 28, 2008

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  July 24, 2008

  Billy Wagner started his day railing about a newspaper column and ended it harping on his increasing age and deteriorating physical condition as the Mets head into the final third of their season.

• Yankees better without hurt Posada

  July 22, 2008

  The loss of Jorge Posada, for the next 15 days at least and possibly the rest of the year, is an unfortunate turn of events for a team that suddenly seems to be turning the corner.

• Pettitte, Giambi excel, but are they clean?

  July 21, 2008

  Taken at face value, this should be a heartwarming story, a tale of twin redemptions for Andy Pettitte and Jason Giambi. One suffered through an offseason of embarrassment, the other muddled through an April of abasement. Both came through in a big way in yesterday's 2-1 victory over the Oakland Athletics at Yankee Stadium.

• Remembering The Boss when he was at his best

  July 16, 2008

  He looked about as well as a man who is being virtually carried into a ballpark can look, his hair neatly combed, his blue tie smartly knotted, his white shirt crisp and his smile wide and genuine. But his eyes were masked behind sunglasses, and it was obvious that if his left arm were not crooked tightly around the neck of a burly Stadium security guard and his right were not resting on the shoulder of his driver, George Steinbrenner was never going to make it from his black Lincoln Town Car to the elevator.

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  July 15, 2008

  On Friday, Garth Snow will celebrate either the beginning of his third year as Islanders general manager or the end of his first week, depending upon how you look at it.

• Wilpons are worst owners in town

  June 17, 2008

  In the end, the Wilpons treated Willie Randolph like he was one of the junkyard dealers across the street from CitiField, an eyesore and an annoyance to be cleared out as quickly and quietly as possible.

• No place like home for Manchester's Hatton

  May 24, 2008

  Oh, yes, you can go home again, especially if you bring along your own referee.

• Hard times, great memories for Joe Frazier

  March 6, 2008

  Joe Frazier's moment in time is frozen on the wall behind his head. The famous left hook has found its target, and the target is in that strange half-standing, half-sitting posture that fighters assume when their next stop is the floor.

• Pedro and Roger have got a lot of nerve

  February 28, 2008

  In the famous words of Curt Schilling, circa November 2001, Mystique and Aura weren't qualities the Yankees could rely on, merely "dancers at a nightclub."

• This probe is just a pain in the ...

  February 13, 2008

  It was shortly before noon, about two hours into the august proceedings, that the so-called hearing of the Congressional Oversight Committee into steroid abuse in baseball became, to borrow a particularly juicy bit of testimony, a palpable mass on my buttocks.

• Steroids foul baseball again

  February 12, 2008

  Some things never change. On the day pitchers and catchers will begin to trickle in at spring training camps across the country, for the 25th consecutive year Roger Clemens will prepare to take the hill.

• Tyree is a fitting Super Bowl hero for Giants

  February 6, 2008

  The one you don't see coming is often the sweetest of all. That is why of all the championships won by all the teams through all the years in this sports crazy town, the 1968 Jets, the '69 Mets and the '96 Yankees are the ones we remember most fondly.

• Belichick shows he has no class

  February 5, 2008

  Sometimes a man’s character, if not his whole life, can be encapsulated in the blink of an eye. For Scottie Pippen, it was the moment he decided to sit down rather than play out the last 1.8 seconds of a crucial playoff game when he learned the final shot would not be his. For Mike Tyson, it was the moment he decided it would be easier to bite his way out of a beating from Evander Holyfield than to face it.

• From my lips to Omar's ears?

  January 30, 2008

  You're welcome, Omar. You, too, Jeff.

• Long, misleading Clemens report to bore Congress

  January 29, 2008

  I think I have finally figured out the strategy being used by Roger Clemens and his alleged advisers in their increasingly silly-slash-desperate attempts to convince the world that the Rocket ran on clean fuel for the past 24 years.

• Pampered Clemens just doesn't seem to get it

  January 10, 2008

  I'm sick of Roger Clemens. I'm sick of people who think like him. I'm sick of people who think it's OK to think like him and I'm sick of people who make excuses for him.

• Wallace Matthews: Roger fails on "60 Minutes"

  January 7, 2008

  They stuck him in a lineup that would have protected even A-Rod in October, and still, Roger Clemens couldn't manage to look good.

• Snowing Wallace is one thing, Congress another

  January 5, 2008

  It's one thing to swear before Mike Wallace, but would Roger Clemens tell the same story if put under oath before a congressional committee?

• Clemens must be judged same way as Bonds

  December 14, 2007

  For the past 10 years, one guy has been treated like he's Nicky Barnes, the other like he's John Wayne.

• Clemens must be judged same way as Bonds

  December 14, 2007

  For the past 10 years, one guy has been treated like he's Nicky Barnes, the other like he's John Wayne.

• Lidle tragedy puts game in perspective

  October 11, 2006

  Wednesday was supposed to have been one of the great days in the history of baseball in this town, which covers a lot of great days and a lot of great history.