SJU Hats

So I am going to the St. John’s vs. Georgetown baseball game at Citi Field on Sunday. I hope the rain holds out. I can’t wait to see the new stadium, and this will be the first baseball game played in Citi Field and it’s my alma matter, so that’s even more exciting. Since graduating St. John’s I got rid of my SJU hat because it was too small. So this week I was running like a chicken with my head cut off looking for a new SJU. So how did I end up with three SJU hats? I’ll tell you how:

Well once I remembered I needed a hat I went on Lids.com to find one and I did. I this hat. It’s navy blue with the red old school logo. By old school logo I mean the logo from when I was in school. So, I ordered this hat from lids.com and had it shipped to the Lids store in he Broadway mall. I shipped it to the store because it was free. When I completed my order they said it would take 10-14 days to arrive. I was like this sucks the games on Sunday. This was on March 21st. So I had to try to get a new hat for Sunday. So I went to the lids in Broadway Mall, they had a hat I like but didn’t have my size, so I head over to the Roosevelt Field Mall.

At the Roosevelt Field Mall I found the hate I want in my size. I also found a had with the new logo on it I also liked. I told the girl in Lids that I was trying to decide which one to get. She said they were buy one get one half off, so I got both. Now at this point I had planned on canceling my order from lids.com as I was under the impression it would not arrive on time.

After I bought the two hats (see below) from the Lids in the Roosevelt Field Mall I checked my order status online and it was shipped. So, here I am at an impasse. Which hat should I keep. Granted that the blue one fits good, I will probably keep that one and the white one as I like the old school logo better then the new one.

Would you like to weight in on my decision, please visit my wordpress blog to vote for which hat I should keep. Thanks

New Yorkers Pre-Season scrimmage

Today I had a scrimmage with my MABL/MSBL Baseball team, The New Yorkers. Check out our league/team website http://www.scorebook.com/newyorkers. We scrimmaged again the New York, Blaze, who were actually a pretty good team considering it is mid-march and I am sure neither of us have been able to practice outdoors due to weather and field conditions. We did actually get outside last week. We took infield/outfield and some batting practice.

Today was an actually game scrimmage. We played 9 innings, tried to nail down the fundamentals as we played, you know, using signs, leading off, stealing, bunting, hitting cut off men, etc… This probably what killed my ankles. I was asked to steal second, with a man on third, and I did and made it. Then a base knock to right-center, and I was sent home, JOY more running. I could have twistmy ankle rounding third but I don’t think so, because both ankles hurt.

I think it was a matter of running at full speed with new cleats on, after 3 years of not running on a baseball diamond. I am going to give it a few days and if they are still bothering me, I’ll get them checked out.

We have another scrimmage next week, however I wont be able to make it, as I am going to see the St. John Red Storm (my alma matter) take on Georgetown in an exhibition baseball game at Citi Field. Thanks Uncle Eugene. It will give my ankles some extra time to heal. Then I think we have another scrimmage the following week, then a week off and then the season starts on the 19th. We’ll be playing 22 games (barring any rain-outs), including a wood bat game on father’s day, that should be fun.

Well I am exhausted and hurting so I am gonna hit the hay. Hopefully my ankles will feel better tomorrow.

It's Baseball Time again

As the temperature rises and the snow melts, that could only mean one thing....It's Baseball Time Again!!

Today there were some great World Baseball Classic games.

First up was the Netherlands vs. the Dominican Republic. Which was dubbed by ESPN one of the greatest upsets in sports history, the Netherlands defeated the Dominican Republic 3-2 after scoring their 3 runs in the first inning of play. The total length of their hit in that inning would not have reached an outfielder, yet they still won against a pretty powerful and dominant Dominican team. The Dominican's are not out, yet. The first round is a double elimination round. So they will play the loser of the Panama/Puerto Rico game, which is going on right now.

Next up today was the U.S.A. vs. Canada. USA was able to revenge their 2006 elimination loss to Canada by defeating Canada 6-5. USA had a 6-4 lead going into the 9th inning. New New York Mets closer/set-up man JJ Putz was able to shake off a towering double by Russell Martin and another double by John Votto bringing Russell Martin to earn the save in the U.S.A. opening round game against Canada.

Don't you just love this game. :)

Oh no, is it deja vú

Oh no, here we go again. *knock on wood* I sure as hell hope we are not witnessing some remnants of last season. I missed the last two games but the last game I saw we were 2 games up, no we are .5 a game back.

Now as I sit here watching tonight's game, biting my nails, I already know that the last two games I missed were against the Washington Nationals, so already I know this is not good. Considering we went from 2 games up to a half a game back mean only one thing we lost 2 games to the Nationals.

This game is making me a nervous wreck, as well as all other Mets fans (I'm sure). I turn on the game to see a 8-3 lead in the 6th inning. Only to see that lead shrink to 8-5 by a monstrous homer run by Elijah Dukes. Carlos Beltran increased the lead to 9-5 with a solo home run his second of the game.

The 8th inning was relatively painless, aside from the fact of almost nice sliding grab by Beltran, a sweet run saving catch by Ryan Church, and a long drive to the warning track in center.

Here we are now in the bottom of the 9th, and two run home run Heilman gives up a walk to make it 1st and 2nd, unfortunately he wasn't helped by David Wright's throwing error to put the lead off man on. A nice diving stop by Delgado gets the 1st out but the runner move 90 feet closer. A hard shot back to Pedro Feliciano get the next batter and holds the runners at bay. Final out and..FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK Willy Neives shoots a line drive to center bringing home 2 runs making it 9-7, with the tying run to the plate. All Mets fans heart are increasingly pumping with anxiety and frustration.

Luis Ayala comes into the game to close it out. Pinch hitter, Roger. Bernadina, steps in and..."HEEE STRUCK HIIIIM OUT," one of the most famous lines from Gary Cohen. It is definitely better than is patented "IT'S OUTTA HEEEEERE"

So where does this leave us. We are a game ahead of the Brewers in the Wild Card race, and if the Brewers win will will be .5 a game ahead of them in the wild card race. This always leaves us with the fact that this is how we started September last year. Seven relievers were used in tonight's game. This is definitely unacceptable with a 5 run lead in the 6th. If this continues there is no way we will make it far in the play off.

All and all we need to step up as a team and a pitching staff and perform. Plain and simple.

Mets come from behind

Thanks to Carlos Delgado's 2-run home run and Ryan Church's RBI double, the Mets take a come from behind win over the Milwaukee Brewers. If the Nationals keep pounding the Phillies as they are now, the Mets would take a 2 game lead in the N.L. East. Wooooooooooh!!

Heilman Blows

[FYI This post was from my wordpress blog, almost 2 years ago, I am only adding this here so I can keep the two blogs up to date with the same number of blog, other wise I get confused].

Aaron Heilman Blow massive chunks.