Reach out and hate someone

Y'all have seen the stories about Dolce and Gabbana's hateful comments. "Synthetic" children, indeed. It brought to mind another hate-monger: Daniel Murphy, the Mets' second baseman. He too felt he simply had to say something vicious about gay people. And then both explained their comments. The explanations didn't work.

See, here's what happened, guys. (I'm talking to them, not my readers.) You were living happily within your million-dollar bubbles, getting everything you want every day, without question. And yet you felt you had to reach out and hate someone.

There is no "satisfactory" explanation for your remarks. You simply decided to reach out and hate someone. End of story. I can't even watch a Mets game now. And if I was even slightly aware of the clothes that D&G make, I'm sure the sight of them would make me nauseous.

Inside your zillion dollar bubbles, you felt the need to harm innocent people. You're pigs. Period.

Easter fun

The Mets game I'm watching just included this graphic:

 

I love it. Now, don't forget to watch horror movies today. After all, it's the national zombie holiday of Easter. You know, stuff like "It's Alive!" and "Sometimes They Come Back". (That last one's a stinker, but you get the idea.)

Normal, non-religious life begins anew tomorrow. But for today, expect more cars on the road, drunk Christians and lots of colored eggs.

Drip, drip, drip

Twenty-three inches of snow is melting outside (and on) my house. That's a lotta snow. I hope the roof holds. So far, so good but I'm seeing leaks in places that never leaked before. What a winter this has been. And the polar vortex is coming back in a few days. Sheesh.

But I'm giddy. You know why? Because I told my VCR to record ten spring training baseball games! Baseball returns in eight days!!! That is so great. No more watching dumb movies to while away the evenings. I'll have games up the kazoo. This is the best news imaginable.

I'm also hopeful about my Mets' chances this year. Sure, go ahead: laugh. But Terry Collins is a great manager and the team picked up some good players in the off-season. I'm particularly happy about the signing of Bartolo Colon. That's him at left. He is such a sneaky, smart pitcher. And now he's on my team. Plus, we picked up Curtis Granderson - and that ain't hay.

I've got big hopes for this season - despite your snickers. I think my Mets will surprise everyone. Heck, they might even end up playing the Yankees in the World Series and winning.

Okay, back to drip, drip, drip. One week to go!

Matsuzaka? Really?

I was appalled to hear that my main local team, the NY Mets, just put Daisuke Matsuzaka on the roster. In fact, he's pitching tonight.

As a former Red Sox fan who lived through many, many terrible starts by this fool, I am not amused. He is a terrible pitcher. I will never watch a game that he pitches. Never.

Damn fools. Really pisses me off. The Mets have been coming back, steadily and nicely, from the brink of ruin -- and now this.

Best baseball opening day ever

I had a great time watching the first games of the baseball season yesterday. I was sick with the flu (or whatever) but I hardly noticed.

The Mets won their game 11-2. John Niese -- one of my favorite pitchers -- was terrific. It was a pleasure to see the team play this well on the first day of the season.

But that was nothing compared to the Washington Nationals game. Baseball god Bryce Harper, after hitting .478 in spring training, hit a home run in each of his first two at-bats. And he threw a ball pefectly, all the way from the outfield to home plate, and started one of the best double-plays I've ever seen.

As if that wasn't enough, the Red Sox capped off the day by trouncing the evil Yankees. Seriously: Best. Opening Day. Ever.

Baseball confusion

I watched a  spring training baseball game last night -- a Mets/Braves that I recorded a few days ago.

Late in the game, the Mets brought in a new pitcher. When I saw the name on the back of his shirt -- Laffey -- I was shocked. I thought, "We've got Laffey now?! He's terrific." As a Mets fan, I was excited and I wondered why I hadn't heard about the trade.

And then I realized I had confused Laffey with a pitcher named Smiley. Made me laugh.

Dempster. All right!

I just read the news. Ryan Dempster signed with the Red Sox. I couldn't be happier. Mind you, I haven't watched a Red Sox game recently -- but I'm back with the team, for sure. I love this guy. I mean, have you seen his Harry Caray impression? And he can pitch!

This is just what I needed because I've been laid low by the Mets' appalling trade of Cy Young winner RA Dickey. How could they do that? First they traded Reyes, and now Dickey. This is all about Fred Wilpon, the cheesy owner of the Mets, who entrusted his money to Bernie Madoff. He lost big-time so he's going to bleed the Mets and run off with every last cent -- and the hell with the fans. I'm not going to watch one Mets game this year. So there.

And who cares? I've got my Red Sox back. I used to love them but really, I haven't been happy with the team since the whole Manny thing went down. Manny was low. Really low. So this Dempster news is much-needed. And you know what? He's going to love it in Boston, and the fans will welcome him with open arms. Ryan Dempster is a Red Sox pitcher. Very cool.

Great Mets game the other night

Resnick gettin' high-fived afterward.

The Mets sportscasters hold a "Kidcaster contest" each year, to let young people try out as sportscasters (by sending a recording, I assume). The kid who wins gets to go on the show during a game, and take over the sportscasting duties.

The cool thing is that for the last two years, when the let the kid do it, the next ball or the one after it was a home run. It's like the best thing in the world for the kids, and it's amazing that this keeps happening. Anyway, I just saw that HuffPo has the video on its sports page. So if you'd like to, you can watch and hear Jacob Resnick, the 11-year-old winner, as he bumps right into a home run with his first batter, Jose Reyes. The kid did a great job.

(The game was a keeper, by the way, and I'm saving it for my winter baseball trove. Huzzah! I shall not be without baseball this off-season. Take that, MLB!!!)

Ron Darling high-fives marriage equality

Ex-Met and current broadcaster Ron Darling, one of my favorite baseball announcers, has come out for marriage equality -- and it sounds like he's a major supporter.

"I immediately called my wife as soon as I heard," said Darling, who long ago made the city his adopted home and now works as a broadcaster for the team. "I'm joyous. Excited. I can't wait to hear if my friends are going to take the plunge, and I'm anticipating going to many marriages."

It's great to see admired sports figures come down on the side of fairness and equality. This gave me such a lift today that I had to share it with readers. Great things are happening in New York.

Ralph & Liz

One of the great things about Mets broadcasts is having 89-year-old Ralph Kiner as an occasional announcer. He often visits for a couple of innings, says astute things about the players, and tells great stories about the old days of baseball.

He's been a Mets announcer for as long as the Mets have been around, and played in the late 40s and early 50s. Though his career was short, his bat landed him in the Hall of Fame. He's our very own baseball geezer, the voice of history who can tell us what Babe did at his locker, or what Sandy Koufax really thought about the game. His voice is frail and old, and he's sometimes hard to understand. But I think I speak for all Mets fans when I say we love having him around.

Anyway, during yesterday's game against the Cardinals, I was surprised when Keith Hernandez showed this photo of Ralph Kiner taking Liz Taylor to the Oscars. Ralph! Who knew? And while looking this photo up, I found photos of him with Esther Williams and other "starlets". Our Ralph was apparently Jack the Lad. I'm glad for him. As Keith pointed out, Kiner's had quite the American life. And as a tag-on note to Liz's passing this week, I thought it was very nice that they included it in the broadcast.

It's here!

I can't believe there's a Spring training game this Saturday between the Mets and the Braves! (1:10 PM on PIX and again at 7 on SNY, for local readers.) This is so cool. A real, actual game (that doesn't count)! I am so ready.

The sound of the first game will wash over me and cleanse my nonexistent soul. It always does. It's one of the truly magical experiences in my life. And it's free. 

As I've said before, I love Spring training because you get to see the new guys they might call up during the season. I find that pre-season experience enhances my fan experience tremendously. They're old friends by the time they come up. I can't wait.

The worst part of being a Mets fan

It's not the team, it's the owner that's the problem. While we Mets fans are hoping for a comeback season for our team, everything so far has been about the low-life team owners -- "The Wilpons". I love the way the press refers to them this way -- as if they were "The Royals".

There's this absurd situation happening now where Bernie Madoff's victims are suing Jeff Wilpon for 300 million a billion dollars to get back some of the money they believe he scarfed up while knowing Madoff was involved in a Ponzi scheme. Doesn't matter what the truth of it is, it's ruining the beginning of the Mets season.

While the fans are worrying about whether they'll keep shortstop Jose Reyes (Yes!), whether Santana can come back from his injuries and be an effective pitcher again (?), whether Carlos Beltran screwed his knee up forever by getting an unapproved operation (No!), and whether R.A. Dickey really is a pitching god (Yes!) -- we have to see this nonsense plastered all over the news. This is a big story in NY.

The Wilpons have always seemed like creepy characters to me. I just wish they'd sell the team so we could get a normal manager. But it ain't gonna happen and even if the team did change ownership, we wouldn't be out of the woods. There's been talk of Donald Trump buying the team. Oy.

We are cursed but it has nothing to do with our players. I hope that the Mets can be a real team this year -- despite the damned Wilpons. And keep that Donald creature away from our team! That's all we need: a living circus as the new owner.