On the Mets beat

Stumbled upon this hilarious item on Deadspin about today's Pittsburgh starter, Tom Gorzelanny. The easy way out would be to say he's telling the fans they're No. 1, but there is a more elaborate explanation provided by Pirates management in this article. Is Gorzelanny really flipping the fans off with his bobblehead? No word on how many curtain calls he's ignored this season.

Reyes ss
Castillo 2b
Wright 3b
Beltran cf
Church rf
Delgado 1b
Casanova c
Chavez lf
Santana p

Moises Alou is here and actually fine. There's no fracture in his right ankle, just a bruise. (And yes it's the right ankle, not the left.) He worked out with the team, took batting practice and thinks he will be activated Friday.

Jose Valentin also is here and was cleared to finally begin baseball related activities in PSL. If the over/under on ABs for Valentin in the majors is 1, what do you go with?

Also, Katie Strang will be live blogging using our new software. So stick around. Or leave for dinner and then come back. Either way see you soon.

And finally if you're interested in going to the All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium, check out Anthony Rieber's post on The Final Score about costs. You'll be surprised. Or not.

A tip of the cap to Mother Nature for washing out Monday's game against the Pirates and giving us another full news cycle of Curtain-Gate. Yee-haw. Kudos to Carlos Delgado for taking questions for roughly 20 minutes about Sunday's episode and giving everyone plenty of material for rainout stories. Katie Strang was there for Newsday and you can read all about Delgado's lengthy explanation here. The rain also forced the Mets to shuffle their rotation, with Johan Santana taking the mound tonight.

So what happens now with Delgado? He said he was not trying to send a message to the Shea fans when he refused to come out for a curtain call on Sunday, but it seems like he did anyway. Does Delgado now get booed every time he steps onto the field simply out of spite? Or will the fans try to move beyond this incident, which mushroomed into a media circus over the last 24 hours?

After what I've witnessed at Shea this season, I'm betting that Delgado gets jeered every time he shows his face. I don't agree with it, but the fans already despised Delgado before Sunday, and this just gives them more ammunition.The next time they hand out foam fingers at Shea, it should be a different finger.

The Mets postponed tonight's game against the Pirates at about 5:30 p.m.

That's no surprise to anyone who lives in the New York area.

The game will be made up on Aug. 11 at 1 p.m.

Johan Santana's start has been pushed back to tomorrow.

Since we're all weighing in with our opinion on "Curtain-Gate" this morning, complete with another pirate blog transmission on OTMB by the Final Score boys, here's my take: How does it feel, Mets fans, to be slapped in the face right back? Stings a little, doesn't it?

After weeks of ridiculing and booing their own team, now fans are supposed to be annoyed that Carlos Delgado didn't acknowledge their cheers for a curtain call? I'm sure he probably felt like climbing the dugout steps and giving everyone the Jack McDowell salute.

And with all due respect to the Final Score duo, the fans are not Delgado's bosses: that would be the Wilpons, the family that signs his jumbo-sized checks. Whether or not the fans like him, Delgado gets his $16 million either way, and it's manager Willie Randolph who decides if he plays or not. Fans have as much impact on Delgado's life as the Mayor of Juneau (Alaska, spelled differently than the movie).

I also don't buy the whole "peace offering" thing, that the fans were extending an olive branch to the first baseman they love to hate. The shelf life on this love affair will be shorter than a Britney Spears marriage.

Anyway, the Final Score did a great job posting video from yesterday, and as for their day jobs, Anthony Rieber chronicled Curtain-Gate here and Jim Baumbach says "no he didn't!" in his column today.

On an unrelated note, I took a page from Best's playbook and stuck a Spears photo on this entry. You know how difficult it is to find an appropriate shot of her for a family-friendly newspaper (or web site)? It must take Best hours to track down the photos for his blog.

The Final Score boys weigh in with a new debate and a video!

What do you think?

Carlos Delgado says he has only taken two curtain calls in his life, when he hit four in one game several years ago and after he hit his 400th career home run. He knew the fans were calling for one today, but he didn't feel it was the right spot.

I disagree, but whatever.

As for David Wright's involvement, I specifically asked Delgado if anyone encouraged him to go out for his curtain call. He got defensive and looked at me like I was crazy. I mentioned the give-and-take he had with Wright in the dugout, but Delgado said, "We were talking about pitch sequence in that at-bat," and then walked away.

Riiiiiiiiiigggghhhhhht.

Omar Minaya danced around it as best he could. At least he can dance. That’s something Moises Alou probably won’t be able to do for a while. Nor does playing baseball seem to be in his immediate future.
Minaya, the Mets general manager, announced yesterday that Alou, the team’s oft-injured 41-year-old leftfielder, might have a fracture in his left ankle.

Continue reading "Here's what's up with Moises Alou's ankle" »