How to Survive the Baseball Offseason

by Scott Silversten

Now what?

For those that haven’t noticed, the baseball season ends this weekend. On Saturday night, we turn back the clocks so that darkness falls by 5 p.m. Halloween is
only days away, and winter is fast approaching. It’s the worst time of the year … The Baseball Offseason.

I know there is always the Hot Stove League: Will A-Rod be traded? Are the Marlins trading Willis? Is Barry Bonds returning to San Francisco? However, those discussions and debates can only do so much to fill the cold nights that lay ahead.

So without further adieu, this esteemed columnist gives you a Top 10 list of ways to pass the time before the arrival of Opening Day, which is only five short months away.

1. The National Football League – Readers of this space have on a few occasions read my high praise for the NFL. Let’s get something straight: Baseball is a way better game than Football. However, there is very little the NFL does wrong, from a near perfect playoff system to this year’s new “flexible schedule” slate of Sunday night games. If the best thing in the world is sitting back to watch a baseball game on a warm summer evening, then the second best is taking in a football game from your couch on a blustery winter afternoon.

2. 24 – With the departure of all-time best drama in television history, The West Wing, the week’s best hour on the boob tube occurs Mondays at 9 pm as Jack Bauer attempts to save the world one minute at a time. When we last left Mr. Bauer, he was in the bowels of boat en route to China. Something tells me he won’t be there for too long. Unfortunately, Season 6 does not begin until January, but the 24 hours will come fast and furious.

3. “Books, Jerry. Books” – The winter is a good time for getting through some of those hardcovers that have been collecting dust on the shelves. Yours truly hopes to get to three before the first pitch is thrown in April:

• All The Stars Came Out That Night – A fictional account of an October 1934 meeting at Fenway Park between the stars of the Negro Leagues and Major League Baseball
• The Echoing Green: The Untold Story of Bobby Thomson, Ralph Branca and the Shot Heard Round the World – I’m dying to know if Thomson was really tipped off to the most famous pitch in baseball history.
• Johnny U: The Life and Times of Johnny Unitas


4. The NCAA Tournament – Very few events in sports are as close to perfect and rarely disappoint like the NCAA Tournament. It doesn’t take place until mid-March, but serves as the perfect filler during the final few weeks of Spring Training. Chances are you’ve never heard of some of the players and schools that will capture the March spotlight, and it’s likely you won’t remember the names by early April. That’s part of what makes the tournament so compelling.

5. SLEEP – October is a stressful month for all baseball fans, what with so many important games starting around 8:30 pm and lasting until the wee hours. Since your team will likely make its first West Coast swing in late April, use the winter months to get extra shuteye.

6. ESPN Classic, Yankees Classics, Mets Classics – These games are NOT to be scheduled. Do NOT sit down and watch from the beginning. Instead, let your remote control flip by accident to the many classic baseball games that are broadcast. Be amazed for how long you are unable to change the channel. Billy Hatcher hitting the foul poll. Sid Bream racing around third. Tino and Brosius going deep!!

7. THE GYM – Winter can be a time for packing on the pounds, but it’s also the best time to hit the gym. You’ll notice a smaller crowd, as people are less likely to trudge through the snow and cold to get in their daily workout. Of course, when spring rolls around, you’ll be less likely to get aches and pains from enjoying the first days of warmth with a jog, game of pickup basketball or round of golf.

8. NBA and NHL – If you are having trouble with suggestion No. 5, try watching some regular-season action from these two leagues. I guarantee your problems will be solved.

9. DINNER AND A MOVIE – Enjoy a night out with the wife, finance, girlfriend, etc. I call on brother Douglas to supply the must-see theater choices of the upcoming holiday season.

10. And finally, find yourself two boxes of white index cards. Write the numbers 0 through 158 on them, and leave the stack in a convenient location. Counting backwards, remove one card daily, rip it up and toss in the garbage. When you hit 0, all will be right with the world again.

See you on Opening Day!!

Scott Silversten's column, "Age of Reason", appears every Thursday

Let's Go Mets!

Doug Silversten and Alan Eliot are on vacation this week and their columns, "The Big Picture" and "The Stories We Tell", respectively, will return here in their normal slots in two weeks. However, they want to remind the media who keep playing up the fact that the Tigers lost 119 games three years ago that the Mets lost 91 themselves just two years ago. Anyway, enjoy Game 5 of the NLCS tonight.

The Harder They Come, The Harder They Fall

by Sam Sowl


We all thought it. This was the best lineup we had ever seen, maybe the best of all time. They were supposed to put up 9 runs a game, just blow every one else out of the water. Instead, they completely failed; they went 20 innings without scoring a run, 5 innings without a single baserunner in game 4. How could this happen? I thought A-Rod was their 3B, not Scott Brosius. Here are 5 reasons why I think the Yankees (if you didn’t know this was the team I was referring to until now, 1. stop reading this article right now, 2. cry, 3. go to www.thefacebook.com and “friend” some people to make yourself feel better, and 4. cry some more) couldn’t get the job done.

1. Joe Torre – When I saw the news that Torre was going to be fired, I agreed with the decision 100%. I was making bold claims like, “Yup, that’s how the Boss works.” Then he wimped out on me and his team. Something obviously has to change for the Yankees. Now I’m not saying that Torre is a bad manager or that it’s all his fault that the Yankees haven’t won the World Series since 2000. What I am saying is that sometimes teams need a change, and a big change like a new manager can be the catalyst for magical seasons (see 2006 Detroit Tigers). Oh, and he batted A-Rod eighth. Give me a break.

2. A-Rod – Ok, so maybe he should have batted eighth. 1 for 14! When you’re the best player in baseball, you can’t go 1 for 14 in a playoff series. What a sad way for A-Rod to end what has been his most difficult and worst season of his career. I already could not stand Yankees fans before this year (anytime you act like you are awesome because the owner of your team spends 30 times more than any other team, you are lame), but now I think they are idiots as well. I’m so sick of all this “we’re paying him 25 million to hit .290 with 35 homers, 121 RBI, 113 runs, and 15 SBs”. First off, remove the first part of that sentence and no one has any room to complain at all, those are awesome stats no matter whose they are. Second off, Yankees fans, you’re not paying him a damn thing. The stupid owner of your team is.

3. Unit – Dear Randy Johnson,

Remember when you went 3-0 in the 2001 World Series? That was pretty spectacular. You won the Cy Young award, the World Series MVP, and a World Series Ring that year. Very impressive. Then in 2005, you signed with the Yankees, a move that most veterans make in order to win that elusive World Series ring. But you already had yours, so I guess you just wanted to win another one and prove that you are one of the best pitchers of all time. Well, you gave up 5 runs and 10 baserunners in 5 2/3s of an inning against the Tigers. I’m sorry your plan didn’t pay off, but come on Randy, it is your own fault. You should have known that any team that made you cut off your sexy mullet and debonair mustache doesn’t deserve to win the World Series any time soon.

Sincerely,
Sam Sowl

P.S. You are really tall.

4. Neifi Perez – I wouldn’t be able to focus on winning either with his ugly mug staring at me from the opposing dugout

5. Lack of role players – Maybe the whole “best lineup ever” thing wasn’t as good as it should have been for the Yankees. Look at the 11-1 in the playoffs, 4-0 in the World Series, World Champion Chicago White Sox of 2005. Not a single player in their lineup was spectacular last season, but they all filled their roles as necessary, and they played like a team. I find it hard to believe that a lineup of 9 all-stars could find that kind of camaraderie that it takes to win a World Series, nonetheless an ALDS. Just look at some of the starters on the recent Champion Yankees teams – Paul O’Neill, Tino Martinez (who is one of the worst analysts I have ever seen; ESPN – please fire him), and Chad Curtis. All were good players, but wouldn’t have even played for the 2006 Yankees. The difference – the 2006 Yankees won’t be winning any rings, while those other three guys have 3.

That being said I would like to congratulate the San Diego Padres on sucking once again. NL – get ready for the Milwaukee Brewers. I would also like to predict why the Detroit Tigers, despite the fact that they appear destined for glory, will not be making it past the Athletics. One of their big fans is none other than Tommy “Snout” Stellard, a Red Sox fan from Grand Rapids, Michigan, who happens to “love” the Tigers right now. People like that are not rewarded in this life, or the next, as far as I’ve surmised.


Sam Sowl's column, "Sowl's Surmisings", appears alternate Wednesdays

Movie Review: "Pride of the Yankees"

The Critical Fan
by Matt Sandler

Note: Columnist Matt Sandler is off this week and thus we are republishing one of his best columns to date...a review of the 1942 classic, "Pride of the Yankees". He'll return with an all-new book or movie review in two weeks.

As a die-hard Mets fan, I am constitutionally obligated to hate the Yankees, and I take this duty seriously. However, there are three times in my life that I have rooted for the Bronx Bombers. The most recent two were very begrudgingly. In 2003, I attended the game at Yankee Stadium where Roger Clemens notched his 300th career win and 4000th career strikeout. As much as it pained me to cheer for Mariano to get the save in the ninth, I wanted to see history, and I got my wish. Then, last year, I was at a game where Derek Jeter was up with the bases loaded, trying to end his record of the most at-bats by an active player without a grand slam. I cheered half-heartedly again, and got my wish again. But the first time I ever cheered for the Yankees, it was for a fictional character...well, a semi-fictional character. It was the first time I saw Gary Cooper star as Lou Gehrig in The Pride of the Yankees (1942), and I was able to root for him completely, without any Mets-induced guilt.

Upon another recent viewing, I was able to recapture some of what I had remembered about the movie, while overlooking some of its flaws. The movie is very old-fashioned. You can check some of the cliches off of a list that you would expect to find in sports movies. Lou as a boy breaking a window with his unexpected power the first time he hits a ball. Babe Ruth and Lou promising to hit home runs for Billy, a sick boy in the hospital (why a little boy in a hospital in St. Louis is rooting for the Yankees is never quite explained). The chummy sportswriter who seems to be there for every moment in Lou's life, be it professional or personal. Despite these predictable moments, the movie retains a power due to its simple, well-told story of a good and modest man who got a very "bad break."

Lou is born the son of immigrants in upper Manhattan; his father is a janitor, his mother a cook at Columbia. His mother insists that he earn an education and become an engineer like his uncle Otto. He is clearly a mama's boy, and consistently refers to his mother as his "best girl." The only reason he signs with the Yankees out of Columbia is to be able to pay his mother's doctor bills. This leads to a tortured scene where he tells his mother that he is going to Hartford (for a Yankees farm team) and she thinks he is going to engineering school at Harvard. Even after becoming established with the Yankees (thank you, Wally Pipp), he still lives at home with his parents. He is so shy around women that he needs always-around sportswriter Sam Blake (Walter Brennan) to serve as a matchmaker to hot-dog heiress Eleanor Twitchell (Teresa Wright).

The best parts of the film are when it turns away from the slower domestic scenes and concentrates on baseball. We are introduced, if somewhat briefly, to some of the great names in baseball history: Miller Huggins, Joe McCarthy, and Babe Ruth, who plays himself, and in his first scene, is eating, of course. We witness some of the camaraderie of old-time baseball, when players played card games on trains and had "dames" in every opponent's city. Also evident is a strong note of patriotism, as Lou's mother says, "In this country, you can be anything you want to be." And there is heavy-handed foreshadowing when Lou is reluctant to come out of a game after being injured, and his manager says, "What do we have to do, kill you to get you out of the lineup?"

One of the baseball details is jarringly wrong. It occurs in the same World Series that we see Ruth and Gehrig visit Billy in the hospital. In front of a press contingent, Babe promises to hit a homer, and then the room clears, and Billy goads the modest Lou into promising to hit two homers. Then the action shifts to Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. Sam passes notes to a radio announcer to tell him about the home run promises. But here's the problem: the crowd, in St. Louis, is clearly rooting for Lou to hit the home runs! First of all, there is no evidence that the radio announcer is also serving as the public address announcer, which I know happens in some minor league stadiums. But even if he was, I have to believe that even in more civilized 1926, there is no way in hell that St. Louis fans would pull for Gehrig to hit these home runs. The rest of the baseball action in the movie is convincing enough, however.

Putting this quibble aside, the movie is still worth seeing. There are some nice old-fashioned scenes of Lou receiving a police escort to the game when he is running late in the middle of his streak; his wife compiling a scrapbook of his career highlights; and pages flying off the calendar as Huggins dies, Ruth retires, and Gehrig becomes the captain.

And then there is the great sadness of the final passages, as Lou starts to feel pain in his shoulder (presented in the movie, perhaps coincidentally, as occurring on the night of his 2000th consecutive game). He asks the doctor if his diagnosis is "3 strikes," and the doctor nods. Lou says, "All the arguing in the world can't change the decision of the umpire." He tries to withhold the bad news from his wife, but she can see right through his brave front. Then, in the most famous scene in the movie, he is honored with a day at Yankee Stadium. This scene feels oddly rushed at first, as we hear a radio announcer rapidly recount the speeches of various politicians and bigwigs in attendance. But director Sam Wood knows where the real crux of this scene is, in Gehrig's magnificent speech, which Cooper appropriately delivers with more heart than he has shown in the rest of the movie.

Baseball needs more players like Lou Gehrig, or at least the fictionalized version presented in this movie (although, by all accounts, he really was this modest and decent). Hardly anyone in baseball history has possessed the combination of talent and nobility that marked Lou Gehrig. In the movie, as he struggles through his final spring training when something is clearly wrong, a teammate says to him, "Maybe you're trying too hard." Lou replies: "You can't try too hard." Is all we are left with steroid-addled showboats and mercenaries who would probably rip into the press at their farewell speeches? Say it ain't true, Lou.

NOTE: I unknowingly rented the colorized version of this black-and-white classic. As a film buff, this is akin to blasphemy. If you rent it, make sure to rent the B&W DVD rather than the colorized VHS.

Matt Sandler's column, "The Critical Fan," appears alternate Fridays

Attention all NY Mets Fans: This Column is For You.

by Doug Silversten

Wednesday night it all begins. After completely dominating the National League this year during the regular season, Wednesday night begins our road to the NL pennant. A lot has been written about what would it mean if the Mets struggle in the playoffs and don’t reach the World Series, or even the NLCS. Does it diminish what we did during the regular season? Does it mean our season wasn’t a success?

Answers: No and No.

The playoffs are a crapshoot. I don’t really believe you can "build a team for the playoffs." If your team is built strong enough to win 97 games in the regular season, to me it is built to win 11 games in the playoffs. Sure, it helps to have dominant starters, but you can also have dominant starters and get swept in a short series. So losing Pedro hurts, but we can certainly win without him. In 2000, we didn't have Pedro (although we did have Mike "No good schools in New York" Hampton) and our offensive wasn't nearly what it is this year, but we were still just a few breaks away (damn you Timo Perez) from possibly winning it all.

So be optimistic Met fans, and enjoy the ride. Unlike the Yankees who buy their way into the postseason each year, the Mets seem to buy their way in only once every several years, and there is no guarantee when we will be here again. There is nothing in sports quite like postseason baseball. And there is no postseason baseball quite like postseason baseball in New York. Despite only making the postseason six previous times, the Mets have had their share of dramatic postseason games, and I expect that trend to continue over the next few weeks.

Unless you're a bandwagon fan or incredibly young, you have certainly suffered as a Met fan over the past several years, and during most of the 1990s. Who can forget the days when it seemed like Dave Magadan was our best hitter. When our teams seemed to be filled with role players...Steve Bieser? Daryl Boston? Butch Huskey? Brian McRae? Gosh, those were our stars! I was thrilled if Mackey Sasser was up in a clutch situation...that is how pathetic we were.

No more. Delgado. Beltran. Reyes. Wright. Now that's an offense.

No more worrying that Benitez is the one to close our games out. We have Wagner at the end of a deep pen.

I have faith in Glavine. And El Duque. And...well, not Trachsel. But that's not the point. Although I certainly will miss Pedro, we have the starters who can take us far into the playoffs.

I'm pumped. No matter what happens, I'm going to savor every moment. Every pitch.

So, what's there left to say? Just three magic little words...

LET'S GO METS!!!!!

Doug Silversten's column, "The Big Picture", appears alternate Mondays