I am a man of great taste and culture. Part of a society's culture, perhaps the most cross-cultural aspect thereof, are various forms of entertainment; "entertainment" being inclusive of music, sports, food, beverage... and I guess clothing (e.g., turbans in India, samarai headbands in the Empire of the Sun, lip plugs in Africa [disgusting, see here http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.ezakwantu.com/Lip%2520Plugs%252032.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.ezakwantu.com/Gallery%2520Lip%2520Plugs.htm&h=350&w=550&sz=49&hl=en&start=5&sig2=1G5ANzcsfnMMOzAcSLfEhQ&um=1&tbnid=SQ9lZg9n0xjxFM:&tbnh=85&tbnw=133&ei=dOg2SPfRKJq6gwL11tG3DQ&prev=/images%3Fq%3DAfrica%2Blip%2Bplug%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN] and (hopefully) short-lived fads and trends (for example, in the United States, there is EMO [see here: http://www.memecat.com/images/memes/emo_boys.jpg] and the Guido phenomenon [www.getoffourisland.com]).
I will be the cultural editor of this blog, speaking on various cultural issues raised by our bloggers, which means just about everything according to my definition of "culture".
As for Sports, Don't-forget-where-you-came-from-cheese mac recently submitted an article about the "plight" of the Mets and Willie Randolph, pretty much trashing on the Mets. Thats fine, and he admitted to being a Yankees fan. I'd just like to add a little context here for you sports nuts out there:
*The Mets are 22-23; the Yankees being 22-25.
*The Mets are in 4th place (of 5 teams); the Yankees are in 5th (dead last).
*The Mets are 4.5 games back; the Yankees 7.5.
*In a recent, rain-shortened series, the Mets swept 2 games from the Yankees.
*It appears as if the Yankees would have one of the more formiddable lineup/starting pitching combinations in the AL once A-Rod and Posada return... assuming that they traded Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy for Johan Santana, giving them Johan, Wang, Pettite and Rasner in their top-4, and allowing Joba to remain dominant in the 'pen. Hindsight is indeed 20-20, and the monumental offseason decisions aren't paying dividends at this point.
As for the Mets, while not in as dire a position as the Yanks, they're a huge mess right now and they probably need to give Willie the axe, because you can fire the coach, but not all the players (and the GM isn't going to replace himself). There is talent in both the lineup and rotation, and even the bullpen, but things simply aren't working out, and none of the players are playing up to form, with very few exceptions.
As for music, I will defer to Simon, who recognized the first time he heard it that The Plain White Tees' "Hey There Delilah" was a great song. Just kidding! (about the great song part, he did say that, LOL!).
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Thank you for your insight Dr. L. However, I must interject and say that - wasn't it you who enjoys the elevator music/karaoke music of one sushi restaurant, name withheld - and that you were looking for a copy of said cd?
If I recall correctly, you particularly enjoyed the music of the Titanic theme song, and you graced us by lending your vocal pipes for said song.
All said, Hey Delilah isn't half bad compared to the Titanic theme song, in my humble opinion.
I also forgot to include a review of the new Stereophonics album - Pull the Pin - which I shall complete sometime next week. In addition to analyzing the emo-ness and lameness of people who analyze lyrics. Bob Dylan, anyone?
Had to see that coming. I did not intend on trashing the Mets. It was more directed towards the perception that they would dominate the NL. Which is completely irrelevant to the plight of the yankees. Even if I conceded the fact that the Mets were a better team than the Yankees (ludicrous, I know, but for the sake of argument) it would not change a thing.
Joba-was always going to start, regardless of the situation. His entire career was as a starter prior to filling a need/approaching his innings limit last year.
Finally, I would still like someone to show me how, with the rotation and lineup they had going into the season, the Mets were supposed to dominate.
Yeah I guess Joba filled a need last year, but this year they have an AWESOME guy to fill that role, err... Kyle Farnsworth! Perhaps its more fitting for another post, but it has always been my belief (as I AM a Dr., after all) that ace relievers are waaaaaaaay undervalued in the major leagues. This probably can be traced back to watching Mariano Rivera DOMINATE the innings leading up to John Wetteland, shortening the game to 7 or 6 innings, depending on whether Mo' went 2.
As for the Mets, they Mets were expected (and still should be expected) to have a lot of firepower in their lineup, notwithstanding the fact that Delgado is atrocious. Their pitching staff is comprised of the best pitcher in baseball (Johan), two 15-game winners from last year (Maine and Perez), and was supposed to include a (relatively) healthy Pedro Martinez (though that was really kind of a throw-in to a quite nice top-3. Pelfrey has been okay, certainly quite decent for a #5. Heilman has been a dominant middle reliever in the past (further solidifying my belief in the importance of this role), and is still young, so his problems aren't phsyical. Finally, Wagner is one of the best [regular season, non-pressure-situation] closers in MLB.
I believe that their record notwithstanding their pathetic level of play (just a game under .500) is indicative of their level of talent. Its there, if you hoenstly look at it. And its not showing.
Can I be Editor of the Cultural Editor?
Fact: I know things about culture.
Fact: I have proof that Dr. Lictapeen is not an actual Dr. but more like the Dr. Laura/Dr. Phil type of Dr.
Fact: I know things about Culture.
/Schrute
You can be my assistant.
Anonymous,
First of all, starting pitching can shorten a game too. Ask the players in Mussina's last outing, that game was real short: 2/3 of an inning.
Joba/Moe are useless if you don't have a lead. This is pretty basic. The yankees established their dynasty with excellent starting pitching and a hall of fame closer.
As for Farnsworth/8th inning guy- If you follow the yanks closely then you know that they just promoted Mark Melancon and J.B. Cox to AAA. These names are probably as recognizable as Joba's was this time last year. These guys are just as highly thought of in the Yankee system as Joba.
Their pitching staff is comprised of the best pitcher in baseball (Johan), two 15-game winners from last year (Maine and Perez), and was supposed to include a (relatively) healthy Pedro Martinez
the only worthwhile thing mentioned in that paragraph is Johan. Wins are the single most useless statistic in baseball, except for maybe Tony Larussa's BAC.
Well perhaps it would be relevant that the two above-referenced 15 game winners had ERA's and WHIPS of 3.91 / 1.27 (Maine) and 3.56 / 1.31 , respectively.
Thats pretty great for a 2 and 3, even more amazing for your 3rd and 4th pitchers, assuming Pedro was (relatively) healthy. Not too shabby. In point of fact, one would expect such a unit, even with Pedro hurt, to DOMINATE. They haven't, but they also haven't been that horrible, either. Starting pitching has been inconsistent to be sure, but far from their biggest problem.
So anyway, last year these 15 game winners had 15 wins, and great ERA's, and WHIPS that were far above the league average for a starting pitcher.
I didnt say these guys werent serviceable. I just dont know that Johan, those two guys (the whips are ok, nothing life changing) and two guys destined for the DL make a rotation worthy of the crown that was bestowed on them. Couple this with the fact that the lineup is not exactly an atomic bomb waiting to go off and I think you have the makings of a pretty good, but not great team. And Willie is going to lose his job because everyone thinks this is a great team.
I think "servicable" would be defined as the middle of the road, or 16th best 3-man rotation in the league.
I'd put the label of "very good" on those teams whose top 3 pitchers put them in the top... say... 8 teams in the league. I'd say that talent-wise, these top 3 are arguably in the top-5 in the league.
When I say "talent-wise", I'm not saying they're doing the best this year... just that completely ignoring the remaining #4 and #5 spots, I doubt that there are more than, say, 5-7 teams people would choose above the Mets' top 3 starters if they wanted to be in a position to win the most games for the next 5 years. They have loads of talent, past performance on the field, and have all performed very well in the playoffs... and have performed in New York.
Assuming that both Maine and Perez can duplicate career years. Which, to date, they have not.Perez , Maine
My post was a long winded way of saying: The Mets are not the best team in the National League and are overrated. They are not terrible and they are better than most, but they are not the best and they are overrated because many see them as the team to beat. I am assuming this is based on the payroll, which as I can attest, means nothing.
Perez's career year was in 2004, and at the time (as was mentioned in an article about the trade of Perez to the Mets after a few disastrous seasons in Pitt), there weren't 3 players in the rest of the league that would provide equal value back to the Pirates in a trade.
The guy has all-world stuff, and had an all-world year in his career. Last year, he had a very, very good season under the spotlight in New York, but not his "Career Year".
Maine had a career year last year and isn't embarassing himself this year.
For 7 out of his 11 MLB seasons he has hovered at or over 1.50 WHIP.(6 over 1.60) That is including this year where he is just under 1.50.
Anyway, again, Im not shitting on these guys, I'm just saying, maybe expectations are a bit high for this group.
Bro, Perez is like 26 or 27... 11 years in the pros?
Also, we can all agree on one thing:
The Yankees would be doing backflips if Ian Kennedy and Phil Hughes, in 3 years (they're only so much younger than Maine and Perez, respectively), had seasons like Maine and Perez had last year.
At this particularly time, you could call Perez a "prospect" anyway, albeit one with a long MLB track record, and, much unlike Hughes or Kennedy, both Maine and Perez have had very good full seasons in New York and have excelled in the playoffs.
Ironically, if Huges and Kennedy -- in 3 years -- are as good as Maine and Perez were last year, it would have justified the non-trade for Santana!
Maine and Perez are both like 26-27.
Hughes projected to be a front end starter, so I think they'd be a bit disappointed, Kennedy-I'll agree with you on. If it had just been Kennedy, Melky and another minor leaguer, I would have been all for the Santana deal, btw.
Regardless, once again, the sole point of this entire exercise was that the Mets are not as good as advertised. I still don't see a counter argument to this other than, "well Maine and Perez are pretty good."
Maybe you know better because you watch them every day and I just sort of keep tabs on them, but I don't see anything on this team now, nor did I see anything in the beginning of the year that would lead me to believe they are going to run away with the division. Sure, they would definitely be in it at the end of the year, but it wouldn't be a laugher.
The Mets were billed to be the class of the National League and over the past 150+ plus games they have been decidedly mediocre. That's not a slump, that's a season.
Well I was responded to some of the content of your post.
As for whether the Mets are "as good as advertised", I'm not sure it was the Mets fans themselves who had high expectations for the team after last year's epic collapse.
In fact, everyone I talked to about their chances prior to this year was jaded and considered their great 2006 season to be a peak and were optimistic after getting Johan, but not willing to say that they'd coast through the regular season and to the World Series.
Some people projected the Mets to be the best in the NL, but lets not forget that they also were picked by many to finish behind the Braves in the NL East. Furthermore, it became trendy to say as much, and the "overhyped" theme you are talking about now -- 1/4 of the way through the season -- was going strong before the 1st game was even played.
So I was kind of trashing back against the Yankees. If your sole point was that the Mets were overhyped, I don't think the overhyping was rampant and I would refer you to people who were saying they were overhyped (including the majority of Mets fans who are now jaded, but were somewhat optimistic), prior to the season.
My post had nothing to do with fans, it was about unreal expectations placed on the team by media-types. This probably influenced fans, but I would never blame fans for thinking their team is awesome. My target: Reporters and people supposedly charged with being "in the know" in terms of baseball and whether those who play/manage it are any good. If you look at my post, I'm pretty sure I said something to the effect of "the NY media is so desperate for this team to be good..." or something like that. (too lazy to actually check this, but I'm pretty sure)
And that was my point; the media put the mets on a higher pedestal than they should have been on and now that they are not living up to those standards they are calling for Willie's head. Its unfair, but that's the way it goes, I guess. As you said, he's the most replaceable person. (Omar should be on the fire come the end of the season, though).
Overrated [by the media] and Willie is paying the price for it: my post summed up in 9 words (not counting those in brackets).
I'd still say that the Mets are playing way below their potential. The chips are there to be playing far better than they are currently playing. This is NOT a 4th-place/almost last place team on paper, and under Willie, they are, in fact, a 4th-place/almost last place team!
So regardless of whether they were built up by the media as world-beaters and this would otherwise be unfair to Willie if they were playing well, but not great... they're playing shitty, really, really shitty.
Well then show me the chips, because what I've been saying is: I dont see them.
-It is very possible that Reyes is what he is. In many ways I look at Reyes as a microcosm of my argument.
-Beltran, is really good, but never really lived up to that unreal postseason and huge contract that he got from it.
-Wright is also pretty good.
-Delgado- does not Delgad-it anymore.
-Ryan Church has been good so far.
-Alou-is hurt more often than not.
So you have an enigmatic young player, an established veteran allstar, a young up and coming all star, and two over the hill, used-to-be all stars.
Eh.
Wouldn't you agree that from the all-star break to date, they have looked like a very average baseball team? Thats like, 130 games, giver or take. Thats long enough to adjust for the ebb and flow of the season. The Mets were feasting on a very weak NL east but now it looks like the division has caught up and they are being exposed for what they are.
And, dont look know but order is being restored to the Universe as the Yanks heat up.
Yes, it appears as if this recent hot streak has the Yankees -- though still in a desperate fix -- slowly approaching if not exceeding the Mets' horrible early-season record... in fact, their record might now be a game better than the team with the shitty players you just mentioned. Haha.
Anyway, if they want to keep up with the big, bad Rays of the AL East, they'll have to keep up the intensity!
Most importantly, Don has made a comment that has myself and the Admin very, very concerned. More details to follow.
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