Daily Roundup- Wednesday, March 18th

The craziest thing about last night’s thrilling victory against the Puerto Rican team for the US, other than the fact that this was the same team that beat them through the mercy rule, was that a Met fan like myself was rooting for Jimmy Rollins and Shane Victorino. A huge Yankee fan like my friend Amit was rooting for Kevin Youklis, even hoping that “Youk” would get a huge hit in a huge spot. Crazyness indeed.
How about all the Met players playing a huge role in the game? Carlos Beltran making the game’s best catch by robbing a home run. Carlos Delgado hitting a home run. Finally, David Wright hitting the game winning 2 run single to win the game in the bottom of the ninth.
As a Met fan who one day ago was deathly afraid of the ramifications of playing hard nosed baseball in March when you have dreams of playing in October and November, I am warming to the idea of seeing my guys jump out the gate. Hopefully they keep it up.
As for the pro side, the Yankees had some good news. C.C. Sabathia pitched well against the Pirates with the Steinbrenner’s in attendance. Also Mo Rivera, All World Closer was effective. Good news indeed for both New York teams.

The Mets and Yankees have plenty of things to be looking forward to but at this point conflicting interests still come up when you talk about WBC. Its still March so let’s not start giving them a round of applause and one incredible game doesn’t build credit inside of Mets fans minds when you talk about the injury risk and the potential for a burn out come July and August when the weather gets hot.
These are the kinds of things you are guarding yourself against and hopefully the Mets have enough inside to go the rest of the season. The last time they sent out participants to play, they ended up being the best team in the NL so who knows what this means and if the players keep tagging the ball the way they do, this can only mean good things in April and May. Could this mean they run away with the division by June? No. In the back of the Mets minds will be the haunting collapses of the last two years which should be a burden the Mets carry. But the Mets can be confident that despite everything, you have your star players in mid season form which can only be a good thing.
As for the Yankees fans, seeing C.C. Sabathia dominate the Pirates is not something you should be standing up and cheering just like Mets fans seeing Santana dominate a minor league squad, but just getting the reps in against live hitters is something you want to see. It’s basically a lose lose for them. If you think about it, they should be dominating these guys because of their natural ability but if they don’t, there’s cause for concern especially on the Yankees part because of all the past car wrecks that free agency has brought them. This past offseason’s infusion of wealth has given them their latest opportunity to drive up prices and expectations once again. But like Bill Madden said, its not about anything you see in March and September, its about October and November possibly. It always has been and always will be.


The requisite All-American love fest story with David Wright.

If David Wright ever leads the Mets to a few championships, mixed in with his good looks and wholesome look and feel, I don’t know if you will ever see a player like this. He literally has everything going for him. More than anything, he is a baseball player playing for a New York team but still has that country and polite thing about him that Derek Jeter had. Now before Yankee fans jump all over that statement and say you can’t compare the two, you’re absolutely WRIGHT. Get it? Ok, enough corny-ness. The fact is, Wright isn’t trying to be like Jeter, he’s just got to do what he does and keep getting better. As much as I love Wright, if he doesn’t win a championship in his tenure with the Mets, it would be considered a failure and that’s the harsh reality that the expectations for this team and his career have brought him.


My boy Jason Whitlock has beef with Rush Limbaugh. Republicans beware there’s trouble on the home front.

Its amazing to me how many people are shocked when a black person doesn’t just automatically support Barack Obama. Its like your doing something wholly un-American if as a black person you disagree with Obama on key issues the way Whitlock does. But that’s just the attitude that people give off and its unfair. You don’t have to love Obama for his politics but its undeniable that as a person of color you have to love what he represents. Regardless of political affiliation he represents progress more than anything and that’s what the civil rights movement stood for. This is the apex of that movement. The country has come so far that the majority of it feels it is in safe hands under the stewardship of an African American.
I write this not because the article said anything about it, but because I had a person of color look at that article and was confused by Whitlock’s positively negative stand on Obama. I can’t stand that kind of thought process because its just process, without thought. Its just processed statements that’s created by a lack of information on a person and more built on a countless number of generalizations that we are all supposed to buy into. Forget everything you know, you don’t need an opinion, if you are against Obama you are un-American.
Ok I need to get out of here before I start a million man march.