Archive for April, 2012

Murph and Baxter giving a whole new meaning to “Texas Two-Step”

The end of the 2011 season saw not only another disappointing Mets season but the end of a classic bromance: Wright and Reyes.

Although we all as Mets fans felt the sting of Jose jilting us and leaving to take his talents to South Beach, what must have David Wright felt?

This Bromance was baseball classic. Ruth and Gehrig, Mantle and Maris, Seaver and Koosman classic.

Wright and Reyes. They came up together, pushed each other to their all star performance level, then Jose leaves for what? Ramirez and Reyes? Hanley and Jose? It’s just not (W)right.

This week’s sweep of the Marlins and the mixed reception for Jose left no doubt that the relationship on the field is over. Never again will the two be intertwined as before.

So what’s a guy like Wright to do now? Just 29 years old and the senior member of the Mets in terms of service and recently claimed the all time Mets RBI leadership. What other Met can he link up with? Can a baseball player have a second bromance on the same team that is as good as the first?

We at Oh Murph think so.

Here at Oh Murph, we’re just as saddened by the loss of Gary Carter as the rest of the baseball community and we’ve been mulling over a big decision.  You see, we have a Kid Carter of our own.  Although he hasn’t posted in a while, Kid Carter founded this website and he is still a very big part of brain-trust that is Oh Murph.

It was put to a vote, and the result was unanimous.  We’ve decided to honor Gary “The Kid” Carter by retiring our own Kid Carter and raising his alias to the OMDC rafters.

Gary meant a lot to the baseball community, but as Mets fans we all feel a certain closeness to The Kid that really requires no explanation.

Expect a post from our founder really soon unveiling his new OMDC handle, can’t give up that info today.  No, we’re going to keep you guys on the edge of your seat with this one.

I think I speak for the whole Oh Murph family when I say that we’ll all feel great comfort when we look to the heavens at OMDC-HQ and see the name “Kid Carter”.  The man who once graced that glorious field in Flushing and whose name once graced our homepage.

Rest easy Gary

Murph played hero last night andwe really couldn’t be happier for him. One thing that irked me however, was Murph using KB as a his personal cleaning station.  Good thing it wasn’t a coveted blue polo that KB had on last night.  Could have really been a disaster.

I am a Mets Fan. Since 1969 at least, probably a little bit before that.

I never went to an opening day. Bucket List item.

It’s a schlep for me to get to Queens. But yesterday we made it. Drove to Jersey, took a ferry over to Manhattan. 42nd street bus from the ferry, jumped off at the Times square station, got the 7 line. Walk down the steps from the station at CitiField, huge crowd, immediately I see Cow-Bell-Man. Good Omen?

Got patted down by a nice security lady. Old guy tried to scan my ticket twice, then said “ah, go ahead through”. Got the magnet schedule. Bought a program for $5 with the little pencil with ” Let’s Go Mets” on it.

Nice girl at the top of the steps working for the Mets told us to enjoy the game.

Wanted Shake Shack, of course, but the line was longer than I ever saw it. Went to Keith’s Grill instead. Got the Gold Glover. A good burger for sure. And how come I can’t get Tootsie Pops like that from CVS? Nice and large, no chunks cracked off.

Great seats, $90 is still a lot of money though. Section 331, looked over and saw I was at the same eye level as Gary, Keith, and Ron.

Ceremonies were great, nice to hear Ralph in such good voice. Tribute for the Kid, very simple, very elegant.

Funniest thing that happened they announce and now your New York Mets take the field, only Ike Davis runs out and is standing at first by himself for about 20 seconds. The rest of the team dribbles out like they never heard of running out on the field. Hopefully something good was happening in the dugout to delay them.

The game was great. I love a pitcher’s duel, Ace v. Ace. No Chipper helped even things out. What happened to Heyward? Batting seventh, no longer the second coming.

Santana in full control, at least through 4 innings. In a way the 5th was great too. He lost his control, but still fought through, made an athletic stop, then almost threw it away, Ike saving the play with a nice leap.

Then let’s talk Murph. Our little Murph has grown up. He is lethal with that bat. 1 strike, 2 strikes, doesn’t matter, he hits the ball hard. The double was beautiful, first Met hit of 2012. The single in the sixth also hit hard, very clutch. He looked good in the field, handling two routine chances cleanly. Glad Collins took him out for Cedeno in the ninth, smart move, loved seeing it, especially when he grabbed that hot shot for the first out in the ninth.

Actually kind of impressed with Duda in the field, he handled his chances. He looked a little nervous at the plate. Ike also.

Nice to see fully home grown infield. Thole has finally learned to catch balls in the dirt. Also his approach at the plate seemed to be much better, he’s not choking up as much or crouching as much.

The triple could have been a game changer. Torres looked like he had a bead on it, got to the ball, then his ADD meds wore off. Guess that’s when his calf bit him. Good hustle by Duda getting over for back up because if the third base coach was more aggressive, that was an inside the parker. Byrdak was great, very clutch. Bullpen as a whole was impressive, please don’t wear them out.

I’m rooting for this team, they could surprise us.