New Thing #273: Baselines

The Major League Baseball regular season is over (well, there's a game 163 today, but it's an elimination game, so for all intents and purposes the regular season is over), and the post-season is about to begin. It's a fun time of year for me...even if the Mets aren't in the playoffs. (I say that as though the Mets regularly appear in the playoffs. My default setting is pretty much the playoffs without the Mets in them. If the Mets are in them to say I enjoy this time of year is a ridiculous understatement.)

Anyway, it's a chance for me to take stock of my pre-season picks, and I know they were hard to follow this year, what with me picking them on Twitter and all. (Side note - I've searched my hashtag #30MLBPicks and get only two results, which is a little upsetting to me. Where are all my picks?)

But I'd like to draw your attention to my pick to win the National League East: The Atlanta Braves.

Because they won the NL East...and they are the subject of this week's Music Monday.

(Note: I did pick the Braves to lose to the wild card out of the NL East, the Washington Nationals, because I was buying in on the Nats as much as everyone else. And I was wrong on many other picks. But I had the Braves, which no one else did. I'm proud of that.)

Shifting to music, though: I heard on Buster Olney's podcast last week that there's a team song called Baselines about the Braves. It's a knock-off of Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines, and it's really well done.

It flows, none of the lyrics feel particularly forced. (Though it does violate an unwritten rule of mine about these types of songs - it twice goes after the other teams in the National League East, including my Mets. I think these songs should pump up your own team, not necessarily go after others. But I digress.)

I also have a special attachment to team songs. Olney referred to three others in his podcast - the Super Bowl Shuffle for the Chicago Bears, and two with New York connections:  Go New York, Go New York, Go (1994 Knicks), and Let's Go Mets Go!, about the 1986 Mets.

I loved that Mets song. I have the "Making Of..." video. I wore that VHS tape out. (And, as my friends point out since I'm one of the last few people with a working VCR plugged in, I still could if I so wished.)

So I leave you today with Baselines - a well-done song parody in tribute to one of my least favorite teams, the Atlanta Braves.

And to get the bad taste out of your mouth after that, please enjoy Let's Go Mets Go!, featuring, among others, my hero, the late Gary Carter.

Enjoy the post-season.

New Thing #227: Rooting For The Pirates

I used to hate the Pittsburgh Pirates. Time was, before the addition of the central divisions and realignment, that the Mets and Pirates were divisional rivals.

Familiarity bred contempt.

1990 was particularly tough, with the Pirates beating out the Mets for the division and ushering in some tough times for my team. (Though not as tough as the times the Pirates were about to experience. More on that later.)

I'm pretty sure it was 1990 when my dad taught me the theory that I should root for the Pirates to just go on and win it all...so that the Mets would be beaten out by the best. (My stubborn 12-year-old self would never admit the Pirates were 'the best'...or at least better than the Mets.)

But the Pirates hit some hard times...and now, I find myself rooting for the team I used to hate.

After three straight division titles (1990, 1991, and 1992...the latter two of which brought them to within a game of the World Series), the Pirates embarked on 20 straight losing seasons.

It's the longest such stretch of futility in professional sports.

In the meantime, they built a beautiful new ballpark which only the past couple of seasons has seen exciting baseball...though we got an indication of what it can look like for a big event when it hosted the All Star Game seven years ago.

I think there are a few  things that make the Pirates appealing to me:

• That ballpark. I love PNC Park. Those bridges in the background, the layout of the ballpark...I love it. I think it's my favorite new park - the sight lines play a big part in that. I am dying to see some playoff games with that ballpark all decked out for the post-season and packed to capacity. And I'm really excited to get back there in person...though I'm not so eager about driving back to Pittsburgh. (That picture up top is a picture of a picture I took there back in 2005. I did not take great pictures capturing the beauty of the park when I was there. I need to get back just for the sake of better pictures.)
• The color yellow. Really, it's no small thing. I've always liked the Pirates' color scheme (though not always their uniforms) - yellow and black. And the aforementioned bridges - they're my favorite color yellow. I find the Pirates visually appealing.
• It's fun to root for an underdog. I got a taste of it last year when the Pirates were strong into July, before they fell apart and ended up below .500 once more. This year they're definitely going to end their losing-seasons streak, and it's almost certain they'll make the playoffs. It's fun to see this type of turnaround for a team. (Then go back to not liking them.)
• Lastly, the Pirates are a good team to watch. Andrew McCutchen is a solid player, but also according to all accounts, an even better person. So I like rooting for him. They're a young team with strong pitching...they're exciting to watch. They're the type of team I like to root for, and I'm kind of mad at myself for not picking them to be this good - they have the type of recipe I look for when I pick playoff teams at the beginning of the year, like Washington a year ago and the Giants a few of years ago. (Baseball editorial - I was all in on Washington - a division rival - last year, and they definitely angered the baseball gods by shelving their ace with the thought that they'll get back to that spot with him. I still like Strasburg, and I will enjoy watching Bryce Harper for the next 20 years or so, but I'll never root for the Washington Nationals again.)

Even better for me - that recipe the Pirates have this year and the Nationals did a year ago and the Giants did three years ago? It's the exact kind of team the Mets will be a year from now.

Then I won't have to root for the Pirates as the playoffs approach.

My team might be making its own post-season run.

New Thing #202: Shake Shack

Over the All Star break, my wife and I tossed around the idea of going to the Mets-Phillies game on Saturday. We really enjoyed taking the family to Citi Field last year and wanted to re-create that experience.

We called around and it looked like my parents and siblings were also going to be able to make it.

Then there was some rain in the forecast, and we started to second-guess a 3-hour ride into 90-degree temperatures and a rain delay.

We cancelled the trip.

But my wife suggested that in honor of Citi Field, we check out the new Shake Shack in Chestnut Hill.

We've had Shake Shack at Citi Field - it's the only place we have, actually. (There are 10 locations in New York State, a few in Florida, a couple in Connecticut, and the one in Massachusetts, which opened up just this past March.) And the first time I realized Shake Shack extended beyond New York City was a year ago at this time, when I was in Washington, D.C. I saw there's one at Nationals Park - that's one of three Shake Shacks in the DC area.

Anyway, as many food options as there are at Citi Field, it's a credit to how good Shake Shack is that there's always a really long line there - by far the longest concession line in the park. And we'll usually wait in that line too. The burgers are so good. And the fries are excellent too.

Saturday night my wife and I got burgers, the girls had hot dogs, and we got an order of regular fries and an order of cheese fries, figuring the girls might not like the cheese fries. They ate almost all of them. (Next time it'll be two orders of cheese fries.) And then, of course, we topped it off with some shakes. (My wife had ice cream, actually, which she thought was better than the shake.) At some point I'll have to try their 'concrete', which is ice cream with toppings blended in. It looks like a dessert you have to eat with a spoon, though, and Saturday night I was only interested in a shake.

If you're familiar at all with the Chestnut Hill Mall (and The Mall at Chestnut Hill, which are two separate things, as far as I know, on opposite sides of Route 9 in Chestnut Hill), there's a whole lot of work being done in that area. They're building a Wegman's and there's a whole bunch of other construction there too (the Wegman's is the only site that's labeled), and the Shake Shack is part of a stretch that's completed, called 'The Street'. It's next to Legal Sea Foods, there's a City Sports and a Sports Club LA there, a Pottery Barn, a couple of other restaurants, and a movie theater that we couldn't tell was open or not yet.

It's a pretty hopping area right now. We went for Shake Shack and discovered a whole lot else was happening.

Which is good. Because it's only about a 30-minute drive to have a little bit of New York City here in my current home state.

And it sure is worth the drive.

New Thing #197: All Star Game At Citi Field...Program

I won't lie. I was really hoping that New Thing #197 was going to be "Going To The All Star Game At Citi Field."

From the day they announced that the 2013 All Star Game was going to be held at Citi Field, I wanted to go.

Then from the day I saw how expensive tickets were going to be, I wanted someone to get me a ticket.

And then my birthday came and went, and no one was ponying up the multiple hundreds of dollars.

So I'm watching the All Star Game on TV.

But I have the program.

This was the other piece of All Star Game merchandise I got for my birthday last week.

I told my wife when we were at the game that I might like the program - I can't believe it was $15 though. Yipes.

Usually, I wouldn't want a souvenir from a game I didn't attend - but I just love that the Mets' beautiful new ballpark is being showcased for the baseball world, and I want a memento, even if I can't be there.

I also like commemorative programs. I was at the game when the Mets played the Marlins in their first-ever game back in 1992, and they ran out of programs at Shea Stadium. People were mad and the Mets gave out an address where you could send money to order a copy. I did, and then I did it for the inaugural series with the Rockies that year. But I don't spend much time looking through those programs. And I read this magazine, but it'll just spend the rest of its time on my shelf, as I hope it becomes a collector's item that I probably won't ever sell.

It's a thick program - there are lots of different general articles about baseball, so that it's not time-sensitive. There's a section on the Mets, which I love, and as part of that a Q-and-A with David Wright as well as a guide to Citi Field.

One thing I don't like about the program is that it includes a regular-old scorecard. I like that it has a scorecard, but it's for the All Star Game - the one time in the year where guys are being switched out every other inning. Give fans keeping score a chance to not make a mess of their scorecard. (No, I'm not keeping score.) I suppose there's a little extra room, but it doesn't seem like much - there's 24 lines for players, but it still seems like it would get messy.

I don't know if Major League Baseball will be republishing this program now that the rosters are set and they know who will be playing in the game. (This one has lists of 'possible players' - essentially a copy of the ballot.) But I'm glad I have something to remember the All Star Game coming to Citi Field. (I'm very excited for the game, and the fact that David Wright and Matt Harvey are starters on their home field is icing on the cake.)

I haven't quite given up on going to an All Star Game at Citi Field. The way I see it, this is a twice-in-a-lifetime event. At the absolute worst, it will be 60 years before the game comes back. But that's not likely. It's also unlikely it will be another 50 years between Mets All Star Games. (The last time was 1964 at Shea Stadium.)

I figure it will be about another 30 years (partially dependent on the next time the Yankees get the game and New York City hosts again). And at that point in my life, hopefully, with three grown daughters, I'll be able to treat myself and spend the money on an All Star Game ticket.

Maybe I'll even buy a program.

New Thing #192: All Star Game Merch

My wife and kids went a little All Star Game crazy for my birthday this year. No, they did not get me tickets to the game.

But they did get me some other All Star-themed merchandise.

Among the items - the cups you see at left.

Not pictured: the Matt Harvey baseball my oldest daughter insisted my wife buy at the Mets Team Store.

I have no need for a Matt Harvey baseball, but I like the way my soon-to-be-7-year-old daughter thinks: Daddy has been talking a lot about Matt Harvey. We should get him something related to this big interest of his.

This is a good sign for future gift-receiving by me.

But let me tell you a little bit about these cups.

The last thing I need these days is more souvenir cups.

I could open my own, um, souvenir stand I guess, with all the souvenir cups I have.

But the blue cup you see is a great cup. It's a sturdy plastic, and it's perfect for my smoothies. I got a clear one earlier this year with the regular All Star Game logo, and as you can see this one has the alternate ASG logo with an apple. I hadn't seen that logo before my trip to Citi Field last week.

The orange cup was a birthday gift. (Technically the blue cup wasn't a birthday gift, but my wife took me to the Mets game last week for my birthday, so I guess it falls into birthday gift territory.) The second-to-last thing I need these days is coffee cups - I have many of those too - but these kinds are useful.

3 out of 5 days a week during the school year I bring iced coffee to school. (I make a pot of hot coffee one day, then I throw the rest into a pitcher and put it in the fridge for about three days' worth of iced coffee. The fifth day I usually treat myself to a Dunkin' coffee.) I don't have many cups like this orange one with the straw - it's perfect for iced coffee. (I got one like it as a free gift somewhere but I dropped it and the lid doesn't fit exactly. So until I drop this orange one, this is a great addition.)

I used the orange one on Wednesday - it worked out perfectly.

There was one more All Star-themed gift. I'll fill you in on that next week.

New Thing #152: A Spelling Bee Winner From Queens

Thursday night my Twitter lit up with Queens pride. The Mets had beaten the Yankees for the fourth game in a row, and the Scripps National Spelling Bee winner was a boy from Queens.

I didn't know which news to celebrate first.

The former is a big deal to me - anytime the Mets get the better of the Yankees it's a big deal for us Mets fans.

The latter - well, it's a little less universal, but I had cause to celebrate:

I once knew a boy from Queens who was good at spelling....

My wife LOVES to poke fun at me for this.

As a matter of fact, she did so in a very public way 7 (!) years ago now, when she took over my sports blog for a few days while I was on a school camping trip. (It's entertaining stuff - after you click the link above you can read the May 30 and 31st entries here.)

I was a 4-time spelling bee winner at my elementary and junior high schools - I won in 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th grades.

Winning my school spelling bee advanced me to the District Spelling Bee - District 30, for those of you scoring at home. Each year, though, that was the end of my journey - I don't even know if there was a regional bee after that, or straight to the state spelling bee.

To be honest, I never really got close to finding out.

One year I was knocked out on 'whimsical' - I think I didn't put in the 'h'. Another year - and if you read the link to my wife's writing, you know this - it was 'terrarium'. I tell my students every year that they're lucky to be exposed to a bit of Latin and Greek as they study languages, because had I even thought to ask about language of origin on 'terrarium' I still wouldn't have realized when I was a kid the Latin 'terra' root rather than thinking it was spelled like 'pterodactyl' (which I think is a Greek root).

It's made worse when I remember shortly after being eliminated seeing one of the next kids get to spell 'apron'.

One of the best moments of my childhood was spelling 'facsimile' correctly to win the PS2 Spelling Bee. My teacher was in awe - she didn't think I even knew the word. I did, because a worksheet we had done that week had the word featured on it. It was quite a coincidence.

Anyway -  I tell you this because the winner of the National Spelling Bee this year followed a similar path as yours truly.

True, he went to Middle School 74 in Bayside rather than PS2 or JHS 141 in Jackson Heights. And yes, he's Indian-American, just like the past 5 winners of the National Spelling Bee. And you're right, he won the earlier rounds whereas I did not.

But we were both Daily News competitors (the New York Daily News sponsors the New York bees, and then sponsors the New York winner in the national competition). And I feel like he completed the journey I never could.

Congratulations to Arvind Mahankali for winning the Bee. He's taking some heat for not celebrating after he won. I don't blame him - I don't know what I would have done if I won at that age. Which I didn't.

Which leads to another important difference between me and Arvind. He's 'retiring' from spelling now. What's he doing next? Studying physics all day. I just never had that kind of academic discipline.

But I sure could spell 'discipline'.

Here's a look at his winning word:

New Thing #110: Stephen Strasburg vs. Matt Harvey

On Friday night I went to Citi Field to see the Mets play the Nationals. Or, more accurately, so I could see Matt Harvey pitch against Stephen Strasburg.

I know not all of you are big sports fans, so here's why this is a big deal:

Stephen Strasburg is the Nationals ace - he was the number one overall draft pick and has lived up to all the accompanying hype.

Matt Harvey is a Mets first-round draft pick who came to the majors last year with significantly less fanfare...and has far exceeded any accompanying hype.

Here's all you need to know about Matt Harvey Friday night: In the 7th inning he gave up the only run the Nationals would score, and, after an error and a couple of hits, was facing a bases loaded, no out situation.

He dug down, consistently surpassed 90 miles an hour as his pitch count ticked past 100, and got a strikeout, foul pop, and ground ball to second to get the Mets out of the inning. (The above picture is Harvey's last pitch of the night - number 105 - on which he induced the grounder.)

The Mets went on to win 7-1. (Another highlight? 2-homer games by Ike Davis and Lucas Duda - both homers coming one batter away in the 6th and 8th innings. The Killer D's!)

I have to be honest, though. While I was hoping I would see a Mets win, I was really hoping I would see a no-hitter...if not by Harvey, then by Strasburg. In the first inning the Mets notched their first hit, which was fine by me...but Harvey lost his in the 3rd inning to the opposing pitcher. (Reminding me that I was at R.A. Dickey's one-hitter when the only hit he gave up was to the opposing pitcher.) So while it was an exciting game, it wasn't all that I was hoping for. (I also hoped, once I saw where we were sitting, that I'd leave with a foul ball. I barely missed an Ian Desmond foul pop that bounced off the hands of the woman sitting in front of me.)

The other thing about this game is how distracted I was by what was happening in Watertown, Massachusetts. I was on Twitter and texting with my wife throughout the game to find out if there was any progress on the hunt for 'Suspect #2' in the Boston Marathon bombings. And there was a lot of progress. Amazingly, it was the first time I was able to consistently use my phone at a baseball game - usually my 3G at ballparks is terrible. Friday night I had a clear connection. (In the 7th inning the Mets put the news of the arrest on the scoreboard.)

I bought the tickets for Friday night's game on Thursday afternoon at Citi Field. I knew a while ago that I was going to go to the game...it wasn't until the Mets played on Thursday that I knew Matt Harvey would be going for the Mets and pitching against Strasburg.

It may end up that I'll see future Harvey-Strasburg matchups. Ace versus ace for division rivals...it'll happen often over the next 10-15 years, if their arms cooperate. But walking up and buying tickets the day before such a matchup? And ending up with the great seats we had?

That might make this New Thing a Once-in-a-Lifetime Thing as well.

New Thing #96: Coining A Nickname

I came up with a nickname while watching the Mets the other night. It was Wednesday night, and they won 11-2.

They got contributions from a few of their young players - prime among them Matt Harvey, who is so fun to watch.

But this nickname is not about him.

It's about the guys who contributed on offense: Ike Davis and Lucas Duda both hit long home runs...and of course, David Wright was in the mix as always.

David, Davis, and Duda?

I might start thinking of them as the Killer D's.

I know - it's not terribly original...but what nicknames are, really?

Baseball has seen the Killer B's of Houston...the Killer D's are clearly a play off that.

I'm just publishing this before someone else does. I want to be the first to have the unoriginal idea.

It's a lot of wishful thinking - because there's a lot of wishful thinking surrounding Davis and Duda. It's not often that they have had big games together - I don't know the numbers, but Wednesday could have very well been the first time they both homered in the same game.

But if the Mets are ever to have a big year or some great success, they're going to need some bats to come alive...and Davis and Duda will have to be a big part of that. David Wright is one you can count on being a contributor. So we're OK there.

If the Killer D's are slamming home runs, with the pitching the Mets have at the major and minor league levels, we're shaping up for an exciting future for the Mets.

If they aren't contributing, then the Mets won't be doing well.

But the nickname might still fit. Rather than the baseball, it'll be Mets fans' hopes falling victim to the Killer D's.

New Thing #75: Designing A T-Shirt

The Mets have a Social Media Night at Citi Field on April 24th. I think last year was the first one.

This year (and maybe last year - I'm not sure I know if they did this or not - I seem to remember a fan-designed t-shirt involving Mr. Met and the Liberty Bell but that could have been for something else) they invited fans to design a t-shirt for the team to give away that night.

The winner gets, besides the pride of having designed a t-shirt, a chance to meet a player and attend the game that night.

The contest ended at midnight last night, and for a week or so I kept forgetting about it.

At about 9 o'clock last night I remembered and decided to give it a go.

I doubt it's very original. I went with the old "Tweet rhymes with greet!" approach, substituting 'tweet @Mets' (@Mets or #Mets or Mets.com had to appear on the shirt somewhere) for 'greet the Mets', from the "Meet The Mets" song.

Judging for the winners is weighed as follows: 40% on creativity and originality (I don't know that mine was all that original), 30% team spirit (come on. I know I have 100% of that 30%), and 30% overall artistic quality (um, well, I'm not all that artsy).

Some observations: I hadn't written that many block letters since probably junior high school. Which is probably the last time I also drew that many 'Mets' in script. I'm not even sure it's OK for me to be publishing my submission here. (Our secret.)

I hope they don't take points off for handwriting - I have to think if my design wins they'd put some kind of type-written font on that shirt. No one wants my handwriting on a t-shirt.

You have to admit - it's not a bad slogan, right?

I'm not expecting to win. Or maybe I am. But I couldn't pass up the opportunity to submit something.

I'm not getting my hopes up, at least. April 24th is a Wednesday night - it's a long shot for me to even attend the game.

But I sure would try if I won the contest.