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February 7th, 2012
January 30th, 2012
... I'm not going to lie. Things are bleak right now. Team payroll has dropped ~$50 million from last season, Jose Reyes walked away to be with his gal-pal, Hanley, and ownership could be booted out at any moment for being dumb-dumbs with an incrediblly huge amount of money. But you know what? I don't care. Yes, one of my favorite shortstops to ever play the game is gone from my favorite team, but is it really that terrible? It wasn't a deal the Mets could or should afford to do. A $106 million / 6-year contract is insane for a guy with bad hamstrings who runs like crazy and can't even play like 60 consecutive games without being carried off the field. Would I have loved to see him on the Mets for '12? Sure. But not by sacrificing so much of the team's other needs for. Especially when they already have so many bad contracts. Yes, team payroll will sit somewhere around ~$90 million this season. It's not $140 million or even $110 million, but does that really matter? You can still make some noise with a reduced payroll (see: Texas Rangers, Atlanta Braves, Tampa Bay Devil Rays, and the St Louis Cardinals - all very recent post-season and world series contenders). An additional wild card team in the league for 2012 is going to be nice too. Though, had this wonderful, additional wild card slot been around recently, the Mets would've made the "playoffs" every year from 1984-1990, as well as 1997, 1999, 2000, 2006, 2007, and 2008. Yikes! Yes, things are bad for the owners right now, but is it really going to effect how the team performs on the field? The Mets are still going to play 162 games this year (and hopefully more). Satan's Asshole could be the owner and it wouldn't matter to me. As long as the team still plays in Queens, I really could care less at this point. I mean, new ownership would be nice because the current ones do drop the ball quite a bit, but as a die-hard fan, is there really anything else I should or should not be doing? I'm still going to watch the team, still going to listen to games on the radio, still going to go to games in-person, still going to follow along, and still buy merch. Side note: ESPN radio in Syracuse has finally come to their senses and will be broadcasting Mets games on 97.7 FM this year. Nice to see them getting a little respect here in 'cuse for once. What did that take, like 15 years? At any rate, bandwagon fans and the mainstream media are kind of all over the team right now. Some of it is deserved, but some of it is a little unwarranted. Especially when slimy beat reporters dredge up the same negative stories over and over again to try and make them look new. *cough* ESPN New York *cough* There's plenty to be negative about but there's some things to be positive about: seeing the true potential of younger guys (Davis, Duda, Tejada), seeing new pitching prospects closer to the end of the season (Mejia, Wheeler, Harvey, Familia), and looking for bounce-back years from Bay and Wright. Also, the fences are moving in at right field and the Mets have some decent new old-school style jerseys this season (so if they loose, at least they'll look good by doing so!). 2012 is a little different from the previous years because it's really the first season where the Mets really don't have any pressure to perform well. A better win / loss record would be nice, but the direction of the team is heading younger and cheaper until the inevitable 2014-ish season comes along when they can trim some of the fat. Maybe some individual players are going to have pressure (Santana for pitching a certain number of games, Pelfrey for not stinking, Bay for... trying to hit a baseball). But they're going to get ripped by the media whether they have a $3 million dollar payroll or $600 million dollar payroll (NY mainstream media = trolls), so it really doesn't matter either way. Everyone is picking them to fail, so what difference does it make what their payroll is right now? Either they have a low payroll and try to improve things from the ground up, or they have a high payroll, overpay for players, gut their limited farm system, and get into possible debt. I vote low payroll (for now). I think the Mets can seriously make a run at a wild card spot this year with all the IF's coming together. IF Bay returns to form. IF Wright can pull into right field. IF Duda and Davis continue to progress. IF Sanata is healthy. IF Tejeda can hold down shortstop. And IF the new and improved bullpen lives up to its expectations. If any of those don't happen, then there is limited hope. 2012 prediction: 81-81. Hoping for 87-75 with fingers crossed.
January 20th, 2012
January 19th, 2012
January 18th, 2012
 This has been sitting in my living room for about 48 hours; a barely half-way finished, 4-hour game of Conquest of the Empire between me, Petey, and Jeremy. It's like Risk and Sim City meshed together, basically. This probably isn't impressing the hot blonde (or anyone) that works in the office directly across the street from me who can see right into my living room. I either need window blinds or to STOP BEING SUCH A HUGE GEEK. I vote blinds. This game rules.
January 10th, 2012
 I'm not quite sure how often I'll wear it in Syracuse and I'm sure once I do, I'll never hear the end of it from my friends, but at least it's in the arsenal. Contrary to popular belief, I always wait too long to buy things that I really like and then when I finally make up my mind, they end up getting discontinued and I never see them again. Like I'm still thinking about these Japanese / retro-style bed sheets that I should've bought like 4 months ago. So needless to say, I had to pull the trigger here because I would've been pissed if it wasn't available anymore. Hopefully the gray is OK. Urban Outfitters in Armory Square only had the black ones in-stock in my size. I've never worn a black leather jacket before, or in this case faux-leather (wtf?), so I was a little aprehensive about it, as I didn't want to become one of those guys. The black kinda made me look like Justin Timberlake from Cry Me a River (without the shattering of windows, flying around on countertops, and creepily hiding in a closet). I also picked up a Pabst Blue Ribbon retro t-shirt. That should balance the metrosexual / heterosexual scale fairly well.
January 4th, 2012 This was the first New Years without inebriation since 2001, me thinks. Two weekends of driving around in New Jersey and one weekend of driving around in Boston and this boy needs a serious break of just sitting at home with few cocktails playing Uncharted 3. Whilst shooting up 12-year-olds. I have an addiction and it goes by the name of Ikea. I'm gonna chill out on the Facebook statuses and stati. The whole thing has been loosing its luster lately. I'm almost done fixing up the pictures section. I'm almost done furnishing my apartment. I'm going to start writing in The Eagle again soon. Eeeeeee. I heard this song on the car radio for the first time in years and it's impossible not to think of one of the funniest scenes of all-time. Especially while driving. I didn't know this until yesterday, but apparently I have 4 weeks of vacation time that I can accrue this year. It's extremely rad ass. This is officially the first winter where I'm looking forward to snow. And watching a snowstorm from my living room windows is pretty much amazing. My dream girl sat right in front of me at a Syracuse Common Counsel meeting and leave it to me to think of a clever one-liner well after the meeting had started. Goddamn you, brain!
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