Joey's Small Bites: Be Careful What You Wish For

Last night I was at Yankee Stadium hoping to see the Mets take the second game of the Subway Series (and sampling some tasty Yankee Stadium chicken nachos, as you can see from the photo to the left). If you read my post-game recap, you'd know that I was complaining about how the Yankees can only score runs when they hit the ball over the wall. After all, they had scored more than half of their runs on homers. No other team in baseball based their offense on the home run more than the Yankees. (Arizona was second, scoring 38% of their runs on homers.)

I wasn't the only one to notice this, as today both SNY and the YES Network brought it to their viewers' attention. (Thanks so much for sharing that with your viewers, but I kinda beat you to the punch.)

So apparently the Yankees must have read my post last night. How else could you explain what happened in the seventh inning today in the rubber match of the Subway Series? Let's set up the situation in case you were doing something else like doing the math to figure out when the next "End of Days" was going to be.

The Mets were leading 3-1 going to the bottom of the seventh inning. On Friday night, the Mets held a 2-1 lead going into the seventh inning and went to their bullpen. Mike O'Connor, Jason Isringhausen and Francisco Rodriguez combined to retire all nine Yankee batters to face them to preserve the victory for R.A. Dickey.

Today, Terry Collins left Mike Pelfrey in the game to start the seventh inning. A few minutes later, the tying runs were on base with no one out. Did Collins take out Pelfrey there so that he couldn't lose the ballgame even if both runs scored? No, he left him in there to face Francisco Cervelli, who was trying to sacrifice the runners to second and third. Cervelli sacrificed his body instead, getting plunked by Pelfrey's first pitch near his left shoulder.

So did Collins take Big Pelf out then? No, he left him in to face Derek Jeter, who has the highest batting average against the Mets of any player in history. Of course, Jeter promptly singled up the middle to tie the game. A few batters too late, Collins popped his head out of the dugout and removed Pelfrey, but the damage was done. Actually, the damage was just beginning and some of it was my fault.

If you remember, I kept making fun of the Yankees for not being able to manufacture runs. Prior to the seventh inning of today's game, the Bronx Bummers had only scored one run all series without the benefit of a home run. Then came Derek Jeter's two-run single. That was followed by every bloop and bleeder you could imagine. By the time the inning was over, the Yankees had scored eight runs to turn a 3-1 Mets lead into a 9-3 debacle. It was enough to drive a bear to drink. And drink. And drink some more.

I have no idea what's going on.

So to recap today's game, the Mets had the lead for most of the game, the Yankees told me to "take my blog and shove it" and I'm about to throw up.

At least the Mets won't have to play at The House That Juice Built until next season. I don't think I could take another series of Yankee fans teaching us how to count to 27. (Yes, we know how many championships you've won. We're also aware of your IQ. You don't need to tell us both at the same time.) Let's hope things finish for the better when the Yankees visit Citi Field in July. Let's also hope I feel better by then. I might have to lay off the chicken nachos for a...a...HWAAAARRRRFFFF!! (Excuse me.)

The Voice of God Is Silenced: R.I.P. Bob Sheppard

In lieu of our usual attempt at witty commentary on the state of the Mets, Studious Metsimus would like to step aside to talk about something that has affected not only the Yankee community, but all of baseball as well.

With sadness in our hearts, we regret to inform you that legendary public address announcer Bob Sheppard passed away this morning at the age of 99.

The man who Reggie Jackson dubbed "The Voice of God" served as public address announcer for the Yankees from April 17, 1951 (Yankees vs. Red Sox) until the end of the 2007 season, when deteriorating health forced him to move away from the microphone.

Mr. Sheppard also served as the public address announcer for the New York Giants football team from 1956 to 2006.

Mr. Sheppard was a true New Yorker, born and raised in Mets country, Queens. In 1932, he graduated as president of his class at St. John's University (which is also the alma mater of this Studious Metsimus blogger). He later went on to teach speech at St. John's, although I never had the honor to take his course.

As a person who was far more comfortable with the written word than the spoken word (hence why I'm a blogger), I eschewed speech for other courses until I was forced to take it during my senior year. Mr. Sheppard was not teaching a speech course at a time I could take it during my senior year.

Although Mr. Sheppard always claimed that his work as a professor of speech was much more important than his work as an announcer, his legacy will always be as "The Voice of God", the man behind the microphone at Yankee Stadium and Giants Stadium.

His legend is so great that the Yankees have a plaque dedicated to Mr. Sheppard in Yankee Stadium's Monument Park, an area usually reserved for the great athletes who wore the Yankee pinstripes.

Both of the stadiums that were home to Mr. Sheppard are no longer with us. Now the man whose voice reverberated through those hallowed halls has left us as well. Rest in peace, Mr. Sheppard. Although your stay on this Earth was only temporary, your voice is everlasting and will be heard and recognized throughout eternity.

Michael Sergio Is The Key To Canceling The World Series

Do you remember Michael Sergio? He was the man who parachuted into Shea Stadium during Game 6 of the 1986 World Series. He made a perfect landing near the pitcher's mound unscathed and then was taken into custody without any further incident. No harm, no foul. He was escorted to the 109th Precinct and was released soon after his unexpected visit to Shea.

Does anyone have his phone number? Studious Metsimus would like to call him and his pilot to see if they can help cancel this year's Doomsday Series.

You see, life was simpler back in 1986. It was a time when Mets fans could run onto the field to celebrate division titles and not have to worry about police officers on horses trying to stop them.

Now if you try to do that, you'll get thrown down by dozens of police officers and security officers and YouTube will only show the most embarrassing parts of your romp on the field.

1986 was also a time when you could afford to take your entire family to a game without having to sacrifice an arm, a leg, one of your kidneys and your next child. Even World Series tickets were affordable.

If you were one of the fortunate souls who was able to score some tickets to Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, you spent no more than $40 for your seat. As shown by the picture to the right, field box seats (a.k.a. the most expensive seats in the house) for that game were only $40 each. You could have brought your entire family to the World Series and spent less money on your tickets than you would have spent on one of those new-fangled VCRs.

Of course, parachutist extraordinaire Michael Sergio must have been priced out of the World Series so he decided the watch the game from a less expensive seat.

Times have changed. Because of today's security concerns, if Sergio tried to do this now, he'd be...wait a minute. That just gave me a goofy, but brilliant idea.

If you know me or if you read this post written by my doppelganger at Mets Merized Online, you would know that I don't care who wins the World Series. I hate both teams involved. Maybe my dreams of a double forfeit can come true if I can get Michael Sergio to reprise his stunt at Yankee Stadium.

If he can fly over the Bronx and skydive into Yankee Stadium, maybe he'd raise some security concerns and the World Series would be canceled because MLB wouldn't be able to gurantee the safety of its players. After all, how can they know he's not armed?

Paging Mr. Sergio. Come in, Mr. Sergio. Would you like to help your fellow Mets fans out? Studious Metsimus can't guarantee that we can keep the fighter jets from shooting down your plane, but you can't worry about a few professionally trained military pilots with a full supply of ammunition when millions of Mets fans need you! Save our season, Michael Sergio! We're counting on you!

Percentage-Wise, Mets Drew Better Than The Yankees

Baseball is a game of stats. Even casual fans know the home run records (73* and 762*) and how many rings the Yankees have, although that might be due to those "Got Rings?" shirts worn by the Yankee fans.

Therefore, one stat I just uncovered might bring a smile to the faces of Mets fans. Mets fans might be disappointed that their team didn't do as well in the standings as their crosstown rivals did, but at least they showed up to cheer them on (until they decided to dress up as green seats during the final month of the season).











During the regular season, the Mets averaged 38,942 tickets sold per game. Citi Field has a capacity of 41,800. Therefore, the Mets sold 93.2% of their seats for their inaugural season at Citi Field.

By comparison, the Yankees sold an average of 45,918 tickets per game, but the official capacity at the new Yankee Stadium is 52,325. Therefore, they only sold 87.8% of their available tickets.

Although team officials have said otherwise, none of the first four playoff games played at Yankee Stadium has been a sellout. In fact, only one game had a paid attendance of 50,000 and that one barely cracked the mark. Here are the attendance figures for each playoff game so far:

• ALDS Game 1 vs. Twins: 49,464
• ALDS Game 2 vs. Twins: 50,006
• ALCS Game 1 vs. Angels: 49,688
• ALCS Game 2 vs. Angels: 49,922

On average, Citi Field had slightly under 3,000 seats available for sale for each REGULAR SEASON game played. Yankee Stadium has a similar number of available seats for PLAYOFF GAMES.

This is a team that hadn't played in an ALCS since 2004 and they can't sell 50,000 tickets for the games against the Angels!

Had the Mets made the playoffs, I'm sure each game would have been sold out. After all, the Mets sold nearly every seat at Citi Field during the regular season while the Yankees averaged more than twice as many unsold seats at their new ballpark.

Of course, buying tickets at Yankee Stadium might cause Yankee fans to have to take out a second mortgage on their homes, but this is the playoffs. Even former Indianapolis Colts coach Jim Mora was stunned to hear that the Yankees couldn't sell out playoff games.

Perhaps I'm just a jealous Mets fan who can't find anything else to write about now that the Mets are playing golf and the Yankees and Phillies are still playing for the trophy. But I was one of those Mets fans who showed up at Citi Field this season despite the disappointing product I was paying to watch on the field. I was there for 20 games (about one-quarter of the home schedule) and plan on going to more games next season.

Real fans go to the games to share their love of their team with fellow fans. The Rockies sold out their playoff games and showed up during sub-freezing temperatures and threats of snow. Why can't Yankee fans show up in chilly weather? I guess Yankee fans don't want to share anything with their fellow fans other than their ubiquitous "Got Rings?" T-shirts. After all, those people in suits with the bulging wallets who occupy most of the seats aren't really fellow fans anyway.