2004 Baseball

Mets 10 Braves 6

Monday Afternoon
Shea Stadium

With Jamie, Dave, Sujan Alex B.

My third home opener in eight days. Hot damn! While this game wasn’t as cold as the one in Baltimore, it was pretty damn frigid. Dave wasn’t bothered though and had plenty of carrots and edamame to go around. The edamame was supposedly to welcome Kaz Matsui to Flushing. If that wasn’t enough of a welcome, Sujan’s scream of his name had me in stitches. It has to be heard to be believed.

So again, the drama on every Opening Day at Shea, (other than what idiotic new pattern they will carve into the grass) is what will the new players’ nicknames be on the scoreboard? Last year’s “Cliff Banger” and “Glaviator” additions were disappointing to say the least. What would Matsui’s be? Sujan came up with these three gems: “Kaz-Tastic”, Matsui-eeet” and “Kami-Kaz-Ee.” Dave came up with “Bat-Sui.” We were all wrong. All the Mets could come up with is “The Great Kazu” with a graphic of the Great Gazoo from The Flinstones with a picture of Kaz’s face superimposed. Mike Cameron, on the other hand, is the proud owner of my new favorite (next to Leit’s Out, of course) “Lights, Cameron, Action.”

The day before the game, Piazza and Floyd were injured in Puerto Rico. That, along with Reyes’ lingering injury led Art Howe to pencil this combo in the 2-3-4 slots: Ricky Gutierrez, Shane Spencer, and Todd Zeile. Ugly. But, it didn’t matter. The Braves were missing Adam Laroche, Chipper Jones, and Rafael Furcal. The Mets pounded turncoat Mike Hampton to the delight of the delirious fans chanting his name derisively. Zeile and Spencer went a combined 5 for 9. New Mets Cameron and Matsui each contributed two hits and each played sparkling defense. The Mets took a 10-0 lead after 6 and then coasted. Maybe the Mets will contend this year!

Most interesting topic of the game- ballplayers with food as a name.

From Jamie’s blog:

on a lighter note, at this week's Mets home opener, i started talking with Sujan about baseball players and managers named after food. my tangential brain picked up the task today and here's a pretty decent list:
Cookie Rojas, Darryl Strawberry, Mike Lamb, Jim Rice, Bill Bean (not Billy Beane), Chet and Bob and Jim Lemon, Johhny Oates, Zack Wheat, Bobby Wine, Clarence Beers, Sweetbreads Bailey (real name Abraham Lincoln Bailey), Pepper Martin, Ginger Beaumont, Peaches Graham (2 foods in 1), Peanuts Lowrey, Tom Butters, Noodles Hahn, Candy Maldonado, Bake McBride, Tim Crabtree, Dizzy and Steve Trout, Felix Pie (Cubs OF prospect), Tim Salmon, Pork Chop Pough (1995 Eastern League All-Star), Vinegar Bend Mizell, Sugar Cain (really!) David Cone, Chip Hale, Kevin and Randy Bass, Rob Deer, Eddie Bacon, Eddie Mayo, Pickles Dillhoefer

For even more, check out the comments page of Apes.

Jamie (before he decided to jump on the Red Sox bandwagon) and Dave (before he decided to arrive at every game in the 3rd inning and leave in the 7th).

Posted by dan at April 12, 2004 07:21 PM