Watching Bartolo Colon with a bat in his hands is one of the indelible pleasures of the 2014 season. It looks like this:
We make fun of the Mets a lot around here, which is as natural as breathing. But just think: if there were no New York Mets in the world, then we would have no opportunity to watch Bartolo Colon swing a bat. That reminds me of this particular scene:
Tonight we celebrate the fortieth anniversery of the setting of a record that will never be broken.
And it was set by perhaps the only man worthy of being called a true hero. A story of good and evil, redemption and growth, and a clear example of how to live and lead in the years following the struggle.
It is the one sports story that I believe is worth the re-telling. When my son was twelve, he and I stood in Cooperstown where we spent two solid hours discussing the good and the bad of that night and those times. He couldn’t get his arms around the intensity of the hatred directed at this strong and patient man.
Can’t believe I won’t be there (health issues), but will be glued to the broadcast. Forty years. Simply can’t believe it.
Bold prediction: By August, Bartolo Colon will be a Brave.
Henry Aaron and my dad were my two heroes growing up.
Still are.
I thought Colon looked pretty good in that at-bat. Good timing and balance on the toe-tap, nice short swing, solid contact right out front, just caught it a tad low on the barrel. His sprint to first is a different matter.
To the surprise of no one, the presentation of Hank’s UGA-style jersey got the loudest cheers.
Good god, Harang is an ugly SOB.
John Smoltz is 100xs better than Joe and Chip
That AB was uglier than Aaron Harang.
Watching Bupton swing through three slop fastballs right down the middle never gets easier, just more and more tiring.
Watching Heyward and BJ swing thru fastballs makes me wonder if they make much contact during bp. Those two swing thru pedestrian fastballs constantly
http://joeposnanski.com/joeblogs/its-not-that-good-to-be-the-king/
That was just terrible pitch selection. Keep bouncing curve balls farther in front of the plate until u finally throw the wild pitch. Great work
@7
Harangutan
I know he swung through three pitches, but I was encourage by BJ keeping his head on it.
This could be his third good game in a row. I promise not to complain until June.
@12 – That piece was just about as good as Henry Aaron.
Aaron Harang is silencing this critic.
I really don’t want to see any more first-pitch swings from anybody not surnamed Freeman or Johnson.
How did Bartolo Colon get so good again?
Yeah, the poor Mets bullpen won’t come into play as Colon throws about 10 pitches per inning. First pitch swings without squaring anything up
@19
Synthetic testosterone.
I wonder where this game ranks in terms of the heaviest combined weight of the two starting pitchers? Got to be pretty high.
That was ugly.
The Uptons are not good outfielders.
Justin Upton is not a good outfielder.
@21 How much of that stuff did that guy eat?
We have too many stupid people on the same team.
The pessimism is kicking in. For a team averaging 2.5 runs an outing … sigh, ballgame.
This went from “we could still win this one” to “probably not going to happen tonight” really quickly.
Not been our inning
…and then we lose Avilan. Great. This might answer the question of how we make room for Santana on the roster for his start tomorrow.
And our left-handed bullpen now consists of Ian Thomas. Help!
The things I tell myself when we fall behind:
1-0: “Well, we needed one to win anyway.”
2-0: “Well, it took 2 to win it ’til now anyway.”
3-0: “Well, we weren’t going to score tonight anyway.”
friggin mets had to take down another brave
Yep, Don Meredith (God rest his soul) would be warbling about now.
Oh my heavens—Simmons! Wow.
They haven’t hit a ball square since Freeman’s double in the first inning.
Edit- thanks Andrelton for changing that
And thank you, Andrelton, for ensuring that just 62.5 percent of our everyday lineup is at .600 or lower OPS.
This is not a very exciting team.
really thought hey was gonna get a big hit
Heyward since his home run a week ago: 0-for-21, 2 BB.
Well, most of that 62.5% isn’t this bad, so hopefully sooner and not later, things will turn around.
Sometimes it just ain’t your night. I’m only sorry that Hank had to watch.
I’m sorry for any of us that are watching.
This is not seamless
And the runner there was obviously safe on the replay…why that took 10 minutes is beyond me.
He has to make a pitching change. They won’t let Thomas warm up again
At least they got it right.
Replay is turning out to be exactly what I thought – an unnecessary delay in a game that too many (myself excluded) think is too slow in order to correct a statistically insignificant number of plays. Is it nice when your team gets a bonus on a reversed call ? Sure, but does the marginal benefit exceed the marginal cost ? Not to my eye.
And this game has been disappointing to say the least. We got a bonus start from Harang and can’t do anything against league average (at best) fastballs. We’re not dooooommmmed (yet) but our lineup has to somehow learn to put the ball in play (messirs Freeman and Johnson excluded).
Favorite stat heard in the pregrame show – take away the Hammer’s 755 HR and he still has 3000 hits. I knew this, but it still amazes me each time I hear it.
No one on earth classier than Hank Aaron.
Harang has given us two stellar starts. This offense is a serious problem.
Frankly, I don’t mind the delays in game caused by replay. It pisses me off when wrong calls stand and it makes me happy when right calls prevail even when they go against my team. It is elementally unfair when a bad call stands.
METS BULLPEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I guess when you are scoring less than 2 runs a game you need to be thankful that you are about to be 4-3 rather than 1-6.
Rather than mixing in our terrible hitters throughout the lineup I think I’d rather see Simmons hit 2nd and just forfeit 3 innings per game with Uggla/BJ/Pitcher at the bottom of the lineup. Might be better chances for big innings in those other 6 innings.
Why am I surprised that the Braves have trouble beating the Mets?
Might be time to give Heyward a day off and let Success lead off and play right field. Heyward is as lost at the plate as I ever remember
Too much of this lineup is the batting equivalent of the Delta Tau Chi pledge class, where 2 C’s, 2 D’s and an F put Pinto atop the list.
Fredi just pinch hit with Gerald Laird. With the bases loaded. In the bottom of the ninth.
And Gerald wisely taught him not to do that again.
Damn. We had a lot of balls that looked like they just barely missed the sweet spot of the barrel.
Damn it, Jason. Try not to hit it to the deepest part of the park next time!
I am only surprised Jason flew out and didn’t ground out to 2nd
As Mac would say, the Braves just love to tease us with hope that they would never fulfill.
Recapped.