Fifth Annual Y2K Thanksgiving Day Extravaganza

Two items of note before we kick this thing off.

First, is it really possible that we have fifth annual anythings around here? Have we really been doing this thing that long? We won't reach the official half-decade mark until next October, but since we had our fourth anniversary on October 12, I suppose we're in for a year of fifth annuals... pretty crazy.

Second, sorry for the lack of posts this week. We just moved back into our newly renovated apartment and the internet service is shot. Time Warner Cable is coming by on Saturday so we should be up and running again next week.

That all said, let's focus on this grandest of Y2K traditions, the annual Thanksgiving Day post. As I've had reason to comment the past two years, each time I write this post the list seems to get more and more depressing. In 2005 we were riding high, promise and potential were everywhere. In 2006 we'd fallen just short but you knew the team was on the right track.

Then 2007 happened and that was terrible. And then 2008 happened and that wasn't quite as bad but still, pretty painful.

None of it compares to 2009. There is virtually nothing as far as the on-field product is concerned to be thankful for this season.

But in the spirit of the holiday, we'll give this thing a go anyway. Sure enough, there are things to be thankful for. True, most have nothing to do with the Mets, but I promise some do. So without further ado and in no particular order...

1. Jeff Francoeur

That goofy smile. The awesome post-game interviews. The run through a wall mentality. The impossible-to-spell last name. Yes, we've been waiting for a player like Frenchy since Doug Mientkiewicz flamed out as a Met four years ago.

Frenchy was a hit almost immediately upon arriving at Citi Field; he was a breath of fresh air, somebody who didn't seem to care that the walls were high or that the team was shitty, he just wanted to play. I don't care how you perform, if you play like Francoeur, the fans are going to respect you. But when you can produce like Francoeur did as a Met, there's the potential they're going to love you.

He's not there yet, but he's off to a solid start.

2. The Idea of Ike Davis

Honestly, after following this team forever and watching them develop players of significance about once every 20 years, I'm fairly certain there's no hope that Ike Davis blossoms into the first baseman we've been waiting for since John Olerud and his helment held the position.

That said, everything you read about this kid is positive. He's raking in the Arizona Fall League, but what has me so excited is the .951 OPS he put up at AA Binghamton in 207 at-bats.

They say he won't be ready for the bigs until 2011, which means that when September comes and the Mets have no chance at the postseason at least we'll have some reason to show up at Citi and cheer. There's like an 86% chance he turns into a latter day Jorge Toca, but for now he gives us, if nothing else, hope.

3. Mex Back in the Booth

In this altogether devastating season where we lost about every meaningful player to injury, the thought that we would lose Keith Hernandez in the booth for good was almost too much to bear.

I think Ron Darling said it best in an interview after Hernandez's extension, which will keep him calling games through 2012 at least, was announced. I can't find the quote unfortunately, but essentially he called Mex the key to the vaunted Gary, Keith, and Ron lineup, saying he (Darling) and Gary would be too rigid without Keith mixing things up.

I think Ron and Gary are great, but as they are the first to say, no two of them are ever as good as all three are. In an offseason that is bound to be full of disappointment, this is one transaction that worked out well.

4. Brooklyn Heights

We dodged a bullet there mid-year when me and the wife were looking for a new apartment. We stuck our toe in the Manhattan waters, but ultimately we settled upon a new apartment just a block and a half away from my old one.

Someday, I imagine, I'll want to come back to Manhattan, but for now I'm really happy out in BK (particularly with Jay-Z dropping a new album; half the point of living in Brooklyn is saying "What!!" when a rapper says something about the borough). My sister lives in my old apartment now too so I've got my siblings in a 2-block radius... it's convenient.

5. Eastern Athletic Softball League

Last night I dropped the bomb on Sip... A.F.O.M.G. had been named Rookie of the Year for our softball league. I'm not one to brag but it was pretty fun rubbing that one in.

The whole league was awesome, everything I'd been looking for in a softball league since I graduated from college. The spring season can't come soon enough. I feel like Shaq in those Icy Hot commercials -- I want another ring so bad I can taste it.

6. Day & Age - The Killers; Tha Carter III - Lil Wayne

In a sense, this is my favorite part of these Thanksgiving Day posts. Writing about the albums that defined my year makes these posts snapshots in time that remind me instantly of where I was and what my life was like when I wrote them.

It's tempting to call Day & Age, the Killers' third disc, a return to form after Sam's Town, but that doesn't give Sam's Town enough credit. Opinions were mixed on the Killers' second album, but with Day & Age they returned, in large measure, to the synth-driven formula that made them stars with their first album, Hot Fuss. Highlight tracks include "I Can't Stay", "Spaceman", "A Dustland Fairtytale", "Losing Touch", "Tidal Wave", and "Forget About What I Said".

As for Tha Carter III... well, I was new to Weezy before this year. Driving home/to Ohio for Christmas last year, B.O.A.F.O.M.G. recommended I give the album a listen. From the first time I heard "Got a million duffled up / for / the / fuck / of it / shit" I was hooked.

The New Orleans Nightmare's third album is so packed with memorable lyrics that my friend Shabasito makes a regular habit of texting me lyrics that he finds hillarious. My personal favorite is "You better keep payin' me / cuz you don't want my problems / I be wilin' like Capital One / what is in your wallet?" but there are so many contenders that could change at any time.

Anyway, since listening to Tha Carter III I've downloaded the other two albums and a few mix tapes. Highlight tracks from Tha Carter III include "A Milli", "3 Peat", "You Ain't Got Nuthin'", "Got Money", ,"Phone Home", and "Let the Beat Build". Other standout Weezy tracks include "Best Rapper Alive", "Stuntin' Like My Daddy", "Tha Mobb", "Feel Me", and "Walk In".

7. My Health

Ever heard of intestinal metaplasia?  Neither had I; I'm still not entirely clear what it is, but for 6 months there was real concern that I had it.

I had this recurring stomach pain earlier in the year so I had an endoscopy done. To quote the doctor, I had the stomach of a "70 or 80 year old man"; not where you want to be at 26. In response it was no caffeine or alcohol for the next six months.

When he first handed own the prescription I didn't think there was a chance I could do it, but it ended up being a lot easier than I expected. The six months went by and when I went back in for my follow-up exam, the doctor, who said he was "stunned" and had not given me a chance, reported that I had staged a full recovery. No sign of metaplasia anywhere. The stomach of a 26 year old again.

If the 2009 Mets taught us anything it's that health is the most important thing. With the Mets succombing to injury all around me I had my own scare. More than anything else this Thanksgiving, I'm most thankful that I still have my health.

8. Readers Like You

The salvo I close each of these posts with, while cheesy, really is true. There's nothing I love more than checking the site and seeing that a lot of people have tuned in for that day's post, or that they've commented on the board.

Thanks so much for your continued patronage of Y2K. We lost Sip and Ched, but I like to think we've had a content-rich year all the same. Here's to five more years (at least).

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. 

- A.F.O.M.G.

But What I Really Am... Is a Starter!: A Brief History of Aaron Heilman

Poor Aaron Heilman.

The former Notre Dame phenom just can't catch a break, can he? First he comes to the Mets a highly-touted right hander, a first-round draft pick and the future of the Mets' rotation.

In spite of his college success, the Mets, ever wise when it comes to developing young talent, decide to alter his delivery, eliminating his sidearm style in favor of an over-the-top motion.

Heilman, always a starter throughout his collegiate and minor league career, breaks through to the big league club in spite of questionable minor league credentials. His major league debut comes on the same day as another former top Met prospect, Scott Kazmir. Kazmir shines, Heilman gets shelled.

In spite of The Game (a one-hit masterpiece against the Marlins that would fuel blogosphere starter/reliever debates for years to come), the Mets commit to using Heilman as a starter. Each offseason he asserts over and over that he's really a starting pitcher.

Before the 2006 season, the Mets give him the chance to win the job out of spring training. He dazzles in his spring audition. In his "Shooting from the Lip" column, Mike Lupica says he suspects "Mr. Heilman will win a lot of games for Mr. Randolph this year."

As it so happens, Mr. Randolph told Mr. Heilman to get his ass back to the bullpen, awarding the fifth starter job to photographing phenom Brian Bannister and his haircut.

Heilman transitions seemlessly to the bullpen, becoming a stalwart reliever and proving invaluable once Duaner Sanchez gets hurt in a taxi ride or something.

The Mets make it to the seventh game of a classic NLCS. With the score locked at 1-1 in the 9th inning, Randolph turns the ball over to Heilman. Heilman gives up an improbable homerun to Yadier Molina. October 19 becomes The Last Night of the Mets Dynasty. It's all Heilman's fault.

The offseason comes. Heilman insists he's really a starter, asks to move to the rotation, Randolph says no. Heilman has a shitty year, contributes mightily to devastating Met collapse.

The offseason comes. Heilman insists he's really a starter, asks to move to the rotation, Manuel says no. Heilman does better, Mets collapse anyway.

Three trades later, Heilman is the newest member of the Arizona Diamondbacks' bullpen. It just keeps getting better and better for him.

"Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it / And -- which is more -- you'll be a Man my son!"

Sometimes I think Rudyard Kipling wrote those words for Aaron Heilman.

- A.F.O.M.G.

Sick Six Drummer the Sickest Dude Alive?

As regular readers are aware, we're pretty big fans of The Strokes around here.

It's been a quiet three (soon to be four) years for the group as a collective, but individually the guys have been banging out solo albums left and right.

On November 3, lead singer Julian Casablancas became the fourth Stroke to release a solo disc, an 8-song epic called Phrazes for the Young (that streetwise "z" ought to silence those critics who complain the band's just a group of prep school posers).

In the run-up to the release, Julian and his band, The Sick Six, played lead single "11th Dimension" on The Tonight Show. To most, the performance was notable for Julian's much-maligned dance moves.

Not so for the Glass Man. For me it was all about the man handling the sticks. Clad in an 80's era Mets jacket similar to the one a fiery 4-year-old A.F.O.M.G. used to rock in Riverside Park and born with striking, if nonetheless somewhat goofy looking, features, this guy owned the show.

But you know what, don't take my word for it. See for yourself... Exhibit A, the man in all his glory:

Exhibit B (really going for it in this one):

And Exhibit C, taking a well-deserved breather after a job well done.

Honestly, I hope this guy never changes. I looked and looked for his name but couldn't find it anywhere; if someone's got it please let me know. Hell, if someone's got contact info send that along too, I'd kill for an interview. We've got to build this drummer up any way we can.

- A.F.O.M.G.

Long Term Greedy

As I read John Harper's piece about the Mets in today's Daily News (alternate title: "Spend, Baby, Spend"), it struck me that articles like this are exactly why New York teams feel they cannot stand pat during the offseason.

Actual title: "After dismal 2009, New York Mets must make splash with free agents Matt Holiday and John Lackey."

Certainly, there are a lot of people who feel this way. In a sense I'm one of them; if the Mets feel they can acquire a superlative player, I want them to do what's necessary to sign that player every time.

To Omar Minaya's credit, when it came to Carlos Beltran, Pedro Martinez, Billy Wagner, Francisco Rodriguez, and Johan Santana, he did that.

Last offseason there were two more superlative players available, C.C. Sabathia and Mark Teixeira. Either one of those guys would have helped the Mets immensely, but they made a run at neither of them. Beyond those two, in A.J. Burnett they let a proven version of Oliver Perez pass them by while they focused their efforts on... Oliver Perez.

The question the Mets need to ask themselves is whether Matt Holliday and John Lackey are really superlative type players, because chances are good they'll have to pay them as if they are.

What would that mean for the future? If the Mets signed both of those guys are they a playoff team? If they signed both of them would they be able to make a run at superlative type players next offseason, or would they have already committed as much as they could on superlative players?

I've voiced my skepticism on Holliday before, and for some reason every time I look at John Lackey I see Kevin Appier.

If the Mets conclude that signing both of these guys wouldn't make them a playoff team they shouldn't bother signing with it. The Yankees saw that signing Sabathia, Teixeira, and Burnett would make them formidable the next season and for years to come. Their moves had short-term benefits but they were also long-term greedy.

Would the moves Harper's advocating have a similar benefit for the Mets? It's possible, but when I see Holliday and Lackey I don't see Teixeria and Sabathia.

- A.F.O.M.G.

Bringing Home the Championship New York So Richly Deserves

We all know this decade (the Ohs? The aughts? Just two more months of this damned uncertainty!) hasn't been kind to the New York sports fan.

Sure, the Giants won a Super Bowl for the ages a couple years back, but aside from that it's been pretty slim pickins. The Mets brought home a pennant in 2000 and looked like aces in 2006, but they fell short of the ultimate prize both times.

The Knicks? Please; the team hasn't been the same since they swapped Spree for Keith Van Horn. The Rangers? They seem to make the playoffs with some regularity, but from what I gather, once there, they specialize in first or second round losses.

The result was nine mostly quiet years and ten mostly quiet months, an eternity by New York sports standards.

Yesterday, that all changed. Yesterday, the sons and daughters of Brooklyn rose up and won one for all of New York, ending the collective thirst for another championship after all these years.

Thanks in part to the intrepid first basemanship of Y2K Godfather Sippy Momo and the heroic left fieldsmanship of yours truly, Team 2 brought home the Eastern Athletic Softball Leauge title with two wins on a beautiful Sunday morning at Van Voorhees Park.

I'd heard the forecast, but, chastened by a week's worth of crisp, fall-turning-into-winter weather, when I left the house for the ballgame I was bundled up; sweatshirt, warmup pants, the whole thing.

By 10am it was as beautiful a day as we've had in weeks (months?), the kind of day that, with fall all around you and winter at your doorstep, reminds you of the warmer days left behind and offers promise of the warmer days still ahead.

It had been a great season; all fall long it was just great being out there. Ever since I graduated from college I'd been looking for a softball league. I finally found one and it was everything I'd hoped for; good level of competition, good field, all that.

More than anything though it was about the people.

It was a great way to reconnect with Sip, the world traveler. We were also paired with a former teacher of ours, Smitty, who was like the cool, young teacher while we were in school and hasn't changed a bit in that respect. Smitty's girlfriend and a friend of hers played on our team, and it was great getting to know them.

Dave the Speedster, Big John the MVP (of our team and the entire league), C.C. the Pitcher (who tossed a shutout in the title game), Jesse the Rico Brogna of the league... Otto, Mr. Clutch. Them and many others; just a really good group of people. We came together and we won it all.

For now we set softball aside. It doesn't seem fair or reasonable after a day like yesterday, but we know that yesterday was just a respite from the coming chill of winter.

When we return in the Spring it will be a new decade, complete with new hopes for our fair city's return to championship prominence. As this tortured decade draws to a close, it was nice to be part of one final redemptive act for the five boroughs.

This one's for you, New York. Now it's the Mets' turn.

- A.F.O.M.G.

The Curse Is Dead, Long Live The Curse

From the point the Yankees took a 7-1 lead it wasn't worth it to watch last night.

Today I won't be able to look at the papers.

When the ticker tape parade comes I'll bury my head in work.

As regular readers are aware, I was "pulling" for Philly in this Bad Meets Evil World Series. In the end, Evil prevailed, and in so doing, they broke the 9-year Yankees 2000 Curse that this website chronicled and celebrated.

The Curse is dead, long live The Curse.

What does it mean for us here?

I don't want to make any snap decisions, but I imagine in time we'll find a new URL and relaunch there. No need to update your browsers just yet; my technical know-how being what it is, we could be at Yankees 2000 for a long time to come. But without The Curse to celebrate anymore, being here at Y2K doesn't feel quite right.

It really is a shame. My disdain for the Yankees is truly immense, and the suffering of their fans (if you can call 9 whole years "suffering"... I've been waiting my whole life, or the part of it I can remember anyway) was a source of delight.

But the truth is that, for me, this site has always been more about loving the Mets than hating the Yankees. Anyone who's followed my writing here knows that. All of which is to say that the site will continue in one form or another.

At least I can take some solace in the fact that the Yankees were, by any objective measure, the best team in baseball this year; it's not like they "Yankees Magicked" their way to a crown, they simply played the best ball from May onwards.

Sigh... that's not much solace at all.

It's been a fun ride. The Curse is no more. The site will continue. Thanks for your continued patronage.

- A.F.O.M.G.

Anyone's Series

I'll never understand the sports media's obsession with premature postmortems. A team falls behind 3-1 in a series and all of a sudden they're dead and buried.

Now, I appreciate that very few teams have ever overcome a 3-1 deficit in a World Series (or League Championship Series for that matter). And I understand that the majority of World Series teams are very difficult to beat three games in a row.

But to my mind, a team down 3-1 is only one win away from making it anyone's series again, as the Phillies did with a win in Game 5. In drawing it to 3-2, the Phils are in a position now where they are one win away from an even series and all the momentum at their backs.

Don't get me wrong, any team that takes a 3-1 series lead is the clear favorite to win that series. But when I see articles like Gene Wojciechowski's the other day (subtitle: "New York is turning a potential classic into a ho-hum romp toward a 27th title"), I have to wonder where the sports media's sense of certainty comes from.

Maybe I shouldn't be so surprised. Sports commentators have been given to excessive hyperbole for years. Whenever they find themselves without a point they scramble for some machismo nonsense about how somebody has "no chance" to do something that's eminently doable -- why not? Says who?

I remember the articles the New York tabloids churned out in 2004 when the Yankees took their 3-0 lead on the Red Sox. Few things looked as certain as the Yankees winning the series, but we all know how that ended.

The point is that nothing is over until the final out is recorded. Reared on the '86 Mets tape and witness to too many Mets collapses against the Phillies/Braves/Cardinals than I care to remember, perhaps I'm just oversensitive to that point.

Maybe the Yankees win tonight and the writers get their preordained ending after all. I'm just saying, what's the harm in writing the obituaries only after the team is actually finished off?

* * * * *

As for now I'm looking forward to tonight. For one thing, I want Pedro to do well on the big stage against the Yankees. He's pitched too well not to be back next season, but a win tonight would cement his legacy against his principal foe. I also have a deep dislike of Andy Pettitte (very sick of his pick off move and hearing how he never loses in the big spot).

Moreover, if the Phillies can somehow come back to win this thing, can you imagine the ammo we'll have to use against Yankee fans? Like the collapse against the Red Sox, a Yankees collapse in this World Series would pay dividends for years.

In an otherwise dreadful season, it's the last, best hope we've got.

- A.F.O.M.G.

'Red Sox in 7. Mets in 7 Years'

It's funny how the mind works.

On Saturday a moment from my past came careening into the present, offering insight on a much-lamented past and a glimpse of a hoped-for future.

It was October 2004, and I was working with on a group presentation in an international relations class. I was randomly assigned with a few other dudes, jocks mostly, each of them a Yankee fan.

Back in those days I jocked the Red Sox pretty hard. Between their underdoggery, their fans' hatred of the Yankees, and their employment of Doug Mientkiewicz (if that last bit doesn't make sense to you, go back to some of our posts from 2005), the Red Sox had a lot of appeal to a Mets fan disgusted with the state of his own team.

More than anything it was about being in New England, in Massachusetts where the Red Sox ties run deep. Being in that environment, so far from the Mets, who were, in turn, so far from contention, pulling for the Red Sox felt right.

So me and the other guys in the group project were trading emails, some about our assignment, others about baseball. The Yankees had gone up 3-0 in the series, and the jocks were feeling good; worse, they had begun to gloat.

Sick of their gloating and anxious to stake a contrarian position, I responded to one of their emails with a rejoinder one half hope and one half pragmatism: "Red Sox in 7. Mets in 7 years."

Time bore out the former half of that prediction as the Red Sox shocked the baseball-loving world to win the ALCS, and later, the World Series.

And now (wishful-thinking-masked-as-lament alert) it seems time may yet bear out the latter half as well. It never felt that way in 2005-2006; hell, to a hopeful fan the pieces were falling into place as early as the end of 2004.

Back then there was room to hope, room to think that the latter half of the decade wouldn't be as depressing as its first five years.

You saw the pieces falling into place with David Wright, who debuted in 2004, and you knew he'd be a perennial 30-home run guy after he got a season or two under his belt.

Omar Minaya had been hired to clean up the mess left by Jeff Wilp... er, Jim Duquette. And sure, he'd made a few disastrous trades as GM of the Expos, but he was going to have full autonomy, bitches! Problem solved!

Jose Reyes, in full Mr. Glass mode, was injured every other second, but man, you knew that if he could just get healthy...

* * * * *

It was an exciting time. My "prediction" was tongue in cheek, self-deprecating; but here we are, 5 years later and the Wright-Reyes-Minaya "renaissance" has produced exactly one playoff appearance, one deeply dissatisfying playoff exit, one franchise-staggering collapse, its sequel, and the horror show that was 2009.

As I've written before, 2010 seems like it's pretty much shot as far as the Mets making the playoffs or being any kind of serious contender.

That leaves 2011, 7 years after my collegiate declaration. Red Sox in 7. Mets in 7 years.

The first half of the prediction came true. Maybe the stars will align for the second half.

We should be so lucky.

- A.F.O.M.G.