Spring Breeze

Unless you have been living under a rock, spring baseball has been going one for almost a month. So in the spirit of spring, spring break, and baseball I took onto the road for the annual spring training trip. Here’s some things to consider for future Spring Trainers…  


Back of the Team PSL 2011

Game: Mets @ Braves
Venue: Celebration Stadium      
Seats: Berm
First off, sat on the Berm… in a park that is in Mouse territory. Which translates to $22.50 per person. The cost is $17 (still Berm) and the fees. Even if you wait to buy them at the park you will still pay $20 per ticket. Ouch. And I sat on the grass. Double Ouch. Oh, and no lawn chairs.

It is a convenient park if you are also hitting some touristy places in FL. I guess you can kill a few birds with that stone. You can see a few magical places, encounter a few Braves players and catch a game. But keep in mind that lots of other people will think the same.

Game: Tigers @ Nats    
Venue: Space Coast Stadium     
Seats: Bleachers – First Base Side
At this non-Mets game, I had the chance to see Verlander throw. The seats also gave me a first-hand view of Werth in a Nats uniform. And Nats fans are on the Werth-Wagon. Yes, the same over-rated, over-paid Werth we know, just in a different red uniform. Nothing else to say on that topic.

Venue wise,they have done lots to this place since my first visit in 2007. You can see the Nats’ batting practice across from the stadium and visiting team inside. Good place to get visiting team autographs. The seats were pretty good. For only ten dollars had the side view, enjoyed the sun, with the added bonus of the windy side that the park offers. The refreshing breeze is not as prominent behind home plate or on third base side.

Game: Braves @ Mets  
Venue: Digital Domain Park        
Seats: Upper Reserved – Behind Home Plate
Went to see workouts, batting practice, base-running drills, and hear the guys joke about their abilities. Had a chance to talk to Buckholz about his routine and he signed for a few people.  Got Niese and Capuano to sign my official “Pitcher’s Ball” for the year. Left before the 9th inning when they pulled the W.

Awesome seats. For only twelve bucks had shade and breeze. Even felt cold. Don’t let “Row X” fool you.

Game: Mets vs. Tigers  
Venue: Joker Marchant Stadium                              
Seats: General Admission
In this park general admission only means you get to sit on the bleachers. There is a berm that costs only two dollars less but neither place has shade. You will be in the sun all game. So if that is not your cup of tea, more expensive tickets are recommended.  Cozy venue, lots of history for Tigers fans.

This venue allows you to go down to the side of the dugouts until batting practice is over. Saw the guys do batting practice and Bay, Pagan, and Hu came over to sign for the kids.Best Bargain: Digital Domain Park – Nope not biased. You can still catch a game for $6. Parking is only $5.


CascosSo far Best Venue: The venue formerly known as Dodgertown (Vero Beach) – too bad is closed.

Next Stop: Opening Night @ the park formerly known as Land Shark Stadium – Formerly known as Dolphin Stadium – Formerly known as Pro Player Stadium (Once Pro Player Park) – Formerly known… jeez….. just Mets @ Marlins.  And just for reference it is Sun Life Stadium (as of 2010).

From NY to CA

All-Star Voting

As you know David is second in the race for starting 3B… and we are doing a special campaign for Angel Pagan to be voted in as Write-In.

You can check out our account on Twitter @Wrightoholics and use the #SendAnAngelToAnaheim tag to trend it.

Thanks in advance for the votes!!! Click here for the Online Ballot

  
 

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If you have a few bucks…


 
WelcomeHomeDinnerOne of the things we do on our blog is relay info on events concerning The DW Foundation, The Mets Foundation or any other baseball event/foundation that benefits the community.

 So if you have a few bucks to spare and want to do something good with it, here you go. Got this from the Leukemia & Lymphoma Site:

The Mets Annual Welcome Home Dinner will be held on Monday, April 5, 2010 at the Hilton New York, 1135 Avenue of the Americas (between 53rd and 54th Streets). The dinner, which includes the players, coaches and entire Mets organization, will officially welcome the team back to New York after their opening game at Citi Field.  Cocktails will begin at 6:00pm followed by dinner and a program featuring all of the Mets players and coaches.  Raffles and silent auction begin during cocktail hour.  The evening will conclude with a Mets autograph session, where guests will have the opportunity to obtain autographs from their favorite Mets players. 

Tables range from $10,000 to $25,000
Individual tickets = $1,000
Raffle tickets = One for $25 or five for $100

For More Information Call  718.803.4074

Going over schedules…and keeping scores.

Today – after my blunder of not going to see Astros vs. Blue Jays since I was already in Orlando – I decided to go over the Mets schedule to plan out some trips for the season. Yeah, I mean Opening Day is close and I should’ve thought about this a while back but, I guess I like the procrastination part of it.

First, Opening Day is during my spring break and there’s still tickets available. Not bad prices… or maybe prices that I am willing to break my piggie bank for. Now, I have noone to go with. Everyone either decided to go somewhere else instead of NY or they already took their vacation. I guess I am going to grill some hotdogs, put on SNY, put my TV outside and plaster my face with sunscreen. Score: Schedule 1 – Me 0

I made the decision of going to see the Mets @ ATL vs. my usual stint down in Citi Field South- umm sorry – Miami and the Stadium that changes names every 5 minutes. If I’m halfway either way, might as well go to a different park. But noooooo… what are the odds that Hotlanta doesn’t have a weekend series. Score:Schedule 2 – Me 0.

Then, I said oh ok so let me check Cali. I have been wanting to go to SD to see some friends and figured I could catch the Mets there… well au contraire to other years, the series is not in the middle of the summer. Score: Schedule 3 –  Me 0

The last option and maybe a different one would be trying to make the Puerto Rico series. Few people I know want to make the trip and I guess it could mean Baseball and the Beach. Besides, being that I am not going to the other options I am indeed saving money. Now, I need airfare prices on my side ‘cuz so far… this schedule is beating me.

Oh and today’s game? Yeah, you know what happened. If not, they lost in extra innings vs. WSH (5-7).

 

WDDD? (Meaning What Did David Do? In case you were wondering):

AB:3   H:3   HR:0   RBI:2   SO:0   SB:1   AVG: .317 

 

Tomorrow: Cards @ PSL  Game Time: 1:10pm

Spring… Oh, Spring…

The beginning of spring training always brings hope (insert sighs).

The end of spring?… endless discussions and undecided fans. Bloggers battle it out on cyber space… players go at it to earn that spot on the team. Or they sleep on their bases until the end of the season since they had a spot already (eehhh…. Murphy?).

Regardless, the experience of Spring Training this year was pretty complete for me. Personally is more for the excitement of starting again. Being able to be there and experience baseball just a tid bit before others. I got to see the Nats, Cards, and University of Michigan battling the Mets. I know by know you know scores and stats. I’ve never tried to provide what you can get somewhere else. I mean is more fun just to let out the rants and raves, right? Of course!

Here they go:
Convinced myself that the Marlins need their own place (Vero?) and decided that the Nats are doing a better job at fixing what they have. And happy because I made it to Tradition Field before they decided to change the name. I mean, really? Double D Park sounds like Pamela Anderson’s Playground.

Got some siggies and was able to make some wishes come true for some friends who had never been through the experince. And for a 5th straight year, I went to the park and didn’t get David Wright’s Autograph. Can you beleive it?

Here’s the season!!!!!
Later ‘Holics! 

 

The apple will rise…

Just had to write something small about it. We were talking over @ the Hot Foot Bleachers on how the apple was low on action. Low and behold we get a HR and then another one… Sad how they didn’t even think the Mets could get HR’s back to back & the apple suffers a delay.

But hopefully the apple will rise again…

Random Thoughts for the Day

Random thoughts…

– It is the Yankees turn. I guess maybe on a wild guess… they will not have as many HRs? Let see the result on a change of scenery.

– The Mets are only 0.5 games out of first place. However, the Stinky Fish are only 1 game out. I guess we haven’t looked @ the overall standings that much.

– All-Star voting ends July 2. David and Beltran are the front runners from the Mets. Even when Beltran may not play due to his DL status, it is the thought that counts. And with David make sure you vote. There’s people going around saying how Larry deserves it more.

– Hopefully I can make it in time to watch the end of the game tonight.

Catch U Later ‘Holics!

David Wright 2009 prediction!!

      Hello everyone, Its John and i am back at the helm Wrighting yet again. It has been quite a while since my last post as i have been extremely busy finishing up at College and am quite happy that the School life is almost finished. Alot has happened since the last time i was on MLBLOGS, the hated Phillies won a world series ( who could have ever dreamt that), the Mets bullpen bllew 789 games, the mets signed k rod and traded 28 players away for JJ Putz, gas prices went down $1.50, Obama became president, my fantasy baseball team came in 2nd thanks to David Wrights performance at the end of the season and last but not least, the Mets pulled apart Shea Stadium piece by piece ( even selling hot dog vendor pieces for 200 a pop).  Shea Stadium ran its course and i know its been said about 2,000,000 times over the past 44 years but who cares, the place is a dump and needed to go. I did have some amazing memories throughout the years there but for the past year, horrible memories with a revolving bullpen door and a bunch of blown wins in the process. The signing of K-Rod and the aquisition of JJ Putz hopefully will make the mets bullpen formidible again and as i always say, right now it looks good but can they produce on the field come april or even come September in the spotlight. Keep in mind that Putz played in Seattle, Not under the bright lights in NY. He also is coming off a injury riddled year but i think he will perform and i just pray he can bring AC/DCs track thunderstruck with him as well to Citi Field. ( For those of you who normally dont watch Mariners baseball, that was his walk out song from the bullpen, heres a clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_M6KgtNKD8).

    Now this brings me to my favirote team, the METS. We all know they have a good lineup and what not but i think this year is the year that Reyes and Wright hopefully can continue to hit in bunches and not hit snags like they did last year. They are not rookies anymore and we cannot treat them like rookies by giving them mulligans every year. They really have to pull together a season without too many bumps is what im saying. This is Wrightoholics after all so we cant rip on the guy too much. David Wright brings so much to the table, ringing endorsement deals, 278 home run seasons, 800 rbi games, but i just want him to do that on a daily basis and my fantasy baseball team does as well. Okay, the 278 homers and 800 rbi games is a lie but he is CAPABLE of it! He just needs to stay focused .

      I think the Mets will be great again and hopefully they can do it this year at a beautiful new stadium in which i have already purchased my tickets too! I just hope they dont have another collapse like my other team did the past week, WAY TO GO JETS! Seriously, how bad does everyone feel for me? I like the Mets, Jets, Knicks! They all stink and 2 of 3 of them collapse like a slinky. I need a title soon, this is all getting to me. I have been taking Valium to try and keep my emotions sane.

      I hope everyone can continue to come back here and listen to me banter on about how life and baseball conincide with one another and JOHN is here and hes back. I will be writing on a daily basis once again with some off days to spare. MLB NETWORK ROCKS!

   Wright Tracker will be updated for 2009. Heres a predicition. 473 avg, 98 hrs, 893 rbis, 78 steals. Making this the best statisical season of all time.

 

 

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Winter Time

Baseball Claus is bringing some new gifts for Mets fans. Things are brewing and contrary to rumors and rumors they are actually becoming something.

I am back as you can tell and bring back a story from my first Winter League experience in Puerto Rico.

Some of you may have seen the report on metsblog.com regarding some Mets scouting that I came across. Buut of course I am going to complain in regards to another game I went to.

Winter League had Inter League while I was there. For a weekend the Dominican League and PRican League where flying 3 teams to respective places to play against the locals. This is how it went down:

6:30 pm – Got to the park for the game that started @ 7:30pm

7:30 pm – Still no game

8:15 pm – Still no game

The game was not started until later that night… say 9:30… because of other issues in my schedule I had to leave without seeing a game.

Mr_MetisSad.jpgThe league didn’t give the money back or were not really acommodating with the whole issue. All they were doing were blaming other people for the fact that the players were late.

We later heard that the teams didn’t board a plane until 4pm that afternoon because Dominican players were held @ their airports for lack of proper papers. Then some people in PR were saying that it was all because of the San Juan airport.  

I can understand that things come up but they know how it works. If you know that a process is going to be that long make plans to fly a day early. You don’t come in to a game half hour before it starts.  

I am not blaming one side more than the other. They definitely need to plan better for future years because the game promised to be a fun one.

The interaction within the fans was interesting and of course watching Ian Kennedy vs. Fausto Carmon for $10 bucks was going to be a steal. 

It is the off-season… or is it?

By:D

I know that you are not looking for rumors, trades or trading rumors like in any other sites. There’s plenty of sites who dedicate every single breathing moment to it. And there’s ESPN in case you don’t feel like surfing the ‘net. With that out of the way, the off-season blogs (at least here) will focus on a few of the Mets news and David’s antics. No worries we will have our opinions on the trades and such.

Example #1: I think the Yankees are bullying everyone else with the CC thing.

Example #2: Please Mets, get rid of Heilman. Yeah, yeah I know some people still feel he could be a starter but let’s face it his stint on the Mets has not being the most productive. Blame misuse, misunderstanding or mis-ptiching it will just not work.

Now, with THAT out of the way we want to offer congrats to David for his Gold Glove and his Sliver Slugger Awards.

We are back on ‘Holics!