Kevin Burkhardt Is Wildly Underpaid

A trip to Shea on Friday for a little of the Dodgers and who do we park next to? Kevin Burkhardt.

Burkhardt is one of the bright spots of the Mets broadcasts and he is so good at what he does that he will eventually be sucked up by the Death Star of microphone-guys, ESPN. It’s inevitable. And it will be a loss for the Met faithfull. KB was a nice guy and quickly posed for a snap.

Then he took off and we all realized, “…boy, Kevin drives a pretty basic car to the game”, that is for a guy we worship. I think we are just conditioned to thinking that if a guy is on-camera, then he must be a millionaire. While I would not want to bet against KB being a millionaire in 20 years or so, he is surely underpaid now and deserves a raise. C’mon Los Mets. How about some dinero for the El-Burkhardt? –fog

I will be doing several Mets posts to cover my trip to the big, loud, ear-splitting, purple bowl of overpriced seats out in Queens. One preview though is that NOISE will be a theme. We have to band together as fans and stop this goddamned noise that they ASSAULT us with at the game. I could not converse with my nephew sitting in the seat right next to me at times, and I STILL came home with a horse throat from trying to talk over the lousey, goddamn, 40 year old, bad BTO music that they pump in. The sound effects, the in-game noises, they are just a disgrace. We need to band together and boycott the joint until we get some quiet at the game. NO ONE, goes to a baseball game to hear this crap. It’s so bad it just has to stop. I plan on starting an internet campaign to stop the madness.  I want to post a petition and have Mets fans sign it and then present it to the pinheads who cause our in-game hearing loss.  Baseball fans come to games to see and TALK ABOUT BASEBALL–NOT to hear bad, blaring music and /or soundeffects.  And I’m not even going to get into the fact that the Mets brass are actively trying to make Shea seem like Cuba or Mexico or Puerto Rico.  I thought it was in America.  I thought Americans like to go to baseball games for 130 years now and speak English and enjoy the game.  I am, apparently, mistaken.  Stay tuned. –fog

Willie Randolph: Deer In The Headlights

Being home with Tommy up all night crying has made me watch more TV than I normally would. Has anyone seen this ESPN thing on which athlete is “more Now”?

Scott Schoeneweis - New York Mets

The Mets have sent Fighting Joe Smith down to AAA, and yet, here today I see Scott Schoeneweis getting in the game and here’s his line: 2/3’s of an inning, 2 Hits, 2 Earnies

Torre Augering In

The first Mets-Yanks tilt of the 2007 season was last night. This series, and the Yanks-Boston series that immediately follows it, are turning out to be loaded with Yankee subplots due to the under-performance of the Big Bloated Payroll in the South Bronx. People are buzzing! At Max’s game last night, you heard the score going round on the bleachers as parents watched their kids. That’s when you KNOW people are plugged in. Andy got Endy’d last night. He’s our Sandy Amoros, this Endy Chavez. Our Dusty Rhodes. Our Al Weiss. (For those going, “huh?”, look it up!).

Joe Smith Mets Scandal

I was complaining that the page view stats were down on the Pinetar Rag so Mrs. Pinetar suggested a scandal to grab readership. So we went with that angle. Only, as far as I know, Joe Smith is just a super nice guy and has never been in any kind of scandal in his life. He’s been very effective and his addition to the Mets makes letting Chad Bradford go (for a few extra bucks) sensible now, in hindsight. Because Wilhelm sure liked to run Bradford out there often last year.

Anyway, last week, or the week before, when we went in to RFK in Washington DC early, there was no BP since it was a day game after a night game and that often is the case. We walked down to the field and there was Joe Smith signing a few autographs. I told Max to get down there and stick his hat out. Then Smith walked away. Then someone pleaded with him. He caved instantly and returned and spent a good 10 more minutes signing. He got Max about 3 kids after returning.

I gave a big “Thanks Joe!” to him after he signed for Max and he really seemed to like that, and acknowledged it. I think half the people there would have asked Uday Hussein to sign if he was wearing a Mets uniform (didn’t Steinbrenner once try to SIGN Uday?). And they wouldn’t have known who the heck he was either. So I think the Joe’ster appreciated the call-out by name. Max was pleased. Have a look:

Since it was Washington, Max had to wear his Ovechkin Caps jersey. He was jazzed when the waitress at the hotel was a Caps season ticket holder and talked up the jersey at breakfast. (He liked the waffle maker at the breakfast spread).

I repeat: There is no scandal here with Joe Smith of the Mets. We love Joe Smith. Thanks for signing Joe, it has a bigger impact than you’ll ever know. –fog

PS Good luck in the Woil Serious, Joe. Keep the ball down to Sizemore.