Message to Joe Girardi: Just say no to Chan Ho Park

Squawker Jon may be relieved that the Mets won, but I'm, of course, angry that the Yankees lost. And I'm also irate that Joe Girardi chose to use Chan Ho Park in a 1-0 game. Javier Vazquez - who pitched very well last night - may be the person with the L next to his name, but Park is the one who really deserves it.

From ESPN.com:

Friday night's awful outing was just another in a season full of them for the South Korean righty. Park has allowed a run in eight of his 15 appearances this season and given up a glaring 25 hits in just 19 innings.

"He's just not making pitches," manager Joe Girardi said. "He just didn't locate well enough to get people out. When you get behind the leadoff hitter and walk him, you're asking for trouble."

You're also asking for trouble pitching him at all, Joe. And where was Joba, anyway? Off hiding with the Yankee bats these days?

Seeing Chan Ho Park in Friday's game was as inexplicable as seeing Roger Clemens at Fenway Park last night. At least Roger's appearance was funny, in a twisted way - he's trying to clear his name on using steroids, and he shows up to see...Manny Ramirez? Heh!


What do you think? Tell us about it!

Lady Gaga shows up at Yankees-Mets game, forgets pants

As I correctly guessed, singer Lady Gaga couldn't resist being at the Subway Series last night. But this time around, she remembered that she is really a Yankee fan, wearing a Bombers jersey. And she seemed to behave herself this time around. But Lady Gaga still forgot about a little invention called pants.

Gaga showed up in a slightly more appropriate outfit at Friday's Yankees-Mets game than the one she wore at Citi Field last week. Last night, the Madonna wannabe kept her Yankees jersey on, and wore what looked like a black bikini under it, with fishnet stockings on her legs. And a leopard beret on her head that reminded me of Matthew Broderick in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" for some reason. Ms. Gaga didn't flip anybody the bird this time. But still, no pants. What's up with that?

According to the New York Post, Lady Gaga met with Robinson Cano and Alex Rodriguez after the game. Wonder what those conversations were like!

What do you think? Tell us about it!

Ghost of Castillo play hangs over Met win

Last year's Bronx Subway Series opener ended in the ultimate nightmare for the Mets when Luis Castillo's drop turned victory into defeat. This year, two of Jerry Manuel's moves almost caused the same result.

Things could hardly be going better for the Mets right now, so I hate to harp on the few negatives. And Manuel did manage the bullpen well in the seventh and eighth. But when the Mets tacked on runs in both the eighth and ninth, this should have been a routine victory, not one in which future Hall of Famer Derek Jeter got to bat in the ninth as the tying run.

Manuel brought in Elmer Dessens to start the seventh, then pulled him after Dessens gave up a double to Francisco Cervelli. Pedro Feliciano entered, got all three outs in the seventh, then pitched the eighth as well. So far, so good. Manuel managed the bullpen aggressively, pulling Dessens quickly, then letting Feliciano go an extra inning. Thanks to the tack-on runs, the Mets led, 4-0, going into the bottom of the ninth.

With a four-run lead, it makes sense to at least start the ninth with someone besides Francisco Rodriguez. Granted, with Feliciano and Dessens already used, there was no clearly good option. But Raul Valdes, who had pitched only once since June 2? And there was a reason he has pitched so infrequently - his meltdown in San Diego when he allowed eight earned runs in two appearances while getting only one out.

Bringing in Valdes to start the ninth was a mistake. But leaving Valdes in after he gave up a single to Cervelli was a bigger mistake. You want to give him a chance with a four-run lead? Fine. But when Dessens, who is pitching a lot better than Valdes, gave up a hit to Cervelli in the seventh, Dessens was out. So why should Valdes get another chance?

Once Valdes gave up a hit to Curtis Granderson, Manuel finally brought in Rodriguez. After a 12-pitch at-bat, Brett Gardner walked. Suddenly, the bases were loaded with one out and the top of the Yankee order was coming up.

I was watching in a bar that was showing the YES broadcast, and they decided this was a good time to show the Castillo play. (I'm guessing SNY did not make the same decision.) But the Yankees were suddenly in a position to pull out what looked to be a hopelessly lost game. And once again, the culprit was Manuel's book.

In the postgame, Manuel admitted that he was not going to bring in K-Rod until it was a save situation. Manuel manages by the book way too often, without considering other factors. Here's a thought - a four-run lead against the Yankees, in their ballpark, is not as safe as most other four-run leads. Manuel didn't need to wait for the second baserunner to consider it a save situation.

I know the Yankee bats are slumping right now, but it's still a great lineup, and they bombed Roy Halladay just three days ago.

Fortunately, it all worked out. The Mets have won eight in a row, are 7-0 on the road trip, and have clinched at least a tie in this year's Subway Series.

The ghosts may have come out at the old Yankee Stadium, but the closest we came to the ghost of the Castillo play came when tonight's Met second baseman, Ruben Tejada, dropped a ball in the eighth, allowing Nick Swisher, who had tagged up, to slide safely into second. But Swisher didn't score.

I couldn't help but wince, though, when David Wright caught the game-ending popup with one hand.

Next Week

Things went a little haywire with the vote on where to poll this week, I'm thinking maybe because of the crush of traffic that resulted from getting Drudge linked on the poll that showed Louisiana voters thinking Bush did better with Katrina than Obama's done with oil spill. Texas and Pennsylvania were winning by a wide margin before that happened and that's where we'll poll this week.

In Texas we'll obviously look at the Governor's race. We're also going to investigate folks' thoughts about Kay Bailey Hutchison possibly running again and Joe Barton's comments. And we'll see if they think TCU and/or Houston should be added to the Big 12, and what conference they want Texas, Texas A&M, and Texas Tech playing in even if that decision's already been made for the time being.

In Pennsylvania we'll do both the Senate and Gubernatorial races, see what folks think about Rick Santorum these days, and take the pulse of Steelers fans on Ben Roethlisberger.

Stay tuned for that next week and have a great weekend!

Local Congress Aims to Cut Costs via Collaboration

Allegheny County leaders gathered in Oakland today to discuss issues common to Pittsburgh and the 35 municipalities that border the city.

The Congress of Neighboring Communities (CONNECT) wants the 36 urban governments to work together on issues like emergency medical services, LED street lights and funding for the Port Authority of Allegheny County.

Professor Dave Miller of the University of Pittsburgh created CONNECT. He says the measures taken by this 2nd Congress are meant to cut costs.

“I think in the area of, for instance, street lighting, which is a huge expense for all the municipalities, developing a common strategy around street lighting could not only yield financial savings but also could really improve the quality of life and quality of service in the core region of Allegheny County,” says Miller.

Mt. Lebanon 1st Ward Commissioner D. Raja says CONNECT helps him find ways to keep infrastructure costs down. He says so far, he hasn’t been opposed to any of the resolutions adopted by the Congress.

“The way this has been structured so far, it is looking to make it a win for all communities, so things like sharing costs and all that, that’s going to help every single one, and not just one municipality,” says Raja. “If you take it to the next level and say one municipality has to subsidize somebody else, that’s a different level, but we’re not there yet.”

Miller says 680,000 people live in CONNECT municipalities. He says that region is also home to the majority of the county’s jobs.

More information can be found at the CONNECT homepage.

Should Manny Ramirez be cheered - or booed - at Fenway?

I wrote a piece for The Faster Times about Manny Ramirez's return to Fenway Park tonight, saying that I thought most fans would cheer him in his first at-bat.

So I'm wondering what our Red Sox fan readers think. What say you, Boston fans?

As for myself, I do kind of miss seeing Manny 19 games a year - at least the personality part. I found "Manny being Manny" pretty darn entertaining over the years. Don't miss him killing the Yankees at every turn, though!

What do you think? Tell us about it!

Hagan seeing uptick in approval numbers

The North Carolina politician who's seen the best improvement in their approval numbers since the start of the year, albeit quietly, has been Kay Hagan. Her numbers still leave something to be desired with 34% of voters giving her good marks to 39% who disapprove. But that represents a significant improvement from where she was in January when just 29% of voters said they approved of her with 42% disapproving.

Her most dramatic improvement has come with independents, whose negative feelings seem to have softened a little bit with the health care issue in the rear view mirror. Earlier this year Hagan saw a -27 approval spread with them at 21/48 but she's improved 15 points on that front to -12 at 27/39. She's also seeing an increase in popularity with her base, from 49% approval with Democrats earlier this year to now 56%.

At the start of 2010 there was a 16 point gap in the approval spreads of Hagan and Richard Burr, with her at -13 and him at 3. Now there's just a 3 point gap with Hagan's at -5 and Burr's at -2.

The main reason Hagan's numbers continue to be in overall negative territory is that Republicans are more strong in their disapproval (72%) of her than Democrats are in their favor (56%). That's mostly because 29% of Democrats haven't yet formed an opinion of Hagan while only 19% of GOP voters reserve judgment.

Hagan has a way to go but unlike most politicians across the country her numbers are at least on an upward trajectory so far in 2010.