3/6/2011 – Mets 6, Red Sox 5
While watching yesterday’s Exhibition Game against the Boston Red Sox, I couldn’t help but wonder: Could Boof Bonser have possibly held any other profession than that of a ballplayer with that name?
It’s the perfect old tyme baseball name, and also a great modern stadium chant (BOOOOOOF!) which I very much expect to hear at Citi Field if he comes north with the Mets in April. Personally I thought he looked good and his Spring starts have been scoreless thus far so perhaps he could be the club’s elusive 8th inning setup man, but at this point who really knows?
And to setup for whom now that K-Rod A) Pissed the Mets off by attacking his for-all-intents-and-purposes father-in-law at the stadium following a game last fall, B) Even if he hadn’t his contract states that if he finishes 55 games, he’s owed another cool $17.5 mil in 2012 and C) With what looks to be like a season full of decisions to be be based on the owners financial woes and impending lawsuits – I would say the closer role will be handled a bit differently this year. But that’s not entirely a bad thing as I’ve always felt the closer is overused anyway and could really be used much earlier in the game in a more important situation.
The other thing that struck me about yesterday’s game was the weather. Normally my very favorite part of Spring Training games is tuning in on a brisk March day here in NY and seeing people sitting in the stands in summer clothes and getting drinks at the Tiki Hut, while watching the palm trees sway in the breeze – all while wishing like hell I was sitting on that lawn past the outfield with my shoes and socks off and basking in the Florida sun.
But yesterday the weather on the TV (in HD no less!) mirrored that outside my window. Rainy, cloudy, dreary. So despite seeing if Beltran can round 3rd or not and whether Jason Bay might actually hit a ball farther than I can (which, let me state for the record, I very much want to see him do), I wasn’t as into it as I usually am. Here’s hoping that tonight’s TiVo’d experience is better. Watching RA Dickey is always a joy, so I suspect it will be.
