New Thing #313: The Schedule Makers

I was sitting at my daughter's dance class Saturday morning, trying to entertain my 2-and-a-half-year old, hoping to come across a New Thing. She started to tie and untie my shoes, leaving me with the perfect 15-minute window to check Twitter on my phone.

Lo and behold, Buster Olney tweeted out a link to a 30-For-30 Short called The Schedule Makers.

I had today's New Thing.

I haven't watched very many of the ESPN '30 For 30' series…but obviously, they've been critically acclaimed, and the ones I've seen have been good. (The one that stands out the most is the one about Reggie Miller and the Knicks, but I think I've seen a couple of others.)

This one is about Henry and Holly Stephenson, the couple from Martha's Vineyard who created the Major League Baseball schedule from 1982-2004.

A couple of things about this story enticed me:

• It was a short - it runs 12 minutes, 25 seconds, so I was able to watch it sitting there on the floor of Dancer's Workshop, while my daughter untied my shoes. (I said before 'tie and untie', but that's wrong - she didn't tie my shoes at all.) (Also parenthetically, this was also a New Thing - rarely do I open up videos if I'm not on wireless, but this thing came across the network pretty well - no stops and starts.)
• Because of the local aspect of the Stephensons, I had heard about them before. It always boggled my mind that the entire Major League Baseball schedule was created from a home on Martha's Vineyard, at least as far as the annual brief mentions in the baseball column in the Boston Globe went. I think, if I remember correctly, after they stopped making the schedules, there was some kind of profile in the Globe, but that was at least 8 years ago. I'm not even sure if I read it or I just knew it happened. Or maybe I'm completely wrong.
• It's not exactly in my wheelhouse as far as how my brain works, but I always was intrigued by the idea that the schedule had to be created. Given a week or something like that where I could singularly focus on it, I would love the challenge of scheduling 162 games for 30 teams.

The short doesn't get into the process a ton, but I liked hearing about the quirks that need to be considered when making the schedule: Baltimore likes to open at home, Seattle likes to be on the road for Seafarers' Week, other teams like to be home for certain events, Boston has to be home for Patriots' Day, and the Stephensons kind of laughed at all of the events scheduled in New York that needed to be taken into consideration.

I liked this picture they showed of the schedule sketch:

The teams are listed across the top, and the dates are down the side, and the numbers correspond to the opponent. That seems like something I could do.

One thing I know I would do differently - Holly Stephenson uses those pencils that are kind of mechanical but aren't really - they're yellow, they have the adjustable lead that comes out of the tip - but I've never loved those pencils. I've tried them - whenever I used them they had terrible erasers, and they broke easily. She also uses them when she does her New York Times crosswords, which they showed - she's a big puzzler. I always use a pen. I couldn't imagine using one of those pencils on the magazine paper.

I don't know that I would care enough to watch a documentary - no matter how short - on how schedules were made for other sports.

But there's something about the Major League Baseball schedule and Henry and Holly's long involvement in its creation that really piques my interest.

Clearly, based on this short, I'm not alone.

And, if anyone cares, I'd give it more than 12:25 if a longer documentary was ever made.

New Thing #282: Watching A Stadium Changeover

I know this is a little late by now, but you know how I love ballparks - I have to write about this. On Saturday night, the A's played a playoff baseball game at the stadium they share with the Raiders.

Because it requires 24 hours for the stadium to be changed from baseball into football, the Raiders game on Sunday was moved from a 4pm eastern start to 11:35 that night.

Everything went off without a hitch, with both teams picking up wins to boot.

But the stadium changeover is by far the most fascinating part of this story for me.

When I was a kid and I went to Shea Stadium to see the Mets with my dad, he would always explain to me how the stadium would be transformed for a Jets game. And I never understood it. I just could not wrap my head around it.

Because the orange seats - the lowest level - would apparently swing out, and I just never could figure out where exactly they went and how far they swung. My mind just doesn't work that way.

This video is the closest I'll come to being able to envision what that Shea Stadium football setup looked like - although I think the setup in Oakland is different, because I think the end zone at Shea went from home plate to center field. (I'm not 100% sure about that, though.)

I've seen plenty of the hockey to basketball changeovers - I've even seen baseball to hockey changeovers with the advent of the Winter Classic games - this is really the first time I've watched a baseball to football change.

There's so much to watch - I've watched it a few times. I'm shocked to see cranes involved. (And those stands they're assembling in center field don't look all that sturdy to me, if we're being honest.) I'm shocked, too, to see that they worked straight through the night. I thought a 24-hour turnaround seemed like it was too long for a changeover, but it really seems to take that long.

Now if only there was a time lapse video of a Shea Stadium changeover.

New Thing #281: Drawing Fenway

I don't love the Red Sox, but I love Fenway Park. I love how picturesque the park is.

The Citgo sign, the red lights on the scoreboard...the Green Monster.

It's all so beautiful.

On Friday, a friend of mine went to Fenway for Game 1 of the ALDS, and she sent me the picture you see here.

I loved it so much I had to draw it.

Over the summer, in anticipation of some kind of New Thing involving drawing, I bought some colored pencils and a sketch pad.

At the time I thought I might draw PNC Park in Pittsburgh, but when I saw this picture I knew it was the one I was going to draw.

I know I'm not the best artist in the world, and I know there are some flaws with what I ended up making, but I'm pretty proud of the final result. (If you want me to break down and analyze the drawing, contact me and I'll bore you with the details.)

Click on through to check it out.

New Thing #273: Baselines

The Major League Baseball regular season is over (well, there's a game 163 today, but it's an elimination game, so for all intents and purposes the regular season is over), and the post-season is about to begin. It's a fun time of year for me...even if the Mets aren't in the playoffs. (I say that as though the Mets regularly appear in the playoffs. My default setting is pretty much the playoffs without the Mets in them. If the Mets are in them to say I enjoy this time of year is a ridiculous understatement.)

Anyway, it's a chance for me to take stock of my pre-season picks, and I know they were hard to follow this year, what with me picking them on Twitter and all. (Side note - I've searched my hashtag #30MLBPicks and get only two results, which is a little upsetting to me. Where are all my picks?)

But I'd like to draw your attention to my pick to win the National League East: The Atlanta Braves.

Because they won the NL East...and they are the subject of this week's Music Monday.

(Note: I did pick the Braves to lose to the wild card out of the NL East, the Washington Nationals, because I was buying in on the Nats as much as everyone else. And I was wrong on many other picks. But I had the Braves, which no one else did. I'm proud of that.)

Shifting to music, though: I heard on Buster Olney's podcast last week that there's a team song called Baselines about the Braves. It's a knock-off of Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines, and it's really well done.

It flows, none of the lyrics feel particularly forced. (Though it does violate an unwritten rule of mine about these types of songs - it twice goes after the other teams in the National League East, including my Mets. I think these songs should pump up your own team, not necessarily go after others. But I digress.)

I also have a special attachment to team songs. Olney referred to three others in his podcast - the Super Bowl Shuffle for the Chicago Bears, and two with New York connections:  Go New York, Go New York, Go (1994 Knicks), and Let's Go Mets Go!, about the 1986 Mets.

I loved that Mets song. I have the "Making Of..." video. I wore that VHS tape out. (And, as my friends point out since I'm one of the last few people with a working VCR plugged in, I still could if I so wished.)

So I leave you today with Baselines - a well-done song parody in tribute to one of my least favorite teams, the Atlanta Braves.

And to get the bad taste out of your mouth after that, please enjoy Let's Go Mets Go!, featuring, among others, my hero, the late Gary Carter.

Enjoy the post-season.

New Thing #233: Tropicana Field

I love ballparks. Most of you know this about me...but I'm sure there are people who will read this who don't know my history. (This a good place to start for most of my writing about ballparks I've visited. That page links to the parks I've visited and wrote about between 2004 and 2010. I can track down others if you're interested.)

The most recent new ballpark experience is the one I thought I would be least interested in seeing: Tropicana Field.

And I have to admit - I was pleasantly surprised.

The first thing we did when we got into Tropicana Field was check out the Ted Williams Museum and Hitters Hall of Fame. You may remember this place from when Williams died back in 2002 - that's where much of the local Boston reports were centered. It was located in Hernando, Florida, which is really in the middle of nowhere. I guess it moved to Tropicana Field (I had no idea until we walked into it), and man is it worth a visit. Great displays about Williams, and a good selection of other hitters and team items are on display. The only fault I found was this plaque featuring Rays' managers, with Joe Maddon's name misspelled. Seems like the type of thing you should get right.

Seriously, I could write a whole other post about this museum, I was so impressed by it.

We went to two games at Tropicana Field - both against the Mariners. The Rays won the first after coming from behind, scoring a run in the bottom of the 9th to win (that's what you see above), and they won the second 7-1. We had great seats, which we got walking up to the ticket window (we never saw a line) and paid just $40 for.

It makes me simultaneously sad and happy. I loved kind of having a ballpark all to ourselves, walking around wherever we wanted because there were no crowds, but at the same time the Rays are a good team and it's a shame that no one is coming out to their games.

By the second game, we had kind of exhausted most of the things there were to do at the park. But out in center field there are a couple of attractions that we took in. First of all, we watched the first couple of innings of the second game from a barbecue restaurant that is in straightaway center field - Everglades BBQ Company - which was probably a better bargain than the concession stands. I liked it, though the green tinted windows were a little too green.

Then on the way down, there was no crowd at the rays tank, which houses what are probably the best-fed rays in the world. You can reach in and touch the rays, and even feed them. We did not feed them....but we did touch them. (Yes, I did. It was kind of a weird sensation. I didn't love it.)

This was the first time I'd ever been in a baseball game in a full-on dome. I've been to retractable roofs (Houston, Seattle, Arizona) and a football game with a roof (Indianapolis), but never a baseball game inside. (Even in Arizona, where the roof didn't open when we were there, it felt a little more open.)

The dome at the Trop made this field feel very close. But the lack of fans in the seats opened things up again. I think this: That place could get loud. It could be a tremendous home field advantage. The fans that show up are passionate, they ring their cowbells - it got kind of loud with very small crowds when we were there - and the ballpark isn't bad. It's clearly not drawing crowds...but if the Rays can figure out how to get fans in there, it could be a place that opposing teams won't want to go.

I liked the '162 Landing' down the left field line, where Evan Longoria's homer landed in 2011 when the Rays clinched their playoff spot on the last day of the season. I liked the in-game entertainment. I liked the scoreboards and videoboards and in-game stats.

Oh yeah - and the baseball the Rays played was pretty good too. I leave you with this - the moment Jason Bourgeois made contact with the fly ball to right that brought home the game-winning run Wednesday night, setting off the celebration picture you see above:

Let me know if you can find the ball - I think it may just be out of the picture to the right, but I'm hoping it's in the frame.

And for goodness' sake - if you're in the Tampa area and the Rays are at home...check out a game. It's a good time.

New Thing #227: Rooting For The Pirates

I used to hate the Pittsburgh Pirates. Time was, before the addition of the central divisions and realignment, that the Mets and Pirates were divisional rivals.

Familiarity bred contempt.

1990 was particularly tough, with the Pirates beating out the Mets for the division and ushering in some tough times for my team. (Though not as tough as the times the Pirates were about to experience. More on that later.)

I'm pretty sure it was 1990 when my dad taught me the theory that I should root for the Pirates to just go on and win it all...so that the Mets would be beaten out by the best. (My stubborn 12-year-old self would never admit the Pirates were 'the best'...or at least better than the Mets.)

But the Pirates hit some hard times...and now, I find myself rooting for the team I used to hate.

After three straight division titles (1990, 1991, and 1992...the latter two of which brought them to within a game of the World Series), the Pirates embarked on 20 straight losing seasons.

It's the longest such stretch of futility in professional sports.

In the meantime, they built a beautiful new ballpark which only the past couple of seasons has seen exciting baseball...though we got an indication of what it can look like for a big event when it hosted the All Star Game seven years ago.

I think there are a few  things that make the Pirates appealing to me:

• That ballpark. I love PNC Park. Those bridges in the background, the layout of the ballpark...I love it. I think it's my favorite new park - the sight lines play a big part in that. I am dying to see some playoff games with that ballpark all decked out for the post-season and packed to capacity. And I'm really excited to get back there in person...though I'm not so eager about driving back to Pittsburgh. (That picture up top is a picture of a picture I took there back in 2005. I did not take great pictures capturing the beauty of the park when I was there. I need to get back just for the sake of better pictures.)
• The color yellow. Really, it's no small thing. I've always liked the Pirates' color scheme (though not always their uniforms) - yellow and black. And the aforementioned bridges - they're my favorite color yellow. I find the Pirates visually appealing.
• It's fun to root for an underdog. I got a taste of it last year when the Pirates were strong into July, before they fell apart and ended up below .500 once more. This year they're definitely going to end their losing-seasons streak, and it's almost certain they'll make the playoffs. It's fun to see this type of turnaround for a team. (Then go back to not liking them.)
• Lastly, the Pirates are a good team to watch. Andrew McCutchen is a solid player, but also according to all accounts, an even better person. So I like rooting for him. They're a young team with strong pitching...they're exciting to watch. They're the type of team I like to root for, and I'm kind of mad at myself for not picking them to be this good - they have the type of recipe I look for when I pick playoff teams at the beginning of the year, like Washington a year ago and the Giants a few of years ago. (Baseball editorial - I was all in on Washington - a division rival - last year, and they definitely angered the baseball gods by shelving their ace with the thought that they'll get back to that spot with him. I still like Strasburg, and I will enjoy watching Bryce Harper for the next 20 years or so, but I'll never root for the Washington Nationals again.)

Even better for me - that recipe the Pirates have this year and the Nationals did a year ago and the Giants did three years ago? It's the exact kind of team the Mets will be a year from now.

Then I won't have to root for the Pirates as the playoffs approach.

My team might be making its own post-season run.

New Thing #197: All Star Game At Citi Field...Program

I won't lie. I was really hoping that New Thing #197 was going to be "Going To The All Star Game At Citi Field."

From the day they announced that the 2013 All Star Game was going to be held at Citi Field, I wanted to go.

Then from the day I saw how expensive tickets were going to be, I wanted someone to get me a ticket.

And then my birthday came and went, and no one was ponying up the multiple hundreds of dollars.

So I'm watching the All Star Game on TV.

But I have the program.

This was the other piece of All Star Game merchandise I got for my birthday last week.

I told my wife when we were at the game that I might like the program - I can't believe it was $15 though. Yipes.

Usually, I wouldn't want a souvenir from a game I didn't attend - but I just love that the Mets' beautiful new ballpark is being showcased for the baseball world, and I want a memento, even if I can't be there.

I also like commemorative programs. I was at the game when the Mets played the Marlins in their first-ever game back in 1992, and they ran out of programs at Shea Stadium. People were mad and the Mets gave out an address where you could send money to order a copy. I did, and then I did it for the inaugural series with the Rockies that year. But I don't spend much time looking through those programs. And I read this magazine, but it'll just spend the rest of its time on my shelf, as I hope it becomes a collector's item that I probably won't ever sell.

It's a thick program - there are lots of different general articles about baseball, so that it's not time-sensitive. There's a section on the Mets, which I love, and as part of that a Q-and-A with David Wright as well as a guide to Citi Field.

One thing I don't like about the program is that it includes a regular-old scorecard. I like that it has a scorecard, but it's for the All Star Game - the one time in the year where guys are being switched out every other inning. Give fans keeping score a chance to not make a mess of their scorecard. (No, I'm not keeping score.) I suppose there's a little extra room, but it doesn't seem like much - there's 24 lines for players, but it still seems like it would get messy.

I don't know if Major League Baseball will be republishing this program now that the rosters are set and they know who will be playing in the game. (This one has lists of 'possible players' - essentially a copy of the ballot.) But I'm glad I have something to remember the All Star Game coming to Citi Field. (I'm very excited for the game, and the fact that David Wright and Matt Harvey are starters on their home field is icing on the cake.)

I haven't quite given up on going to an All Star Game at Citi Field. The way I see it, this is a twice-in-a-lifetime event. At the absolute worst, it will be 60 years before the game comes back. But that's not likely. It's also unlikely it will be another 50 years between Mets All Star Games. (The last time was 1964 at Shea Stadium.)

I figure it will be about another 30 years (partially dependent on the next time the Yankees get the game and New York City hosts again). And at that point in my life, hopefully, with three grown daughters, I'll be able to treat myself and spend the money on an All Star Game ticket.

Maybe I'll even buy a program.

New Thing #157: Ill-Timed Car Trouble

On Wednesday night, I was supposed to go to the Red Sox game. I got a ticket through work - I threw my name in for one and I ended up with a ticket a few weeks ago.

I failed to realize at the time that it was scheduled to be the night before the last day of school - always a busy time.

So I started to regret it...but then I got psyched up for the game again - especially Wednesday.

I had hot dogs for lunch, and was getting hungry in the afternoon.

I was looking forward to a sausage and pepper sandwich, or something great at the game.

I figured I'd find a New Thing to write about at Fenway Park too.

But I never got there.

What you're looking at in that picture above is a piece of my car hanging off the bottom of the car. (My wife's car, if we're being technical about it.)

I was driving down Storrow Drive when all of a sudden I started hearing a loud scratching noise. Eventually I realized it was coming from me...and then I feared I had a flat tire. I pulled over on Commonwealth Avenue - less than a mile from Fenway Park (whether I would have found any metered parking there became moot) - and was relieved to see the tires were fine. When I peeked under the car, though, I saw our problem.

Recently my wife had a rattling noise on the car - she brought it in and apparently there was a piece of metal hanging off and making the noise. The guys at the garage removed it, free of charge, and we were on our way. I think this is related debris that is hanging off - and it was scraping the road. The guys at the garage said they were meaningless pieces of metal. But - and I don't know much about cars, so humor me here - I imagine you can't have too many metal pieces fall off the bottom of your car before you're dealing with a major problem. So we'll see what the deal is here.

I have more to tell you about Wednesday's situation, but allow me to break in for a moment to tell you about 'Old Time Garage' in Newton, Massachusetts. These guys are amazing - tremendously honest and reliable. If there's nothing wrong with your car, they'll tell you. We've experienced that before. They're great. Highly recommend them.

They're right down the street from Newton-Wellesley Hospital on Route 16. We have had great experiences on that stretch of road, first with 3 daughters being born at the hospital and then with the garage.

OK. Back to Wednesday night. I'm going to look on the bright side:

-I really started to learn how to drive with a piece of a car hanging an inch or so off the ground. Smooth roads, avoiding manhole covers, and not hitting the brakes too much are all key elements for success. (It was slightly embarrassing though - because when that thing scraped the ground it was LOUD.)

-Amazingly, I had never driven to the end of Beacon Street before. My wife, once I told her where I was on Comm. Ave. and where I'd be able to get to Beacon, said I should just take Beacon to where it ends and then I'd be on Route 16 by the hospital. What an interesting tour - I saw all of these places I had seen from different approaches (Boston College, Coolidge Corner, Cleveland Circle, the Reservoir, Newton Center), and didn't realize that Beacon Street cut through them all. And I lived on Beacon Street for 2 years - just shows you how reluctant I was to do New Things and go to new places for much of my life.

-I got to spend some time with my daughters and rest up for the last day of school.

So that's my story. I'll have to make my first trip of the year to Fenway another time. I did watch some of the game on TV.

New Thing #152: A Spelling Bee Winner From Queens

Thursday night my Twitter lit up with Queens pride. The Mets had beaten the Yankees for the fourth game in a row, and the Scripps National Spelling Bee winner was a boy from Queens.

I didn't know which news to celebrate first.

The former is a big deal to me - anytime the Mets get the better of the Yankees it's a big deal for us Mets fans.

The latter - well, it's a little less universal, but I had cause to celebrate:

I once knew a boy from Queens who was good at spelling....

My wife LOVES to poke fun at me for this.

As a matter of fact, she did so in a very public way 7 (!) years ago now, when she took over my sports blog for a few days while I was on a school camping trip. (It's entertaining stuff - after you click the link above you can read the May 30 and 31st entries here.)

I was a 4-time spelling bee winner at my elementary and junior high schools - I won in 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th grades.

Winning my school spelling bee advanced me to the District Spelling Bee - District 30, for those of you scoring at home. Each year, though, that was the end of my journey - I don't even know if there was a regional bee after that, or straight to the state spelling bee.

To be honest, I never really got close to finding out.

One year I was knocked out on 'whimsical' - I think I didn't put in the 'h'. Another year - and if you read the link to my wife's writing, you know this - it was 'terrarium'. I tell my students every year that they're lucky to be exposed to a bit of Latin and Greek as they study languages, because had I even thought to ask about language of origin on 'terrarium' I still wouldn't have realized when I was a kid the Latin 'terra' root rather than thinking it was spelled like 'pterodactyl' (which I think is a Greek root).

It's made worse when I remember shortly after being eliminated seeing one of the next kids get to spell 'apron'.

One of the best moments of my childhood was spelling 'facsimile' correctly to win the PS2 Spelling Bee. My teacher was in awe - she didn't think I even knew the word. I did, because a worksheet we had done that week had the word featured on it. It was quite a coincidence.

Anyway -  I tell you this because the winner of the National Spelling Bee this year followed a similar path as yours truly.

True, he went to Middle School 74 in Bayside rather than PS2 or JHS 141 in Jackson Heights. And yes, he's Indian-American, just like the past 5 winners of the National Spelling Bee. And you're right, he won the earlier rounds whereas I did not.

But we were both Daily News competitors (the New York Daily News sponsors the New York bees, and then sponsors the New York winner in the national competition). And I feel like he completed the journey I never could.

Congratulations to Arvind Mahankali for winning the Bee. He's taking some heat for not celebrating after he won. I don't blame him - I don't know what I would have done if I won at that age. Which I didn't.

Which leads to another important difference between me and Arvind. He's 'retiring' from spelling now. What's he doing next? Studying physics all day. I just never had that kind of academic discipline.

But I sure could spell 'discipline'.

Here's a look at his winning word:

New Thing #138: My Longest Streak

I don't know what it is about this year. Maybe trying New Things has made me smarter.

Or just luckier.

But if this sounds familiar, it's because back in February I went on a long winning streak in one of my fantasy sports games.

And Friday night, I had another career-long streak in another game come to a screeching halt.

It looks like 17 is my new lucky number.

As you can see, Robinson Cano and Vernon Wells now enter the pantheon (I looked it up - I'm probably misusing the word, but I think you catch my drift) of players I will never select again in 'Beat the Streak' because they did not come up big for me when I needed them. They both posted 0-for-4s. Against Mark Buehrle! I think I could get a hit off Mark Buehrle. This year. Not back in his White Sox days when he was decent. (Or at least decent enough to throw two [2!] no-hitters.)

(FYI - I picked these guys because they had decent numbers against Buehrle. But now they join the likes of David Ortiz as guys I'll never pick again. I've picked Cano a lot, and he fails me often. Now we're done.)

You may (or may not) remember - I've written about Beat the Streak before. (Sorry, non-sports fans.) It's one of my favorite things about baseball season.

Coming into this year, I think my longest streak ever was about 12 games. So this 17-gamer was a big deal.

I didn't double down all that much - I just methodically built up to 17 games. I feel like I can do it again. But the amazing thing is to even challenge the million-dollar prize I'd have to do 17 games more than 3 times in a row, because you have to beat Joe DiMaggio's 56-game streak for the big money.

I think I'd be happy if I got somewhere around 30.

And I'll try again starting today. I took Daniel Murphy, who's swinging a good bat lately, and Miguel Cabrera, who often comes through for me. (An anti-Cano, if you will.)

And the next time I feel like maybe I should take Paul Goldschmidt rather than doubling down with two Yankees...you'd better believe I'm going to go with that first instinct. (Goldschmidt, who I thought long and hard about taking, was 4-for-5 on the night my streak ended. Ouch.)

New Thing #110: Stephen Strasburg vs. Matt Harvey

On Friday night I went to Citi Field to see the Mets play the Nationals. Or, more accurately, so I could see Matt Harvey pitch against Stephen Strasburg.

I know not all of you are big sports fans, so here's why this is a big deal:

Stephen Strasburg is the Nationals ace - he was the number one overall draft pick and has lived up to all the accompanying hype.

Matt Harvey is a Mets first-round draft pick who came to the majors last year with significantly less fanfare...and has far exceeded any accompanying hype.

Here's all you need to know about Matt Harvey Friday night: In the 7th inning he gave up the only run the Nationals would score, and, after an error and a couple of hits, was facing a bases loaded, no out situation.

He dug down, consistently surpassed 90 miles an hour as his pitch count ticked past 100, and got a strikeout, foul pop, and ground ball to second to get the Mets out of the inning. (The above picture is Harvey's last pitch of the night - number 105 - on which he induced the grounder.)

The Mets went on to win 7-1. (Another highlight? 2-homer games by Ike Davis and Lucas Duda - both homers coming one batter away in the 6th and 8th innings. The Killer D's!)

I have to be honest, though. While I was hoping I would see a Mets win, I was really hoping I would see a no-hitter...if not by Harvey, then by Strasburg. In the first inning the Mets notched their first hit, which was fine by me...but Harvey lost his in the 3rd inning to the opposing pitcher. (Reminding me that I was at R.A. Dickey's one-hitter when the only hit he gave up was to the opposing pitcher.) So while it was an exciting game, it wasn't all that I was hoping for. (I also hoped, once I saw where we were sitting, that I'd leave with a foul ball. I barely missed an Ian Desmond foul pop that bounced off the hands of the woman sitting in front of me.)

The other thing about this game is how distracted I was by what was happening in Watertown, Massachusetts. I was on Twitter and texting with my wife throughout the game to find out if there was any progress on the hunt for 'Suspect #2' in the Boston Marathon bombings. And there was a lot of progress. Amazingly, it was the first time I was able to consistently use my phone at a baseball game - usually my 3G at ballparks is terrible. Friday night I had a clear connection. (In the 7th inning the Mets put the news of the arrest on the scoreboard.)

I bought the tickets for Friday night's game on Thursday afternoon at Citi Field. I knew a while ago that I was going to go to the game...it wasn't until the Mets played on Thursday that I knew Matt Harvey would be going for the Mets and pitching against Strasburg.

It may end up that I'll see future Harvey-Strasburg matchups. Ace versus ace for division rivals...it'll happen often over the next 10-15 years, if their arms cooperate. But walking up and buying tickets the day before such a matchup? And ending up with the great seats we had?

That might make this New Thing a Once-in-a-Lifetime Thing as well.

New Thing #96: Coining A Nickname

I came up with a nickname while watching the Mets the other night. It was Wednesday night, and they won 11-2.

They got contributions from a few of their young players - prime among them Matt Harvey, who is so fun to watch.

But this nickname is not about him.

It's about the guys who contributed on offense: Ike Davis and Lucas Duda both hit long home runs...and of course, David Wright was in the mix as always.

David, Davis, and Duda?

I might start thinking of them as the Killer D's.

I know - it's not terribly original...but what nicknames are, really?

Baseball has seen the Killer B's of Houston...the Killer D's are clearly a play off that.

I'm just publishing this before someone else does. I want to be the first to have the unoriginal idea.

It's a lot of wishful thinking - because there's a lot of wishful thinking surrounding Davis and Duda. It's not often that they have had big games together - I don't know the numbers, but Wednesday could have very well been the first time they both homered in the same game.

But if the Mets are ever to have a big year or some great success, they're going to need some bats to come alive...and Davis and Duda will have to be a big part of that. David Wright is one you can count on being a contributor. So we're OK there.

If the Killer D's are slamming home runs, with the pitching the Mets have at the major and minor league levels, we're shaping up for an exciting future for the Mets.

If they aren't contributing, then the Mets won't be doing well.

But the nickname might still fit. Rather than the baseball, it'll be Mets fans' hopes falling victim to the Killer D's.

New Thing #93: Beat The Streak

There's not much more I love in the world than the dawn of a new baseball season. There's a certain beauty to seeing everything reset to zero - wins, averages...everything.

Besides the on-field games, though, there's the off-field fun.

And the return of a new baseball season means the return of one of my favorite games - Beat The Streak.

It's a simple game - you pick a player each day. Your goal is to build a hitting streak - so if that player gets a hit, you pick someone to get a hit the next day. And so on...all season long. (Until late August - I usually stop playing when a 56-game hitting streak is no longer viable.)

Each of the past few years the game has gotten progressively better.

It started as a fantasy game on the mlb.com website. Then it became an app, which made it more convenient to play. Then it allowed you to 'double down', meaning you could pick two players a day if you wanted.

This year - and this is what makes it a New Thing - you can take a day off. Or an unintentional day, anyway. It used to be that if you skipped a day, your streak would be reset to 0. (To be honest, I feel like years ago this wasn't the case - but maybe with the addition of 'double down' they added this too. I don't remember.) Now, if you forget to submit a pick, you can pick up where you left off.

Another New Thing - it appears one of my favorite places (Dunkin' Donuts) has taken over sponsorship of the game. I think it used to be Scott's Lawn Care...Dunkin' taking over can't be anything but good for the game.

My longest streak ever, I think, was 12 games. My biggest problem these days is preventing myself from thinking making two picks a day isn't the easiest thing in the world. (I should have had a 2-game streak after the first two days of the season, but both days I pushed it and selected a second player...both of whom went hitless.)

I need to learn to pace myself.

Which I'll do. It's a long season.

But that's the beauty of the early part of the season. Because right now there's nothing leading me to believe that this won't be the year I build a 56-game hitting streak.

New Thing #75: Designing A T-Shirt

The Mets have a Social Media Night at Citi Field on April 24th. I think last year was the first one.

This year (and maybe last year - I'm not sure I know if they did this or not - I seem to remember a fan-designed t-shirt involving Mr. Met and the Liberty Bell but that could have been for something else) they invited fans to design a t-shirt for the team to give away that night.

The winner gets, besides the pride of having designed a t-shirt, a chance to meet a player and attend the game that night.

The contest ended at midnight last night, and for a week or so I kept forgetting about it.

At about 9 o'clock last night I remembered and decided to give it a go.

I doubt it's very original. I went with the old "Tweet rhymes with greet!" approach, substituting 'tweet @Mets' (@Mets or #Mets or Mets.com had to appear on the shirt somewhere) for 'greet the Mets', from the "Meet The Mets" song.

Judging for the winners is weighed as follows: 40% on creativity and originality (I don't know that mine was all that original), 30% team spirit (come on. I know I have 100% of that 30%), and 30% overall artistic quality (um, well, I'm not all that artsy).

Some observations: I hadn't written that many block letters since probably junior high school. Which is probably the last time I also drew that many 'Mets' in script. I'm not even sure it's OK for me to be publishing my submission here. (Our secret.)

I hope they don't take points off for handwriting - I have to think if my design wins they'd put some kind of type-written font on that shirt. No one wants my handwriting on a t-shirt.

You have to admit - it's not a bad slogan, right?

I'm not expecting to win. Or maybe I am. But I couldn't pass up the opportunity to submit something.

I'm not getting my hopes up, at least. April 24th is a Wednesday night - it's a long shot for me to even attend the game.

But I sure would try if I won the contest.

New Thing #61: Fantasy Baseball Draft In New York

One of the highlights of my year is the fantasy baseball draft. Quick background: It's a 4-team league. Me and three of my closest friends. Because of the small number of players, we stick to only the teams in the American League East and National League East. This is great because the 4 of us are Mets, Yankees, and Red Sox fans, so we can pick players we like to root for, avoid players we hate rooting for, and it allows us to use a clever league name: East Coast Bias.

Usually this draft takes place in the Boston area - we all went to Boston University, so it serves as the centerpiece of a sort-of annual reunion.

Now, as it turns out, I'm the only one of the 4 remaining in the Boston area.

This year, as it turns out, our get-together will take place in New York.

And so will the draft.

Truth be told, I've proposed a New York get-together on more than one occasion. I look for any extra opportunity to get a weekend in there. But I understand the draw of Boston, and I enjoy hosting when able. (Read: when my wife is not about to give birth. This happened in 2011. It was crazy.)

And though this year is going to be a short weekend for me, for a variety of reasons, it's going to be great.

Especially because my parents were generous enough to host the draft.

Not that it involves a ton of effort - they'll just be providing us with food and beverage, most likely, in addition to the space for our draft. But it means a ton to me. It means my friends can visit with my wife and daughters without us having to pack everyone up and head into the city...not to mention taking time away from time they could be spending with their grandparents.

I don't know what else the weekend holds. I hope it results in a couple of more New Things. All I know is that as you read this sometime on Saturday, I'll be participating in a fantasy baseball draft in my parents' living room in Queens.

I couldn't be happier.

Unless I also get to draft David Wright.

New Thing #60: 30 Tweets In 30 Days

For the past few years, I've made my pre-season baseball predictions on my sports blog, 200 Miles From The Citi. You may or may not know that when I started this project, I put that site on hiatus.

So now I have a whole lot of thoughts about the 2013 MLB season for which I don't realy have a forum for expression.

So...time to try a New Thing.

I'm calling it '30 Tweets In 30 Days'.

It's simple: I have predicted records and finishes for all 30 MLB teams. What I'll do for the month of March, beginning today, is publish a tweet-sized summary of their season, and my prediction for each team's record.

If you're reading this, chances are you're already following me on Twitter. If not, go ahead and do it now: @jsucich.

I'm going to use the hashtag #30MLBtweets. It doesn't make total sense, but I don't want to use up a ton of characters on the hashtag (like #30tweetsin30days, for example), and even this one feels a little long. But I figure I should have a hashtag to organize it somewhat. I fear one tweet a day will get buried and result in a lot of missed tweets, and at least if you're interested you can use the hashtag to find what you missed. (The title itself is a play on the MLB previews that tout '30 Teams in 30 Days', if you didn't get that.)

And it won't be perfect - I am going to resist the urge to write too much baseball here this year. But occasionally I'll have a thought that I would have otherwise put on my sports blog - like the fact that I don't think the artificial turf in Toronto will play nice with the oft-injured legs of Jose Reyes - that I guess I could tweet, but won't fit in one of my season previews, so I may slip and put it in an entry like this.

Back to this New Thing: I think I'll go in reverse order of finish...so I'll start with the worst teams and by the end of the month I'll give you my World Series champ, etc. (You may notice, and I'm aware, that I think my picks are generous...and mathematically impossible. I think I have too many teams at .500 or better....but the point is more the order of finish and improvement from last year or not. Don't spoil my fun.)

Maybe I'll do a separate tweet with playoff results and award winners...we'll see. But this little exercise will bring us to the season opener on March 31st.

And that's now just 30 tweets - I mean, days -  away.

(Note: Sorry for all the sports-related New Things lately. Didn't mean for this to turn into an unofficial 'Sports Week'. One more [kind of sports one] tomorrow, then we're back to non-sports apps and music and stuff.)

New Thing #58: Baseball Tonight Podcast

The trouble with school vacation weeks is I start getting into a different routine than my school routine. Meaning, I have a lot more time on my hands.

And this February break, I spent a bunch of that time listening to podcasts.

In addition to my usual rotation, I've now added a couple more.

One of them is the 'Baseball Tonight Podcast with Buster Olney.'

And, to be honest, I don't know that I'm going to be able to keep up with it.

Actually, I don't know what its official schedule will be. All I know right now is that during spring training they're popping out a podcast a day, and of course I feel like I have to listen to all of them. (I'm proud of myself for picking up on the day I decided to start listening, and I didn't do my usual thing where I go through all the archived episodes. I figured I had enough work moving forward.)

So maybe they'll tail off to a couple of times a week during the regular season...or who knows? They'll go at a breakneck pace all season long.

If there's any possible podcast I could listen to all day every day, though, it's one about baseball. And I really like Buster Olney - whereas most writers who get the chance to go on-air in some fashion eventually wear on me, that hasn't happened (yet?) with Olney. I used to love when he filled in for Mike & Mike in the Morning when I listened to that show. (Aside: I need to find out how Olney does everything he does. I know he grew up on a farm, so maybe he keeps farmer's hours and is up at 4am reading papers and writing...but I don't know how you do that and watch baseball games at night. Either he has a team of interns posing as him writing on-line while he catches up on some z's, or he never sleeps.)

So it remains to be seen how much of this podcast I can keep up with. But I do enjoy it - I've been looking for a couple of years now for a good baseball podcast and hadn't been able to settle on one I liked. I don't know if I missed this last year or if it was in a different form and not with Olney.

Most of my ability to listen depends on when the podcast is published - If I can consistently get them downloaded before I leave school (they're not available before I leave for school), I can then listen to them on my way home. That's worked for me so far the first Monday and Tuesday back.

And then once summer hits I can get back into a more leisurely schedule. But by then, as with every vacation, my problem won't be being able to listen...it will be trying to avoid listening to too many new podcasts.