You know why Barajas gets booed in Philly?  There was a close game against the Marlins he was catching and it was late innings.  There was a play at the plate and Barajas specifically avoided contact rather than block the plate and the run scored.

Say what you will about Philly fans but that’s awesome.  Still booing a dude who lollygagged it 2 years ago during a regular season game.

From now on, Mets recaps will be ghost written by Brian Bruney as well as cake served in NYS but not Bethpage fade to Black.

Craig, I totally found the “texas” comment yesterday to be humorous.  I personally don’t see how it was disrespectful or ignorant; unless “texan” has become its own ethnicity.  maybe someone can explain it to me.

Splint and TC—thank you much for the Barajas context.  My admiration for Phillies fans is much higher today for knowing that. It’s cheap and easy to get worked up over someone because of contract stuff or some media-driven P.R. thing, but there is something really really great about fans knowing and caring so much that they hold on to a moment like that.  It’s so very baseball.

Chattanooga: the criticism from the reader over the Texas thing was really tongue and cheek, so no worries and I took it in good spirits. The reader’s real point was to shoot me the link to the Silver Boot thing, and for that I was grateful.

I heard MLB rules mandate that Wieters be removed from the game if he reaches base in close-and-late situations as he is so fast he could steal home from first faster than a humming bird flaps its wings. Also, he’s so alluring that the opposing team finds it impossible to even attempt to throw him out, as all they can do is softly smile and wish him well as he breezes by.

I couldn’t catch the Cubs game yesterday but I got to a computer IMMEDIATELY following and logged into mlb.tv.  I clicked the highlights and saw that “Lee’s 3-run shot in the 8th” was available.  And I swear, my first thought was, “Did we get Carlos Lee at some point?”  Derrek Lee - Missing since 2005.

Which also brings me to this point, which I wanted to share with people who know baseball and my dad who loves his Ryan Theriot-scrappy-players more than anything….He goes on and on about DeRosa being gone and how we didn’t get Peavy and I said, “Yeah, that’s too bad.  I wonder if we could make an offer with the same guys and throw in Derrek and get Adrian Gonzalez.  That’d solve Jim Hendry’s inexplicable obsession with lefties AND, y’know, put power back at a power position.”

I could also offer that we get Castro and Hitler uniforms and get the same response.

But tell me that wouldn’t be a massive upgrade.

Seriously, Slugger; I was starting to get cold sweats. I almost forced a “don’t think, it can only hurt the ballclub” quote in yesterday, but thought better of it.  Now I just have to get through the weekend . . .

Barajas did have an uphill battle against fan favorite Coste, but it wasn’t anything he couldn’t have played his way out of.  He nancied-up at the plate and he couldn’t play his way out of that.

Gaston didn’t double switch because Cito Gaston is the worst tactical manager in the major leagues. He has undeniable and significant strengths as a skipper, and is a good one, I think, generally, but he’s an utter disaster when it comes to the stuff that everyone can see during the game. Jays fans have two choices when it comes to Cito-either accept the baffling tactical moves (and non-moves-it’s the non-moves that can be really frustrating) as the price you pay for the good stuff, or complain endlessly about them. Jays fandom is roughly split on the question.

Jim Tracy talks like that. He also likes rhetorical questions. Why does he like rhetorical questions? That’s something you need to ask Jim Tracy.

Tracy also likes to talk about putting his players “in a position to have some success.”