Gettin' Iggy With It: The Iggy Beartran Experience

Hi!  This is Iggy Beartran.  You may know me as the younger sister of Joey Beartran, who recently wrote a recap of our tours of Safeco Field and CenturyLink Field in Seattle.  (If you didn’t read it yet, shame on you!  You’re either way behind in your Studious Metsimus reading or you’re a relative of the Safeco Field tour guide that Joey trashed because of her inability to share accurate Seattle Mariner facts.)   In today’s edition of Gettin’ Iggy With It, I’d like to share my thoughts on the Seattle trip.  In particular, I’d like to discuss why I couldn’t help but think of the Mets and a certain other “fishy” division rival while I was touring the stadiums and the city in which they were located.

As far as the tours went, I actually didn’t have a problem with the Safeco Field tour.  I’m not into the history of the Seattle Mariners so I didn’t mind the mistakes made by our tour guide.  The Safeco Field tour reminded me of the Mets tour at Citi Field, where I spent an hour visiting things I didn’t care about (suites I can’t afford to sit in, the press box I’ll never write stories from because bloggers such as myself don’t get the love we deserve, etc.) and a minute or two on the field.  As with the tour at Citi Field, I was told that security wouldn’t be very pleased with me if I touched the grass because apparently, billionaire owners can’t spend a few bucks on replacing a blade of grass that might have been damaged by my eight-ounce furry body.  Then again, what would you expect from the Mariners and the Mets?  They need to spend their money on better things, like Oliver Perez.

The CenturyLink Field tour guide actually allowed us to stand on the turf, albeit just one corner of it, but at least she had a good reason not to let us frolic on the field.  The Washington Huskies were going to play a game on that same field just four hours after we placed our paws on it, so they couldn’t let us claim it for ourselves.  No worries.  We found other places to frolic!

The city itself was lots of fun!  We went to many places in Seattle, such as the Public Market (where guys throw expensive fish around like the Marlins toss around their high-priced players –  I mean, Jose Reyes, Mark Buehrle and Josh Johnson to Toronto?  Great googly moogly!) and the iconic Space Needle, which looks quite a bit like the big syringe Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria must be using on himself before making these head-scratching trades.

The food in Seattle was even better than the food at Citi Field.  I never got to try the Ichi-roll (apparently, the Mariners don’t open their food courts during the off-season – bad business move in my opinion), but in downtown Seattle, I had the tastiest New England Clam Chowder ever made!!  Unfortunately, I ate it so fast that I don’t have photographic proof of this tasty meal so all I can give you is this photo from my breakfast trip to Denny’s.

So to recap this … uh … recap, I had great food in places other than Denny’s, the Marlins are selling off their players faster than you can say “the roof, the roof, the roof is on fire”, CenturyLink Field is pretty cool and bear-friendly, and Safeco Field wasn’t as bad as my brother described it, even if the team that plays there gladly employs Oliver Perez.  At least they’re not proud of the fact that they once had Rip Van Winkle himself on the team.  Oh wait, never mind.

That’s all for now, Mets fans.  I hope you enjoyed this edition of Gettin’ Iggy With It.  Till next time, keep your feet on the bases and keep an eye out for flying fish.  After all, you don’t want to get hit by a former Miami Marlin.

The Perfect Way For The Mets To Stick It To The Marlins

As all Mets fans know, the Marlins have been a thorn in the team's side since 2007.  First, Tom Glavine was able to retire only one more batter than I did in the 2007 regular season finale, completing the Mets' collapse.  One year later, the Marlins wouldn't get off the field after they once again eliminated the Mets (and Shea Stadium) in Game No. 162.  Three years after that, they stuck it to the Mets again, this time by signing Jose Reyes to a six-year deal worth $106 million, or about $106 million more than Fred Wilpon has stored away in his souvenir Sandy Koufax piggy bank.

In fact, if you really want to get technical about it, the Marlins have been one-upping the Mets since 1997, when they replaced the Mets as the fastest expansion team to win a World Series.  (The Marlins have since been knocked off that perch by the fourth-year Arizona Diamondbacks in 2001.)

But other than the Mets celebrating their 2006 NL East title in front of their home fans while the Marlins watched in the road dugout, they haven't really done anything that would be considered negative to the Marlins.  Are they upset that the Mets took Mike Piazza and Carlos Delgado from them?  Did Fred Wilpon insult Marlins' owner Jeffrey Loria's mother because he found out Loria grew up as a Yankee fan during the era in which the Brooklyn Dodgers kept losing to them in the World Series?

The time has come for the Mets to stand up to the Marlins once and for all.  And I know just how they can do it.

Earlier today, it was reported that Bud Selig expects two extra wild-card teams to be in place for this season, rather than the 2013 campaign.  Therefore, with five teams now qualifying for the playoffs in the National League instead of the usual four, the Marlins have reasonable expectations that they will be one of those five teams.

More than likely, the Phillies will win the NL East for the sixth consecutive season.  But the Atlanta Braves are coming off an epic late-season collapse.  The St. Louis Cardinals and Milwaukee Brewers both lost their top power hitters (Albert Pujols, Prince Fielder) to free agency.  With all those windows being opened in the National League, the Miami Marlins are poised to break through and crash the playoff party for the first time since Art Howe was supposedly managing the Mets.

Like many other teams competing for the wild card spots, the Marlins might not play a potential clinching game until the final series of the season.  And who, pray tell, will the Marlins be playing on October 1, 2 and 3 in front of their dozens of fans at their brand spanking-new ballpark?

The New York Mets.

Wouldn't it be something if the Marlins needed to win their final series of the season and the newly-signed (and former Met) Heath Bell blew a save or two to the Mets?  Or how about if Jose Reyes, representing the tying run in the bottom of the ninth was caught stealing to end a game?  What if the Marlins' new ace, Mark Buehrle, only lasted a third of an inning in the regular season finale, as the Mets battered him for run after run in the opening frame?  Would that be devastating to them?

It's been too long since the Marlins have been a thorn in the Mets' side.  Ever since Steve Trachsel's arm and Jose Valentin's bat took them down in the 2006 division clincher, the artists formerly known as the Florida Marlins have been giving the Mets and their fans recurring nightmares.

Hey, we all know the Marlins are just one poor finish away from conducting their once-a-decade fire sale.  Why not speed up the inevitable and give them a chance to do it this year?  The Marlins have been sticking it to the Mets every chance they've gotten since 2007.  It's time for the Mets to stick it right back to them in 2012.  Ya gotta believe.