Joey's World Tour: Cleveland Rocked

Hi, everyone!  This is your fav'rit world-traveling Studious Metsimus baseball correspondent, Joey Beartran.  While you were waiting for the football season to start, I was visiting Cleveland, Ohio.  I saw the Mets play the Indians, visited the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and sampled some of Ohio's finest cuisine.

Although my camera crew and I were only in Cleveland for 24 hours, we had a great time in the city by Lake Erie.  The only "Erie" thing about the trip was how Scott Kazmir completely manhandled the Mets' lineup.  Where had THAT been all year?

Anyway, I should stop with my endless chatter and just show you some pictures of our trip.  I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed bossing my cameraman around.

The day couldn't have been more beautiful for baseball.  The temperature was in the low-to-mid '70s with a light breeze coming off the lake.  Current Mets top prospect Zack Wheeler faced former Mets top prospect Scott Kazmir at Progressive Field.  It was the first time Kazmir faced the Mets since he was traded for Victor Zambrano in 2004.  And although he claimed he had nothing against his old team, he sure didn't pitch like it was any other game.

Kazmir pitched six innings, allowing no runs and striking out a dozen Mets without walking any of them.  It was the first time Kazmir had as many as 12 strikeouts in a game since August 25, 2007, when Kazmir had a 13-K, no-walk performance against the Oakland A's.

Wheeler, on the other hand, did not pitch well.  He allowed five hits and walked five batters in just five innings.  Perhaps it was Daisuke Matsuzaka sitting in the corner that spooked Wheeler into pitching the way he did.

Photo by Ed Leyro/Studious Metsimus

Although the game stayed close throughout, a late grand slam by the always annoying Nick Swisher turned the game into a blowout, causing my sister (Iggy Beartran) and I to drown our sorrows in hot dogs.

But what hot dogs they were!  We had our choice of $1 hot dogs (limit six per customer - six wouldn't have been enough to satisfy us after Swisher styled his way around the bases) or hot dogs with a choice of unique toppings, courtesy of the Food Network.  Since we're foodies ourselves, you can imagine which wiener was the winner for us.

Bacon, baked beans and bears.  Beautiful.

Our thick and juicy hot dog was loaded with baked beans and huge pieces of bacon.  The frankfurter also came with a large side of kettle chips.  It was quite delicious!

The Mets lost the game, 8-1, but at least we got to enjoy a gastronomical extravaganza.  We also got to see Heritage Park, which is located behind the center field area.  In the park are plaques devoted to Indians' Hall of Famers and the 100 greatest players in franchise history.  Those players included Bob Feller, Satchel Paige, Larry Doby, Gaylord Perry and some guy who played for the Mets.  You might remember him.

The only good thing about Carlos Baerga is that his failure allowed the Mets to trade for Robin Ventura, which in turn moved Edgardo Alfonzo from the hot corner to second base, where he became the greatest second baseman in franchise history.

Before I move on to the non-baseball portion of our trip, let me share some more pictures from Progressive Field, featuring several of my Studious Metsimus colleagues.

Besides the trip to Progressive Field, we also made two other stops in Cleveland.  One is quite popular with tourists (like David Wright) while the other is liked by only a very specific group of people (like Daisuke Matsuzaka).

First stop: the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Any lover of music, not just rock music, would enjoy this museum.  It's located on the lakefront and has seven floors.  The top two and a half floors were devoted to the Rolling Stones, who were the featured artists in a special exhibit.  Other exhibits detailed the origins of rock n' roll, hip hop as a form of rock, as well as sections devoted to the Beatles, punk rock and heavy metal, and one floor dedicated to the Hall of Fame inductees.

Although flash photography wasn't allowed in a number of exhibits, my cameraman was able to snap off a few shots, which I am happy to share with you here.

Just before heading back to the airport, we made another pit stop.  My Studious Metsimus colleagues have always been big fans of the film "A Christmas Story".  Although the film was set in Indiana, the house was actually in Cleveland.  That house has been preserved and has its own museum and gift shop.

Unfortunately, we arrived too late to go on an official tour of the house.  (We stopped at Cracker Barrel before going to the house - I like to take my time when I have my good ol' fashioned country breakfast.  Sorry about that.)  However, we did take plenty of photos of the house and visited its gift shop.  Here is the photographic evidence of our side trip.

So that does it for our tour of Cleveland.  To recap, Cleveland rocked.  It rocked at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  It rocked with its Christmas Story house.  And it rocked with its delicious food.

Unfortunately, Cleveland also rocked in a different way, as Cleveland rocked the Mets in the game we attended.

In the past, we've attended games and gone on ballpark tours in Seattle, San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Chicago and various cities all along the Eastern seaboard.  Now we can add Cleveland to our list.  It's just another stop on our never-ending world tour.  Where will we end up next?  I have no clue, but I do know that when we get there, you'll be able to read all about it right here on Studious Metsimus.


For more of Joey's World Tour, please click on the links below, where you will be entertained by Joey's wit, photos and love of ballpark cuisine:

World Tour Stop #1: Baltimore
World Tour Stop #2: Washington, DC
World Tour Stop #3: Pittsburgh
World Tour Stop #4: Texas
World Tour Stop #5: Los Angeles
World Tour Stop #6: San Diego
World Tour Stop #7: Toronto
World Tour Stop #8: Chicago
World Tour Stop #9: Milwaukee
World Tour Stop #10: Seattle

A Brief History On West Coast Road Trips For The Mets

After not performing well at home all year, the Mets completed a three-game sweep of the Colorado Rockies on Thursday, taking the finale by the score of 2-1.  The Mets will hope to continue their recent stretch of good pitching out west, beginning a four-city, 11-game road trip on Friday.  Ten of the 11 games will be played in the Pacific Time Zone, with the last game of the road trip taking place in Minnesota, where the Mets were snowed out in April, necessitating this makeup game.

So how have the Mets fared over the years when they've played at least ten consecutive games three time zones from home? 

Prior to 1969, there were only two teams playing in the Pacific Time Zone.  Therefore, the Mets never played ten consecutive games out west.  It wasn't until the miraculous year of 1969, when the San Diego Padres joined the National League, that the Mets took part in their first ten-game West Coast swing.  From August 26 to September 3, the Mets played three games in San Diego, four in San Francisco and three in Los Angeles, taking six of the ten games en route to their first World Series championship.

The Mets have had several more California road trips of ten or more games over the years, but they had to wait until 1998 - when the Arizona Diamondbacks joined the Senior Circuit - to play a game in the Pacific Time Zone outside of the Golden State.  And even with Arizona in the league, they had to wait until 2010 to play the Diamondbacks as part of a West Coast road trip of ten games or more.

Here is a list of every West Coast trip of ten or more games the Mets have played in their history, along with who they played and the team's record during those long trips three time zones away from home.

• 1969 - 10 games (3 vs. SD, 4 vs. SF, 3 vs. LA):  6-4
• 1970 - 10 games (3 vs. LA, 3 vs. SF, 4 vs. SD):  5-5
• 1973 - 10 games (4 vs. LA, 3 vs. SF, 3 vs. SD):  3-7
• 1974 - 10 games (3 vs. SD, 4 vs. SF, 3 vs. LA):  5-5
• 1975 - 11 games (4 vs. SF, 3 vs. SD, 4 vs. LA):  7-4
• 1976 - 11 games (3 vs. LA, 4 vs. SD, 4 vs. SF):  6-5
• 1977 - 11 games (3 vs. SD, 4 vs. LA, 4 vs. SF):  4-7
• 1978 - 10 games (4 vs. SD, 2 vs. SF, 4 vs. LA):  5-5
• 1979 - 11 games (4 vs. SF, 4 vs. LA, 3 vs. SD):  2-9
• 1980 - 11 games (4 vs. SF, 3 vs. LA, 3 vs. SD):  1-10
• 1983 - 10 games (3 vs. SD, 3 vs. SF, 4 vs. LA):  3-7
• 1984 - 10 games (3 vs. LA, 4 vs. SF, 3 vs. SD):  5-5
• 1985 - 10 games (4 vs. SF, 3 vs. SD, 3 vs. LA):  7-3
• 1988 - 10 games (3 vs. SF, 4 vs. SD, 3 vs. LA):  7-3
• 1990 - 10 games (3 vs. SF, 3 vs. SD, 4 vs. LA):  4-6
• 1992 - 10 games (3 vs. LA, 4 vs. SD, 3 vs. SF):  5-5
• 1993 - 11 games (4 vs. SF, 3 vs. SD, 4 vs. LA):  6-5
• 1994 - 11 games (4 vs. SD, 3 vs. SF, 4 vs. LA):  7-4
• 1995 - 10 games (3 vs. LA, 4 vs. SF, 3 vs. SD):  3-7
• 1996 - 10 games (4 vs. SD, 3 vs. SF, 3 vs. LA):  4-6
• 2010 - 11 games (4 vs. SF, 3 vs. AZ, 4 vs. LA):  2-9
• 2012 - 11 games (4 vs. AZ, 4 vs. SF, 3 vs. SD):  6-5

This fan hopes the Mets can make themselves at home out west with a bunch of victories.

In all, the Mets have had 22 road trips in which they played ten or more consecutive games in the Pacific Time Zone, with only two of those trips occurring after 1996.  (The Mets will embark on their third such trip Friday night.)  New York has only been able to celebrate a winning record in eight of those 22 trips.  Their overall record in the 229 games played on these trips is 101-128 (.441 winning percentage).  Since 1977, however, their record is 69-98 (.413 winning percentage).

On Friday, the Mets will begin a stretch in which they play ten consecutive games in the Pacific Time Zone.  The first three games will be played in Arizona, followed by three games in Los Angeles and four in San Diego.  As they head west, the Mets find themselves in third place, eight games under .500 and only one game behind the second place Washington Nationals.

The left coast has rarely been a place for the Mets to recharge their batteries.  In fact, sometimes a long trip out west has killed the Mets' season (does 2010 ring a bell?) or tried its best to choke the life out of the team (we almost stopped believing in 1973).

The 2013 Mets are probably not going to qualify for the playoffs.  But they still have plenty to play for.  A .500 record is still within reach.  So is second place in the NL East.  Some teams build on strong finishes to produce memorable years the following season.  A successful road trip out west can go a long way towards producing the confidence a young team needs to build a successful franchise for the future.  Otherwise, the Mets might continue to go south when they come back east.
 

On The Road With Joey & Iggy: Weekend At Bernie's

Hello again, everyone!  We're Joey and Iggy Beartran and this is the road trip recap you've been waiting for!

Earlier today, we posted a recap of the Chicago part of our road trip, in which we visited U.S. Cellular Field (home of the Chicago White Sox) and Wrigley Field (home of the Chicago Cubs).  But the Mets were not involved in either game.  Instead, they were playing in Milwaukee, which according to the GPS system that got us lost and sent us to a seedy area of Milwaukee (where no Cheesehead would dare enter), was only 82 miles north of our hotel room in Rosemont, IL.  (Note to selves:  We might need a new GPS.  Just sayin'.)

After a winless week at Citi Field, the Mets tried to get back on the winning track at Miller Park.  Jonathon Niese was on the hill for the Mets, although the scoreboard crew in Milwaukee wanted us to think otherwise.

Spell Check, people!  It's Jonathon, not Jonathan!

The Mets scored two runs in the first and second innings, taking an early 4-0 lead over the Brewers.  The four runs scored by the Mets before we had gotten our first whiff of the bratwurst were completely unexpected, especially considering that the Mets had gone over a month since the last time they had scored four runs in a home game.  The road seemed to agree with them on Friday.

We almost missed the early outburst, as we were enjoying our dinner for the evening.  A Food Network cart had found its way into the ballpark, serving up buffalo chicken mac and cheese and a bacon sloppy joe sandwich with Fritos corn chips.  We only had two words for that.  Yes, please.

A cupful of buffalo chicken mac and cheese goes beautifully with a bacon sloppy joe sandwich.

After emptying Miller Park of all its napkins (the sandwich was a little messy but dang, was it exquisite), we returned to our seats for a few innings.  We got to see two things we hadn't seen in a while - a home run by Lucas Duda and an RBI by Josh Thole (on an extra-base hit, no less).

Once the Mets had a comfortable five-run lead, we decided to hit the Brewers Team Store, where you could buy the T-shirt of any Brewers player on the team.  No, seriously.  Any player.  They're all on the racks and on the walls, as seen in the photo below.

Yes, that's Bob Uecker's No. 9 T-shirt at the top right of the photo.  As always, he's got the furthest seat in the house.

Before we could start mumbling and grumbling about how the Mets took a million years to get a Jonathon (not Jonathan) Niese T-shirt in the Mets Team Store, we noticed a subsection of the Brewers Team Store called The Meat Locker, which is dedicated to the competitors in the daily Sausage Race.  In case you aren't familiar with the speedy sausages, they're in the photos below.

The top photo features the meaty racers and the bottom photo features our travel companion and sometimes correspondent, Ballapeño, with a stuffed version of his favorite sausage, Chorizo, whom he spotted in The Meat Locker.

After our pit stop in the team store, we finally made it back to our seats just in time for the ninth inning and another shaky effort by Ramon Ramirez.  With one out in the ninth, Ramirez walked shortstop Jean Segura and allowed an RBI triple to Tony Plush himself, Nyjer Morgan.  But faster than you can take out the Rolaids (which must be popular at Miller Park due to the artery-clogging ballpark fare), Ramirez retired the next two batters, preserving the victory for Jonathon (not Jonathan) Niese.

It was time to celebrate for the dozen or so Mets fans in attendance at Miller Park, so we whooped it up near the Mets dugout and fooled around on a lifesize replica of the Brewers' primary mascot, Bernie Brewer.  We then went back to the Brewers Team Store to let the Brewers bears have it as well.

The Mets went on to lose the next two games of the series to the Brewers, but at least we got to see their only victory of the weekend series at Miller Park.

We (including Ballapeño) totally enjoyed our Milwaukee experience, and we were very happy that the Brewers bears had no hard feelings because of our playful ribbing at their expense.  We had great seats, great food, great company (okay, so maybe there were a baker's dozen of Mets fans in attendance) and even got to see a rare Mets offensive outburst.  It was a perfect night if you were a Mets fan in Milwaukee.

Now about that Bob Uecker T-shirt in the team store, I wonder if it would fit this statue of him, located outside the ballpark.  He's got to get cold standing out there in the cold Milwaukee winters, don't you think?  (Thanks for reading our road trip recap!  See you on the road!)

Bob Uecker finally made it to the front row.