Hitting, Pitching, a Little Luck

Opening day is a good day for things to roll your way. In yesterday's 3-2 victory over the Washington Nationals, the Mets had great day with help from some new members and a lucky break. Tom Glavine started the season off on a good note, working six solid innings allowing six hits and one run. Xavier Nady, who should have Xavier McDaniel's old nickname, and Paul Lo Duca both had notable days at the plate, with Nady going 4-4 with two doubles while Lo Duca was 2-4 with a double. David Wright's home run in the 6th inning would prove to be the winning run and elicited insanely premature chants of MVP from the crowd.

Lo Duca's most important play came while he was behind the plate in the 8th inning. With Alfonso Soriano attempting to score from first on a Ryan Zimmerman double. A relay throw from Jose Reyes was dropped by Lo Duca, but Soriano was called out nonetheless. Replay clearly showed that the ball came loose, but none of the umpires saw it from their angles. The play probably cost the Nationals the game.

Billy Wagner closed out the game in the 9th inning, but that wasn't without controversy either. Wagner entered the game to Metallica's "Enter Sandman," a song that cross-town closer Mariano Rivera enters the games to. For his part, Wagner doesn't seem to care, "I know, Mariano's got it. Lord forbid. There she crumbles. Two people have it. I play for the Mets, he plays for the Yankees. I never have to face him, and he never has to face me. There's really no big competition there."

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By tien mao on April 4, 2006 10:09 AM

Comments [rss]

HandsNYC

Coming into the game to "For Whom the Bell Tolls" would be way cooler, anyway.

cgee

Tasan is correct. A stadium only plays music selected by its own players, i.e. the home team.

That said, does Wagner really want to court comparisons between himself and Mariano? I'm a diehard Mets fan since birth, but even I recognize Mariano's greatness. If he wasn't a closer, he would probably be on the consensus sports Pantheon with Gretzky, Jordan, and Montana.

Corey

Here's the FACTS:

1. Wagner first used the song 10 years ago, when Rivera was still John Wetteland's set up men.

2. Rivera never chose the song, as he probably had no clue who Metallica was. The Yankee PR machine started using it for him.

3. Wagner is actually friendly with Metallica.

Excellent blog entry about this nonsense: http://www.metsblog.com/blog/_archives/2006/4/4/1860172.html

Peter

The only downside for Wagner is that if continues to use the song he invites comparisons to Rivera. That is a tough standard to live up to, but it is his choice.

What was up with Sportsnet NY losing power because of a blown fuse?

tasan

what the freak! it's just a freaken song it doesn't matter...

#1 neither closer owns rights to the song

#2 yankee fans who get pissed at this have no life~ (they're all mum about giambi and sheffield and steriod allegations but bash out over a song??)

#3 its just a freaken song...plus they only play players' theme songs at home games...

#4 media has nothing better to write about, cuz they're spastic dumbasses who live in bubbles and hardly thinks outside the box unless they're being schooled.

now lets play ball!

Kevin Walsh

>>>Wagner entered the game to Metallica's "Enter Sandman," a song that cross-town closer Mariano Rivera enters the games to.

I like Chris Benoit's entrance music better. Or maybe even Kurt Angle's.

I think everyone should have their own entrance music.

www.forgotten-ny.com

GOD IS DOG

yez, that bitch better change the song. It's like if lebron played with Michael Jordan. who's gonna get 23?

Jordan

The stupid song thing... I was at the game yesterday, and the half-assed Mets fans and the handful of actual Yanks fans who were there got all pissed.

The guy's used the song for a long time now. I Googled it, and couldn't figure it out exactly, but it seems since somewhere around 96. Now because he's in the same town as Rivera he's supposed to change it, to defer to the guy?

Load of crap, if you ask me.

Just because New Yorkers associate the song with Mariano Rivera, NL players know it's Wagner's theme.

tien

well, they could only really face each other three times. assuming they ever batted against each other.

noname

He's a good closer, but obviously he'd kinda stupid. The Mets play the Yanks 6 times this year. He will, most likely, face Mo.

wls

Wagner has heard of this thing called interleague play, right?

Just kidding -- I think he has the right idea. I bet Rivera doesn't care, either.

tasan

I don't know why everyone is making such a fuss about the play...yeah officials always make mistakes...just watch a yankees classic game and its loaded with umps kissing george steinbrenner's rear end...

yes they caught a break on the play because it wasn;t a clean tag...but if you look at the replay clearly...lo duca totally engulfed homeplate and in essence, soriano never really touched base...lo duca had actually blocked the plate and kept soriano from scoring all along...so either way, wheter lo duca fielded it cleanly or not...a quick tag would have gotten soriano out regardless...freaken media just trying to put down the mets and mets fans...but we'll take it...yeah we'll take it roll on.