Peavy’s Pissed!

So, it’s been forever since any of us has posted anything here at 3 Men and a Blind Guy.  With the recent Jake Peavy to the Cubs debacle, I figured now was as good a time as any.  Jon Heyman at CNNSI.com posted this today.

LAS VEGAS — Padres star pitcher Jake Peavy is “frustrated” by the team’s inability to trade him after threatening to do so for months and “shaken” over the Padres’ latest failure to deal him to the Cubs after weeks of talks, Peavy’s agent Barry Axelrod said.

“We tried to cooperate as best we could,” Axelrod told SI.com in a phone interview. “Frankly, Jake is frustrated now more than ever. And I’m more frustrated than ever.”

Trade talks between the Padres and Cubs broke down with Cubs people complaining about the way San Diego was doing business. But if the Cubs are annoyed (and they are, as several Cubs officials expressed annoyance over the Padres continuing push for more players and the media leaks coming from somewhere that were revelatory about which Cubs were being included in potential deals), Peavy is almost as annoyed.

He goes on to write:

After weeks of waiting, Axelrod indicated that Peavy was becoming adjusted to the idea of moving to Chicago to become a Cub, only to have that possibility pulled out from under him in the latest Padre failure.

“It’s tough. Jake was pretty shaken by it,” Axelrod said. “He was starting to think about what life was like to be a Chicago Cub, and now that was taken from him.”

Maybe I’m wrong, but it seems to me like Towers really screwed this one up.  It sounded like it was a done deal several times, only to have something else come up.  It’s almost as if Towers got greedier and greedier each time a proposal was made and Jim Hendry finally told him to forget about it.

Personally, I think if Jake really is as upset as this article suggests, there is no way he can go back to the Padres.  There have been too many bridges burned.  In my opinion, if you are Towers, you have to go back to Hendry with your tail between your legs and revisit the talks.  If you don’t, you risk further alienating Peavy and, more importantly, Axelrod.  And if Towers ever wants any of Axelrod’s clients to ever sign with San Diego, he better do something to placate the two of them.

Game 1: Who The Hell is Kenny F. Rogers?

I’ve had my share of memorable moments when the Mets have come into San Diego to take on the hapless Padres. The unassisted triple play in 2002, Zambrano giving up a slam to Giles in 2006, Piazza taking Pedro deep and me not sure of how to react, but nothing and the Joo means NOTHING compared to what I saw last night… no, not Scott Fucking Schoeneweis reverting back to the Schoeneweis I know or Bo Duke crashing into the Mets dugout while chasing a foul ball. This is much better. Willie “Small Wonder” Randolph actually showed a personality yesterday.

Mrs. Solly and I showed up early to catch some batting practice and hung out by the Mets dugout where we were greeted by the sight of Willie playing catch with Moises Alou. Willie acknowledged us, said hey, and gave us the peace sign and a Jeter-esque fist pump when his skills were complimented. Little did I know that two Willie flashed was how was many wins the Mets are getting in this four game set but more on that later. This brings me to the highlight of the day. I met Howard Johnson aka “HOJO” in the winter of 1986 in my hometown of Westfield, NJ. He was one of my favorite Mets so when he signed a ball Mrs. Solly gave him, I nearly shit myself. I posted a pic of it at the bottom of the post.

Now to the game. I’ve seen a ton of walk-off finishes. Walk-off HR, walk-off single, even walk-off walk (fuck off Mikey), but I’ve never seen a walk-off HBP and that’s what 28,000 were treated to last night at Petco Park. Up until then it was a pretty solid game. Mike Pelfrey gutted his way through 6 IP, giving up only 1 run on 8 hits, while walking 3 and striking out 1. The offense couldn’t touch Josh Banks (WHO?) so we went into the bottom of the 9th, tied at 1. Here came Scott Schoeneweis who got a quick 0-2 count on Scott Hairston before walking him. He had another 0-2 count on Giles but walked him too. Up stepped Adrian Gonzalez, the only hitter worth a damn in the lineup. Schoeneweis got ANOTHER two strike count before Gonzalez hit a grounder back to the pitcher but Schoeneweis bobbled it and wasn’t able to turn the easy DP, so he had to settle for the sure out at first. So instead of two outs and a runner on 3B, there was one out with runners at 2B and 3B. Schoeneweis walked Kouzmanoff to setup the DP and here was big bad Paul McAnulty, he of the .223 BA, not to mention a Riverwalk punk according to Mikey. A ground ball puts this game in extras so I’m hoping for an easy two-hopper to Reyes, especially when it’s a lefty-lefty matchup. First pitch hits McAnulty between the fucking numbers and there’s your ballgame. Of all the fucking endings… unreal. I can’t get too mad about a loss that should have been 5-1, given all the runners the Padres left on base, but when it’s 1-1 in the 9th the Mets offense should have showed up after Banks left the game. Hopefully Johan gets them back on track tonight.

As promised, the HOJO ball. Bask in the glory of it: