Each and every year, on the anniversary of 9/11, mourners gather to commemorate the lives lost after a terrorist attack on our nation’s soil. The moment is important each year because we need to remember not only those lives lost, but also the reason why they lost their lives. They lost their lives because we’re free and our country helps protect those that need protection.
This moment is important to everyone but CBS. I still remember the day they cut away from the 9/11 memorial because well football. Apparently, honoring the victims of 9/11 is important until kickoff. To this day, I’m irritated over it.
I thought about all of this today because it’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. To some, it’s a day off. To others, it’s a day you have to go to work while others have the day off. On CBS, they will air Supergirl, Scorpion, and NCIS: Los Angeles. No one is going to take real time to contemplate what MLK meant to the country. In essence, why have the day off?
With that said, I’m taking my small corner of the world, and I’m taking time to share not my words about Martin Luther King, Jr., but his words. His “I Have a Dream Speech” should be aired nationally at a specific time across all networks on the day we honor him. Instead, they’ll appear here:
Thank you for taking the time out to listen. God bless you, and may God bless America.
Needing to get out of the house and looking for something to do, my wife and O took our son to The Crayola Experience in Easton, PA.
Here are some basics to know. There is a parking deck across the street that accepts credit cards. It’s $19.99 per person over the age of 2. If you purchase ahead of time on the Internet, it’s $16.99. With each admission, you get two tokens to use inside the Crayola Experience (more on that in a minute). You are not allowed to bring food and beverages in, but there are lockers at your disposal. They will search your bags. It’s not as intense as Citi Field, but you do have to open it up and they’ll look in the bag. The no beverage thing is problematic because it’s really hot on each level. Each level has vending machines and vendors begging you to purchase a drink at each level.
The first level is fun. You start with creating your own crayon wrapper. There’s a blue, red, green, yellow, and purple crayon to create. The specific variations of the colors change. Each label has the name of the color and the date. You get to select an image and out your name in the crayon (or anything else you want to put on it):
If you make a mistake, it’s alright. You get around a hundred chances to edit before you hit print. After you’re done, you get a crayon and a label. You then get to put the label on yourself:
It’s easy as 1-2-3. The cost per crayon is one token. If you run out of tokens and want more crayons, you can purchase more tokens. They are 50 cents a piece. Don’t go crazy. You can only use it to purchase these crayons (there are only five colors) and Crayola’s version of Play Doh. That’s it. Don’t be like me and get an insane amount of tokens expecting its currency throughout each level.
After the crayon making area, there’s an area to color or play with the Play Doh you purchase. They’re in vending machines. Here’s the great thing about the Crayola Experience: there are crayons and coloring pages throughout the place. Once you leave this level, you have no use for tokens.
The third level has a really cool feature. You sit in a photo booth and it converts you to a coloring book page. There are a number of backgrounds you can select. You can take as many photos and print as many pages as you want for free. If you want to convert it to a t-shirt, canvas print, or puzzle, you can do so in the store (we didn’t).
In the next section of the third level was an interactive experience. There is an image protected against the wall. There are a series of tablets where you can use your fingers to color an image. Once you’re done, the image will project onto the screen:
Note, there was a section for water play, but we skipped it. We didn’t feel the need to have a toddler splashing around and needing a full clothing change. I should also mention the different levels had a playground. As there were overaggressive parents and kid there, we avoided them. It’s a bad combination to have this situation in a very hot room.
The top level has more creative crayon play. In one area, you can melt crayons and use sticks to color paper with the melted crayons. You can also melt crayons to make a dinosaur, ring, or a crayon (the mascot):
It takes four minutes per item, and they try to make you go back in line to get another item. We pushed our luck and got a dinosaur and a ring. There was another area with melted crayon spin-art. It looks promising. However, the line was long. At that point, we were done waiting in long lines. I know my son was. As such, we went to the other side of the fourth floor.
The other section was all about crayons and the dark. It was a dark, but not pitch black, room. There are chalkboard style boards across the room where you can color in neon paint. There’s also a section with crayons on a movie screen. For some reasons, these crayons constantly change color. That’s not what makes it interesting. What’s interesting is the crayons mimic your movements:
It’s not perfect for a toddler or a tall daddy. However, if you’re a kid from 5-10, it seemed to mimic the movements very well including jumping and sitting down.
After this room, we were dying of thirst, so we headed down to the first floor and the overpriced cafeteria. It’s basically hospital food you purchase. I think it cost around $75 for two small bags of chips, two bottles of soda, and a slushie (comes in a special take home cup). Actually, the bill was around $20. You get get a meal for your kid that comes in a take-home lunchbox. It costs $7.99. Note, you can get your hand stamped and re-enter if you want to eat. However, they will not let you bring it into the cafeteria area. Also note, there’s no real feasible place to stop without getting in your car and driving.
In this first floor area, there are other interesting things like the World’s Largest Crayon:
and some Crayola crayon facts. These facts include how the number of crayons double every 28 years and the name origins or reasons for name changes of the crayons:
After the cafeteria, we went to the gift shop. It seemed moderately priced. The big attraction was the tins. If you purchase a tin, you can fill it with crayons and markers from the store. The crayons and markers have no special marking denoting where you purchased them. The tins cost around $20 give or take a few bucks considering the size time you purchase.
Note, you cannot use tokens in the cafeteria or the gift shop. You also can’t exchange tokens back for your money. What they will do is exchange your tokens for limited items, which include one washable marker (random color), one pack of Play Doh, or a four pack of crayons.
If you’re like me, you have a choice, go back and get more crayons, get whatever they’re offering, or save them for a return trip. We saved them for a return trip.
The lines were aggravating, but overall, it was fun. With a toddler, you’ll need 3-4 hours depending on what they want to do. My son’s favorite parts were making the crayon labels, creating a coloring book page, and the crayons mimicking his movements. And oh yeah, the slushie.
I’m still debating the season pass for $34.99. It is unlimited admissions for one year. Essentially, if you go twice a year, it was worth it. Apparently, it also comes with emails with special offers. I’m more interested in the savings. I know I’ll go at least once more, but I don’t know how much more than that (if at all).
Overall, it’s a good day trip with your toddler. Just make sure you avoid falling for overpurchasing tokens and be ready to wait in lines. If you do that, it should be a fun, relatively inexpensive day.
One common refrain I hear from people is that they’re tired of hearing athletes praise God when they win. I honestly don’t know why. How many times have you prayed for your team to win? More often than you admit, right?
When you pray, you find the outcome doesn’t always turn out the way you thought it would. There are reasons for that, but this isn’t one of them:
Spoiler alert: whatever God you worship doesn't care about sports.
— Molly Knight (@molly_knight) January 10, 2016
Put aside the condensation and snark in this Tweet for a second. It’s just plain wrong. First off, to suggest knowing God’s thought process is blasphemy. More importantly, it ignores all teachings and dogma.
To put my perspective in context, I was born and raised Catholic. I was an alterboy. I went to Catholic school from 4-12. I’m not a perfect Catholic, but I try.
With respect to God and sports, there are two things I know to be true: (1) God loves all of his creatures; and (2) God has bestowed upon man free will. Both are reasons why the notion God doesn’t care about sports is wrong. First, as sports are composed of His creation, He cares. I’m not going to suggest He prefers one sport over another or one person over another. Rather, I’m only suggestion that as God loves each of His creatures, He cares about sports.
Second, as an extension of free will, God is not interceding into the games. He is not interceding if there are more Mets fans praying than Royals fans. He’s not interceding if the batter is a nice guy and the pitcher is a jerk. God is not going to force the batter to lay off that 1-2 pitch in the dirt. He’s not doing that no matter what you saw in Angels in the Outfield. To do so would to counteract one’s freewill. Therefore, when the Mets lose to the Royals, it’s not because God prefers the Royals. When something amazing happens on the field, it’s because a player made an incredible play.
When things don’t go your way, it’s not because God doesn’t care. He cares. He cares so much He will allow the players on the field to determine the outcome of the game without His intervention.
What I’ve found is most of the people that support the Yoenis Cespedes trade is he transformed the offense, and he was the reason the Mets won the NL East. Other people say while Cespedes was great with the Mets, there were other more important factors helping the Mets win the NL East. These arguments rest upon the Mets getting healthy and a weak August schedule.
I think the best way to look at this is just to present the facts. I’m presenting them unadulterated and without comment. Before presenting them, remember that Cespedes’ first game with the Mets was 8/1.
Pre-Cespedes Record: 53 – 51
Post-Cespedes Record: 37 – 21
In the same time frame, here is the Nationals record:
Pre-Cespedes Record: 54-47
Post-Cespedes Record: 29-32
Mets Opponents Combined Win Percentage and Mets Record by Month:
April Opponents .458 Mets 15-8
May Opponents .510 Mets 13-15
June Opponents .483 Mets 12-15
July Opponents .537 Mets 13-12
August Opponents .480 Mets 20-8
September/October Opponents .458 Mets 17-14
Here is the Mets and Nationals records and position in the standings at the end of every month:
April
Mets 15-8
Nats 10-13 (5.0 games back)
May
Nats 28-22
Mets 28-23 (0.5 games behind)
June
Nats 43-34
Mets 40-38 (3.5 games behind)
July
Nats 54-47
Mets 53-50 (2.0 games behind)
August
Mets 73-58
Nats 66-64 (6.5 games behind)
September/October
Mets 90-72
Nats 83-79 (7.0 games behind)
Overall, the Mets went from 2.0 games behind heading into August to 6.5 games up at the end of the month. As stated above the Mets record in August was 20-8 against opponents with a .480 winning percentage. The Nationals went 12-17 against opponents with a .490 winning percentage. Aside from the records, here is some additional information to consider:
Dates Key Players Came off the DL for good (by first game played after activation):
Travis d’Arnaud July 31st
Daniel Murphy June 30th
David Wright August 24th
Michael Cuddyer August 11th
Here are some other key dates from the 2015 season to consider:
July 24 – Michael Conforto called up from AA
July 24 – Mets trade for Juan Uribe and Kelly Johnson
July 27th – Mets trade for Tyler Clippard
July 30 – John Mayberry, Jr. released
July 31 – Mets trade for Cespedes
August 1 – Cespedes plays first game with the Mets
Again, I’m making no comment on any of this information. It’s being presented to review it and process it. Upon reviewing the information, does your judgment on how Cespedes impacted the Mets change or remain the same?
As I write this, Grayson’s parents have received $13,746 towards the $30,000 needed to get him out of the hospital and home. It’s important to raise this money because: (1) he’s had infections while at the hospital requiring additional open heart surgery; and (2) he didn’t get to spend his first Christmas at home.
Think about that. It’s heartbreaking. He was in a hospital fighting an infection after having open heart surgery. While you and your family members got to dress up as Santa and watch the baby open gifts, Grayson was in a hospital.
First, I want to say that the $13,746 raised so far is a tremendous amount. I want to thank everyone who retweeted my incessant tweets trying to get the word out. I want to thank those that made donations as well. With that said, it’s frustrating. It’s frustrating because donations after the first day were around $8,000. Less than half that amount was raised in the subsequent four days. I’ve been sitting around trying to figure out how I can help more. I came up with a giveaway.
Right now in my possession, I have the following items to give away: (1) a David Wright Oyo Figure; and
(2) a PBS style Mets tote bag
Both were purchased with my own money, and neither of the aforementioned companies are sponsors. If you’re interested in the giveaway, here are the rules:
- There is no purchase necessary.
- One winner will be randomly selected.
- To enter, you must either RT the Tweet containing this article and/or enter a donation on the webpage leaving MetsDaddy and your Twitter handle in the comments section.
- If you RT and enter a donation, you will be deemed to have entered twice. There is no minimum donation required. However, only your first donation will count as an entry. All subsequent donations will welcome but not considered for the giveaway.
- Prior RT and donations do not qualify for the giveaway. Only RT and donations made after this is posted on Twitter will qualify.
On Friday, January 22nd at noon, I will selecte two winners at random. If the donations at that time meet the $30,000 goal, I will do an additional giveaway. If you want to make a donation, please click this link.
Again, thank you for all that you’ve done so far to help my friend’s son. Let’s finish the job and let his parents bring Grayson home.
Like most people, I like to play the projection game going into a season. I’m curious what other people think about the Mets. A vast majority of us are really using gut instinct and intuition to make these judgments. A site like Fangraphs uses hard data to arrive at their projections.
While much attention has been made about the projected standings, not at lot of attention has been paid to the different drivers to that calculation. Specifically, I’m referring to the Mets decision to trade Jon Niese for Neil Walker. At least according to Fangraphs, the way too early returns on this trade are not good for the Mets. It’s not the whole reason, but it’s at least part of the reason they are projected to finish behind the Nationals.
Let’s start at the switch from Murphy to Walker. Last year, Murphy hit .281/.322/.449. In his career, he’s a .288/.331/.424 hitter. He’s played most of his career with Citi Field as his home park. Last year, he worked with Kevin Long and saw some increased power. His replacement, Walker, is projected to hit .258/.329/.427. Essentially, Fangraphs sees Walker as a downgrade from what the Mets previously had offensively at second base. They see Walker as a downgrade from a player who really wanted to return to the Mets.
As we know, the side effect of the Walker trade was Murphy signing with the Nationals. Now that he’s away from Citi Field, he’s projected to hit .308/.351/.440. Effectively, Murphy is taking the place of Ian Desmond because Danny Espinosa is moving from second to short. Desmond hit .233/.290/.384. By the Mets not re-signing Murphy, it allowed the Nationals to do so, and as a result, their 2016 team projects to be a lot better than the 2015 version.
Sure, you could argue Murphy’s projected 2.3 WAR isn’t significantly better than Walker’s 2.2 WAR. This does neglect the fact that the Mets could’ve had Murphy for nothing. They had to give up Jon Niese for him. Niese has a reasonable, team friendly contract with team options for $10 and $11 million respectively in 2017 and 2018. Niese was a big trade chip. They used it on Walker, who isn’t even an upgrade.
Don’t believe me? Consider this. For his career, Niese has a 3.91 ERA, 3.84 FIP, and a 7.0 K/9. Wei-Yin Chen has a career 3.72 ERA, 4.14 FIP, and a 7.0 K/9. Both are left-handed. Both put up similar stats. Niese is 29, and Chen is 30. Chen just received a five year $80 million deal. Niese makes $9 million this year. If he gets injured, a team can walk away. If Niese is good, a team has him on a two year $20 million deal. Niese’s production and his contract carry a lot of value.
The Mets used Niese and didn’t even upgrade at second. They treaded water. Their old second baseman has gone to the Mets main competition in the NL East and has made them markedly better. To make matters worse, the Mets don’t have Niese to use as a trade chip for a big bat this year. Instead, they have the 42 year old Bartolo Colon, who has next to no trade value next year. This leaves the Mets hoping everyone outplays their predicted production.
As a result, the very early returns suggest the Mets made a bad trade and will regret losing Daniel Murphy.
Editor’s Note: this article also ran on metsmerizedonline.com
I don’t know about where you live, but I’ve gotten snow on Wednesday and Thursday. It seems like just yesterday it was shorts weather. It was just yesterday that we were trapped in a bad Elvis Presley Hawaii movie. Speaking of Hawaii, my Dad and I were talking about Mets players born in Hawaii. Can you name them? Good luck!
If you’re signed up for Mets emails, the slew of requests for fans to purchase game plans and the like. My favorite is when the Mets inquire if you’d like to get single game suites.
It’s something I always wanted to do. If love to go to a hot July day game and sit in a nice air conditioned suite. It’ll be great to let my son run around the suite if he gets antsy. It’ll be great to not have to wait in line for concessions during the game. Hungry? Just get up and grab something. Have to use the bathroom? Well there’s no line. It’s your own bathroom.
The Mets don’t have the information online, so I had to do some digging. The going rate for 19 people seems to be in the $4,000 – $5,000 range. Assuming I could bring my son in for free (his growth spurts aren’t helping that), the cost would be between $210.53 – $263.16 per person. However, it appears that may be without the food, which is part of the charm. If you were to sit in the ballpark, that would be the equivalent of sitting in the Metropolitan Silver section.
I can’t sit in the Metropolitan Silver section now with a little kid, but I could sit in a suite. It’s a lot for a game, but it’s something I would love to do. I guess it’s time to get 18 of my friends together.
For all of his faults as a centerfielder, Yoenis Cespedes is an incredibly gifted baseball player coming off of a career year at the relatively young age of 30. In 2015, he hit .291/.328/.542 with 35 homers and 105 RBI. He was the Gold Glove left fielder in the AL, and he set the world ablaze upon coming to the NL. Teams should be lining up to give him a big contract.
So far, they’re not. They’re also not lining up for Justin Upton, who at 27, is just entering his prime. His 162 game average is .271/.351/.473 with 26 homers and 84 RBI. Are we supposed to believe teams aren’t interested because he had a down year offensively while playing at Petco Park? Then there’s an established player like Dexter Fowler, who is a leadoff hitter and a centerfielder on a team that just won 97 games at went to the NLCS. These guys would make a great outfield from left to right.
Heck, you can surround them with a pretty good team. There’s Chris Davis at first, who’s 47 homers lead the AL. There’s Howie Kendrick at second, who’s a good glove and high average guy. The 2013 playoff hero, David Freese, mans the hit corner. Ian Desmond is the rare shortstop who averages around 20 homers a year. By the way, these are all Top 50 free agents who are all unsigned, and we’re 36 days away from pitchers and catchers.
It’s insane! In fact seven of the top 15 free agents remain unsigned. One that did sign was Alex Gordon. He signed a team friendly contract that has been described as a bargain. We’re now hearing questions whether three-time All Star Justin Upton will only seek a one year deal. The Mets, who once discussed a two to three year deal with Cespedes, is now thinking of offering him only a one year deal (of course they’re expecting him not to take it). This all sounds a little too much like Andre Dawson to me.
Due to the owner’s collusion back in 1987, Andre Dawson offered a blank check to get him out of Montreal. Did I just use the word collusion? Yes, I did. At what point does someone bring it up? There are simply too many big time free agents unsigned.
The offseason was somewhat slow to develop, and then we saw a lot of deals happening. The top players were receiving opt out clauses to the dismay of the Commissioner. After that, free agent signings came to a crawl. There are several top free agents left with the start of Spring Training a little more than a month away. The top free agent that did sign in Janusry signed a team friendly deal. Can we at least be suspicious? Doesn’t the Mets reducing their offer to Cespedes scream a little foul?
Better yet, doesn’t it make you yet again question the Mets jumping the gun signing Alejandro De Aza? With all these big time free agents, why wouldn’t you wait a little longer? Even if De Aza fills a real need, is it worth signing him and losing out on Cespedes or Fowler? Did the Mets just get a really bad read on this free agent market or is something else going on here?
I don’t know because none of this makes sense. Players in their prime putting up huge numbers are not supposed to be available now. Yet, here we are. These players are available, and they might be seeking team friendly deals like Gordon because the market seems to be suppressing their value. Whether that’s artificially or not is up for debate.
What is not up for debate is the fact that the Mets had a bad read on this market. As a result, they have De Aza, and they probably won’t have Cespedes. No one is coming to the Mets with an open check. Instead, they’ll go elsewhere on team friendly deals.
MLB is doing this new thing when a notable player joins a new team, they have them fill out a questionnaire so the fans get to know them better. For example, did you know Neil Walker‘s favorite baseball movie is Field of Dreams? Well, I’m sure he will now replace Daniel Murphy as a fan favorite.
I’m joking of course. I think it’s a good idea. For some people, getting to know a player makes you more emotionally invested. That’s a good thing. Speaking of Murphy and new teams, here’s his answers to the Nationals questionnaire:
He’s right, there is so much poop. Infants are popping machines. Luckily, when they’re infants it doesn’t smell so bad do you can keep it in your Diaper Dekor. For the uninitiated, the Diaper Dekor is a device designed to let you keep your child’s poop sitting in the house until either: (1) the bag fills up; or (2) it starts to smell. By the way, you’re exhausted when you have an infant. You will be willing to push those boundaries especially when the diaper changes are so frequent.
The worst poops are the first ones. The meconium poops. It’s this thick tar like bowel movement that gets on and sticks to everything. It doesn’t smell. It just gets onto everything just sticking to it and staining it. It lasts much shorter than you believe it does, but it does create havoc.
It reminds me of when I first gave my son a bath when we brought him home. By the way, the Blooming Bath is awesome. Anyway, I very carefully have my son a bath. I was more careful than a leper in a soup kitchen (his name is Stew by the way). I handled my son like he was nitroglycerine, and I was walking through a minefield on crutches. You get the picture. I was so proud of myself. When you’re a first time parent, everything is an accomplishment. Even your own ability to wake up in the morning and function like a member of society.
I turned around and started heading to the changer with my son, and then I got my reward. Meconium all over my favorite Gary Carter t-shirt. I tell you this younger generation doesn’t respect the greats in baseball history.
Anyway, I just remembered standing there with this poop dripping down my shirt. I was trying to hold my son, while supporting his neck and allowing him to continue to pool all over me. I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was trying to angle his butt away from me so he didn’t continues to poop on me and so I wouldn’t have to redo the bath. When he was done, I knew I couldn’t go from tile to carpet. I was somewhat delirious from the lack of sleep, but I knew that much. So, I did then what every strong man does when he’s in a situation he can’t solve.
I called out to my wife, “Help! I don’t know what to do!” She came over and did what all supportive wives do. She laughed at me. She then cleaned up the mess. For the rest of the night, she mocked me for it. It was a story she told everyone when they came to see the baby. I was the butt of the joke. Get it?
In any event, I remembered using Dreft for only God knows how many cycles before finally getting the stain out. Trust me, at some point everything you own will be covered in poop. You can’t buy a new wardrobe. Stop judging me. In any event, that’s what came to mind when I saw Murphy’s answers to the questionnaire.
Just “so much poop.”
Editor’s Note: the products referenced were not paid advertisements. They were products we actually used.