Please allow me to introduce myself....

My initial entry, so where to begin?

Who am I you may ask. I'm a Met and Islander fan, hence the Orange and Blue tilt to this blog. Yes, I know there is another organization that wears the same colors, but at this point, they do not deserve to be called a team. In addition, they play in the same arena, and are owned by the same people who own the Rangers, so in my mind, they do not exist. Besides, being all of 5' 11", and not very skilled in the game, I do not like basketball.

I do not intend to have this blog be an outpost for anti-Ranger or anti-Yankee vitriol. While I do not personally root for either team, I do not care what they do, so long as it does not impact my favored team.

Oh, the hell with that, I will be blasting both the Yankees and the Rangers from time to time. I will do my level best to not make it the focus of the Cafe. My goal here is to have a place for my feelings on my teams, what they have done, and what they have not done that I, in my humble opinion think they should have.

So where to begin. It is July, and the middle of baseball season. However, since my Isles now have a new coach and GM, and free agency just started, I feel I should give this first entry over to that downtrodden group in the Coliseum.

Personally, I like the signing of Ted Nolan. He is a good coach, with a great deal of knowledge about the game. He has the ability to get the most out of the talent he is given. That is important, since so long as Alexei Yashin is wearing Blue & Orange, the funds are not going to be there to add better talent.

I am of two minds with Neil Smith. He is of course a former Islander, drafted by them, a former scout as well. Yet, the black mark against him is he helped build a Cup winner for the Rangers. That is something I am going to have a hard time getting past. He did a good job with the draft, though Feltrin led it. The signing of Mike Sillinger is interesting. It should go a long way towards putting the rumors of the Return of Peca to rest.

I of course love the fact that Bryan Trottier and Pat LaFonatine are back in the organization. My hope is that Trots can apply a cross-check any time Mike Milbury gets too close to Smith.

Aside from comments on any upcoming signings, I shall leave the subject of the Isles until October. My hope is that this season will be significantly better than last.

My view of this past weekend's Met-Yankees series can be summed up quite simply
Crap
Just Crap.

I will have more to say on the Mets as soon as I finish throwing up. As you may have guessed, I was not happy with the results of the past week.
First, they are one-hit by Mussina and a bullpen who has been awful until this weekend.
They follow this up by finally finding their bats and smacking around the Big Eunich.
Then, last night, they bring the bats, but leave their arms at home. They allow A-6-4-3 to have a coming out party of sorts. Fans who had been booing him for weeks (wrongly I must add) are now bowing before him.

For the Mets, the bullpen is used up, and Darren Oliver gets the start tonight. Granted, it is against the Pirates, but the way this team is playing right now, I would not be surprised to see a split of this series.

Crap.
Just Crap.