Best And Worst Of 2004

Best Met Game: I'm tempted to say the July 3rd Met/Yankee game where the Mets won a slugfest 10-9. I'm tempted to say the Randy Johnson/Tom Glavine duel where the Mets won 1-0 on a leadoff home run from Kaz Matsui.

But the honor goes to the May 16th game at Houston.

Roger Clemens, having won seven straight games to start the season, had pitched seven brilliant innings. Now it was top of the ninth, Astros up 2-0, two outs, one on, Mike Piazza at the plate, Octavio Dotel on the mound.

Bam.

And Gogs was the extra inning hero to boot.

I believed, at that moment, that this team was something special. And despite the results of the rest of the season, nothing will take away from this game, certain to be shown on the new network's 'Mets Classic' series.

Best Season: Going by VORP, you'd have to give it to Al Leiter and Tom Glavine, with 46.2 and 42 respectively. Piazza was the best position player at 29.9 followed closely by Mike Cameron with 27.

But we're not going to give it to any of them.

Nope. Looking at Rookie VORP, both Kaz Matsui and David Wright clock in at 5th and 8th in the major leagues with 23.7 and 21.2 respectively.

Just think what they'll be able to do in their sophomore seasons.

Best Surprise: I think this has to go to Eric Valent -- .818 OPS, 14.9 VORP. Not bad for a Rule V pickup, eh?

Best Move: David Weathers and Jeremy Griffiths for Richard Hidalgo. 'Nuff said.

Best Souvenir: The Mets Jersey Beer Bottle Koosie (right). Also comes in a home black version. Sweet.

Worst Met Game: Boy, you can take your pick but I think you have to go with the 'Black Saturday' game against the Braves which featured:

1) Kris Benson's debut to the tune of seven earned runs in five innings.

2) Jaret Freakin' Wright pitching seven innings of three-hit ball

3) Having to sit through this mess of a game thinking about Scott Kazmir becoming a star...for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

Worst Season: I'm tempted to give it to Gogs but he's going to get a different award. No, this one goes to The Great James Baldwin Experiment who piled up an astounding ten runs in six innings over two disasterous starts for a -6.2 VORP. Gives me the willies just thinking about it.

Marv Throneberry Award: Instead of 'worst surprise'. Gogs really disappointed this year but you just can't dislike the guy. I want to see a United Way commerical next year with Gogs and a whole group of kids who challenge him to a foot race. Then, in true comedic fashion, you see a series of cuts across the screen with the kids racing by, back and forth, followed by a panting Phillips. Maybe they could have the kids lap him a few times too.

Worst Trade: Duh.

And now for something competely different...

Best Album: I'd love to give this to U2 but HTDAAB is so much weaker than ATYCLB, I just can't. And even though I love the album, I can't bring myself to give it to Maroon 5 either since everything on it has been played ad nauseum to the point where I'm tired of it.

So I'm giving this award to Franz Ferdinand's self titled album instead that's filled with some of the catchiest songs you'll ever hear. Just try to get "The Dark Of The Matinee" out of your head. I dare you.

Best Movie: I'm tempted to say Spider-Man 2 (and I haven't seen Ray yet) but Kinsey was fantastic and Jamie Foxx will certainly have some stiff competition from Liam Neeson.

Best Game: Okay. I'll fully and shamelessly admit to being raised as a Nintendo fanboy, something I can't seem to get out of my system so by default this award has to go to Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. And I refuse, for the sake of my thesis, to install either World of Warcraft or Half-Life 2 in my laptop.

Nope. Not going to do it. *starts shaking*

Happy New Year!