NY Mets on the Road - To Live and Cry in LA

Article first published as NY Mets on the Road - To Live and Cry in LA on Blogcritics.


There is no doubt about it (or as beloved NY Mets announcer Ralph Kiner used to say "No bout a doubt it") the New York Mets are Amazin’s once again - at least on the road.

The Mets look lost at Citi Field, and I can admit I do feel that way myself sometimes. It seemed like I knew every nook and cranny of good old dilapidated Shea Stadium, and I remembered where Cleon squeezed that last ball in 1969 or Rusty hit the outfield wall in 1973 or where Mookie hit the ball between Buckner's legs in 1986. These were great Mets memories, not to mention the Beatles trying to out scream the fans on a stage out near second base. Those were the days.

But Mets fans have tried to warm up to Citi Field, and it is designed way better than Shea right down to more plentiful - and clean - bathrooms. The food courts are wonderful and plentiful space is available to drink, eat, and be merry.

Still the team struggles at Citi as it did in the last home series against the Yankees, although that last game when the Mets beat Mariano Rivera was pure gold. You could bottle that and Mets fans would buy it again and again. The Mets beat Rivera - what a moment!

Now out on the road they are warriors again, taking the first two in LA. Last night Mike Pelfrey seemed like an ace who never lost a case - no, that's Perry Mason, another LA story -  but I digress.
There is a good deal to be happy about right now as manager Terry Collins has his team believing in themselves as much as he does. They have lots of guts and determination as they strike out on this last road trip before the All-Star break without Reyes and Santana and Davis and Wright.

In another universe we would be crying out there on the West Coast, where many Mets teams went 0 for 9 and came home whipped. This team seems different and they keep finding ways to win. That will definitely keep Mets fans watching and wanting to go to the ballpark. Now, if the team could just find a way to win more games at home, but that's another story.

Photo Credit: NY Daily News

Just One More Thing: Remembering Peter Falk's Columbo

Article first published as Just One More Thing: Remembering Peter Falk's Columbo on Blogcritics.

When I heard that Peter Falk passed away, I couldn’t help but remember him as Columbo, the indelible character he portrayed on the hit television show Columbo during the 1970s. The disheveled, disoriented, and seemingly insipid detective stumbled his way through every episode, appearing lost in thought about his dog, mother-in-law, wife, or some illness that plagued him. This was always a ruse that made the killer think he was going to walk, but at the end of every episode Columbo revealed his true genius and caught the antagonist much to his or her chagrin.


I was introduced to Columbo by my Aunt Margie (who passed away in 2006). She would watch every episode faithfully with a little smirk on her face. She loved Agatha Christie books, Perry Mason, and most police shows, but Columbo seemed to be her favorite. I think she liked the premise of the show most of all because it pleased her to see a pompous (and usually very wealthy) killer taken down by a rumpled everyman like Columbo.

The show was not the standard procedural but rather what I call a "how done it," unlike the usual murder mystery known as a "who done it." At the beginning of every episode the viewer got the exposition of the killer and his intended victim, got to see the actual killing, and then the "brilliant" cover-up that would supposedly leave the police baffled.

Of course then into the mansion would stagger Columbo. Sometimes peeling an egg for breakfast, or coughing with a cold, or seemingly obsessing over a lost item, Columbo would encounter the killer and immediately send the signal that he was an incompetent buffoon. The fun of each episode was the unraveling of the facade, as Columbo became either friendly or more annoying to the culprit, a sort of reverse of cat and mouse that was a joy to watch because many of the killers were played by such fine actors - Ruth Gordon, Leonard Nimoy, Jack Cassidy, Robert Culp, Vera Miles and many, many more.

Columbo was such a fish out of water. A New Yorker who once admitted he came from the Lower East Side and ran around the streets barefoot through Chinatown. This poor New York kid somehow ends up in Los Angeles, rubbing elbows with the wealthiest people as he tries to solve the crime. Wearing an old worn raincoat (even in warm weather when everyone else is running around in shorts and polo shirts), smoking a half-chewed stogie, his hair looking spiked and matted as if he just rolled out of bed, Columbo was truly an anti-hero anyone could relate to.

So now the great Peter Falk is gone. He has left behind one of the greatest characters in television history. I imagine that when he passed on and appeared at the entrance to heaven, he may have started through the Pearly Gates, stopped, and turned to St. Peter and said, "Just one more thing...." as his character often did to disarm his intended target. I am sure Falk got as a big a laugh up there as he got down here. I just hope he doesn't run into my aunt because she is going to want an autograph.

Photo Credit: peterfalk.com