What is wrong with the Mets?

 I'm a firm believer that if something isn't broken, you don't fix it.

After an epic collapse at the end of the 2025 season the Mets' front office decided to fix the roster when it didn't need to be fixed.

Star 1st baseman Pete Alonso chased the money to Baltimore. He's barely hitting .200 after going 1-4 in a loss to Cleveland on Sunday. A period of adjustment to a new team? Sure.

Pitching coach Jeremy Hefner and 1st base coach Antoan Richardson, who was the genius behind the Mets' running game last year, are in Atlanta, and the Braves are back in 1st place in the NL East, while the Mets, with 1st year pitching coach Justin Willard (Who? Exactly!) are in last.

Closer Edwin Diaz, like Alonso, chose to chase the money, and joined the World Champion Los Angeles Dodgers. Diaz has struggled recently, and there are concerns that the knee issues that torpedoed his season in 2023 after the World Baseball Classic have cropped up again. Media reports have suggested a rift between Diaz and Mets management. Diaz and Dodger teammate Enrique "Kike" Hernandez co-produced a documentary about their native land, Puerto Rico, which aired on MLB Network right before this year's WBC. Like, whodathunk?

Utility ace Jeff McNeil has settled in at 2nd base with the Sacramento A's, and tortured both the Mets & Yankees when the A's were in NYC 2 weeks ago.

Outfielder Brandon Nimmo has been raking of late with Texas.

On Sunday, another ex-Met, outfielder Michael Conforto, with his 3rd team since leaving NY, haunted his ex-mates yet again, this time with the Chicago Cubs. His pinch-hit double helped the Cubs come back to sweep the Mets, sending Carlos Mendoza's club to its 11th straight loss.

Fair weather "fans" on reddit, a mostly whiny bunch, are blaming Mendoza because they need a fall guy right now. They're ignoring the obvious signs that it's not entirely Mendoza's fault.

Star slugger Juan Soto is out with a calf injury, and has started rehab. Utility man Jared Young and infielder-DH Jorge Polanco, one of the team's free agent signings in the offseason, joined Soto on the shelf in the last week. As Mets announcers Gary Cohen & Ron Darling pointed out during one of the games against Chicago, the Mets had been a patient group at the plate, but ever since Soto went down, the patience has given way to impatience and nervous energy, and hitters are pressing, as often happens in long losing streaks like this.

One redditor said that some jobroni from Baseball Prospectus, who happens to be a fan of both the Mets & the Jests from New Jersey, claimed that the Mets needed to get out from under Nimmo's contract, which was negotiated by then-GM Billy Eppler. Not buying that at all. Current owner Steve Cohen has enough cheddar to counter-balance that contract, but when you're dealing with a fan base that tends to act like a bunch of entitled children during dark periods like this, there's no reasoning with them. Factor in Scott Boras Badenov giving guys like Alonso bad advice, and, well, there ya go.

The Mets will pull out of this crash dive soon, but not soon enough to satisfy the artificially entitled "fans". I remember saying at the end of last season that Mendoza might not finish out his contract, which is in its 3rd year. Ya know, kids, I hate it when I'm right sometimes.

Two old Office friends reunite (2025)

 The makers of Lavazza coffee might've been hoping folks would get confused with this next spot.

Last fall, Steve Carell & John Krazinski (ex-The Office) reunited, joined by a robot named Luigi, to do a series of spots for the product, like this one, which is still in heavy rotation.

The confusion? The beard Carell is sporting makes him look like George Clooney. Ya don't believe me? Scope!

Clooney was doing ads for Nespresso from Nestle, and also doing vodka ads.

On The Shelf: Firestorm goes rogue, and the Muppets go noir

 Dynamite's trying something, well, radical, with Muppets Noir, a miniseries that not only sends up old school detective mysteries, but paints the gang in completely new lights.

An accident leaves Kermit seemingly in a coma, where he imagines himself as detective Flip Minnow, Fozzie as a cop (!), and it goes from there. Writer-artist Roger Langridge is having some fun. 

Rating: A.

On the other side of the fence is DC's latest version of The Fury of Firestorm. Writer Jeff Lemire is crafting psychological thriller in which the nuclear man has gone completely rogue. Right now, I've got a good idea where this is going.

As a bonus, Firehawk returns to help the police get inside the complex mind of an entity that was once an ally.

Firehawk was introduced in the original Fury of Firestorm series in the 80's, and is a welcome sight.

Rating: A-.

When Ted Wolf pitched ThunderCats to Rankin-Bass back in the 80's, I don't think he'd ever imagined Lion-O and his tribe ever meeting the Silverhawks, who debuted a year later.

Writers Declan Shalvey & Ed Brisson seem to think the two teams belong as part of a shared universe, and the latest step is ThunderCats X Silverhawks, a 5 month event from Dynamite that also gives the 'Cats' arch nemesis, Mumm-Ra, his own series. There's also a scenario where some 'Cats are wearing Silverhawk armor. That may be pushing the envelope just a wee bit too far.

Grade: Incomplete.

After a recent miniseries from Mad Cave comes word that Lee Falk's legendary hero, The Phantom, will get a TV series, streaming on Netflix, I believe, within the next year. A challenge, to be sure, but then, Mad Cave took a chance on Phantom.....! Buffy The Vampire Slayer returns to comics in July at a new home, Dynamite (previously at Dark Horse). Kelly Thompson & Stephen Byrne are the creative team on the new series.....Buffy replaces Thundarr The Barbarian, as that series ends with issue 5 in June. Not enough interest in a 46 year old cartoon. Why am I not surprised?

Dunce Cap Award: Pete Hegseth

 "You can't fix stupid!"---Ron White.

It's clear that defense secretary Pete Hegseth hasn't read a Bible in some time. Why else, then, did he resort to using a Hollywood adaptation of Ezekiel 25:17, dating back some 50 years, at a conference the other day?

In 1994's "Pulp Fiction", one of the characters, played by Samuel L. Jackson, recites a line of verse that paraphrases Ezekiel. This paraphrase originated some 20 years earlier with Sonny Chiba.

The actual verse reads like this:

"I will execute great vengeance on them with furious rebukes, and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I lay my vengeance upon them." (New King James translation)

Because this gaffe, like every other mistake made by the current misadministration, has gone viral, Hegseth earned himself a Dunce Cap. All anyone needs do is Google the appropriate verse, or pull out their Bibles. It's that simple.

Believe me, even fictional preachers would have gotten it right.

If you want to know what a real preacher sounds like, check this Billy Graham sermon from 1982.

Unfortunately, Graham's son, Franklin, has also dined on the tree of stupid, supporting the blasphemy of ol' Mango Judas (Donald Trump) from earlier in the week. All Trump is doing, really, is admitting to the world that he is not, and never has been, a Christian. Preachers like Franklin, Paula White-Cain, et al, are pandering to the ego of this pumpkin skinned charlatan.

Just remember, God Himself warned that vengeance is His, and He will repay. Washington ain't exactly Sodom & Gomorrah, but, well........!

Native Americans are complaining about a change to the Washington Commanders' logo. The blame isn't entirely on the team, but rather a certain bloviating meddler

 So the Washington Commanders, a week before the NFL draft, unveiled an updated version of the logo that has been in place since they were the "Washington Football Team" from 2020-2.

Last year's model. Photo courtesy Yahoo!.

This is what the new logo looks like:

Current owner Josh Harris is looking to win back the fans who walked away when the team gave up its original nickname due to pressure from Native American activists six years ago. Two days after the new logo was introduced, comes the backlash from some Native Americans, but the anger should not entirely be on Harris and the team.

Remember, too, that president Trump has demanded the Commanders go back to their old name, and threatened to block them from building a new stadium in Washington (the team plays their home games in Virginia) if they didn't give him what he wanted.

"WAAAH! They never should've changed the name! WAAAAH!"

So, yeah, Harris commissioned a new logo as a compromise to the oldest baby in America to get Trump off his back. That's the best way I can describe it. And I'm part Native American in heritage. A small percentage, sure, but it's there. Trump thinks being president gives him license to meddle in everything not associated with him. He's wrong, and always has been.

My advice to Harris is simple. Put it to a vote, then make it official.

Polident represents its target demographic (1985)

 While I know people sometimes have to get dentures before they reach "retirement age", Polident, in this 1985 ad, shows how some of Hollywood's seniors use the product.

Featuring Martha Raye, Scatman Crothers (ex-Chico & The Man), Henny Youngman, Yvonne DeCarlo (ex-The Munsters), and Danny Thomas, whose last series, I'm a Big Girl Now, was 5 years earlier.

No truth to the rumor that Youngman & his violin had actually recorded any of the background music......

Sports this 'n' that

 What is wrong with the Mets?

The team has dropped 8 in a row, having been swept by the A's and Dodgers over the last six days, and the offense has all but vanished, scoring just 3 runs in the Dodger series.

Part of it, of course, is psychological in the absence of star slugger Juan Soto, on the IL with calf issues. Then, utility man Jared Young tore a meniscus, and he went on the IL on Wednesday. Pitcher Clay Holmes made his start on Wednesday after experiencing hamstring tightness on Friday vs. the A's.

Unsurprisingly, Mets fans on reddit are predicting manager Carlos Mendoza, in his 3rd season, may be gone before the season is over. You can't predict injuries, however, and there are those fair weather types who will hold the front office accountable for letting Pete Alonso (Baltimore), Jeff McNeil (A's), and Brandon Nimmo (Texas) leave after last season, taking away a large chunk of the offense before Soto went down.

Proof that fans in NYC are a finicky bunch.

Is this the final season for the LIV golf tour?

MSN reporters seem to think so, as players are leaving the tour, bit by bit.

The Saudi-backed tour changed networks last year from CW to Fox, hoping the wider reach of the latter might help, but it hasn't helped player morale, it seems.

Stay tuned.

If it was theatre NYC fans wanted the last three nights, they got it at Yankee Stadium.

The Bronx Bombers walked off the LA Angels twice, but the highlight of the series was an epic duel between sluggers Aaron Judge & Mike Trout, who combined for 7 home runs in the 3 games. 4 for Trout, 3 for Judge.

I'd say Mike Trout is finally healthy.

The two outfielders, with 6 MVP awards between them (3 each), and their teams will meet again in Anaheim later this season. If you thought this series was wack, wait for the sequel.

And you know Hollywood loves sequels.

Wide World of Sports signed off ABC years ago, but the way smaller, niche sports are starting leagues, and getting TV deals with ESPN, you'd think Disney would want to revive Wide World.

Like, major league table tennis, anyone? You do know pickleball is a hybrid of table tennis, aka ping pong, and regular tennis, right?