YMMV: Chase & Pedro

A colleague-friend came by my office with some paperwork and got distracted by the two-page spread from the opening day newspaper with head shots, vitals and capsule descriptions of each of the players on the B-Mets' initial roster. He and another colleague-friend had recently been to their first B-mEts game of this season and there was this player that both of them thought was arrogant

I didn't have a clue who he might be referring to, since it was notable how diminished the arrogance had been this year.

He kept scanning the players. "A white guy," he said.

Mike Jacobs? I offered, thinking how Jacobs's arrogance quotient had drastically dropped from his earlier stint with the B-Mets.

"Not Jacobs," he said, "That guy, Lambin."

Chase? Arrogant? He's a sweetheart.

The two of them thought he thought too much of himself and thought he wasn't so great at the plate and not much of a fielder either.

Chase is a sweetheart, even if he does have to straighten his jersey after every pre-game wind sprint.

The major leaguer Chase most resembles is David Eckstein. Neither is blessed with an abundance of natural talent, but both play to the best of their abilities, pushing themselves to exceed expectations and have a good time doing it.

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Another colleague-friend is a big Mets fan. She held a Subway Series party for the first game of the 200 World Series, Mets fans in the comfy chairs in the living room, Yankees fans in the kitchen with the refreshments.

She loves Pedro. A lot of people were disparaging of Pedro when he was with the Red Sox. For a long time I was a fan of his, loved his great pitching (luckily I got to see him pitch 3 times at Fenway), his goofy presence in the dugout. After he got bumped from the top spot, had to share the limelight, Pedro lost some luster to Red Sox fans; I was less happy with him as his pitching declined and he became a sulking prima donna. (I was the Baseball Diva years before sportswriters dubbed Pedro the same.)

In New York with the Mets, the old, lovable Pedro is back and this friend loves having him on the team. She loves his superior pitching, his competitiveness, his playfulness in the dugout on days he's not pitching, and I'm enjoying her delight in Pedro nearly as much as I enjoyed Pedro when he was with the Sox.