It was the second time this season umpires blew calls regarding Mets homeruns. Umpires are human so mistakes will be made. That’s why instant replay should be used on homerun calls only! It should never be used for calls involving balls, strikes, or plays in the field, just home runs. With today’s ballparks where there are seats right behind the outfield wall, some home runs are difficult to call. It can be difficult at times if the ball just clears the fence. There are fans waving and screaming trying to catch the ball. MLB would not have to do anything as elaborate as the NFL. All the ballparks have huge high definition screens these days. The stadium scoreboard crew on queue from the head umpire could replay the play from different angles using slow motion and still frame. Then the call would be made correctly. What if the Mets had lost the game 5-4? An outcome like that could have huge impact especially if a team lost the pennant by one game.

The only thing that could have made the weekend sweeter was if they had played Friday night and the Mets won that game too. You know the Yankees did not want to schedule a day night double header on Saturday for one reason. They don’t want to play games right now because of A-Rod and Posada being out and just the way the Yankees have been pitching. I can’t blame them. The Mets would have done the same thing. By pushing the game off till the end of June, the chances are good the Yankees will be healthier and playing better. More on this in a moment…

Was it the meeting on Friday night or do the Mets just play better when the competition is better? Look, I’m excited the Mets spanked the Yanks but I’m not going to be seduced by a two game winning streak. Let’s reevaluate things on Friday night before the Mets take on the Rockies. The Mets have 4 very tough games in Atlanta starting tomorrow afternoon when the Mets face Tom Glavine. Beating the Yankees is one thing. It’s good for Mets fans morale but the team the Mets really need to make a statement to is the Braves. How will you feel about these last two Yankee games come Friday if the Mets have lost 3 of 4 to Atlanta? It’s still early but this series is the first real crucial one for the Mets. Let’s hope all the right things the Mets were saying last night in the clubhouse play out on the field.

So when will the Yankees and Mets make up Friday’s rainout? Announcers all weekend were assuming the Mets and Yankees would play a day night, two stadium double header as they have done twice before. However, the Saturday game on June 28 is a 4:00PM scheduled start on Fox. That precludes a day night double header. The game on Sunday is a normal local TV start time of 1:10. So theoretically they could play a Sunday night game in Yankees stadium but that would require ESPN to shuffle their schedule since a different game is planned to be aired. ESPN has exclusive rights to Sunday night so even if the Mets and Yankees decide to play that evening there would be no TV broadcast.

The Mets have an off day on Thursday, June 26, prior to the Friday night game but the Yankees do not. Neither club is off on Monday the 30th. The Mets travel to St. Louis and the Yankees go home to play Texas. So the Mets and Yankees will have to get creative unless ESPN is willing to capitulate on Sunday evening. One possible scenario would be to play a Friday afternoon game at Yankee Stadium starting at 1:00PM. If necessary the Mets could move back the night game starting time at Shea a half hour or so to accommodate traffic. How about a Saturday morning game at the Stadium? They could start at 10:00AM and be done in plenty of time for the 4:00PM game at Shea. That idea would never fly because if the Friday night game went late, you would have two very lethargic New York teams on Saturday morning. The other possibility is to not play the makeup game on that last weekend in June and to play on a day when both teams are off…like…today. Apparently the Mets nixed this idea because of the day/night double header they have scheduled tomorrow in Atlanta. The only other day the rest of the season the two clubs have off on the same day is September 11th, a Thursday.

They should have played the game either today or this past Saturday night. The excuse used for not playing a day nighter on Saturday was the weather was supposed to be bad again. I went to a minor league game in Jersey on Saturday evening and there was only had a brief shower that did not interrupt play. The Yankees could have played but I think they wanted to hold off and play at a time when they were a bit stronger. Again, I can’t blame them.

They had a great aerial shot on Saturday of the new Yankee Stadium from the Direct TV blimp. As excited as I am about Citi Field opening next year I have to admit, the New Yankee yard looks very nice too. Two brand new stadiums opening up in the same year—only in New York.