What a Week What a .500 Weak?

Backstop back at you, 

Okay we have been through 5 games.  I am going to start a new ritual during the season.  As baseball is a game sheet rocked with superstitions, my ritual has a more practical purpose.

I am simply not going to clip my nails during the regular season and if the Mets are in the playoffs (My fingers to God's Answering Machine) I am going to take a daily double dose of those vitamins that make your nails grow faster.  

The superstitious Reason:  Does anybody anywhere know were these things come from?  I know that I was in a slump once.  I stopped for pizza on the way to the game.  The pizza tasted like the hotdogs at Shea before Nathan's came and made them at least eatable.   During the game I was unsure of when I was bating until I noticed that nobody was on deck.  It was me who was supposed to bat next, line up cards exchanged,  I ran towards the circle and grabbed the first helmet I saw.  I noticed the helmet being very tight as I am what one would call cranially blessed (I have a big head) but the one I usually wear was guarding the head of the guy trying not to get picked off second base.  The guy that was batting, normally a patient hitter swung at the second pitch, giving me 2 maybe 3 warm-up swings.  I stepped in.  First pitch was in the dirt. No need to even bring my hands back on that one I thought.  The second pitch was  a heater that to this day I still see in slow motion.  Letter high outside corner with a sinking 2-seam movement.  Shift, turn, head on, hands back and Bam.  Opposite field triple over the right fielder's head.

For the rest of the season I kept that lousy pizza place in business.  I would stop there before games no matter how far out of the way it was.  I also likely permanently altered the shape of my head by wearing only the tightest helmets I could force to fit  on my head.

Superstitious?  Logic Man (He is the guy that looks back and makes sense out of everything in the rearview mirror) says that the carbs in the pizza gave me energy and the tight helmets held my loose living brain together enough to keep me focused.  Logic man has no idea what he is talking about.  The pizza: Magic Pizza  The helmet:  My Magical Protective armor.  My slump ended that day.  Thank you for indulging me in allowing me to tell one of my "Glory Days" stories.

The Practical Reason For Not Clipping Nails:  I clipped them yesterday morning.   By the 6th inning of last nights (4/10/09 loss to the Marlins) I had to resort to biting right into my finger for lack of any fingernail to bite.

Here are a few goods, a few bads, a few did you notice?'s and a few things to keep your eye on for week 2 and beyond in hopes that things don't get ugly.