Classy move by Carlos Beltran

With all the denial surrounding the Mets right now (money issues won't affect the team, the Mets are a contender), it's refreshing to see someone associated with the team acknowledge a situation and take positive steps to rectify it. Carlos Beltran has decided to move from center to right field.

Apparently, Beltran was the one who approached Terry Collins about making the switch. So Beltran comes off well for initiating the move, while the new manager deserves credit for a smooth transition.

Compare this situation to last summer, when Beltran returned to the lineup. Jerry Manuel not only put Beltran back in center field, but batted him cleanup. Manuel's moves coincided with the Mets, eight games over .500 at the All-Star break, collapsing right after that. Beltran hit .204 in July and .227 in August with two homers - not exactly cleanup material. And he was clearly not his old self in center field.

At this point, it doesn't matter if Manuel or Beltran or both deserve blame for the poor decisions of last summer. In 2011, both Beltran and Collins deserve credit for helping this Met team make a fresh start and create some positive feelings around the team for a change.

***

Happy Birthday, Squawker Lisa!

Mets Schedule August Promotion Featuring Jose Reyes

Will Jose Reyes get traded by the July 31 deadline? Not if you go by the 2011 promotions schedule. Friday, August 5 against the Braves is "Jose Reyes Banner and Fiesta Latina."

However, the press release announcing single-game sales includes the August 5 promotion but leaves out any mention of Reyes:

The Mets also announced more than 60 promotional days for the 2011 schedule. Highlights include Mr. Met bobblehead day on April 8, Ike Davis bobblehead day on July 19 and Fiesta Latina night on August 5.

Was Reyes left out of the press release intentionally? Who knows, but I'll be curious to see if his name remains in the promotions list.

The first spring telecast did suggest that Reyes remains an important part of the team's marketing, since he was the first player shown in the opening graphics.

As for the other promotions, at least Mr. Met and Ike Davis are unlikely to be traded.

Mets Borrow Money to Pay Perez and Castillo

It's supposed to be a great day for Met fans - the return of actual games. I've been looking forward to this afternoon's exhibition season opener all week. And now it's all ruined by revelations that MLB had to lend $25 million to Met ownership last fall just to keep baseball operations running.

We've heard a lot of spin all winter about how the Mets' financial situation won't affect the product on the field. But now that's even harder to believe. Not when all the money coming off the payroll after this year will now have to go to paying off debt.

Any big-market team with a Jose Reyes would have re-signed him by now. But the chances of that happened just sank even lower.

I would still like to believe that Oliver Perez and Luis Castillo will be judged on their ability to contribute, not on their contracts. But how will it look if a team that had to borrow $25 million sheds two players making a total of $18 million? It shouldn't matter, but then again, if it really didn't matter, this dead weight would already be off the team.

Last year brought a burst of hope when the Mets signed Jason Bay. But the good feeling, at least among those of us that thought it was a good move at the time, didn't last very long, with the unexpected news that Carlos Beltran was undergoing knee surgery.

Then when spring training started, Reyes returned, only to go down with a thyroid issue.

Met fans might still be better off than Cardinals fans this spring. Adam Wainwright is irreplaceable, and losing him could ultimately lead to losing Albert Pujols. But not by much. The Mets have lowered expectations so much that we are expected to be satisfied with a team that manages to finish over .500.

Actually, finishing over .500 might be fine if it were a steppingstone to competing in 2012 with a roster revamped with all the money coming off the payroll. But what are the chances of that now?

Red Sox Fans Ben Affleck and Matt Damon Are Making Movie About Yankee Wife-Swapping

Oh, great. The New York Post's Page Six reports that Boston Red Sox fans Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are working on a film called "The Trade," about Yankee pitchers Fritz Peterson and Mike Kekich's '70s wife-swap.

It's an infamous story -- I once wrote an article for the Daily News looking back on the incident -- but is it really worthy of a movie? Especially when the people involved in the story - most notably Kekich, who changed his name, don't want a film to be made about it? And especially when it's going to be made by Yankee-haters? I think not.

And you can forget about Affleck being fair and balanced here. This is what he told MTV.com last fall about the movie:

"I've come to have a little more respect for the Yankees. There are some of those guys, I have to say, that look like good guys," Affleck admitted, but quickly added, "But as an institution? Disdain. Contempt... We couldn't talk about... and Jeter has another great year! Nope. Guys f---ing each others' wives -- that's those Yankees."

Oh, please. I find it hard to believe that somebody who has worked in Hollywood for two decades would be so shocked over this story. Besides, is what the Petersons and Kekiches did any more odious than Affleck foisting "Gigli" upon the world? Not to mention his work in "Jersey Girl," "Surviving Christmas," and "Daredevil." Oh, and the Aflac duck would have done a acting job in "Pearl Harbor" than Affleck did!

Aside from the fact that Damon and Affleck are not bloody likely to get cooperation from the team (and I don't see the franchise allowing them to portray the players as Yankees -- expect them to be called The Generals or something else,)  I don't quite get who the audience is going to be for the movie. What Bombers fan is going to see a movie mocking the team, and made by Red Sox fans? And, for that matter, how many Boston fans are going to watch a film about Yankee pitchers? It's the problem Selena Roberts ran into with her book -- A-Rod fans wouldn't want to read it, but neither would A-Rod haters want to spend the time hearing about him for hundreds of pages.

Besides, as one of my Facebook friends notes, didn't Hollywood already delve into the wife-swapping fad with "The Ice Storm"?

The snarky side of me sez that if Affleck wants to make a movie about unsavory aspects in baseball history, maybe he can start with bringing to the big screen Howard Bryant's Shut Out: A Story of Race and Baseball in Boston, which reportedly talks about Sox owner Tom Yawkey's profane reaction to Jackie Robinson getting a tryout with the club.

But on a more positive note, why not make a biopic on Red Sox star Ted Williams' life? He hit homers, flew fighter jets, and had an undeniable charisma. It's unfortunate that some remember him more for being frozen than for his great life. How many sports figures have gotten movies, but Williams hasn't? If Affleck and Damon made a film about Teddy Ballgame, even I would go to see it!

What do you think? Tell us about it!

Get Your Popcorn Ready: A-Rod Seems Anything But "Ballistic" at Press Conference

Yesterday evening, Squawker Jon and I were trying to figure out what would be the big sports story in the tabloids in today's papers. Would it be Hank Steinbrenner dissing Derek Jeter, or would it be A-Rod's very funny, self-deprecating remarks explaining that he really wasn't ticked off over the country seeing Cameron Diaz feeding him popcorn? Jon and I both thought it would be Yammering Hank, but as it turns out, the Knicks' trade for Carmelo Anthony knocked them both off the back page -- and in some cases, the front page!

By the way, I checked today's Chicago Sun-Times to see if Bill Zwecker, the Chicago Sun-Times gossip guy who reported that some anonymous insider claimed A-Rod "really went ballistic" after being seen on camera at the Super Bowl, would have a followup to the story. After all, Rodriguez isn't exactly known for a poker face (or for being a convincing actor), and he seemed pretty pleased recounting the story yesterday, directly contradicting Zwecker's claims. "I thought it was humorous," A-Rod said. "Who would be upset about getting fed popcorn?"

Anyhow, I didn't expect much from Zwecker as a followup, given that the columnist didn't even try to ask for A-Rod's side of the story in the first place. And there was nothing at all today on the Sun-Times' site about what Rodriguez said, although the sports department did have an article about Hank Steinbrenner's mansion-building comments.

Funny thing is, though, that Zwecker, whose source claimed A-Rod "really went ballistic" over being shown on TV, also used the word "ballistic" again in a column today about Miley Cyrus' supposed reaction to her father's disparaging interview in GQ, writing that Billy Ray's criticism of her show "Hannah Montana" is what "really made her go ballistic, according to sources close to the young superstar."

This got me curious as to how often Zwecker, or one of his anonymous sources, uses the word "ballistic" to describe a celeb's behavior. So I did a Nexis search of his Chicago Sun-Times columns, and found that word in Zwecker's column several dozen times. Now, it's one thing if a writer uses the same favorite words over and over, the way I use "good grief," "sheesh," and "puh-lease." But I do find it interesting that Zwecker's anonymous sources also use the word "ballistic" to describe anger. Here are some examples:

* An anonymous source told Zwecker that Cybill Shepherd had "gone ballistic" over her son's arrest -- January 14, 2010

* An anonymous source told Zwecker that Gerald Butler "went ballistic" over being linked romantically to Lindsay Lohan -- November 5, 2009

* An anonymous source told Zwecker that David Letterman "went ballistic" when a Letterman staffer moved in with the man who later reportedly blackmailed him -- October 8, 2009

* An anonymous source told Zwecker that LeAnn Rimes' new boyfriend Eddie Cibrian's wife Brandi Glanville went "completely ballistic" over the reported affair -- July 23, 2009

* And an anonymous source told Zwecker that Ryan O'Neal "went ballistic" when his son Redmond was arrested -- April 7, 2009

All quotes taken from a Nexis search of Zwecker's Chicago Sun-Times' columns. 

What do you think? Tell us about it!  

Hank Steinbrenner Strikes Back at Derek Jeter and St. Jetersburg

Oh, snap. Hank Steinbrenner is at it again. He seemed to take a direct shot at Derek Jeter, who is building a Florida mansion the size of a Best Buy, in saying that some Yankees were "too busy building mansions" to concentrate on winning it all last year.

Here's the full Hank quote:

"I think, maybe, they celebrated too much last year," Steinbrenner said Monday. "Some of the players, too busy building mansions and doing other things and not concentrating on winning. I have no problem saying that."

I think Yammering Hank can forget an invite to St. Jeterburg's housewarming party!

Now, do I think the building of Jeter's new home was a distraction for him? Absolutely not -- it's not like he was at the property with a hardhat hammering nails or something.

However, I do think that the 2010 Yankees were a little complacent, especially evidenced by Joe Giradi lah-de-dahing the last few months into a Wild Card, when they should have won the division. You keep the pedal off the metal for too long, sometimes it's hard to get the engine going again.

And I do think Jeter should have asked for help from Kevin Long months before. Instead, he spent literally half the season in the hitting doldrums before finally approaching the hitting coach in mid-September. Was that complacency or pride? Maybe a little of both. But I have been predicting a big 2011 for Jeter, with the Angry Jeter taking over.

That wasn't all Hank said today -- he compared revenue sharing and luxury tax money to socialism and communism!

"We've got to do a little something about that, and I know Bud wants to correct it in some way," Steinbrenner said. "Obviously, we're very much allies with the Red Sox and the Mets, the Dodgers, the Cubs, whoever in that area."

"At some point, if you don't want to worry about teams in minor markets, don't put teams in minor markets, or don't leave teams in minor markets if they're truly minor," Steinbrenner said. "Socialism, communism, whatever you want to call it, is never the answer."

The funniest part of this wasn't him getting all Milton Friedman here. No, the thing that made me chortle was comparing the Yanks as being the same boat as the Mets! Heh.

What do you think? Tell us about it!

So What to Do About Joba Chamberlain?

There's been a whole to-do this week about the Yankees and weight. First, CC Sabathia said he lost 25 pounds after he dropped his habit of devouring full boxes of Cap'n Crunch cereal (hey, maybe that's what the CC stands for in his name!) Now Joba Chamberlain admits to packing on a few pounds, but claims it's all muscle. Right.

I'm of two minds about Joba. On the one hand, I think the Yankees did him a tremendous disservice with moving him from the bullpen to the starting rotation and back. And I think it was ridiculous for Brian Cashman to characterize anybody who disagreed with the Yankees' strategy as "stupid."

However, there's also some real questions, I think, about Chamberlain's work ethic. And showing up to spring training packing on a few extra pounds doesn't help. If you're working in a cubicle farm, it doesn't matter how much you weigh. But if you're a professional athlete struggling to keep his job, you might want to take a cue from your veteran teammates and show up in shape. Or at least pitch well enough so that your weight isn't an issue.

When I slammed the Yankees last month for the way they handled Joba, I got a lot of responses from Yankee fans who were angry at Chamberlain for his work ethic, for him not being in shape, etc. and who felt that he was the only one to blame for his predicament.

On the other hand, it seems like the Yanks have let him get away with that for a long time; it's interesting that only now Cashman mentions using the minor league options with Joba when he flat-out last year said they wouldn't do it.

Wally Matthews made a point I have wondered about myself when he wrote:

Fans ask me all the time if the Yankees know something about Joba Chamberlain that the rest of us don't, some unflattering bit of information that makes them continue to treat him as if he is fragile, or unstable, or in some way unreliable.

Clearly, they know the Joba Chamberlain who chose to reveal himself on Wednesday: the 25-year-old who already knows so much about pitching he no longer needs to bother with the little things anymore.

Like getting in shape.

I don't expect to hear the inside story, if there is one, anytime soon, though. Heck, I'm still waiting to hear how A.J. Burnett got that black eye!

What do you think? Tell us about it!