Former SoxandPhils stuck in New York

The Fan's Mike Francesa has quickly become enamored with Rod Barajas since he signed with the Mets, saying he is a student of the game with a real passion for baseball. That's news for us who lived through his 2007 stint with the Phillies.

It didn't hit me immediately that Barajas' arrival in New York means that just like in 2007, he's forcing Chris Coste to the minors:

Mets manager Jerry Manuel wasn't ready to concede the job to Barajas, but with a one-year, $1 million deal that the front office forced on the roster this late, it's hard to imagine how rough spring would have to be for him to not get the job. The Mets would like Josh Thole to get more seasoning in the minor leagues and Chris Coste seems bound to be his tutor there.

Poor Coste - being a Met is bad enough, being a minor league Met is just awful.

Other SoxandPhils stuck in New York were also discussing their departures from classy organizations this week. Chan Ho Park sounds generally bummed to be a Yankee:

Park said it was "too late" to accept the Phillies' offer. I think by the time he realized he couldn't do better than the Phillies' offer the Phillies already had signed Baez and Contreras and the Phillies no longer were interested.

"Philadelphia was the number one choice, and I had a tough time to leave there," Park said. "I'm mostly sad to leave Philadelphia, the teammates and fans were unbelievable. I had fun last year, good memories. That makes me sad. But this is the future and a good team and another chance."

Yeah, another chance to relieve his Rangers days - missing the playoffs with Alex Rodriguez.

Jason Bay, meanwhile, keeps talking about Boston. He says it was a mutual decision, but you know he's going to regret the fact that when his career is over, his only playoff experience will be his two years with the Red Sox:

"Would I have gone back [to Boston]? Yeah, I think so," he said. "But I'd be back on my terms. During the season I was part of the Red Sox, and once the offseason came I didn't consider myself part of the Red Sox. We kept in dialogue and they were a team on my list. I felt at that point I had a little more power, or at least it was going to be my decision what my direction was.

"I had teams on the list and I had my pluses and minuses, and Boston had its pluses because I'd been there and I’d understood how to play there."

Oh well. These guys were once beloved; now they're enemies. Hope they enjoy watching their former mates stomp all over their new teams.

Sox hit like Inspector Gadget

On Sunday we bought the Phillies 2008 Yearbook. Instead of listing height, weight and other basic stats for the Phillies, they had the team answer questions to give the fans some insight into 31 members of the Phightin' Phils. We're going to review their answers.

First category: Favorite Gadget

Best answer: Tom Gordon's "Inspector Gadget."

I loved that cartoon. Go-Go-Gadget!

Other noteworthy responses: Ryan Madson picked his universal remote. Then for another question, he said a broken remote annoys him. Clay Condrey likes his drill. I love my drill, but I'm not sure it would rank as my favorite gadget. I don't know what would.

The runaway favorite with 10 mentions was the iPod. I'm not surprised that five Phillies picked a video game system, but I'm a little surprised they all said Xbox 360. The other multiple answers were iPhone (3), computer/laptop (3) and cell phone (2).

There were no answers to the question from Pat Burrell, Ryan Howard or Chase Utley.

Today's games: The Red Sox couldn't have scored more runs if they had Inspector Gadget in the lineup, completing a sweep of the Twins with an 18-5 drubbing despite a subpar performance by Josh Beckett. {Greg seems to be misremembering Inspector Gadget. Everyone knows that Penny and Brain were the, well, brains in that operation and had to save Gadget in every episode.} Jacoby Ellsbury led the charge with four hits. Every starter except Brandon Moss had at least two hits. Hopefully that's the wake-up call to get them back to winning consistently.

The win puts them 3.5 games in front of the Twins for the Wild Card and two behind the Rays for the division.

The Phillies made like Inspector Gadget and escaped their four-game losing streak. J.A. Happ had a good start, and Ryan Howard hit the go-ahead homer in the 8th to beat the Cardinals, 4-2.

The Mets and Marlins won, and each remains 1.5 games out. Mets fans, unaccustomed to a winning streak, were quite full of themselves on WFAN today.

Baseball Mogul update: I had a good season, winning 109 games. But everything fell apart in the NLCS against the Diamondbacks, who nearly swept. The best I could do was force a fifth game before losing the series 4-1. I think I'll switch to the Red Sox for awhile.

[Photo credits: Phillies 2008 Yearbook (Tom Gordon) and Disney (Inspector Gadget)]

Video killed the radio star

Another rough day that won't be eased at all by ESPN radio.

For awhile, South Jersey was a sports talk radio mecca. You could get the Fan from New York, WIP in Philly, newcomer 950 and ESPN on 920. During the season, you'd have unfettered access to the Phils, Mets and the Empire as well as Sox games through a Connecticut station that would reach Philly on clear nights.

But this week, there was a jar when I tuned in ESPN 920. Instead of Mike & Mike, there was some slowly-paced, monotoned preacher droning on. I thought it might be a steroid spoof on righteousness or something, but there was no punch line. Christine found this story.

What a crock, why doesn't Philly deserve its own ESPN? Oh well, heading to North Jersey today, I'll tune into ESPN 1050. Happy radioing.