Top shelf by Pelfrey in the first. Great job by Beltran to hit a 3 run homer in our half of the first. The Giants are not very good, but the Mets took the game over after they played that song they always play first - the National Anthem.

BTW…Baseball Crank remains a must link.

A teacher, Bob Myer, offers this post in American Thinker about a rural school district in Minnesota which is moving to a four day school week. This topic has been pocked at to some extent in my area. The district went to the schedule to save on energy costs. We moved the temperature in all classrooms in my school to 75 at the end of the year. The poor kids were falling asleep - more than usual that is. Bought a fan. At any rate, here’s a some other intersting thoughts that Bob has:

Bob blogs at The Mind of Flapjack

Look, it was a bonehead play. Fortunately it didn’t hurt, so lets not dwell too much on it. The important thing is that the Mets won this game with as Billy Wagner was quoted as saying, “we’re picking each other up.” This was a big win and a huge series. The Mets have something they can build upon now with the confidence gained in Philadelphia.

Having said all of this, lets deal with Carlos Beltran’s ninth inning and most importantly his face time with the media afterwards. Joe Janish of Mets Today does a good disection this morning. Hat tip to Metsblog

Beltran has to know he screwed up and that he didn’t make a good throw at all to Wright. The interview revealed why Beltran does not speak to the media. Aside from being uncomfortable speaking English in a formal setting, its clear he’s insecure being interviewed. His coping mechanism was to go into denial and make it about the person who asked the question. Don’t expect to hear anything from Beltran again.

Dealing with the media - especially if there is a language barrier - is a problem for many players. I’m sure Beltran knows this about himself. The Mets and his teammates know, too. Some aren’t sensitive to his plight like Billy Wagner. Paul LoDuca wasn’t either. Members of the media realize it, too, and often will protect a player in the way they quote him in the newspaper.

A bit of a vaccum exists in the Mets clubhouse in that not nearly enough of the star players are accessible to the media. Much of it has to be the language barrier. A team can probably be constructed this way in a small market like Kansas City or Cincinnati where you don’t need all the fingers on your hand to count the members of the media in the clubhouse. But not in New York.

Is this a fractured clubhouse? Do cultural and language differences contribute? According to many sources the answer is yes. I cannot say for certain. Nor will I offer an opinion. But if this shift in momentum is not sustained, it will be the result of questionable clubhouse chemistry.

The story is growing legs over the past few hours as more bloggers and traditional journalists are linking and posting items. Just since noon today here are links to several siteswho have given the story of Speaker Pelosi’s possible subversive contact with FARC Terrorists.

I first became aware of the story in Gateway Pundit, GP supports the post with a link to a WSJ piece from this morning. This is not a new issue for G-Pundit as the site has seven previous entries on the topic.

As the afternoon went on Atlas Shrugs weighed in. Protien Wisdom was next. Roger Simon of Pajamas Media touched on the information at hand. Simon also used the WSJ story as support to flush out Chris Dodd.

Finally John Hineracker of Powerline effectively tied the testimony of one of the released American hostages, Marc Gonsalves to previous actions by Pelosi and her hand-picked frontman for the terrorists, Cong. Jim McGovern. Says Hineracker:

If this report is correct, Nancy Pelosi was carrying on her own foreign policy in opposition to that of the United States, trying to work with the socialist Hugo Chavez and the Communist FARC terrorists to undermine America’s ally, Colombia. In normal times, this would be unthinkable. Given the crazed state of today’s Democratic party, I’m not so sure.

Further, the statement that Pelosi designated the outrageously left-wing Jim McGovern to head up her mission to the terrorists is also interesting. It may tie in with this document, which, as reported by the Associated Press, apparently records an attempt by Democrats to encourage FARC to hold on until Barack Obama becomes President:

UPDATE: Betsy Newmark opines:

Nancy Pelosi and Jim McGovern need to answer for why their names are showing up in the reports from FARC terrorists. This is the same Speaker of the House who still hasn’t had to answer for her seriously ill-informed statement that the “road to Damascus is a road to peace.” She can explain that judgment to the Lebanese people and explain to the Colombian people why she has been blocking the Colombian Free Trade agreement while cooperating with those who used hostages to terrorize their country.

Investors Business Daily also lashes out at the Bush lied media/dem narrative. One important point I missed in the AP story here:

But yellowcake wasn’t all they found at Tuwaitha. According to the AP, the military also discovered “four devices for controlled radiation exposure . . . that could potentially be used in a weapon.”

The family home in Florida is only a few blocks away from Bud Day’s. I remember all the well wishing signs left on the lawn when the POW’s were released. It seems CNN has smeared Day. Thanks to Michelle Malkin for setting the story straight.

Here’s what Day had to say in my hometown paper.

Yesterday’s revelations that Ryan Church experiencing migrane headaches understandably gives pause. Denials to the contrary, I believe Church’s migranes are related to his concussions - of which there is some question as to when they started.

A March 10, 2008 article in the NY Times revealed that a injury that Church sustained in 2005 may have been his first.

Last year Church batted .272 with 15 home runs and 43 doubles in his first full season in the majors. In 2005, Church made the Nationals’ roster out of spring training only to land on the disabled list twice. One of the injuries, a broken clavicle, came when he made a game-saving catch against the left-field wall in Pittsburgh; he said the play left him feeling concussion-like symptoms. In 2006, he arrived in spring training assuming he would be the opening day center fielder, but the Nationals were not pleased with his terrible spring or his attitude and sent him to the minors.

The collision in Pittsburg where Church broke his clavicle (collar bone) lead to “concussion-like symptoms.” This admission by Church is important as it is evidence that Church has had problems with concussions prior to his acquisition from the Nationals.

Its understandable why he would have suffered more of them as the sports medicine community realize that once sustained they have a tendency to reoccur. What Church is experiencing now is referred to as post concussion syndrome or second impact syndrome.

Its likely the Nationals medical staff knew of Church’s medical history. Thus it’s likely that the Nationals front officials knew as well. Did the Nationals convey this information to the Mets when discussing the trade which brought Church along Brian Schneider to the Mets for Lastings Milledge? Or did the Mets do a physical on Church prior to the trade? Did the Mets make the trade without knowing Church’s medical history?

These are the questions the Mets should be asking internally. I can find no reasons to be critical of the care the Mets have provided Church during the year as with any patient who has sustained a concussion, they are largely dependant on what the patient is telling them.

Nonetheless, the important question is what the Mets knew at the time of the trade. Its also worth wondering whether or not the Nationals were completely forthcoming about Church’s health prior to the trade.
This raises the possibility that the Mets sent one of their assets to the Nationals for damaged goods.

Gateway Pundit is advancing just that.

Recall that Pelosi traveled to Syria. There are further implications as well in that Pelosi has denied passage of the trade agreement with Columbia whom are battling FARC.

UPDATE: This from Protein Wisdom.

Money quote here on about Pelosi’s obstruction of the trade agreement with Colombia.

In the meantime, Pelosi keeps the Colombian free trade deal off the House floor on the ground that President Álvaro Uribe has not done enough to quell political violence in this country, particularly against unionists — though since Uribe took office, the murder rate among all Colombians is down 40% while the murder rate among union members – whom Pelosi seems singularly worried about – is down 87%. Apparently, sucking up to the protectionist labor unions is so important that Congressional Democrats — from Pelosi on down — are willing to cozy up with Communist thugs and terrorists to advance their agenda.

Hat tip the increasingly useful Hot Air

This is an issue that Obama has been solid. For the past year, he has been supporting this idea. See here, here and here.

I have no idea why Obama is taking this position as its a lose-lose with the powerful teachers unions. Both the union hierchies and the rank-and-file membership don’t want.

It was voted on by my own districts union and trounced. The district’s board agreed with us. Florida’s teachers were given the opportunity to vote on it and only a handful of counties opted in. The devil’s in the details.

For example, I teach freshman Biology to average learners. A class for advanced learners exist as well. Its hard to imagine comparing my success to that of my colleague who teaches Honors - let alone someone who teaches 3rd graders.

Both teachers and districts agreed that there is no plausible way to establish an equitable plan to administer. Districts agreed on this and also knew that a very expensive beauracracy would have to be created to administer pay.

Some reports say that Obama was actually booed at the NEA convention. Perhaps he doesn’t realize that all teachers don’t agree it politically, but for the most part all teachers agree that merit pay is a non-starter. Its not outside the realm of possibilty that some stauch liberal democrat teachers would be disuaded from voting for Obama on this one issue.

While AJ Strata’s post on the matter yesterday was widely accepted as persuassive, some are calling for pause. One interested commentor at Just One Minute was curious to the source of this statement:

But more than that, numerous people have called the state of Hawaii who initially claimed the document was legit, and that they did provide a new copy to Obama on the date noted on the back.

I still wonder why in the world the Obama camp were compelled to use KOS to answer querries about his BC. Maybe its the fact that they don’t want to have to answer anymore questions as to why he changed his name to Obama.

Personal Admission: I would have placed this in AJ’s comments if I had been able to remember my log-in infor at his site. DOPE!