Over the past few days, arbitration has been avoided between the Mets and Ruben Tejada [1], Ike Davis [2] and Eric Young, Jr. [3], while instant replay rules [4] have been expanded and adopted.
None of that is exactly insignificant, yet none of it is quite baseball in January, the month when winter drags on without apology. But fear not, faithful followers of the orange and blue: this Saturday comes The Winterlude.
The Queens Baseball Convention [5] is going to break up your winter. It is designed to break up your winter. It is a full day of baseball talk, baseball thought, baseball camaraderie, baseball color, baseball fun, baseball games…
Well, not “baseball games” in the sense of the 162 Alex Rodriguez will be ineligible to play [6] this season, but you know what I mean. There will be, as promised [7], baseball activities galore, all of them Metsian, all of them enhanced by your presence. And while you’re making QBC 14 even better by being on hand, your January will gain a necessary taste of June and July when it is fortified by QBC 14.
So for goodness sake, come on down this Saturday at noon [8]!
Within the packed schedule of events (detailed here [9]), Faith and Fear is proud to grab a few at-bats:
• You can catch Jason and me on the New Media panel convened by Gotham Baseball’s Mark Healey [10] at 12:10.
• At 1:00, Jason shifts into moderator mode as he hosts Ron Darling of Ron Darling fame in a Q&A session.
• I’ll be delving into Mets history at 2:00, offering a sneak preview of The Happiest Recap: Second Base (1974-1986) along the way. (Copies of First Base: 1962-1973 will be available, too.)
• It will be my distinct honor to host the presentation of the first Gil Hodges Unforgettable Fire Award at 6:15. We’ll be joined for the event by Gil Hodges, Jr., son of our beloved World Champion manager.
Plus, being Mets fans, Jason and I will be around all day taking in as much QBC as we can — and there is going to be a lot of QBC [11]. We look forward to seeing you at McFadden’s this Saturday, when the calendar claims it’s January 18, but it figures to feel much warmer.