News 12: Die-hard Mets fans have season and wedding postponed due to COVID-19

One of my moments in a video I have ever filmed.

My good friends made the Bronx Channel 12 News. Andrew and Amanda are two awesome folks who I have become close with over the years because of The 7line Army. I was there when they got engaged (some of the video I shot and put together made it into the story) and they are two people that are perfect for each other. It sucks that they have to wait another year until they can get hitched but I know the wedding is just going to be that much more meaningful for everyone.

For so many couples right now, planning their future can feel like striking out over and over again, but for a pair of Mets fans from Brooklyn, they've turned it into a home run.
For Amanda Romano and Andrew Indart, love struck at Citi Field in 2014.
Both are members of the die-hard Mets fan group the ”7 Line Army.”In 2018, while vacationing in Arizona, for an away game, Indart swung for the fences and popped the question. Their wedding was set for May 30, 2020.

"It was actually the day of our first kiss, so we were like, ‘oh that's perfect,’” says Romano.
However, the pandemic threw them a curve ball.

"He had no faith it was going to happen, he said our wedding is not going to happen it is going to be postponed,” says Romano.

Much like the baseball season their nuptials would be delayed. The couple says they hope to get married May 1 of next year.
Despite the stress of having to push their life plans another year, the two have stayed hopeful and positive, thanks to the 7 Line Army.
“Every weekend we do Zoom chats and games and finding ways to keep in contact,” says Indart.

Click here to see the story

This puppy and his adopters need your help.

My buddy Jon and his family have had a rough couple of months. His father- in-law passed away from Covid-19, they have had like all of us, had to deal with the NY on PAUSE and other issues. Jon and his family are some of the nicest people you will ever meet. They will give you the shirts off their backs if it means that it would help you. Being the nice folks that they are they decided to adopt a puppy in need to bring joy to the puppy's life and to theirs. They got skunked by the supposed "rescue". Thank you Julia Quadrino for setting this Gofundme up for Anakin to help defray the vet bills for Jon and his family.

Help Anakin

On May 4, 2020, the Salazar family adopted sweet little Anakin from who they thought was the owner of a Brooklyn animal rescue. He is the perfect little love bug they need right now to help ease the pain they are dealing with after the loss of Jasi and Daya's father to COVID-19 last month. However, within hours of bringing him home, he began to vomit and have bloody stools and needed to be rushed to the emergency vet. After a sleepless night of absolute torture not knowing if he would pull through and being told he most likely has Parvo, they were horrified to discover that the "rescue" they adopted Anakin from was not a rescue at all, but a scam artist who has puppy mill puppies delivered to her from Texas, lies about their age and health, and sells them for an overpriced adoption fee for profit without any proper vetting. Since posting about their experience, at least a dozen fellow heartbroken adopters shared similar horror stories and even instances of being conned out of deposits with no puppy to show for it at all. Sadly, it appears Anakin came from an absolute monster. By an UNBELIEVABLE stroke of luck, he was adopted by human beings as incredible as the Salazars, who are committed to giving this sweet boy a fighting chance at the life of love he deserves.

As of the morning of May 6, 2020, while under the wonderful care of Dr. Erin Kulick at Long Island City Veterinary Center, Anakin has been confirmed to have Coccidia parasites, but Parvo is still not off the table considering how severely ill he was. Amazingly, the vet thinks he will be able to come home to be under the care of his loving new humans today as he works to get stronger, but he is not completely out of the woods yet.

Jon and Jasi are not asking for money themselves. They are still so blown away and thankful for the generous donations their friends made after Jasi's father's passing, and are too humble to ever ask, but they don't have to. I as well as anyone who knows them knows that they are the last people who deserve this kind of extreme emotional stress, on top of the financial stress they are now feeling trying to buy a house during a global pandemic with an extremely sick dog. These funds will help cover the constant IV fluids Anakin has been receiving, his overnight hospital stays, as well as medication he will need to come home with.

No amount is too small for this incredible family. Anything you could give to help Anakin and the Salazars through this difficult time would be greatly appreciated. Of course these are obviously difficult times and a donation may just not be feasible, but a share or simply some prayers for this loving little boy would be just as great. Thank you!!! <3 span="">

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If you guys can spare a buck or two to help out Anakin, that would be amazing folks.

Click here to donate.

Overpriced Baseball on EBAY. Who would have thought?

New York Mets 2008 Shea Stadium Final Season Official Major League Baseball.  Please see pictures as the baseball does have some blemishing and toning from storage and age. 

$150 for a 2008 ball? Really? Just a little bit overprice... Fine a lot of bit over priced. People be crazy.

I have no Mets news so I am being just like one of the lame blogs with this post. ARod/JLO, RA Dickey, Lugo...

From the NY Post

Seth Lugo’s place as the Mets’ most valuable reliever over the past two seasons is evident in the numbers. The big question is whether the right-hander should remain in the bullpen.

With Jacob deGrom and Steven Matz the only healthy Mets starting pitchers under contract or club control for 2021 — Noah Syndergaard is rehabbing from Tommy John surgery and expected to miss the early part of the season — Lugo may finally get his wish next year and return to starting duty.

Or the transformation could begin this summer, should a season be played and the Mets need another rotation arm beyond deGrom, Matz, Marcus Stroman, Rick Porcello and Michael Wacha.

“This is my thing with Lugo: He can be a good starting pitcher, a No. 4 or 5 on a championship team, but he’s an elite reliever,” a major league talent evaluator said. “He has that elbow issue [a partially torn ulnar collateral ligament] and that is always the argument, what is going to keep him healthier, pitching out of the pen or pitching in the rotation?”

Read  more here.

He should have been in the rotation for the last few years. I don't know how having him pitch almost every day vs every 5 days is better for his elbow. But I am not a doctor so I don't know if my theory is right or not. Lugo has been one of the brighter spots of that bullpen over the last few years but I have always seen him as a starter. The only way they should keep him in the bullpen is as the closer.

RA DICKEY

From the NY Post.

R.A. Dickey was a failed first-round pick by the Rangers when he signed a minor league deal with the Mets in 2010.
Two years later, the right-hander became just the third Met — and first knuckleballer — to win the National League Cy Young Award.

“This is a victory for everyone who threw the pitch,” Dickey said of the award after he beat out Clayton Kershaw to join Tom Seaver and Dwight Gooden as the only Mets to capture the award.And while Jacob deGrom has since joined that list, few could say they took a more unlikely journey to get there than Dickey.

His 2012 season was the culmination of an incredible career rebirth for Dickey, then 38. He led the NL with 230 strikeouts, five complete games, three shutouts and 233 2/3 innings.Dickey’s 20 wins were one short of Washington’s Gio Gonzalez, who finished in third place, and Dickey’s 2.73 ERA was second to Kershaw’s 2.53.

The highlight of Dickey’s 2012 campaign was a 44 2/3-inning scoreless streak that spanned from May 22 through June 24. The Mets won 14 of his 17 first-half starts, earning Dickey his first All-Star Game appearance.

Read more here.

That was a crazy season and I have a game used base signed by Dickey from that last game of season at Citifield /first 7line Army/20th win of the season. Debating selling it.

JLO and AROD not buying the Mets.

According to multiple sources, Alex Rodriguez and Jennifer Lopez are no longer interested in buying the Mets. That decision was reached after negotiations with potential partners failed to materialize and it became clear that the Wilpons’ reluctance to part with SNY makes it almost impossible for anyone without many billions of dollars to afford owning the team.

Read more here.

This doesn't make me upset at all. Even though I wasn't happy with Steve Cohen possibly buying the Mets, I was even less happy with JLO and AROD possibly buying the team. Now that the Wilpons don't really know what the team is worth right now because of the pandemic its making it worse for them to sell it.

@the7Line- DIRECTOR'S CUT: BARTOLO DAY

I am a little late posting this but in case you have missed it.

One of the all time best trips that we have had with The 7Line Army was in San Diego. How great the city was, how great the  stadium was, how insane it was when Bartolo hit the HR, it just was one of the more magical times I have had going to a baseball game.

PREMIERES THURSDAY MAY 7TH AT NOON ET! SET A REMINDER!

Check out this never before seen director's cut of The 7 Line Army's trip to Petco Park. Take a walk down memory lane with us back to San Diego on May 7th 2016. What a stroke of luck for 1,400 of The 7 Line Army to be in the attendance on the same day as Bartolo Colon's epic home run.

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From the director, Josh Oshinsky: Four years ago I got on a plane from Newark headed to San Diego. I had a ticket, a 5D camera, a Go Pro and lots of hope that I wasn't wasting my money. It was the first time I was producing something this ambitious solo- no DP, no audio guy, just a crazy Mets fan with a backpack and a lot of faith. 

That weekend was really a perfect storm of moments- Jim Breuer not only letting me film his show, but letting me backstage for an interview- the McFadden's pre-game being so cinematic- 1,400 joyful people stopping traffic in downtown SD during THE MARCH. 

But it really comes down to Bartolo Colon. One glorious swing at a James Shields get me-over offering- a no doubter, really. (Great moments are made from great opportunity- he says tongue firmly in cheek). 

Getting back to my hotel room in the wee hours, I'm not sure I'd ever been that excited to see what was shot. (For those who don't work in film- sometimes what you lived and what you CAPTURED are very different things. And clicking on each media clip for the first time is like opening 1,000 tiny digital Christmas presents- you can either be incredibly happy or brutally disappointed.) I transferred the footage onto 2 drives that night (remember kids, always double back up your media) and started editing before I left the hotel the next morning. I edited in the airport waiting for my flight, got the structure completed on the plane, and put the finishing touches on it as the taxi arrived back at my home in suburban New Jersey- about a half day after I woke up on the other coast. 

This 20 minute short is what was cut in those 12 hours. 

The vast majority has never been seen. And it's definitely a rough cut- uncolored, unmixed, temp graphics, the whole 9. But polishing things doesn't always make them better. All I know is I had a blast taking myself back to that weekend. I hope you do too.

Check out this chat between Josh Oshinsky and Darren Meenan leading up to the premiere....