MFC

It's a nice feeling we all have on this Monday Morning, fresh off a sweep of the Athletics that may be the signal that this team is finally beginning to pull out of this miserable stretch. The A's are a quality team and the Mets just beat them into submission on Friday and Sunday, and eked out one of those lucky victories that had been eluding them over the last few weeks. I'll say that Saturday's victory was the key, because that was the kind of game that the Mets won all year last year. It's a lucky win, for sure, but once the Mets start having games like that, and hits like Wright's game winner drop just in front of the diving outfielder, instead of into the glove of the diving outfielder, that you know the tide may finally be turning.

Good timing too. Because guess who's coming to dinner this week...

Yes, it's the Fucking Cardinals. I call them the "Fucking Cardinals" as a nod to our good friend Lenny Dykstra, who "authored" a book, Nails, following the 1986 season, in which he repeatedly referred to the Cardinals as the "Fucking Cardinals," a sure nod to the existing rivalry between the two teams. I've been referring to the "Fucking Cardinals" as the MF Cardinals, in my own nod to the MFY's referred to over at the Sons of Sam Horn. Whatever you call them, they've been struggling this season. My heart just aches for them. The poor Cardinals, with their best fans in the game, and their amazing first baseman. He's really a great player, isn't he? But really, if you ask me, I don't think he's very good. He's not very good at all. Jerkwad.

So here are these Cart'Nalls (as their announcer Mike Shannon would call them), rolling in in bad shape, 6 games under .500 and throwing a Tigers castoff whose claim to fame is being the last major league pitcher to successfully lose 20 games in a season. Sosa will be looking to rebound after a couple of rough starts. St. Louis will follow that up with starting pitchers by the names of Todd Wellemeyer, Brad Thompson and Anthony Reyes.

The Mets already showed the Fucking Cardinals what was what earlier in the season, when they walked into St. Louis, that great Baseball town with Great Baseball fans, and pissed on their little World Series Kazoo Blowing and handed them a 3-game sweep, essentially setting the tone for their season so far. Now, the Mets have had a rough stretch of their own, and knocking around the Fucking Cardinals a little bit ought to go a long way to erasing the bad feelings of the past few weeks.

3 out of 4. That's the least that will be acceptable here. Win 3 of 4 from the MFC's, and I'll say the Mets are back.