Laughing at Them

The Marlins have drawn my ire so many times over the years, that the only way this sweep would have been better would have been if it had come in the Opening Series at their brand new ballpark in front of all 6 of their fans.

See, the Marlins have had this annoying habit, over the years, of beating the Mets in random games and acting as though they'd just won a pennant. This was particularly the case when the Mets were going well and the Marlins were, well, the Marlins. But, now, the shoe is on the other foot. It's the Marlins with the bloated payroll and the fancy new stadium and the high-priced free agents, one of whom was the poster child of "those arrogant Mets" that they loved to beat up on. Meanwhile, the Mets are the also-rans, boasting a lineup of mostly very young, inexperienced players who just want to make a little bit of noise.

Presumably, I would have been happy winning 2 of 3 in this series, but with the Mets having won both games, and the Marlins looking mostly tired and punchless in both games, I wanted the sweep. It's always nice to see your team kick a team you really don't like in the nuts. Today's game was yet another one of the working man's specials, which meant I was relegated to the office radio, and also meant I was sort of drifting in and out of paying attention to the game. I knew that the Mets had scored early, and I sort of perked up my ears when Gaby Sanchez hit his token HR, and at some point later on I knew the Marlins had taken the lead, although this seemed to have occurred when I had gone out to get lunch (my normal routine would not have had me doing so, but my plans were thwarted by a spoiled salad). But by the bottom of the 9th, I dialed myself back in and was on every pitch, despite several people coming into my office and asking me stupid questions. Unfortunately, unlike Don Draper, I can't just shut the door in people's faces. So at some point, Justin Turner was up, and someone came in to talk to me, and then left. Turner was still up. Someone else came in. I dealt with them, tersely, and they left. Amazingly, Turner was still up, fouling off pitches and waiting for Heath Bell to toss another one of his 55-foot curveballs. Sure enough, he did, and Turner walked, and the game was tied, and a few short minutes later, the game was over, thanks to Bell pretty much doing his best John Franco/Armando Benitez impression that we all knew and loved from his days when he was a lousy reliever that the Mets had no role for. And instead of the Marlins whooping it up in the Mets' faces,  faces, the Mets got to whoop it up in theirs. A fine way to finish off a sweep that started off with the Mets looking like they were the ones about to fall into the abyss. Instead, the Marlins are the ones with some explaining to do.

Have fun with that, guys. Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of people. Jerkoffs.