Many Happy Returns

The Mets, on Saturday, did not follow prior history on Saturday by continuing to lose games in Atlanta in June, in spite of Saturday's Day-Night Doubleheader (my favorite!) at least partly being played on one of those painfully sunny Atlanta days where the temperature looks to be no less than 115˚.

But the Mets did not lose the sunshine game. In fact, they didn't lose either game. They won both games and kind of looked like a cohesive team in doing so. It was a little more like another day-night Doubleheader they played in Atlanta (which oddly was the last time they swept a doubleheader of any kind) a few years ago that proved a harbinger of things to come—or perhaps of a time the Mets are trying to recapture.

I was out most of the afternoon, which shouldn't be of much surprise to anyone who's read this blog with any regularity, and as such I didn't see much, if any of the early game. But I did follow along on my phone as I was able, such as the case may be, and so I saw the Mets hanging on to a tenuous 1-0 lead throughout most of the afternoon. The Mets scored an early run off of Sean Newcomb, a lefty making his Major League debut—one of those things that has a tendency to bedevil the Mets—but he was matched for the most part by Robert Gsellman, who kept the Braves off the board altogether. I checked back later to see the score was 2-1 in the 8th; to that point both Mets runs had involved Wilmer Flores, who was busy quietly putting his stamp on a pretty memorable afternoon all things considered. Fortuitously, I found myself in a store with some televisions on around the 9th inning, when the Mets had the bases loaded and Yoenis Cespedes at the plate, so I saw what transpired there as Cespedes hit a Grand Slam to give the Mets a 6-1 cushion and, you know, provide the team with that little something extra that had been missing these past six weeks.

I was still out when the nightcap started at the rather odd time of 6pm, which I guess was done to accommodate a postgame concert, although they have a habit of throwing in some bizarre start times in Atlanta (I seem to remember there being a game scheduled for 5pm on Sunday of all hours some time ago), so I didn't see the early innings of the game, which essentially involved Steven Matz welcoming himself back into the fold by providing that little something extra that had been missing from the starting rotation all season and, you know, pitching economically without giving up any runs. Unfortunately, Matz was matched by Matt Wisler, who hasn't pitched especially well in general, except when he faces the Mets, and he subsequently turns into John Smoltz. So it was scoreless into the middle innings, but the Mets rallied in the 5th and Jay Bruce hit a 3-run Home Run to break the ice and more or less ice the game. Matz threw shutout ball through 7 and reminded everyone that when he's healthy, he's really good (now if only he could stay healthy). The Mets then tacked on more runs, most of them involving Wilmer Flores, who banged out 4 hits in the 2nd game to finish the day 6-for-9, and the Mets coasted home with an 8-1 victory to give the Mets a sweep of the Doubleheader at a point when things seemed to be at their most grim.

These reinforcements are nice and kind of underscore why people were so optimistic about the Mets at the outset of the season, or, more appropriately, why the spate of injuries is so infuriating. If the Mets could stay healthy...If, if, if, to the point where it's all kind of hollow. The reality is that it happened and the Mets have dug themselves a pretty major hole. I'm not certain if it's altogether too late for them to claw themselves out of it. however, stranger things have happened...

Two For The...?

Tuesday had the makings of total disaster for the Mets. Consider the circumstances: Out of sorts after a long road trip, playing a team that they historically have not done well against, in their own building full of fans of said opponent, playing a doubleheader that would begin with about 40 people in the stands, and so on and so forth.

The first game seemed to be the embodiment of all of these problems. Noah Syndergaard dug his own hole, first by essentially beaning Yadier Molina on a throw home to attempt a fielder's choice in the 2nd inning, and then by allowing a 2-run Home Run to Jedd Gyorko, the San Diego expatriate (who was good and then wasn't and now is a Cardinal, so just watch him hit 30 Home Runs this season), in the 3rd. The Mets best recourse was to score 2 runs on a Rene Rivera Home Run and then proceed to leave 16 men in scoring position against Carlos Martinez and others, including Tyler Lyons, Tyler Siegrist and Seung Hwan Oh. Which means that the Cardinals have decided to turn back the clock to 2006, when they similarly had a bullpen full of guys named Tyler. And then Oh. Whoever he is.

Trying to force an issue in the 9th, Curtis Granderson decided to try and tag up from 1st on a Yoenis Cespedes fly ball and got thrown out. That kind of summed up the day game, a 3-2 Mets loss where nothing went right and dumb shit happened. Oh.

So, the Mets lost the game that their best Pitcher started, which is demoralizing in and of itself, and then they had to go back out and play another game against the same Cardinals with their same dopey fans littering the building. There were only 40 people in the seats at the beginning of the 1st game, and no, I wasn't there, nor was I watching on TV, I just know what happens when you start a game at 4:10 on about 20 hours notice. Nobody shows up. Fans either decide they'll just show up for the nightcap, or they're blissfully unaware that there's a Doubleheader and they're wondering why the game is in the 7th inning when they showed up. Either way, Bartolo Colon pitched for the Mets in the nightcap and just like Syndergaard, he gave up a Home Run to Gyorko early in the game, because of course he did.

Unlike the 1st game, Gyorko's Home Run ended up being all the offense the wonderful Cardinals were able to muster off of Colon. It took the Mets a while to get going, but eventually they did reach Jaime Garcia for some runs. In the 3rd, the Mets tied the game when Asdrubal Cabrera got his first hit with a man in scoring position in about 2 months, doubling off the wall to score Alejandro De Aza. In the 4th, the Mets did not get a hit with a man in scoring position, but James Loney hit into a Double Play with no outs and Wilmer Flores on 3rd, and Flores scored to give the Mets the lead. In the 5th, Cabrera did not get a hit with 1 out and De Aza on 3rd, but he did hit a Sacrifice Fly to score De Aza and extend the Mets lead. 

Colon then did the rest, in a rather vintage Colon performance in which he just goes out, throws strikes and by time you look up he's gotten through 7 innings, allowing 1 run on 3 hits and strikes out 8. Addison Reed for the 8th, Jeurys Familia for the 9th, a 3-1 win and, amazingly, a split of this Doubleheader, which I guess is about as good as you can ask for.

The next thing I'd ask for, of course, would be for the Mets to break this win-loss-win-loss trend and win again tomorrow since I'll be at the game. That'd be nice.

All Wet Again

A few weeks ago, I'd batted around going to a Mets/Cubs game amid an iffy weather forecast. I decided not to go and the game ended up being played, and the Mets won. Yes, there were also three Rain Delays, but I still felt like I'd missed out.

Monday night, I had tickets to the opener of the Mets/Cardinals series, amid an iffy weather forecast. In spite of the fact that there was a torrential downpour in Manhattan when I left my office, I decided to forge ahead to Citi Field anyway, since, according to the Mets Rain Hotline*, the game had not yet been called.

On the 7 train out to Citi Field, I saw plenty of lightning flying around but no rain, as though Noah Syndergaard had waved his Mjölnir and willed the weather away so that he could make his start. By time I arrived at Citi Field, it wasn't raining at all. In spite of the weather, it seemed like there was a fair enough crowd on hand, including a healthy presence of Underwear sniffing, Selflie-stick using Cardinals fans ready to thumb their noses at us brutish Mets fans while Mike Matheny wrote another book about how wonderful he is.

There was a tarp on the field, however, so a delay was in the offing, but I'd figured it wouldn't last long, and maybe by 7:45 we'd be underway. So I walked around the Field Level a little bit. The crowd was sparse, at least for the current times, sparse enough that by time I reached Fuku, the new David Chang outpost, there was, in fact, no line whatsoever. Usually, the line runs halfway down the Shea Bridge. Now, I've made mention of my misgivings toward David Chang, but I'll admit when food lives up to hype. I hadn't been to the Fuku at Citi Field, but I did have the opportunity to visit another location and, well, it's a really good sandwich. And the fries have this wonderful spicy seasoning. So, if there was no line, and I wasn't in a rush, well, here we are.

So I get my Fuku and head upstairs and I grab some napkins since I know I'm going to have to towel off my seat, and then Alex Anthony starts talking and I turn around towards the field and I see on the scoreboard in giant block letters:

POSTPONED

Oh dammit. 

So this, then, would be my first Citi Field Rainout. I seem to have had a good run of avoiding going to games that get rained out. I'd suffered through some delayed games, but none that were rained out outright, not since a Saturday night in 2008 at Shea Stadium when the Field Level literally turned into a lake and they waited a good 10-15 minutes after the game had been called to announce it to the some 50,000 fans in attendance that night, so they would keep buying things. The age old trick, of course. I thought there was a window to get the game in, but the Mets have more advanced meteorologists than I do and so if they didn't think it was possible, couldn't they have called things at 5:30 and saved me the trip? I feel a bit like I fell into one of Ratso Wilpon's rabbit holes because I showed up and spent money, so not only was I annoyed that the game got rained out (and I've once again been rooked out of seeing a Syndergaard start by some weird happening), but also because I'd been made a rube of by a weasel-faced turd that nobody likes.

Well, me, and about 15,000 other people who showed up and were still eating and drinking and buying things after the game had been called. To say nothing of the mass of humanity that formed at the ticket booth outside the stadium afterward. 

So, no game tonight, just another random escapade where I went to see a Baseball game and instead just went out to dinner at Citi Field. We'll try this again on Wednesday.

*Yes, there is in fact a Mets Rain Hotline. Only us true lunatic Mets fans know about it. When I tell people about it, they think I'm joking but it's a real thing. (718) 507-RAIN.

Double Misery

I'm not sure it's not just easier to say that the Pirates beat the Mets 6-2 in 18 innings on Tuesday as opposed to breaking down the shit stew of Baseball we were subjected to.

The Mets right now look exactly like they did in June of last year, which I suppose on the one hand is a good thing because they turned it around last year, but on the other hand why the fuck is this still going on? I really believed that the issues of offense and depth had been properly addressed and we weren't going to have to deal with any more extended stretches of games where our awesome starters pitch as well as can reasonably be expected of them and lose because the offense can't score a damn run. But I see I was mistaken.

So, I mean, someone owes Steven Matz and Jacob deGrom a dinner or a new Car or something because neither of them pitched especially badly. No, Matz wasn't great in the early game but he at least kept the damage against him to a minimum. deGrom had a bad 2nd inning in the nightcap. That's it. But for all intents and purposes both games appeared over once they gave up a 2nd run, and that's not sustainable at this level of play.

I know, I know, it's only June, but I feel like we have to go through this every season. You mean to tell me that the Mets couldn't figure out a way to get a run off of Jon Niese? I figured all the Mets would have to do is get a guy on 1st and have him sneeze and he'd give up 4 runs. But not the way the Mets offense is going. Steven Matz hits a triple in the 5th inning and gets stranded there because the next two guys ground out. Niese throws 7 shutout innings. Is that totally galling or what? The Mets did a wonderful job in the nightcap of making Juan Nicasio look similarly awesome.

The larger issue here is that there isn't any relief in sight. At least for the immediate time this is what we're stuck with because the 4 injured guys aren't close to coming back and there isn't exactly adequate talent available to call up. But, again, that was the same issue last year. Instead of dealing with Muno, Ceciliano, Mayberry and Recker we have Plawecki, Campbell, Reynolds and Kelly...are we at all convinced?

So, yeah. The Mets were sort of heading for a day like this. I'm not sure why I get worked up about it anymore but I guess I can't help it. Or am I that worked up at all? It seems to me in 2007/08 when this was happening, I'd go into a full-scale Francesa-level meltdown. Perhaps I've mellowed in my old age. Tomorrow, of course, the Mets send Noah Syndergaard to the mound against Jameson Taillon, the hotshot Pirates prospect making his Major League debut. Is there anyone out there who isn't convinced that Taillon is going to throw 8 shutout innings, with 1 hit and 12 strikeouts? Wouldn't surprise me at all.

The Niese Knows

I was all geared up for the Mets to come into Pittsburgh to face our old friend Jon Niese on Monday night, but the rain intervened, so instead there's a Doubleheader tomorrow. And I don't mean the fake "Doubleheader" that involves a separate admission, a real, actual single-admission Doubleheader.

So we'll have to wait until tomorrow to see Niese, and I suppose on some level I wanted to wax poetic on his time with the Mets, but who cares. We know what happened. There was a lot of potential, and perhaps some of it was unfairly placed on him simply because he was a young pitcher with a modicum of talent on a really crummy team. But he never really took The Leap we expected him to take and in retrospect I wonder if he ever really had it in him.

Really, the takeaway we all had from Niese was that he was an enormous headcase who had the tendency to go to pieces whenever something bad happened, and given some of the Mets teams he played on, that was fairly often. Yes, he also had moments where he looked really, really good too. But those were all too infrequent. And, of course, he ultimately became the odd man out in a crowded rotation and was subsequently dealt to Pittsburgh for Neil Walker, who returns to his hometown and I'm sure some Pittsburgh Blogger is writing a similarly-worded post about Walker and his time with Ye Pirates.

I'd like to think that we'll see The Niese Inning at some point tomorrow. I have this sinking feeling that that might not happen, though. Not because Niese has revenge on his mind, but because the Mets right now can't do a damn thing offensively and there's no sign of reinforcements.

Too Little, Too Late

If I were a Washington Nationals fan, after I finished reading the Political section of the Washington Post and cleared the dishes from my Breakfast nook in my posh Dupont Circle apartment, I might go for a jog down Connecticut Avenue. Afterward, I'll come back home and take another glance at that dog-eared copy of the Post to see Max Scherzer celebrating his second No Hitter of the season, and think to myself, "Where was that when it mattered?"

Fortunately, I am not a Nationals fan, and when it mattered most, the Nationals couldn't beat the Mets. The Mets battered Scherzer when they faced him in early September, and though he's handed the Mets the ignominy of being no-hit for the second time this season, it's far too late for it to make much of a difference. The same can be said for Gio Gonzalez in the early game. Yes, he held the Mets down and the Nationals won the game, but when it mattered, Gio was awfully pedestrian.

That being said, the Mets continue to not make a very good case for themselves going into the Postseason. This little cold snap that's blown over the offense has now turned into a 5-game losing streak, and they've scored 1 run in their last 3 games. This has, unfortunately, led to the Dodgers clinching the home field advantage for the impending NLDS, but again, I'm still not certain that this bothers the Mets that much.

On the upside, and if there is such an upside to being no-hit, at least I wasn't there to see it like I was last time. Instead, I only got to find out about it after the fact. In the Mets' defense, Scherzer pulled off the feat in another game where the Mets ran out their "D" lineup, as a majority of the regular starters sat out the frigid nightcap and those who played found themselves totally declawed by Scherzer. Additionally, when it comes to teams getting no-hit twice in a season, the Mets will in fact be facing a team in the NLDS that's pulled off the same feat.

On the upside, the Mets pitching looks ready to rock and roll. Noah Syndergaard stepped on Washington's throat in the early game and the Mets only lost when Addison Reed faltered in the 8th. In the later game, Matt Harvey finished off his regular season with a stellar 6 innings of work, striking out 11 and probably would have been the story of the game had he not gone up against Washington's Small Time Hero. But, such is life.

One more, this afternoon, and then the Mets will have to pull their shit together. A win today would be nice, though.

Lost Game

So, you know, I was all set to go charging out to Citi Field on Friday night to see the Mets' triumphant return home, where they would surely be greeted with the heroes' welcome they deserved as they began their season-ending series against Washington.

However, a day's worth of torrential rain fell here in New York and for sanity's sake, the game was called in the afternoon. This was just fine with me; in my younger days I would have thought nothing of sitting around through a 4-hour rain delay waiting for the game to start, but I'm now older and not quite as foolhardy. Based on how much it was raining, I was not looking forward to dragging my ass out to Queens to sit out in the rain and Citi Field's notorious jet stream.

So, instead of finishing my season with 22 games, I'll have to settle for 21. I can't go to tomorrow's Day-Night Doubleheader (my stance on those has not changed), but I'll be there on Sunday, assuming the rain stops by then.

The Only Game Worth Watching

I'd heard there was a big, important game going on tonight in New York, something about someone retiring, but I can't say I had any idea as to who they were talking about, or the team or where the game was being played. I only knew that the Mets and Nationals were playing the nightcap of my favorite thing in Baseball: the Day/Night Doubleheader. This was an important game for the Mets; in spite of the fact that they've been eliminated and are just finishing out their season at this point, they do want to finish strong, and one particular player I was hoping would finish strong was Zack Wheeler, who was making his final start of the season in this nightcap.

Wheeler unfortunately didn't get a win; not so much that he pitched especially poorly, but the start did seem somewhat typical of many of his starts this year. He worked too many deep counts early in the game, got burned in one inning—the 4th—where he gave up 3 runs without allowing any run-scoring hits, and he was finished after 5 innings. Against Gio Gonzalez, the Mets failed to hit, and thusly, Wheeler's season ended in a rather disappointing 3-0 loss.

Wheeler's future still remains bright, I think, because although he seems prone to having control issues and gassing himself too early in games, we saw this happen much less frequently as the season went on. To wit, at the end of June, Wheeler found himself having a year to rival, say, Jason Isringhausen in 1996. Wheeler sat at 3-8 with an ERA of 4.25. But over his final 15 starts of the season, Wheeler improved dramatically, to the tune of an 8-3 record and an ERA of 2.80, including 92 strikeouts in 90 innings. The end result is that although the won-loss record is unimpressive at 11-11, the 3.54 ERA and 187 strikeouts in 185 innings in his first full season in the Major Leagues is indicative of a guy who seems likely to show continued improvement as he matures.

But enough waxing poetic about Wheeler, there was another game played today, in the afternoon, in front of about 35 people in Washington, and me at home celebrating Rosh Hashana, and the Mets actually won, beating Washington for just the 4th time this season in a 7-4 decision. This was one of those games that was 37 different kinds of ugly, from the weather, which seemed perfectly damp and miserable, to the game itself, which saw the Mets jump ahead multiple times against Blake Treinen only for Dillon Gee to hand his lead back to the Nationals. Gee finished after 5, ending a kind of forgettable season for him, and turned the game over to Carlos Torres, who ended up picking up a victory when Matt den Dekker and Wilmer Flores ambushed Tyler Clippard on the way to homeroom and shoved him into a locker, scoring 2 runs to take a lead they would ultimately not relinquish. Very few people may have been in the stadium watching it, but the Mets did beat the Nationals, I saw it happen.

So, finally, the Mets are done with Washington, who will be going on to October while the Mets will be going home to play the Houston Astros and then fade into the background of Baseball consciousness as the calendar turns. I don't know if it's just me, but it seems like this September has seemed much more fleeting than most, as though the end of the Mets season seems to have come far too quickly for my liking.

See It Through

I don't know if it's just me, but it seems like the Mets have managed to avoid rainouts this season. I know the Mets haven't played very many doubleheaders to this point this year, and I believe they only had one make-up game this year, which was in Philadelphia, after a series when they were already scheduled to be there, so they didn't have any random 1-game stopovers like last year when they had to go to Colorado on their way home from Los Angeles and Minnesota on the way home from San Diego. So Wednesday night's rainout in Washington seems like a bit of an anomaly. Of course, Playoff-bound Washington gets to act all salty and nick their fans for a Day-Night Doubleheader tomorrow, even though I think we all know that there's going to be approximately 20 people at the opening game.

But, even without a game to watch, the Mets still managed to keep themselves in the general consciousness by announcing that both Sandy Alderson and Terry Collins would be returning for 2015. Alderson, in fact, earned himself a nice 3-year contract extension. 

I'm guessing that the skeptics among us aren't too thrilled by this news, but I can see why the deals were done. True, in the 4 years of the Alderson/Collins regime, the Mets have been pretty bad. After basically laying down and dying in the second half of 2011 and 2012, the Mets were perfectly middling throughout the season last year, and though they stand to tick upwards slightly this year as far as wins and losses are concerned, there wasn't exactly much in the way of suspense when it came to the Mets' chances of making the postseason. So, after 4 years of basically nothing and a streak of lost years that has now reached 6 seasons, why keep these guys around?

For years, we've been hearing about how Alderson and Collins haven't had much to work with at the Major League level. Even this year, the roster has been limited (lest we forget starting the season with Jose Valverde, John Lannan and Ike Davis on the roster and Andrew Brown hitting 5th on Opening Day) amid some good stories of younger players finally starting to show their potential. But that's probably the key reason these guys are staying around. The Mets were already dead when Jerry Manuel was at the helm in 2010, and there was no particular hope in sight. Whether it was Collins, Manuel, Wally Backman or whoever, very few managers would have been able to save the team over the past several seasons (even Bobby Valentine would have been hard-pressed). Alderson has come in and basically rebuilt the farm system from the ground up. He wasn't nearly as dramatic in doing so as the Houston Astros have been, but that's basically what he did. And slowly but surely, these prospects have begun to ascend to the Majors, and we're starting to see a little bit of payoff. Matt Harvey was obviously the first to hit the scene, and while it remains to be seen just how he comes back from a lost year, we know what he's capable of being. Zack Wheeler and Jacob deGrom took major steps forward this year. Travis d'Arnaud and Lucas Duda found themselves after slow starts. Juan Lagares, Jeurys Familia and Jenrry Mejia thrived in their roles. These are all guys that are key pieces in the future of the team. Others, like Dilson Herrera and Noah Syndergaard are ready to ascend.

The majority of these names, of course, were brought in by Sandy Alderson. Not all of them, but most of them. But now that the foundation is laid, it's time to get serious about bringing in the necessary parts to make the Mets a winning team again. It's no longer going to be acceptable, with a healthy, young pitching staff, to throw a lineup bereft of talent in several spots, out there day after day. And that's going to be the big story of the coming offseason. What is Alderson going to do to improve a lineup that's been without much teeth on most days? We've been going over the problems with Shortstop and Left Field and Right Field for a few years. It's high time something substantial was done about it. What that's going to be, I don't know. But instead of Alderson leaning back and working on minor deals to patch holes, now he's going to have to make some impact moves that will make a difference.

Flip Twice

The single-admission Doubleheader, for as pure and innocent as it may be, is still a long day of Baseball, and yesterday's at Citi Field was definitely a long day of Baseball, even if it wasn't exactly a stimulating pair of games. The Mets lost one low-scoring game by virtue of poor defense and the re-emergence of the Double Play Brigade, and won the nightcap by virtue, I suppose, of being less tired than the Diamondbacks, after essentially playing 3 games in a 1-day span.

The Opening game on Sunday came on the heels of an eminently forgettable game on Saturday (that I didn't even see) and Friday night's rainout that necessitated the Doubleheader, and featured the Mets having one of those games in which the only thing they managed to do well was hit into Double Plays. The Mets hit into 5 Double Plays in the first game, which is really impressive because in the bigger picture, the Mets had a double play in more than half the innings in which they came to bat. This did not serve to benefit Rafael Montero at all, because after giving up a 1st inning Home Run to Chris Owings, Montero was brilliant for the remainder of his 7 innings. It's only fortunate, I suppose, that the Mets managed to scratch across a run for him in the second inning, so instead of leaving in line to lose, he left a tie game, but that was mere scant consolation. The Mets couldn't hit Bronson Arroyo, which isn't anything new, and old buddy Oliver Perez came out of the bullpen much to the chagrin of those in attendance and threw a scoreless inning of his own. Only in the 9th did the Diamondbacks break through by virtue of, you guessed it, one of Daniel Murphy's periodic spastic fits, where he yakked on a throw from David Wright on what would have been an inning-ending Fielder's Choice and allowed the lead run to score. The Mets offered little in response and ended up with a 2-1 loss that drove most of the audience to the exits.

Fortunately, the Mets won the second game 4-2 and avoided being swept by the lowly Diamondbacks. Unfortunately, I had to go out and missed the game, but I hear Bobby Abreu and Ruben Tejada did good things and Daisuke Matsuzaka continued to pitch well in a spot-starting role. The length of this recap befitting the second game of this particular Doubleheader, because it just felt like the kind of game that nobody was around to watch. Sort of like the second game on this particular day, a generation ago it seems.

So, the Mets can go from hosting one former club headache whom nobody liked much in Oliver Perez to hosting a former club headache whom everybody liked when Ike Davis and the Pirates come to town. I'd like to think the crowd will give Ike a much more cheerful welcome back than they did to Perez. Ike deserves at least that much.

This, by the way, is the 1,000th post here, innocuous as it may seem. Thanks to everyone for reading over the past 7 years, and here's looking forward to the next thousand!

Is There A Game?

I have, for many years, kept a Mets pocket schedule pinned above my desk at work. I did it at my old job and now I have done it at my new job, just so I always know if and when there's a game on any given day.

I was dubious all morning, given the absurd amount of rain falling in New York (likely the same rain that had come up from Philadelphia), that the Mets and Phillies would even play today...or was it tonight...I wasn't quite sure. I sort of took for granted that it was a night game, but with this being a 2-game series and the whole getaway day and cross-country trip to Colorado, one can never be too sure. I suppose I could have solved all that by just looking at the schedule pinned above my desk, but I didn't bother to do so. Then, at some point early in the afternoon, I got a buzz on my phone from ESPN's ScoreCenter announcing in block letters "THIS GAME HAS BEEN POSTPONED DUE TO INCLEMENT WEATHER ETC ETC ETC..." I figured, since the alert came at around 1pm, that it must have been a day game. I figured I was wrong about the time of the game. Only at this point did I bother to look at my schedule to see that it was, in fact, a night game, and the good people of Philadelphia actually wised up and decided to head things off at the pass and spare people from having to show up to Mike Schmidt's Moustache Stadium Citizens Bank Park for no reason. If it were the Mets, who seem to have a very odd way of showing how much they care for their fan base, they probably would have stood around shrugging their shoulders and opened the gates at 4:30 just so they could sell a few Shackburgers before calling the game around 8pm, because everybody loves making the trek out to Flushing for no apparent reason.

Bottom line is, the game was at night, but it was apparent all day that there was no way in hell they were playing baseball tonight in Philadelphia, or New York, or basically anywhere on the East Coast, so the will-they-or-won't-they drama was basically spared very early in the day. Of course, these rained out games must be rescheduled, and generally they're done so as the ever popular Day-Night Doubleheader that you all know I love so much. I was expecting that this is what the Phillies would do, on some random Saturday in July, but they surprised me by scheduling the game on a random Monday afternoon in June when both teams were off. Last season, these mutual off-days were sucked up by a spate of early season rain/snow/horrible-outs, meaning the Mets had to do things like fly from San Diego to New York by way of Minneapolis. At least Philadelphia is closer to home. And at least the Mets aren't making a trip out to Colorado until May 1st, although the weather in Denver has been known for being unpredictable. So, hopefully this 4-game trip will be the only time they have to go there this season. These random 1-game trips are the sort of thing you really want to avoid piling up.

Amnesiac

After taking in the Afternoon portion of Tuesday's Day/Night Doubleheader with Matt Harvey on the radio, I was home to catch Zack Wheeler's Major League Debut in the Nightcap.

Mostly. I stayed at work slightly later than I would have intended. My normal, 6pm departure leaves me with plenty of time to get home (or to Citi Field) for a 7:10pm start time. Tuesday, I didn't leave work until about 6:45, making my getting home in time for the start of the game an impossibility. Wisely, though, I'd anticipated a late departure and set the DVR to record the game. So, although I got home at 7:30, I was able to pick things up from the top and catch up from there.

I fast forwarded through the Mets half of the first inning, because a) They weren't going to score anyway and b) Who cares, I just wanted to see Wheeler. Perhaps the first time I'd ever simply eschewed a Mets turn at bat. But, such were the circumstances.

I wasn't expecting Wheeler to debut with the same panache as Matt Harvey did last year. Harvey is his own beast, someone of a different level of intensity and mental makeup than Wheeler. But, what Wheeler does have is the stuff to match Harvey's fire. We knew this coming in, even though we might not have actually seen it. It's been hyped up enough. Basically, this is all a long-winded way of saying that Wheeler had an understandably jittery first inning, walking a pair of batters while at the same time pouring in his fastball rather effortlessly at 95-97mph. Though there may have been nerves, Wheeler showed his toughness by not allowing it to get the better of him. His fastball, which appears to have incredibly filthy bite to it, was moving all over the place early. But he used it to his advantage. After walking Andrelton Ordonez Simmons, Wheeler rebounded to strike out Heyward and get Ratso Upton to ground out. His walk to Freeman could have been an unintentional walk, because it set up Cheech Upton to tap out to Wright at 3rd, thereby getting Wheeler through the 1st unscathed.

Wheeler settled down and only got better from there. Come the second inning, he'd found his sea legs and got his command under control. The fastball that was sailing all over the place was now zipping over the plate and past Atlanta bats. A Dan Uggla double was the only blemish on what should be the first of many 3 strikeout innings for Wheeler. The 3rd inning was a mirror image of the 1st, except that when he walked Freeman, it actually looked like Wheeler was giving him an unintentional pass as opposed to just looking wild. Again, no harm, no foul. In fact, Wheeler got quite comfortable from there, allowing a pair of harmless singles in the 4th and 5th that went nowhere.

But it was his final inning, the 6th, where Wheeler really showed his mettle. Although nobody would have argued if Wheeler was pulled after 5 innings, Collins sent him back out for the 6th, where he allowed 4th hit, a single to Cheech Upton and followed it up with his 5th walk, to Brian McCann. This would be a good test. Wheeler kept his cool, working him over for his 7th strikeout and following that up by retiring Chris Johnson on a popup to finish off 6 shutout innings, and a debut that, much like Matt Harvey's debut last year, lived up to the lofty hype.

But, unfortunately, Wheeler was also getting a taste of what being a Met is like at the moment. For all the work he'd done to keep the Braves off the scoreboard, the Mets, boasting a mostly B-level lineup littered with names like Josh Satin and Collin Cowgill, couldn't plate a run. Sure, the fine Major League debut was nice, but it certainly would have been typical of the way this season has gone if they couldn't get a win out of it.

Fortuitously, Anthony Recker found a way in the 7th inning to blast a long 2-run Home Run, at a moment where a friend and I were discussing why Recker was catching at all. Questioning Anthony Recker and having him respond with a Home Run has already happened once this year. So, perhaps, we should continue questioning why Anthony Recker is here, and maybe he will respond with more Home Runs. This particular Home Run was helpful because it not only gave the Mets the lead, but also put Wheeler in line for the victory.

It was then up to the Bullpen to protect this 2-0 lead the rest of the way. Brandon Lyon made things unnecessarily hairy in the 7th, but he made it through only allowing 1 run. The Braves then decided to self-destruct in the 8th, replete with Anthony Varvaro throwing away pickoffs and both Upton Brothers looking complacent/lazy/both. Somehow, the string of Marlon Byrd, Josh Satin, Juan Lagares and Omar Quintanilla led to 4 runs scoring, giving the Mets a monumental 6, and I don't mean 6 for the Doubleheader, I mean 6 in this game alone. This was plenty for the Mets to win and come away from their pair of games with a pair of tone-setting wins.

Certainly, when this Doubleheader was scheduled several weeks ago, it could not have been greeted with much pleasantness. The way the Mets had been going, 5 games in Atlanta might as well have been a trip through the 9 circles of Hell. But once it was determined that not only would Zack Wheeler make his debut in this series, but he'd be the back end of Met Futures Day along with Matt Harvey, the mood made a decided turn to optimism. The pieces that we've been waiting for are beginning to show themselves, step by step. Harvey is now establishing himself as a star. Wheeler looks capable of following suit. The results both tantalizing, the Mets, on this date, served notice to the rest of the Major Leagues that they will be hell to deal with once they get an offense.

Kid A

I generally abhor the Day/Night Doubleheader, and that sentiment hasn't changed today, but if nothing else, I had vastly different perspectives on both games, so much so that they almost felt as if they could have been played on different days. It's enough of a difference in experience and atmosphere in which I took in both games that each game merits its own post.

Today was certainly a day that everyone who had any sort of interest in the Mets had circled for at least the last week, when it became apparent that not only would Matt Harvey take on the Braves in his regularly scheduled appearance, but he would be joined in the nightcap of this Doubleheader by Zack Wheeler, who would make his long-awaited and much-anticipated Major League Debut. Perhaps, if things went well on both ends, this could be one of those watershed days in Mets history. In the midst of a lost season, these are the sort of things you look to take away.

Matt Harvey, in this lost season, has already proven himself worthy of the praise; even though his numbers belie his success, that hasn't diminished his already lofty standing both among Mets fans and his peers around Baseball. He hadn't won a start in close to a month, though that wasn't due to anything in particular he did wrong. He might not have you believe that, but Matt Harvey has pitched well enough to stand with 9, perhaps 10 wins to this point in the season. Such is the peril of having a historically inept offense behind you.

Last start, Harvey took his first loss of the season, a head-scratching 2-1 loss to the Cardinals, where Harvey did what he always does, pitch into the 7th inning, give up 1 run, allow 4 hits and strike out 8, and even if those aren't his exact numbers from last Thursday, they're close enough. But the Mets gave him nothing, the bullpen gave up 1 after he left, and that was enough to saddle him with the loss. Harvey, as is his wont, shouldered the blame himself. In his mind, the only way to counter the effects of his teammates' ineptitude is to simply not allow any runs.

Early this afternoon, Harvey essentially did that, taking a No Hitter into the 7th inning, while the Mets went out and provided him with an unheard of 4-run cushion.

Of course, being that it was a Tuesday afternoon, I was relegated to Radio duty. Therefore, my ability to follow the game as much as I would have liked was hindered. I remember hearing Josh Lewin barking something about Daniel Murphy sneaking home from 2nd base on a Marlon Byrd infield hit, but I was taking a phone call when John Buck hit his Home Run, and come the 8th inning, I was in a meeting and I have no idea how the Mets plated 2 more runs.

I also had no idea Harvey was working on a No Hitter until Howie Rose mentioned something in the about "The only runners to reach against Harvey have walked..." or something to that effect. At that point I thought I ought to try to keep up with things a little more, but just at that moment, Jason Heyward hit a little squibber that Harvey fielded and, what I believe happened was that he threw the ball to someplace where Lucas Duda probably was supposed to be, but wasn't. I also, at this point, have not seen a replay, so I don't know where the truth really lies. But, if nothing else, the loss of the No Hit bid meant I could go back to my regularly scheduled activities.

Harvey tired in the 8th, although again, I was still in a meeting, so I wasn't quite sure what had conspired, or who was even pitching for that matter. By time I got my bearings back, Bobby Parnell was striking out Chris Johnson, and for a second I thought the game was over, since Parnell was in, but what I'd missed was a bizarre Braves rally that developed slowly and then boiled over once Harvey was removed from the game, badly enough that Parnell was called in to rescue the Mets from their own ineptitude. Fortunately, Parnell was up to that task, and got through the 9th with relative ease, finishing off the 4-3 victory and getting Matt Harvey that most elusive 6th victory of the season.

The talk afterward was whether or not Harvey was pitching with a bit of a chip on his shoulder, just to remind everyone who the boss was, even though everyone was more enamored with Zack Wheeler. Harvey, who normally throws pretty hard, appeared to be crackling today, touching 100mph on one instance. Perhaps, although Harvey generally has one demeanor when he's on the mound, and not knowing him personally, but seeing him enough times, I'd have to imagine it's pretty intense. Whether he's trying to win a game or send a message doesn't particularly matter. Even in games where he hasn't looked his best, he's managed to gut his way through games. Today, he went on cruise control and spent most of the game gassing the Braves, en route to a career high 13 strikeouts. And after so many frustrating outings where he's pitched his ass off to no avail, the Mets finally got a few hits for him. Thus, the keynote for the day was sounded, and the Mets could enjoy the 3 or so hour break in between the two games, and I could finish my job for the day and head home in time to catch Zack Wheeler's debut in the Nightcap.

Not Worth Remembering

On a night where the Mets started out their day facing a field covered in snow, it seemed somewhat fitting that they would finish it by bumbling through a game dressed in the throwback uniforms of one of their worst years ever.

The circumstances that put the Mets in this particular fix were bizarre enough. After a pair of consecutive snow-outs spanning two different cities, the Mets hoped to get a day-night Doubleheader in against the Colorados on Tuesday. The first game was scheduled for 3pm in New York. But removing the more than half a foot of snow from a city that is routinely buried in snow was apparently a much taller task than anticipated, leaving WFAN to only update us with "We'll have an hour's notice as to whether or not they'll play." So, fair enough.

After some waiting around, and after hearing that the separate admission doubleheader was melded into a single-admission doubleheader, they finally announced a 5pm start time. This game started out well enough, with David Wright getting off his Home Run schneid and Dillon Gee pitching reasonably well. At 6pm, I shut off the radio and left to go home, where I figured I'd be able to catch the last few innings at home.

By time I got home, I was greeted with a now 5-4 Colorado lead, so I missed Gee's 5th inning meltdown. Nonetheless, I wasn't too concerned, since Colorado is a place where no lead is safe. This thinking would bite me in the ass later in the evening. I also overlooked the fact that very few good things have ever happened to the Mets in Coors Field, dating back to its first game.

Though the Colorados have rather poor starting pitching, their bullpen looks rather good. I don't know whether this is actually the case, but they certainly shut the Mets down the rest of the way while the Mets bullpen allowed the Colorados to keep tacking on runs. The final, 8-4, was just about as ugly as it looked.

So, a quick meal, a change of uniforms and hopefully a regroup before the second game. Until I noticed that the Mets were wearing these horrible uniforms with a tail under the team name. I should have known right then and there that the Mets were screwed. Nothing good happened to the Mets in 1993. I lived through it, and so did many of us. The horrible karma that the sight of those uniforms generated should have spelled it out clearly right there. And that's why I can't say I felt especially good even after Aaron Laffey—or was it Jason Jacome?—got through his start in reasonably good shape. Despite giving up 13 hits in 4 innings, the Mets backed him up with some offense and ran out to an 8-2 lead.

But, just like in the first game, the bullpen told the story. The Colorados stopped the Mets cold, and the Mets let the Colorados back in it. Before the paint dried, 8-2 was 8-6 thanks to Josh Edgin. And the combination of the cold, the inconsistency from not having played for three days, and the end of an excruciatingly long game combined with the stink of those 1993 jerseys combined to do the Mets in. Brandon Lyon—not Mike Maddux—kicked away an inning ending grounder in the 8th, John Buck—not Charlie O'Brien—didn't pay enough attention to Carlos Gonzalez and finally Ruben Tejada—not Tony Fernandez—threw away a routine grounder allowing the Colorados to tie the game.

From where I was sitting, the Mets were dead in this game. They looked about as cold and miserable as the some 300 hearty souls in Coors Field (as an aside, my other half was wondering why there were so many "Lets Go Mets!" chants in Colorado. My explanation was that they were either Mets fans transplanted to Denver who only had so many opportunities to see their team, or they were traveling fans who were stuck in Denver with nothing particularly better to do), and they probably would have been better served just letting someone hit the walk-off Home Run and getting out of there, but nooooo. Dante Bichette was nowhere to be found. With more snow beginning to fall, they just HAD to go to Extra Innings. On the other hand, since the Mets were stuck in a horrible 1993 time warp, I suppose it was fitting that they had to go to the last man in the bullpen, Greg Burke—not Mike Draper—as the sacrificial lamb for the inevitable ending. This, I suppose, is somewhat fortunate, because if they really wanted to stick it to everyone, they would have let the game go 14 innings before losing. So that was considerate on their part. Plus it was 1am in New York and I needed to get to bed. It was so late, in fact, that I couldn't be bothered to write anything until now.

So, if Tuesday wasn't ridiculous enough, now it's snowing again in Denver, throwing tonight's proposed affair, scheduled despite a low temperature of 9º, is now in doubt. So, we may just have to do this again tomorrow. I'd think, at this point, the Mets are just trying to survive at this point until they can get home for Friday, where the game time temperature is allegedly going to be 68º. Perish the thought.

No Game Today

Issues elsewhere in the world certainly took precedence Monday on a much heavier scale, but Baseball remained on as a pleasant diversion.

The only problem was that the Mets left the snow in Minnesota only to be greeted with more snow in Colorado. The game time forecast of a balmy 21 degrees with light snow appears to have been an understatement, because judging from the above photo (and others circulating), this wasn't a "light snow." Fortunately, the game was postponed, giving the Mets into their second consecutive Snowout and forcing a Doubleheader situation with the Colorados on Tuesday that already appears dicey because of more snow. Wednesday, it will reportedly not snow in Colorado, but the nighttime forecast calls for a low of 9 degrees.

I know the Mets have played the Colorados in Denver in April in prior years, but this is sort of ridiculous. Someone mentioned to me on Monday morning that there was a possibilty of the rarely-seen Tripleheader if things got bad enough, but I think there's a union restriction against those sorts of things. The reality was that it was merely a hoax from the devious mind of Jay Horowitz. The hope, I guess, is that somehow they get a couple of these games in and maybe try to come back later in the season. But the Mets have already lost an off day in August after a west coast trip because they have to go back to Minnesoter to pick up the lost game from Sunday. A more palatable option might be having a Doubleheader when the Colorados come to New York and have the Colorados as the home team, but that will probably go over about as well as playing in an April Snowstorm from the Colorados point of view.

Meantime, it complicates my job as a loyal blogger, because it's difficult to find things to write about when the Mets aren't playing any games. This ought to change at some point. I think...

Sleeping With the Knishes

Sunday's rainout put me in a bit of a pickle. I have tickets to tonight's game, which I planned to go to as it was scheduled. But with yesterday's rainout, a wrench was thrown into my plans. It's not an unfamiliar situation for me. I actually was presented with a similar predicament last August, and again at an earlier date in 2010, and I'm sure there are other instances that I'm forgetting in my old age.

I've gone on record as saying how much I abhor the Day-Night doubleheader, because it's not a real doubleheader. What's going on today at Citi Field is a real doubleheader, two games for the price of one. I used to go to loads of them in my salad days, although nowadays my aptitude for two games has worn thin (and I assume it's freezing at Citi Field right now). Plus, my work schedule doesn't exactly allow me to kick off at 2:30 to make the 4:10 first pitch. So, here I am, on the 7 train, writing this as the first game plays on. But, I'll be there in plenty of time to contract frostbite at the nightcap.

Thats not to say that I don't have a few gripes about this. A few years ago, I might have complained that I hate getting to games late. I'll be arriving at Citi Field probably around the 7th or 8th inning of the 1st game. And based on what I'm seeing on ESPN ScoreCenter, I haven't missed much, save for the opportunity to see Tim Lincecum pitch. But my attraction to games usually isn't the opponent. My concern is what will happen if that first game runs long and the second game isn't underway until 8pm. I like to leave early about as much as I like to arrive late, but I also have to think logically. It takes me about 45 minutes to get home from Citi Field. If I leave early, that means no Express, so it's a longer trip. Nonetheless, I still have to be at work in the morning. You have to ask yourself what makes more sense sometimes. Oh, the dilemmas caused by rain.

Get Your Metrocards out...

The Subway Series that's about to take place this weekend really has a lot of interesting storylines to it, most notably that this could, perhaps, be the first Subway Series that neither team wins a game. The way both teams are going right now, they could just play 25 innings or more and not come to a conclusion.

It brings me to another intriguing storyline: Today. With the Make-up game from May 16th being played this afternoon at 2pm, both teams will have to make that legendary Bus trip from The Bronx, down the Major Deegan, over the Triborough, across the Grand Central Parkway and out to Shea Stadium for the 8pm start of the second game. In the past (and as documented by Todd Pratt in the 2000 Highlight Video), the teams have been given a Police escort for their trip.

There's one mitigating factor that could complicate this, however, and it does not involve the first game going 14 innings.

With the first game scheduled for 2pm, it will, more than likely, end at around 4:30 or 5pm 5 or 5:30pm (Forgot...It's the Yankees, so we're looking at nothing shorter than 3 hours). This would probably put the players on the road at around 6pm...right in the teeth of rush hour. How, exactly will they manage to get through the traffic? A police escort will help, but in the past, these Same Day/Different Stadium Doubleheaders have been played on Saturdays, when traffic wasn't an issue. Now, you're going to run into every schmo making their mass Exodus from the City to the Hamptons or the Berkshires or whatever Foofy weekend getaway they go to. The Deegan will be a mess, even if the traffic pattern is going in the opposite direction, the Triborough will be a disaster, and I don't even want to know about the Grand Central. A 45-minute trip could take an hour and a half in this kind of traffic.

There's really only one foolproof way to solve the problem.

Send them on the Subway! Bring back the classic Tin Can 4 and the Redbird 7 cars, and make a special Express charter train. On the 4, Yankees get the front 5 cars, Mets get the back 5 cars, switch 'em up at Grand Central, escort them from the 4 down the ramp to the 7, make sure the 7 is ready to go, Mets get the front 5 cars on the 7, Yankees in the back. Assuming there's no trouble, the trip should take about 45 minutes, tops. Have the players wave to the fans from the train. It's a great photo op, and a great way to send out both Stadiums in style.

I'll be at Sunday's game this weekend, a very, very rare Weekend Afternoon appearance at Shea. I had assumed, when I bought the package, that the game would be moved to Sunday night. Obviously, that didn't happen. I'll try to get through it. At least until it rains.

Doing it the Right Way

I know I did this last year, too, but since today is what today is, I have to do it again...

"Today is Father's Day, so to all you Dads out there, Happy Birthday!"

Now, to the more important issue at hand:

I, for some reason, felt compelled to go out to Shea last night, rather than Friday night. I guess I never really considered Friday an option, and Saturday's game offered a chance to see the same Texas Rangers team that I'd never seen before, a chance to see Pedro Martinez, and, in my opinion, a much better promotion.

This isn't to denigrate Beach Towel night one bit. In fact, Beach Towel day was one of the seminal promotions of my youth. Somewhere, in the bowels of my Father's apartment, lie years upon years worth of Mets Beach Towel Day towels, which used to be sponsored by Met Life, and usually featured some permutation of Snoopy and the rest of the Peanuts gang. As promotions went back in those days, Beach Towel day was usually the best. The game would usually sell out, and the towels would be whirled around, much in the same fashion as the little hand towels they hand out today.

Then, sometime around 1991 or 1992, Beach Towel day disappeared. Or maybe they just held it on days when I couldn't go. At any rate, there were no more beach towels at Shea. Until, mysteriously, it popped up again in 1998, sponsored by Rheingold. It occurred on a sun-soaked Saturday afternoon, where Mike Piazza posted his first Multi-HR game with the Mets, and I was in attendance to pick one up. It's still with me, packed away somewhere in the bowels of my apartment. But I found it recently, when putting away the dopey little Rally Towel I received earlier this season.

Then, it disappeared again. I think I noticed it pop up in '06 or '07 as a kids only promotion, useless to me. And, in fact, I didn't even notice that it was happening this season until earlier this week. Sponsored by, of all places, Fox News. I thought I should go for old times sake, but I had planned to take Friday off, and go Saturday. Saturday being Shea Stadium Replica night, a much more attractive promotion, undoubtedly, particularly with this being the last season for Shea. Much like I just HAD to be there for Endy Chavez Bobblehead night last year, I HAD to be there for Shea Stadium replica night. Why do I have such an attraction to this kitsch?

At any rate, because I HAD to be there, I ended up sitting through about 90 minutes of, perhaps, the hardest rainstorm I've ever seen at Shea Stadium. It's a good thing I was sitting underneath the overhang in the Upper Deck, because there was no way anybody should have been sitting out in the uncovered seats. The rain whipped around to the point where I swear it was falling up. The Field Level seats appeared to be a swimming pool, and the field itself was a quagmire, with the warning tracks reduced to mud. The field was totally unplayable, this was clear at around 8pm. Yet, they announced that the front would move through within the half hour. Well, I guess they would try to play, there were probably about 40,000 people at the stadium, and the concessions were doing a land office business. I kept dialing the Mets Rain hotline for updates, and they said the game "was still scheduled to be played at 7:10pm. But there was no way. I figured I'd stick it out until they called it, at least. Then, around 8:30, several players dashed out of the Rangers Dugout and slid across the tarp. The fans went wild. I couldn't see who they were (and later found out that the ringleaders were Ian Kinsler and Milton Bradley, accompanied by Josh Hamilton, Gerald Laird, Michael Young and Josh Rupe), but they dove around and slipped and slid for a good 5 minutes before they bowed to the crowd, which was mysteriously chanting "LET'S GO RANGERS!" and headed back in. Everyone got a kick out of it, apparently, except for Willie, who would only say, "That's dangerous." Killjoy.

I took that opportunity, then, to call the rain line one more time. Now, they were announcing that the game was postponed. Which was odd, since they hadn't announced it to the crowd. Why should they, I suppose. People were hanging around, eating, drinking and whatever, and the concession stands were packed. It was a good 5 minutes before they finally announced "We regret to inform you that tonight's game has been postponed."

I was a bit nervous that they would pull their new trick of scheduling my favorite, the day-night Doubleheader, today, with tickets only good for the makeup game. They surprised me by bucking the trend and scheduling—God Forbid—A Traditional, Single-Admission Doubleheader! Be still my heart! A real Doubleheader! Of course, I'm not there, but it's the thought that counts. I can exchange my ticket whenever I please, just like the old times. Maybe with the Beach Towels and the Shea Replicas, everyone was feeling a bit of old-time spirit.

Now, if only the team could feel that old-time spirit. Old time meaning 2006, or 2000, or 1999.

Let's Play One and One!

I remember back in a bygone era called the 1990s, there were these things called "Doubleheaders," in which one could purchase a ticket to a game, and see two games for the price of that one ticket. Many times, I would attend these Doubleheaders; in my younger, more wily days it was but a lark for me to spend 7 hours at Shea Stadium, from 5pm to Midnight, or from Noon to 7pm, and while away an entire day watching some Mets Baseball.

Of course, going further back in time, the Doubleheader was an even more common occurrence, with Doubleheaders actually being planned as a part of the regular season schedule, not just a result of a Rained-out ballgame. But I don't believe that the Mets have had a scheduled Doubleheader since September 15, 1998, during that Magical 4-game series in the Astrodome. The only Doubleheaders we see at Shea anymore happen because that Sunday game against the Nationals or the Marlins got rained out.

It appears that those days have gone by the wayside, with the asinine concept of the Day-Night Doubleheader now being the norm across the Majors. The Mets had been one of the last teams to hang on to the single-admission Doubleheader (in fact, when they held one last season, on July 8th, this was trumpeted to the public). Now, in an attempt to pack the ballpark with a fresh set of fans, who can spend more money on tickets, and more money on concessions, and souvenirs and parking, the single-admission Doubleheader, one of the great last vestiges of a bygone era of Baseball is just about dead. The Mets have one such Day-Night doubleheader scheduled today, in Philadelphia. If you've got tickets, you can be there for that first game at 1pm, then leave the stadium, see a movie, do your laundry, and eat a full dinner and still come back in time for the second game. Sadly, even the Mets have succumbed to this phenomenon. Perish the thought of losing a Weekend Box Office, that Doubleheader on Saturday, July 28th begins at 12:10pm, with a 7:10pm nightcap. When they announced that, it was a sad day indeed.

I don't think that this is what Ernie Banks had in mind when he said, "Let's Play Two!"