Weekend Edition

First off, I'd like to thank Attorney General Alberto Gonzales for resigning effective September 17. That day happens to be El Guapo's birthday, and I can't imagine a much better gift than this. Thanks, Al!

So on to a weekend wrap-up of sorts. I spent Saturday up at the Barclay's golf tournament hopscotching around following different groups. I saw Sergio Garcia, Ernie Els, Phil Mickelson (yes, he's just as fat in person), Retief Goosen, that weenie Zach Johnson who won the Master's, plus my boy Padraig Harrington. My mother, who volunteered at the tourney as a driver, apparently scored me Paddy's autograph on a cap. Thanks, mom!

Westchester C.C. in Harrison, NY.


l-r: Zach Johnson, Padraig Harrington, and Ryan Armour finish up on 18.


Sorry, Veej, maybe next year...

Despite the loss to David Wells and the Dodgers last night, the Mets are still in good shape in the division. The Braves and Phillies never capitalized on their respective windows of opportunity and have fallen back to 6+ games out. The Phils get another big chance starting tonight.

Meanwhile the Mets have personnel decisions to make. Endy Chavez and Paul LoDuca are ready to return. The LoDuca move is easy, only necessitating sending down Sandy Alomar (more likely) or Mike DeFelice (less likely), who've both filled in admirably. Endy presents a more complicated choice. If the team could put Luis Castillo on the DL, they could activate Endy without any playoff roster implications (since a DL player is playoff eligible even if he's not with the team on September 1). But since they don't know the extent of Castillo's injury that's not an easy call. (ESPN's Mets page has Castillo possibly in the lineup tonight.) If they activated Endy and demoted someone else, who would it be? It could hardly be Marlon Anderson or Ruben Gotay, and they just went to the trouble of trading for Jeff Conine for his playoff and pennant race experience (although I think he looked like a butcher at first last night, with one error plus a handful more plays he just didn't get to).

This Phillies series is for four games on the road, so obviously it's a big test. Am I nervous? Yes. Yes I am.

Conine The Barbarian

As a veteran of several ankle sprains of varying severity, I can empathize with the unfortunate fate suffered by Damion Easley on Saturday night. While watching the game and seeing him come up lame, I could tell right there what had happened. And, knowing from experience what occurs when an ankle is sprained, I could not watch the repeated replays of the injury.

While an ankle sprain may stop hurting especially badly after a short period of time, it can be debilitating for as long as 6 months following the injury, and while one might be able to walk, it's pretty much impossible to run, or to handle the rigors of the final quarter of a Baseball season. So, let's tip our cap to Damion Easley, who's probably done for the season, but who had provided the Mets with some fine play all over the field, and came up with some big hits in some tight spots. Well done, and we'll miss you. Get well soon!

So, with every problem, this one being the lack of a veteran righty bat off the bench, there is a solution. Enter Jeff Conine, who could be considered a Super Veteran, first seen climbing the fence in a Spring Training game in 1991 to rob a forgotten Met of a game winning HR when he was a Royals Minor Leaguer, to an original Marlin, to a 2-time World Champion, and now to the Mets, where he's going to be the guy now, coming off the bench in the late innings, filling in at 1B or the Outfield. True, his best days have long passed him by, and his career is now winding down. So was Easley's. The Mets don't need Conine to light up the scoreboard. They just need him to play smart, play cool and come up with the big hits that go un-noticed. He's made a career of being spectacularly unspectacular, but judging from the regard in which he's held by Marlins fans, he does that pretty damn well. Welcome aboard.

Hmm...Alou, Conine, Castillo...All the Mets need now is to bring back Bobby Bonilla and they'll have officially recreated the 1997 Florida Marlins...

(Sorry. I couldn't resist.)