Black Sunday

Much like Saturday's melange of misery, I missed the Mets Sunday Shit Show as well, which, given how things turned out, was once again probably a good thing. From what I was able to gather, the Mets hit slightly, then didn't hit, then didn't pitch, then didn't field, and a 4-1 lead turned into an eventual 10-inning, 8-4 loss that took half as long in terms of innings and elapsed time than the Saturday debacle.

After sweeping the Yankees, the Mets have fallen right back into the abyss of hell, running off a lovely-looking 1-6 record, replete with two momentum-killing rainouts right after the lone victory. 5 of the 6 losses came at the hands of your favorite team and mine, that's right, the Fucking Marlins. To date, the Marlins have won 18 games this season. 8 of them have come against the Mets. This tells you all you need to know about how bad this season is going. I know that the attendance figures have registered somewhere in the 20,000s both days, and I suppose that's all well and good given that it was a nice weekend, and I didn't see either game so I'm not quite sure, but let's be real: Were there even 10,000 people in the park on either date? I have tickets for Tuesday night's game against St. Louis, my first game in a few weeks, and I've got a pretty good feeling that I may be a part of a rather small congregation.

If nothing else, Sandy Alderson has finally seen enough, and made several postgame "adjustments" to the roster. Among them was the demotion of Ike Davis. I know that Ike has been a team guy, a likeable guy and one of The Ballclub's favorites. But he's been lost all season and unlike last year, there haven't been any signs of breaking out of it. After looking like he might be beginning to turn last week, he's gone back in the tank again, so I can't say he didn't deserve to get sent down. Also gone are Mike Baxter and Robert Carson, so it's really a mini-housecleaning. Baxter is another one of those Met Loveables, but let's face it, the Mets are the only team that would ever have someone like Baxter on the roster. He's the consummate 5th Outfielder. He happened to run into a No-Hitter saving catch last year, and he came up with a bunch of Pinch Hits, and a pair of game winners earlier this year, but he's Mike Baxter, and there's nothing exciting about him. Robert Carson is just as unexciting, even if he did have a nice outing picking up for Jonathon Niese that one time. Replacing them? Who knows? Whoever it is, they can't be much worse, can they?

Can they??

Boy, Am I Glad...

...that I was neither at, nor did I see any part of Saturday's game. Several prior engagements kept me out of the house and away from a TV or a radio for the majority of the afternoon, leaving me only the ability to check things out on my phone. Unlike a similar game the Mets played 3 years ago, this appeared to be matchup of the completely moribund, the lifeless Mets and the miserable Marlins, both of whom hadn't played a game in multiple days, and the rust was evident.

I'd like to tell you more about this 20-inning debacle, but I fortunately wasn't subjected to any of this. I can only tell you that I was periodically checking my phone throughout the afternoon. Early on, it was 1-0 Mets in the 3rd inning, which was good, particularly with Matt Harvey on the mound. Later, when I looked, it was 1-1 in the 6th. Then 1-1 in the 8th. Then, 1-1 in the 10th. Then, 1-1 in the 13th. Then, I was in transit, and stopped checking. Usually, I get a buzz on my phone when the game ends, but that didn't happen, and I guess at some point I forgot the game was still going on. I was on the subway for a while, so that precluded me from getting any updates for a spell. When I got off, my phone was buzzing off the hook. Apparently, the game had gone so unspeakably long that ESPN actually sent me an alert telling me that "Marlins and Mets tied, 1-1, in the 20th inning; Marlins P Kevin Slowey, Mets P Shaun Marcum 7 scoreless relief innings."

Unfortunately, above that was another alert that read "Marlins defeat Mets, 2-1, in 20 innings; 1st 20-inning MLB game since April 17, 2010 when Mets beat Cardinals 2-1."

After my initial thought of "Oh, dammit," my thoughts then turned to mild cheerfulness that I had missed the whole game. When the Mets and Cardinals played 20 in 2010, that was at a point in time when I didn't have a TV, let alone cable, and I was relegated to listening to a majority of the game on the radio. At some point, I recall falling asleep with the game on, waking up and being shocked to find that it was still going. If I'd sat through this game, I can only imagine the vitriol with which I'd be attacking the Mets offense, who once again made the Marlins pitching staff look like the 1970 Orioles. But, no. I missed it and I suppose that's a fortunate thing, because I don't have to remember any of it, and I believe we should never speak of it again.

All Wet

So, for the second time this season, the Mets find themselves rained out for multiple consecutive days. After getting washed out in Washington on Thursday, the rain decided to just follow the Mets back to New York, soaking the city and postponing Friday's game against the Marlins, too.

This probably isn't a bad thing for the Mets right now. Sure, they came off a really nice performance in Washington on Wednesday, but this is very much the same Marlins team that just last weekend embarrassed the Mets and incited me to demand they be realigned. See, the Mets need some time to get past this Marlin Bugaboo they seem to have right now, so postponing Friday's game to a September 14th Doubleheader is probably a good idea. If the Mets are going to look like asses against the Marlins (and yes, I know Harvey is scheduled to pitch on Saturday, but even he's had his issues with the Marlins), then at least they only have two games to do it in now, and maybe, just maybe, by September, they'll have gotten this thing out of their system.

At least, that's what I hope will happen.

Save Those Runs!

The Mets, in what is probably their best offensive display in months, scored 10 runs in support of Dillon Gee tonight en route to a rousing victory.

Unfortunately, the way the Mets have been going of late, 10 runs has been close to an entire week's output of offense. If this holds, Shaun Marcum, Matt Harvey and the rest of the gang might be in trouble when the Marlins come to town this weekend.

That being said, tonight was a pretty good example of how well the Mets might be playing if they did actually do their job on offense, because Dillon Gee built on his fine start against the Yankees last week. Gee has hopefully turned a corner here and begun to return to the form he had started to show before he got hurt last year. Not great, not overpowering, but good enough to get through a game. He scattered several hits, but outside of a 1st inning that nearly got away from him, Gee remained in control throughout the game.

But after giving up the early run, Gee was immediately bailed out, first by Marlon Byrd, then by Marlon Byrd, who sandwiched a pair of Home Runs around a 3rd by David Wright, which broke the ice against the once-tough Dan Haren, and staked the Mets to a 5-run lead rather quickly. Later on, some of the lesser Mets made their marks, particularly Anthony Recker, who had a career night, driving in 3 runs, and Juan Lagares who, recently, had become a forgotten man on the team, chipped in with a trio of hits putting the finishing touches on this rare and coveted display in which just about everyone contributed.

Everyone contributed! See what happens when everyone contributes?! You score 10 runs and make your pitcher's life easier. He can relax, knowing he doesn't have to make every pitch perfect. Lest that be a lesson to you, Mets. Particularly if your name isn't David Wright or Daniel Murphy. See what Dillon Gee did tonight when the Mets got him a few runs? And that's Dillon Gee. Last night, Jeremy Hefner, who's actually performed reasonably well of late, pitched his ass off for 7 innings only to lose a victory in the 9th. Not so much because Bobby Parnell pitched poorly, even though he did, but mainly because the Mets only scored 2 runs. If they'd scored 5, Parnell isn't even in the game and Brandon Lyon closes the game out. Think about how good Matt Harvey would look right now if the team hit a little bit for him. What would he be? 8-0? 10-0? Instead, he's taken ND after ND because the team doesn't score him a damn run. So, yes, Dillon Gee must be peeing himself over having the good fortune to pitch on a night when the Mets decided to grow a pair and hit the ball a few times. It's a recycled comment, but maybe if this happened a little more often, the Mets wouldn't be in this fix.

A Petition to MLB

I'd like to make an open petition to Major League Baseball to request the immediate contraction of the Miami Marlins. Or, if this is impossible, I would like to petition that they immediately be moved to the American League and the Houston Astros be reinstated to their rightful place in the NL.

There are several reasons I wish to make this request:

1) The Marlins are an embarrassment to MLB
This is sort of self-explanatory, but in case you needed a refresher, the Marlins have been in existence for 20 seasons. Yes, they have made the playoffs twice and won a World Series Championship both times, but consider the circumstances surrounding their championships. In 1997, the Marlins signed pretty much every big-name Free Agent available, building a superteam that won the World Series that year and then sold off every marketable piece of that roster by the following Memorial Day. The 1998 Opening Day celebration was met with mass disgust that this roster could even be honored since half the players that won the title were gone. The Marlins were subsequently so bad that they made poor Jim Leyland eat cigarettes by the pack in the dugout. They waited slightly longer to break up their 2003 championship team, but they did it just the same, selling off the pieces one by one until there was nothing but a rotting hulk of a team. But, undaunted, they decided to go on another Free Agency spree prior to the 2012 season, as they were moving into their acid trip of a new stadium that was certain to bring bigger and better things. But this new superteam failed to gel, and by the All Star Break, pieces were dealt away, culminating in basically their entire roster being traded to the Toronto Blue Jays. Here they are, once again, at the bottom of the barrel.

2) Their Owner is a Jerk.
Doesn't matter if it was Wayne Huiznega or Jeffrey Loria. I fail to understand why, exactly, MLB forced out Frank McCourt, but Jeffrey Loria is allowed to continue to own a Major League Baseball team. I would guess it's got something to do with the fact that he's never had any direct financial difficulties or messy divorces, but let's examine his track record: First, he bought the Expos and ruined them so badly that they a) weren't even broadcast in English in Montreal and b) MLB ultimately farmed them out to Puerto Rico for a third of their home games each year before c) he pawned the Expos off to MLB in some sweetheart team swap that saw John Henry assume the Red Sox and Loria not just take over the Marlins, but strip every single person from the Expos front office down and bring them to Florida with him, so the Expos were left with literally nothing but a roster consisting of Vladimir Guerrero and spare parts. Two years later, there were no more Expos, period.

3) Nobody cares about the Marlins.
It's true. Have any of you ever met a real live Marlins fan? I've met one. But only one. This was back in the days when the only reason to get excited about the Marlins was that they were about to call up Mike Stanton (before he became Giancarlo). Outside of that, I'm dubious as to whether or not any Marlins fans actually exist. Most of South Florida is comprised of transplanted people from another part of the country that already have loyalties elsewhere. The rest of them could potentially have been Marlins fans at some point in the history of the team, but after watching the team strip itself of any and all viable talent over and over and over again, without any real promise of things getting better and no particular warning that it's going to happen, wouldn't you eventually get sick of it? Granted, being a Mets fan hasn't been a pleasure cruise these past few seasons, but at least they aren't going through a fire sale every three years. At least the Wilpons, for all their foibles, don't entice us with spending sprees that don't pay off. At least the Wilpons actually care, in their own strange way, about building a winning team. I don't think Jeffrey Loria cares, and it shows. Can you blame the residents of South Florida for not caring about the team anymore? They barely had any fans when things were going well, now I'm hard pressed to believe that the 4 fans they do have can even bear to watch anymore.

4) I, personally, have had enough of the Marlins.
As a Mets fan, I personally object to the Marlins. They have done nothing but bother me for the entirety of their existence. I find them loathsome and offensive, and their behavior is brutish and inane. Every season, I have to be subjected to the Mets being forced to play the Marlins no less than 18 times, and every season, the Marlins seem to go out of their way to make these 18 games as torturous as possible for the Mets. It doesn't matter how good the Mets are, or how bad the Marlins are, or how either team is put together, the Marlins have done nothing but piss off myself and all Mets fans. And in recent years, it has come to a head. In 2007, they petulantly picked fights with us, knocked us out of the playoffs and whooped it up like they'd actually won something. In 2008, they beat us again to close our beloved Shea Stadium and then hung around on the field like they owned the place. For years, they beat us and acted as though they just won a pennant. And for what? Because they didn't like Jose Reyes dancing? But, hypocrites that they are, they had no problem throwing a Godfather contract at Reyes the second he hit Free Agency (which they of course were all too happy to trade away once the heat got too high). The Marlins were nothing but a bunch of jealous babies. They were envious of what the Mets had: Relevance and meaning in the community they play in. But the way they run themselves, it's clear that they just have no idea how to ever make this happen.

But, nonetheless, they still can't do anything against any other team, and yet when the Mets come to town, they turn it on. The 2013 Marlins were losing at a pace to rival the 1962 Mets before the Mets rolled in, and what happens? The Marlins just stick it to the Mets again. I'll give them Saturday's game, because Collin McHugh has no talent and shouldn't be pitching, but how you going to explain Sunday? Is this Marlin voodoo so bad that even Matt Harvey is affected? Twice, he's faced the Marlins in the Mystery Machine and twice, he's battled to get through 5 innings. Who the hell is Ed Lucas? Who is Derek Dietrich? Greg Dobbs? Greg Dobbs is a stone-handed lummox that wouldn't even be in the Major Leagues if there were no Marlins, but once he sees the Mets, all of a sudden he's Willie McCovey. What's all this about? The Marlins have won 16 games this season. 16! And 6 of them have come at the expense of the Mets. I know the Mets aren't good this season, but I also know that they are a better team than the Mickey Mouse Marlins.

Bottom line is, I have had enough of the Marlins. It was bad enough that the Mets had to play in their mis-shapen football stadium for 18 years, but then they made us go to Puerto Rico to play them in 2010, and now it's Eero Saarinen's worst nightmare. Seriously. Bud Selig, get your head out of the liquor cabinet for a few seconds and correct this mistake. You should have contracted the Marlins when you had a chance, and while it may be too late, there's still time to undo what's been done. Do the right thing. Bring back the Astros to the NL Central and put the Marlins out to pasture in the American League. I IMPLORE you do please do this, on behalf of all Mets fans. We do not want to have to deal with this stupid team any longer.