So Excellent A Fishe

I guess I must have angered the Fish gods or the Stadium Gods or the Florida Gods with my post yesterday, since the Mets apparently didn't put forth their best efforts on Wednesday evening. Not that I had much of an idea as to what happened. As I mentioned, with a major show opening on Saturday, my opportunities to even check out what's going on on the internet are slim. I saw a 5-4 Marlins score in the 6th, and then when I came back, it was over, a 7-5 finale. I'll take this to mean I didn't miss much, other than Pelfrey having what was his worst outing in some time. I think we'll forgive him for this one, although with Philadelphia's victory, the Mets reign as Kings of the NL East is over after a brief, tantalizing 6-day stay. Something tells me this lead may well change hands more than a few times over the last two months of the season.

With the Trade Deadline upon us, apparently the hot topic of discussion around the Mets, or perhaps all of the NL East is if anyone is going to land Manny Ramirez from Boston. These Manny trade talks seem to pop up at least once a season, once "Manny Being Manny" gets a little too tiresome or he wakes up on the wrong side of the bed, or wrenches his neck brushing his teeth or whatever. I had heard him going to Philadelphia for Pat Burrell, among others. Although I'd hate to see Philly gain his bat, I have to think it's a rather silly move for them, after already dealing their top prospect for ragtag pitcher Joe Blanton, and offense not being much of a problem for them. I wouldn't be particularly sad to see that Jerkoff Burrell depart, but then again, put Manny in Steroid Field II and he's likely to hit Baseball's first 800 foot HR. The Mets probably are the best fit for Manny, but I don't think the Mets have the chips to make such a deal. So, now, we have Florida, for whom Manny would be the ultimate Rent-A-Player. They certainly have the chips, guys like Jeremy Hermida or Josh Willingham or any other of their Outfield Pups would certainly be welcome by Boston, and Florida would have the benefit of Manny's bat in their lineup for the next two months, when the low-budget Fish will predictably let him walk to the highest bidder.

It's all rumors to me, I have no idea what's going on. But then again, I guess everything you hear is a rumor this time of year.

The Ballpark Time Forgot

I know that these games have been happening and that some good and some bad has gone on with the Mets the last two nights, but with my show opening on Saturday and me wrapped in rehearsal, I don't have too much to say about anything, at least as far as things pertaining to the Mets.

I don't know why, but it seems like this usually happens whenever the Mets go into Joe Robbie Pro Player Huizenga Dolphin Stadium. The Mets haven't been to Florida since the opening series of the season. That seems like another lifetime. This is a different team with a different set of guys getting things done.

I don't know why, but it seems like I have little to no memories of the Mets playing games at this miscast hell-hole of a Stadium. Even last season, when the Mets appeared to briefly resurrect themselves in September, the games in Miami had a rather forgettable nature to them, particularly after the way the following week played out.

I don't know if it's the fact that the Mets seem to go to Florida specifically during periods of time when I can't see the games, or that it's just that I can't get into a game that's played in front of 8,000 people, or the long time between trips to Florida, or something else. The games early in the season were nice, I guess, excluding the game that Billy Mangina won late, but since that time, a lot has gone on. Now, the Mets are back in Miami, and the two games in this series so far haven't produced much, if anything, in the way of stellar, memorable baseball. It won't be long, in fact only a month, until the Mets return to Florida to finish out their season series in Miami, over Labor Day weekend.

It's not a matter of whether or not I'll see those games. I very well might. But the real question is will we want to remember them when we look back on this season?

On A Plain

Presumably, the Mets would have settled for the win on Sunday. But that simply wasn't enough for Johan Santana. Following Saturday night's affair, which seemed more like battle of wills than simple Saturday night in July, Santana saw his team reeling from a 5-hour loss where his team exhausted every man in their bullpen, and clearly took the mound on Sunday with one thing in mind: Finish it off. Give these guys a break, and make sure they don't blow it for me again.

Well, he did just that.


In pitching the Mets first true Complete Game in almost 2 seasons, Santana preserved his bullpen for the day, ensuring that they'll all be fresh and ready in Miami tonight. Backed by an offense that continues to score plenty of runs (albeit lacking in key hits, particularly on Saturday, but at this point, the Mets fan might feel a little comfortable saying the phrase, "Hey, can't win 'em all"), Santana baffled the Cardinals all day and didn't really find himself in any sort of pressure situation, and throwing the kind of game we've been waiting for him to throw.

Yes, the victory is first and foremost. Yes, it was more important to secure the series from the Cardinals and bounce back from Saturday. But Johan took that extra step on Sunday, perhaps the first step on his way to the kind of second-half dominance that he's displayed so often in his career.

In the words of Kurt Cobain, "I'm on a plain, I can't complain."

Long Day's Journey Into Night

I'd be remiss if I didn't say anything about Saturday's game, which was another one of those games that I seem to find myself at, except that I wasn't there Saturday night. I probably could have gone, but because of my rehearsal schedule, I wouldn't have arrived until the 4th or 5th inning, and I think the game was close to, if not completely sold out.

Instead, I ended up catching most of the game on TV. My rollicking Saturday Night schedule (admittedly, following running a 6-hour rehearsal) involved little more than watching the game and doing my laundry. I figured that, with the game moving along, I'd wait for the game to end, then put up the wash. It was already 4-4 when I tuned in, and I'd missed Brandon Knight (odd seeing KNIGHT 28 rather than KNIGHT 22 at Shea, but I digress) put forth a start of The Late Jeremi Gonzalez proportions (and they kind of look similar on the mound). So I saw the Mets briefly go ahead, and then just as quickly fall behind, and then Delgado hit his 2nd HR, and it was 8-7, and I was having some visions of another Mets/Cardinals game from a couple of years ago, and even moreso when Fernando Tatis tied the game with a HR that I could have sworn Ankiel caught.

So, the game goes to the 10th, and I figure someone'll get a big hit for the Mets and I can get to doing my laundry. But they didn't. Then, I figured it would be the 11th. Delgado came up and Gary Cohen immediately started talking about how no Met had ever hit 3 HRs in a game at Shea, which was, of course, the immediate jinx. Then, I started to get antsy. I had to do laundry, lest begin a recycling process that I would have preferred to avoid. I also didn't want to be up until 2am doing my laundry. Delgado hit into a DP, which Gary Cohen practically had ensured.

With the game moving to the 12th, and beginning to take on the eerie, farcical feel of a game I had already attended and chronicled in depth a little more than a month ago, I decided I could wait no longer. I said screw it, went downstairs and put up the laundry, which took up the top of the 12th. Living in an apartment building 7 washers and 5 driers, I figured I'd have little competition for space as I went downstairs. Foolish me. There were 4 washers running and all 5 driers were full, albeit stopped. Who the hell knew Saturday Night was such a big Laundry night? A gentleman was loading up two machines, leaving me to take the last remaining empty washer. He started his cycle a couple of minutes before me. I knew it would be a race to get to the driers before him. I went upstairs and was not surprised to see that I missed little of consequence. The Cardinals trotted out a pitcher who seemed to be a Social Studies classmate of Tyler Clippard, and the Mets couldn't score off him despite the fact that he seemed all too happy to hand the game over to the Mets. But try as he might, the Mets just wouldn't take it. So, to the 13th. And by the bottom of the 13th, it was time to head back downstairs and jockey for a drier. I was quick. I was stealthful. I entered an empty laundry room. My washer had stopped. The other guy's washer had stopped. There was now only one empty drier, with the other 4 driers now running. I knew I had to strike quickly. I immediately tore my laundry out of the washer and flung it haphazardly at the empty drier, my only chance to secure it. I made it. I loaded up the drier and got out of dodge just as the other gentleman was returning to get his laundry. I win. And I get upstairs and it's the 14th inning, with the game over 5 hours. Of course, as soon as I walk in, it's that guy who's no good stepping up and sending one out, tilting this ridiculously extended game in the Cardinals favor.

That's when I knew this wasn't my kind of game after all. The Mets usually win when I'm at games like this.

At least my laundry was clean.

What The Deuce?!

I'm not quite sure how the hell this team is in First Place, but somehow, they're in First Place.

They're in First Place because after vomiting up a game in perhaps the most excruciating way possible on Tuesday night, the Mets managed to come back and play as if it had never happened the next two days, knocking around the Phillies the same way the Phillies did it to them last season, pushing them around and eventually shoving them off the field.

They're in First Place because guys who had spent the first three months of this season in a fog, like Carlos Delgado, or in limbo, like Oliver Perez, or in obscurity, like Robinson Cancel, have all of a sudden come around and began playing the way they're supposed to play.

They're in First Place because after muddling through stretches where they were unable to perform in any manner resembling a winning baseball team, playing over their heads and under their expectations, they've suddenly managed to pull it all together, coming back from a large deficit and winning games until they were finally able to put themselves back where we thought they'd be: At the top of the Division.

They've come this far. Now, they've got to stay there.

EASTER BUNNIES!!!

Sing a little song with me, if you will. Make up your own tune. I don't mind.

Happy Day
Everything's Fine
We're Okay
Back in a Tie
Wagner's Back
Hold the Lead
Mets get the win
Good as can be

Much like last night, I didn't have a chance to see any of the game, except for a brief moment when I had a chance to watch some assorted highlights on MLB's Gamecast. My first look came with the Mets leading 6-3 in the 8th. The cast member who was dumbfounded last night came in my office and saw I was watching. "Should I even ask what's happening?" he said to me. I told him that the Mets were up 6-3 in the 8th, but what did that mean anymore? He agreed.

With a real closer back in the mix, the 3-run lead was pretty safe in the 9th. So, after 24 hours of unadulterated agony, the Mets are officially no better or worse than they were two days ago. Just as I had suspected. After a loss that could have surely spelled instant doom, it appears that the instant doom is merely the creation of a fan base that's spent too many years getting kicked in the teeth to think that anything might actually work out in their favor. But this is the Mets we're dealing with. Every time you think they're going to go one way, they end up doing the exact opposite.

As Keith Hernandez would say, "Such are the vicissitudes of Baseball."