Choose The Lost Classic, Part 2

As you may have noticed, I have been keeping a more diligent schedule of Lost Classic games here of late. Following the success of the poll I posted in March, I've decided to put the voting in your hands once again. There are tons of Lost Classics out there, so I've picked some of my favorites and I'll let you decide which ones I should write about. SNY should take note, rather than re-playing the same games over and over again. These are games that might not have made a huge difference, but they deserve recognition nonetheless. Last time out, we covered 1997, 1998 and 2004. This time around, let's try 1999, 2001 and 2006.

1999:

1) May 20, 1999 - Mets 11, Brewers 10, Mets 10, Brewers 1. Robin Ventura hits Grand Slams in both games of a Doubleheader.

2) July 24, 1999 - Mets 2, Cubs 1. Octavio Dotel shuts down the Cubs.

3) August 22, 1999 (Game 1) - Mets 8, Cardinals 7. Mets rally from a 6-1 deficit to win.

4) August 23, 1999 - Mets 3, Astros 2. Matt Franco's parachute single in the bottom of the 9th is the Game winner.

2001:

1) June 19, 2001 - Mets 4, Expos 1. After being shut down for 7 innings, the Mets rally to win in the 8th.

2) July 17, 2001 - Mets 1, Blue Jays 0. Leiter's 7th inning effort and Benitez's 9th inning escape act is Mets2Moon's 100th victory.

3) July 28, 2001 - Mets 4, Phillies 3. Robin Ventura hits a walk-off HR off Turk Wendell.

4) September 1, 2001 - Mets 3, Marlins 2. Jay Payton's 11th inning RBI double is the game-winner.

2006:

1) April 3, 2006 - Mets 3, Nationals 2. Mets win on Opening Day, thanks to Glavine, Wright and some clutch defense.

2) May 3, 2006 - Mets 4, Pirates 3. Carlos Delgado hits a Walk-off HR in the 12th inning.

3) May 5, 2006 - Mets 8, Braves 7. Mets come from behind 4 times before finally winning on David Wright's double in the 14th inning.

4) May 31, 2006 - Mets 1, Diamondbacks 0. Pedro Martinez and Brandon Webb hurl zeros at each other before Endy Chavez's game winning hit in the 13th inning.

Don't Feel Too Bad...

Although many of us, and perhaps David Wright himself, feels that it's an injustice that he's not on the All-Star team, we shouldn't feel too bad that he won't be there.

Yes, after being an elected starter for two years in a row, and after putting up numbers in the first half of the season that are certainly worthy of a place on the All Star team, Wright is certainly as deserving as the other 3rd baseman on the NL All Star team (Larry, for one, and Aramis Ramirez, the other). In fact, Wright has, for the course of the season, outperformed Ramirez, but it's Ramirez getting the call instead of Wright.

As if being outvoted by Larry and snubbed for Ramirez wasn't enough of an indignity, Wright was then subsequently beaten in the Final Vote selection by Corey Hart, a mystery in and of itself. The Mets and many of their fans, and media outlets pushed hard for Wright's selection, to no avail. Admittedly, Wright was disappointed. In an era where many big-name, big-ticket players see this exhibition as a waste of time and often don't show up, Wright's desire to be there is refreshing. I think many Mets fans are disappointed as well, particularly with the game in New York (although, clearly, the game itself is just going to be a World-Class Yankee Lather job), and particularly with the lone Mets All-Star being Billy Wagner, whose performance may be All-Star worthy, but at the expense of all of our stomachs.

If there were a Met who by all rights deserve to represent the team at the All-Star game, it would be David Wright, wouldn't it? Jose Reyes can make a strong case for himself as well, but it really would be Wright. He's been the Matinee-Idol, Face of the Franchise, Captain America or whatever you want to call him for the past 4 seasons. His performance is generally graded at a higher curve than anyone else on the team. He got his first "Reputation" award last season, earning himself a Gold Glove that had many people scratching their heads. But since most of these things are, inherently, popularity contests, it should have been that Wright, given his exploits on the field and his popularity off the field, should have been elected.

The problem arises when you have too many dopes, like the slovenly, 13-year old kid in Anaheim who goes to games wearing a hat 2 sizes too big and wears a Vladimir Guerrero jersey covered in chocolate ice cream stains who sees that the Mets, as a team, faltered last season, and thinks to himself, "Hey, the Mets suck. Their team sucks! I'm voting for Aramis Ramirez since the Cubs are in first!" and proceeds to mass-punch 75 ballots with Aramis Ramirez. It's nice that the All-Star Game is a democratic election process, but, similar to the Electoral process in this country, if you have too many idiots making the decisions, you'll eventually end up with something pretty bad for everyone.

And what of Wright? It certainly wasn't his fault that the Mets played poorly last season. True, he started slow, but the end result was Wright's finest season to date, boasting a .325 BA, 30 HRs, 107 RBIs, 34 steals and even 113 runs. Numbers not just All-Star worthy, but almost MVP worthy, had his team turned out a little better. This year, Wright got off to a similar slow start, and he's scuffled quite a bit at times, with his protection in the lineup lacking. His BA is a little low right now at .288, but with 17 HRs and 70 RBIs, the power numbers are right there, and certainly better than Ramirez's numbers (Larry's too, although Larry is currently hitting .375).

So why, then, should we not feel so bad for Wright's being severly snubbed?

Here's why:

More often than not, Wright has looked as if he could use a day off here and there. Until Jerry Manuel purposely sat him one night against Seattle, Wright had played every inning of every game the Mets had played, to that point nearly a half season, and he looked every bit of it. The season is a haul, and Wright could use the 3-day break. True, even if he gets in as a last minute replacement, the game is in New York, and Wright could still have the luxury of sleeping in his sprawling Flatiron pad, Wright would still have to truck his ass out to the Bronx on Monday night for the ceremonial crotch-grabbing, and again on Tuesday for more crotch-grabbing and then playing 3-4 innings in the game itself, being out late, being fawned over and having to put his best face on all the time. Wednesday would be no better, since he'd have to then fly himself out to Cincinnati for Thursday's game.

If Wright has the 3 days off, he'll go home to Virginia, horse around with his brothers, have a few nights of mom's cooking and a chance to relax and not deal with the pressures of being David Wright and having to impress everybody every time he steps into the spotlight. He can sit home, lie in bed, pick his nose and enjoy a few days off. Not having to deal with having to impress anyone should be good for him as the season wears on. Wright has, in the past, been a strong second half performer. Maybe, with this little break now, Wright will be better served in the long run.

So, sure, we can feel bad that Wright's going to miss out on this year's All-Star game. But let's think about it this way: In 2006, Wright went, did the Home Run Derby and sufficiently cocked up his swing and had a lousy second half. This year, the extra rest now might mean a few more big hits later in the season.

You know, when the Mets might really need them.

(Note: At around 3:45, I was informed that Wright was indeed selected to the All-Star team as a replacement, not for Chipper Jones, but for Alfonso Soriano. So much for him getting some rest. But good for him nonetheless. He deserves it.)

Go To The Mirror, Boy!

Granted, it's only been enough victories to push the Mets to 4 games over .500, and granted, there are still many flaws with this team, but the Mets current 6-game winning streak, extended earlier today with a sweep-completing victory over the Giants, has pretty much turned everything around. Gone is the constant griping, the malaise and the misery that the early part of this season brought us all.

The victories, by themselves, have gone from frightening to hair-raising, to surprisingly complete, but what's most encouraging about all of this is that each win has brought another win, rather than a middling loss in between each win. It's not much to win 6 games. But this is a team that hasn't displayed the kind of guts to be able to put together an extended hot streak. At least, not until this particular point in time, where they've now exceeded their longest win streak from last season.

Which is what happens when you finally get your act together and start playing better than you did last season.

It helps when you're playing some paltry competition. The Giants boast some quality pitchers, however they have no offensive threat to speak of. When it's mid-July, and John Bowker is your leading HR hitter with 9, you're not scoring too many runs (one inning against Oliver Perez notwithstanding, but it's kind of funny how the Willie Randolph era now seems like a generation ago). But I digress. When Johan Santana comes out and throws darts for 5 innings, and guys like Ramon Castro and Argenis Reyes are coming through to back him up after he left following a mini-monsoon, while your resurgent Bullpen finishes everything off, it's a pretty solid victory, even against a bad team. In fact, let's state the obvious: IT'S THE KIND OF VICTORY YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO HAVE AGAINST A LOUSY TEAM THAT YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BEAT! Heaven forbid the Mets should string together a few games like that! When the Mets, earlier in the season, were going out and splitting series against lousy Washington, or losing series to San Diego or Colorado, that was what was killing us the most, because if this team was playing with any sort of intensity, they would have pummeled these teams on sheer will alone.

Sort of like what they've done over the past 6 games.

Unlike the case of Tommy Walker up there, it's not so much a Miracle Cure as much as it's been just having a different voice, a different style leading the team. I think that's been the best part of the Jerry Manuel era so far. It's clear that, as the myriad articles by The Sun's Tim Marchman, an ardent Randolph-basher, had stated, many times, it's not that Willie's a bad manager or a bad person. But this team clearly needs a specific style of management, and Willie Randolph's style was the wrong one. Maybe Jerry Manuel isn't the right answer for managing this team for the long haul, but if he's shown us anything in his first month as Manager, it's that he is, indeed, managing players who care. And he cares as well, even if his methods of showing it are a little offbeat. This team is actually playing like they want to win, and that's been exemplified by the recent performance by Jose Reyes, who has, rather quietly, started putting up the kind of numbers that he put up in 2006, a tantalizing glimpse of the player he should be. David Wright has been uneven, at best, but his numbers all of a sudden are there as well. Carlos Beltran was completely filleted last weekend on WFAN, but he's rather quietly gotten hot as well. Even Carlos Delgado has been hitting a little better of late, even if he is a shell of his former self.

It's certainly not better coaching, since Ho-Jo is still standing there clapping with his shades on. But when you're a high-priced star on a high-profile team, and you're watching guys like Fernando Tatis, or Damion Easley, or Argenis Reyes, or Brian Schneider, or Joe Smith come up with clutch performances, you begin to rally around that and it raises your level of play. And, before you know it, you've won 6 in a row, and you're suddenly right back in a pennant race that, a month ago, it looked as though you'd be lucky to be on the fringes of.

I keep saying it. Winning heals everything. But, this team is far from perfect. With Alou pretty much done for the season, and with Church's season in doubt as well (which could turn out to be more of a blow than you'd think), the Mets are, perhaps, in a similar position that they were in the off-season. There's no sure thing in either corner outfield position, and it's going to be difficult to swing a trade with a depleted farm system. It's not likely that guys like Easley, Chavez, Tatis or whoever will be able to carry the load for two positions over the remainder of the season. It's nice for now, but we already know it's too much to ask to expect Fernando Tatis to continue to hit Game-Winning HRs for the rest of the season. But if there's one good thing we can take away from all this, it's that this team can give you a lot of different looks and come at you from a lot of different angles. They're not as bad as we thought. They still may not be as good as they should be. But they're playing for us. Sometimes, it may be difficult to believe, but they are playing for us.

Oh, For the Sake of Momentum

I keep writing about the coming of age of Mike Pelfrey as if he's going to, at some point, revert back to his old, inconsistent self. But the more time passes and the more he continues to pitch like the stud #1 pick we drafted, it's clear that that's really not the case at all.

Perhaps the Giants aren't the best barometer for this, but I think it's safe to say it now, now that he's won 5 consecutive starts, with 3 more very good starts before this streak began, that Mike Pelfrey has officially arrived as a Major League pitcher.

It's not as though Pelfrey has been completely lights out over this 8-start run, but he's made big pitches and gotten big outs when he needed to. Last night in the first inning was a prime example. After loading the bases with 2 outs on an error, a hit batsman and an infield single, Pelfrey reached back for a little something extra to strike out John Bowker for the 3rd out. His offense, in turn, walked off the field and came up with 3 runs for him in the bottom of the 1st against Tim Lincecum, who's no pushover in his own right. This pretty much set the tone for the game. Pelfrey went on to dominate the Giants over the next 6 innings, and the Mets won without breaking much of a sweat, carrying the momentum from their victories in Philadelphia into this series.

For the first time this season, it actually appears like the Mets are going to build on some of their positive victories, and now, the momentum that they built up over the weekend in Philadelphia may actually carry them for a little while. At least, that's how it appears. I was pretty well convinced that after Monday's near-miss, the Mets would predictably go back in the tank. But after they jumped a very good pitcher in Lincecum (who appears to deliver the ball in an almost Japanese-style motion, particularly when he works from the stretch) and won going away last night, and with Philly getting shut out by the Cardinals, the Mets all of a sudden are only a game and a half out of 1st place. 3 or 4 weeks ago I was pretty sure that the Mets would be 14 games out by the All Star break. But when the Mets were really put up against the wall during last week's 8-game road trip, the team responded by going 5-3, with 3 wins against the team they're pursuing for 1st place, and apparently knocking the wind out of their sails in the process.

The signs are encouraging, for once. For the first time this season, this team looks alive. Particularly Pelfrey, who's pitching with confidence and guts, popping his fastball in the mid 90s and getting batters to drill his sinker into the ground. This is more like it. It's nice when you can feel comfortable sending a pitcher to the mound and knowing you're going to get a good outing. You can feel that way now with Pelfrey. Last month, when I went to the Mets/DBacks game where Pelfrey pitched against Webb, we were expecting an 8-0 washout, with Webb throwing a 2-hit shutout. That was, perhaps, where this streak started for Pelfrey, who ended up throwing shutout ball into the 9th. That was the corner for him, and it seems like he hasn't looked back from there. Since then, he's been the kind of pitcher we've expected him to be since his tantalizing spring of 2007.

Compared to the Hell on Wheels he used to be.

(is that with two "F"s?)

(Cut to Melora Walters snorting cocaine off her living room table as John C. Reilly knocks on her door.)

The Worst Win Conceivable

It's funny, in a very frightening way, that the Mets managed to win three out of four games in Philadelphia over the weekend, in a series where they could just as easily have lost all 4 games.

The finale of this series should have been a walk in the park. But nooooooooooo. First, Tony Armas, then Heilman, then Wagner allowed Philly to stay around, and creep closer, and closer, and closer until we were all sweating and chewing on things we shouldn't be chewing on, and people like Shane Victorino are in the middle of things again, and the Mets are expending just about every bit of energy they have to hang on to a 10-9 victory that had no business being as close as it was.

Of course, when you win, you can laugh and joke, and invoke the spirit of Bob Murphy by yelling, "They win the Damn Thing!"

This wasn't a pretty game for either team. For the Phillies, it might be a worse loss than it was an awful victory for the Mets.

My co-worker said to me on Monday afternoon that the Mets are clearly in the Phillies heads. I don't know if this is some residual reverse bad feelings from the way last season played out, or something else. Neither team is an especially good team, and, much like last year, they're just going to trip over themselves all season, and whichever team can't get up first loses. But the Phillies seem to play as if the Mets are in their heads, because they could have easily won every game in this series, and managed to lose 3 of them. That's the kind of thing we'd often see out of the Mets. How do you manage to Out-Mets the Mets? That's quite an accomplishment.

Both teams seemed to play out this series with controlled desperation. But it wasn't desperation to win, it appeared as though it was more out of desperation not to screw themselves up, and each of these games turned into a battle of who would screw up the worst. On Friday, it was the Mets, first, with Johan swinging through pitches, then with the rest of the team swinging through pitches, and finally spitting it up when Philly had a momentary lapse of getting their act together in the 9th. Saturday, the Mets screwed up first by letting Philly tie and then take the lead. Then, J.C. Romero, Tom Gordon and Rudy Seanez screwed up by not only letting the Mets tie the game, but take the lead and pull away. Sunday, it was Wagner, screwing up against Werth. He was outdone by the Phillies offense, who couldn't get a key hit in extra innings when they had the winning run on base constantly. And then, there was last night, which defies explanation. First, the Mets bombard Adam Eaton, who they've never hit, for 8 runs in 3 innings. Then, Pedro departs, and the Mets bullpen, which, for the most part, has pitched well of late, takes over and immediately lets Philly build up some momentum and charge back into the game. Burrell homers, Howard homers, Jenkins homers, and all of a sudden, 10-1 is now 10-7 in a ballpark where you can blink and score 3 runs. Now, all of a sudden, the Mets fans who had turned the game off and gone to bed or wherever are sweating. Now, the team is poised to shit the bed in a most remarkable fashion, and who's coming in but the All-Star himself: Billy Franco Benitez Looper Wagner. And who's up first but little Shane Victorino, who kicks everything off with a double. And pretty soon, it just turns into two teams crawling to the finish. Wagner walks Eric Bruntlett and yet strikes out Ryan Howard. Pat Burrell hits a heart-attack inducing fly ball that stays in the park. Pedro Feliz reaches Wagner for a hit that scores a run and then scores another run when Beltran stupidly tries to throw Bruntlett out at 3rd. Then, it's Spiezio-Lite, who did it to Wagner Sunday. And somehow, Wagner gets him to pop out. Holy shit. The inning that took 10 years off my life.

Philly must feel like they've been kicked in the nuts right now. You lose on Saturday and Sunday, spitting it up both times, and then tonight you pull off this near-miracle of a comeback and still fall a run short. All that, and you still lost 3 of 4. That's not to say that the Mets should hold their heads high by any stretch. They won two games that they could just as easily have lost, and then nearly blew a 9-run lead in the finale.

Usually, when the Mets have a win as lousy as last night's, they end up going into a funk, losing 4 or 5 or something like that, and not hitting at all. I have a bad feeling about what this series has taken out of the Mets.

But they'll still hang around. Look who they're chasing.