Well, that was a bracing slap in the face, wasn't it?
Antonio Perez. Swear to god I pegged him early in the afternoon as the eventual culprit. How? Just pick the guy I've never heard of and assume he'll ruin things for the future Hall of Famer.
Now that he's a fully accredited graduate of Jimmy Qualls Senior High, there's the matter of the game. Who hit the home run that followed the triple? I actually don't remember anymore and it was only a few minutes ago. Jayson Werth, Gary just said. OK, Jayson Werth. Familiar name. Doesn't make it any better.
Then there's the matter of not scoring behind Pedro Martinez. Brad Penny? The “Bad Penny” from “suck on this for Shinjo” night? The guy who never beats us, allegedly? He chooses today? I hate the Dodgers, I swear I do.
We really could've used this game. Houston goes to the trouble of losing to Pittsburgh again. It would've been so sweet, even if it was just a win, never mind a (go ahead, say it) no-hitter. What a nice, nice way of ending the trip and helping to forget if not heal the wounds inflicted on Mike Cameron and Carlos Beltran.
I did what I could. I sat in my home office where I started the game. I busied myself with whatever I could find to do. I kept the radio on and only peeked at the TV after each out. I had no problem with Gary and Eddie reporting history but I felt a tectonic plate of fate shift when Gary mentioned Howie was off for the weekend and “think he's not sitting on the edge of his seat?” Oh Gary, how could you? Howie's the one who uncovered the King Korn Kurse years ago on Mets Extra, something about the 50,000 trading stamps the supermarket sponsor promised in 1962 to any Mets pitcher who threw a no-no and how that served to keep all Mets pitchers from joining the ranks of the hitless, apparently for all of eternity. Obviously Howie is a karrier of the kurse.
One run. We had nine hits but one run when Antonio Perez, whoever he is (oh yeah, he's the guy who broke up what was going to be the first no-hitter in Mets history), stepped up in the eighth. We've really got to give Pedro some cushion for these outings.
I was going to take a shower earlier. But I remembered that 30 years ago Randy Tate lost a no-hitter to Jim Lyttle and the Expos as I was getting into the tub. So I decided to sweat it out. I guess I can go hit the showers now.
I guess we all can.
I blame Ted Robinson for calling attention to it over and over again. I blame Gerald Williams for not being Carlos Beltran. I blame Antonio Perez for being Antonio Perez (I had him pegged too, BTW). And I blame whoever demanded that Brad Penny stop thinking he couldn't beat us. I don't remember who they said it was, but I hate him.
And I hate the West Coast in its entirety, especially the Padres fan who yelled “You're next, Floyd!” when Cliff returned to left field Thursday after the collision. I just don't know what goes into that mentality. I watch/listen to it all around me at Shea too, and cannot even comprehend it. You could put any Expo or Yankee or Brewer who ever lived in Cliff Floyd's position that day, and I could not in a zillion years imagine even thinking that, let alone yelling it at him.
Fans suck.
It's digusting all right, but I do know what goes into that mentality, unfortunately.
Maybe you have to be a man. Makes me want cry for my species and my gender.
Speaking of disgusting.
I thought today's near-miss no-no would have the highest 'ick' factor of anything I'd see on TV today.
That was until I watched tonight's episode of “Six Feet Under.”
Ewwwwww.
[Warning, the following graf contains references to a television show not all of you watch.]
Albie, I'm with you on the Pedro-SFU juxtaposition. After last week's funeral, I figured we'd get the final two weeks to decompress. Not likely on this show. And my thought process about 10 minutes in was “I can't believe I took the no-hitter/loss as seriously and stingingly as I did because the pain I felt from that is NOTHING compared to the pain I'm feeling for these characters…again.” That, mind you, was before we got to Brenda's dream. ICK!
Come to think of it, following the collision then Dioner Navarro with today's game is something right out of the mind of Alan Ball.
Will you marry me?
Don't know why my reply wasn't right under his comment, but that was for Edgy DC. :-)
Hey…G&J… Gary Cohen reports on-the-spot that this was the Mets' 6,951st spoiled (regular season) attempt at a no-hitter, while the Post and Journal News each report, with several hours of research (not to mention Cohen's report) going for them, that it was #6,943. This has prompted me to check with Baseball Reference and no surprise, Cohen is right and both papers are wrong. Through last season, the Mets had played 6,834 games, 166 short of 7,000, which, assuming no (ha ha) wildcard playoff, still puts them on track to play #7,000 in game 4 of next season.
This is really a very important subject and it would be an awful affront to all of Metdom to make any kind of mistakes when talking about it. These so-called “papers” should be terribly ashamed of themselves. It's just simple addition! Right, fellas? Fellas…?
[crickets chirping...or whatever it is crickets do...]
[still hiding under bed]
Yayyy!!! So I'm not really the worst at math in the whole wide world after all!!
I hope Pedro goes all Don Zimmer on him after this cold comment:
“I didn't want him to pitch a no-hitter and I didn't want him to beat us,'' former Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda said. “And I said, `This is the inning.' Not only was the no-hitter broken, but the shutout was gone and it was a tremendous win.''
Said the man who apparently signed off on Pedro for Delino DeShields.