Go Figure

For those of you keeping score at home, the Mets were 5 games ahead of the Phillies after the games of August 27 and they are 5 games ahead of the Phillies after the games of September 4. Both teams went 5-3 in the intervening week and a day.

Hence, nothing happened, right?

Wow does baseball make every single one of us who loves it look, feel and sound stupid every so often.

C'mon everybody, let's all admit it in unison so none of us has to feel ashamed: We know nothing about what's going to happen next.

I don't. I'm dumb as a plum when it comes to figuring out this game. I've spent every sentient year of my life focused like a laser on it and I haven't the foggiest. And I'm no dumber about it than any of you.

Having officially gone expectation-free since the second weekend of August, I've officially carried no expectations about what the Mets were likely to accomplish across the remainder of their schedule, but unofficially, I've had my thoughts.

I thought once they got on a roll against the Pirates and the Nationals, that it would carry over against the Padres. It didn't.

I thought once they expanded their lead to seven during the Dodger series that double-digits were just around the corner. They weren't.

I thought once they, with the help of their closest pursuers and their closest pursuers' allies in blue, coughed up one…two…three games in Philadelphia that the noose was tightening. It wasn't.

I thought a trip to Atlanta…well who the fudge would have guessed Turner Field would be so darn hospitable?

Now they've beaten Cincinnati two in a row, which seemed predictable enough. There, finally, something I figured out ten minutes in advance of it happening. Look at me! I'm a baseball genius!

Yeah, I rock. I'm so brilliant that I had grown tired of Carlos Delgado and Paul Lo Duca as if they were last year's models. I was becoming convinced that David Wright did not add up to the sum of his hype. I didn't bother to defend Shawn Green's viability any longer. I looked to skip John Maine in the rotation if at all possible. And I'd included Mike Pelfrey in every possible trade I could conjure.

Good thing I don't do this for a living…though judging by the constant stream of unprovables and wrongness that flows out of the mouths of everybody paid to assert and predict, I'd fit in as well as anyone. All I need is to preen and make lousy trades for a few seasons in a major media market and I could be a very hot commodity on some network.

Mets versus Reds today. You know what's gonna happen? Neither do I.