Last night I was at a thing and fell into conversation with a fellow Mets fan. We talked about this and that, with indifferent optimism, and then he asked, “But Reyes is running?”
He wasn’t really asking; he knew. It was more that he was looking for confirmation. And all of a sudden I found myself smiling.
“Reyes is running,” I said. “I mean, he had to get away from the Mets to heal and who knows what’s going to happen and ….”
That was all wrong. I stopped and tried again.
“Reyes is running,” I said. And then I was smiling again.
Close your eyes and you can see him. His head is down and his arms are churning. In another second his helmet will fail to keep pace with the rest of him and fly off for retrieval later, and another second after that he’ll be popping up out of the dust with that huge ear-to-ear grin, slightly pop-eyed, his spiky hair sticking up like a startled cat. If it’s a particularly big moment he’ll smash his hands together a few times in a way that looks like it hurts. He’ll look slightly winded, but mostly he’ll look like you like to imagine you’d look if you could only do what he does. He’ll look like that was an enormous amount of fun and he can’t wait to do it again.
You know what? It’s been a while. Close your eyes and let yourself see that again.
Somewhere, perhaps, Mets front office people are doing something ill-advised.
Somewhere, it’s entirely possible, Mets business people are being cheap and short-sighted.
Somewhere, it may be, Jerry Manuel is chortling when he ought to be listening to someone who’s crunched numbers.
Somewhere, if we’re not lucky, Kelvin Escobar is wincing, Carlos Beltran is limping, or both.
Of late too many of these somewheres have been located too close to home for us to feel at ease. But sometimes somewhere is a good place to find yourself.
Somewhere Jose Reyes is running. Think of that and be not afraid.
I smiled
Yes. YES. I’m counting down the days.
Hi Jason,
I close my eyes, think of Jose Reyes running and then get scared with the thought that Manuel is even considering the ludicrious idea of having him hit third.
Then we’ll not see Jose running as often but this time it will not be due to any injury — it will be because either the runner in front of him will be slower or he can’t steal second because it’s occupied by his lead-off replacement.
So we missed Jose running most all of last year and if Jerry has his way we won’t see it as much this season as well.
Just like Citifield nullified our power, so will Jose batting third nullify our speed.
Joe D i second your comment. Manuel’s outside of the box thinking has ceased being cute. Reyes is our leadoff hitter. Seeing him back in that leadoff spot is by far the thing I am most looking forward to this season. WTF Jerry. Please don’t do this, and please take it back immediately. Is Jerry playing some sort of bizarre mind game with Jose? Because I don’t think Jose is the type of player who would respond to that, especially after all he has been through. Again, WTF.
Hi Paul,
“WTF” – couldn’t have said it any more better.
Last season Jerry virtually dismissed a proven hitter and fielder in Ryan Church and had an unknown Omir Santos pinch hit for Castro on a “hunch” with the game on the line.
Up to now I was still giving Jerry the benefit of the doubt for remembering how he handled the club in 2008 despite a descimated bullpen. But with this Reyes experiment I now have real doubts about his ability to manage on a major league level.
I know the Olympics are in full swing, college basketball is rocking, the NBA is in the home stretch, and for those who care, the NHL is, as well. But to me, these few weeks between the Super Bowl and spring training are a black hole of sports. REPORT, pitchers, and catchers. REPORT!
In other news Carlos Delgado had hip surgery this week. I don’t believe Omar didn’t find a way to sink a few million into that free agency. I wish Carlos the best and a full recovery, but I thought as the season ended he was too injury prone at this late juncture in his career to re-sign him.
Reyes back and running at full speed is probably the single most encouraging thing I’ve heard going into ST.
I’m not exactly opposed to trying Reyes in the 3rd slot until Beltran comes back. But Jose is arguably the best lead off hitter in the game today. At the start of every game, there’s something just so optimistic in my mind when he comes to bat and gets on. Like all will be right in Mets land that day…..
[...] Believe in Setbacks by Greg Prince on 11 March 2010 3:39 pm Jose Reyes is not running. He’s not swinging. He’s not fielding or throwing. He’s not functioning as a [...]
[...] blog voice over at Fear and Faith…er….Faith and Fear in Flushing: Jose Reyes is not running. He’s not swinging. He’s not fielding or throwing. He’s not functioning as a baseball player. [...]