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Jason Fry and Greg Prince
Faith and Fear in Flushing made its debut on Feb. 16, 2005, the brainchild of two longtime friends and lifelong Met fans.

Greg Prince discovered the Mets when he was 6, during the magical summer of 1969. He is a Long Island-based writer, editor and communications consultant. Contact him here.

Jason Fry is a Brooklyn writer whose first memories include his mom leaping up and down cheering for Rusty Staub. Check out his other writing here.

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180 (Unvarnished)

Fuck you, K-Rod. Honestly, fuck you. And you too, Bay. I wanted you both here, I liked you in other uniforms, you’re both fucking worthless. Take your huge fucking contracts and sleep on them tonight. FUCK YOU!

Jesus…and I don’t mean Feliciano.

Not to take this overly personally, but I had a real nice post composed in my head for 8 innings about the halfway point and the Mets having, as David Wright says in those Lincoln commercials, officially changed the game, what an uplifting half-season it’s been and — and this is the kicker — how you look at Francisco Rodriguez’s game-by-game performances and, drama aside, he’s been incredibly effective in a bottom line sense so get off his ass already.

But now, fuck you K-Rod. And Bay, who couldn’t get a big hit in the late innings if it was waiting in the mailbox for him.

R.A. Dickey outshines Stephen Strasburg and it goes to waste. Alex Cora becomes a triples machine and it goes to waste. There’s insurance runs all over the place (though Allstate, State Farm and Geico together wouldn’t insure anything Frankie Rodriguez touches) and they go to waste.

The Nationals. The fucking Nationals. What the fuck more do you want out of the schedule? Jesus.

UPDATE: K-Rod says after the game he’s ashamed of himself, he’s embarrassed and he apologizes to the fans. Stand-up guy. Horrible closer at the moment, but stand-up guy. I’d prefer a dependable closer who’s kind of a weasel.

30 comments to 180 (Unvarnished)

  • Clam

    A-friggin-men. Our only hope is that he decides to go out for dinner tonight and gets Duaner Sanchez’s cabbie. C’mon Jerry, show some stones and let Parnell close.

    • I don’t wish him bodily harm, but if he should get in a cab tonight, I’d be fine if it got lost for a few months.

      • Tom in Sunnyside

        Be careful what you ask for:

        The last time a Mets pitcher had an incident with a taxi cab we wound up with Oliver Perez.

        That said, K-Rod would be on the verge of Armando Benitez territory if not for his frustration with his own performance as opposed to frustration with fans.

  • He can show me he’s sorry by disappearing. I have never liked him. He is an Omar special: fat, bad, overpaid and here forever.

  • I’m glad Rodriguez is accountable and I’m glad Bay hustles but this is a results-driven business. Get it done, period.

  • Dykstra The Stock Guru

    The Mets haven’t had a reliable closer in a dog’s age. The only good closers I can remember they’ve had were starters when they had them: Aguileira and Izzy. K-Rod is bloody murder to watch. When he strides out there, the inevitability of a Mets loss is positively Benitezian.

  • csk

    there’s a reason the Angels weren’t sad to see K-Rod go

    now we know why….

  • Matt from Sunnyside

    At least I learned a few new things from the guys in the broadcast booth. Like how Strasburg once saved a basket of Shar-Pei puppies from a raging wildfire using only a glass of water and his curveball.

  • 9-15 against the Marlins and Nationals so far.

    There’s a reason I don’t buy this team as a playoff contender (that being said, the lack of faith makes losses like this easier to take. In March, we all expected many losses like this afternoon’s. We didn’t expect all the wins surrounding it. It’s something to keep in mind).

    This performance pretty much makes K-Rod a lock for the all-star game, doesn’t it? With Pelfrey likely watching from home? Doesn’t it always work out that way for us?

  • Lenny65

    Our gazillion-dollar closer can’t close the door on the crummy Nats? Ugh, that was just brutal…and just this close to another walk-off GS loss to boot. It might be time to forget about “save situations” and “closer rules” and just entrust the game to whoever’s been pitching best. This guy is killing us.

  • dak442

    Managing to the stupid save statistic has made a mess of the game. I keep saying – someday some manager will have the cojones to throw that nonsense out the window and play to win the game: leave in a hot starter, go with matchups, bring in your closer when you NEED him, not when it can get him a pointless save.

    I picked an excellent time to be out of town and pretty much TV-less.

  • patrick o'hern

    That is the best fucking post.Summed up mine and I’m sure many fans’ feelings.When will the press quit giving Bay a pass because he is a nice guy.George Foster 1982 all over again.

  • Andee

    Dykstra the Stock Guru is right. We’ve never EVER had a “game over” closer. We’ve had closers who had lights-out stretches — including Frankie himself when he first came over. But never a guy who you’d feel, uh, relief seeing out there, game after game for years.

    This is why I’m starting to think any “closer” is more or less a waste of money, unless he really is a freak exception like Rivera. What’s wrong with having two guys who can pitch the ninth if need be? As long as you have someone like Frankie around, he’s going to whine and piss and moan about not getting every closer opportunity, and his agent will remind the Wilpons about the naked goat pictures he has of them, and the Wilpons will twist Jerry’s arm not to waste his exorbitant contract, blah blah ad nauseum. That’s only going to work out if he doesn’t go up in flames, and they all do.

  • nestornajwa

    A-fucking-men! I live outside DC and I actually flirted with the idea of paying the Strasburg tax to see today’s game. Then I realized I’d rather pay it for a game when I could actually enjoy his exploits (see you Friday, Stevie). I never expected that he would be pretty ordinary, Dickey would be excellent, and we would nevertheless suffer one of the worst 2 or 3 losses of the season (I hope). And one of the others has to be the Willie Harris game. Or was that the Roger Bernadina game? Fortunately, I stayed home and “enjoyed” the proceedings from the relative comfort of my deck.

    I can’t remember a season that so frequently oscillated between raucous optimism and dismal hopelessness. Streaky? Like Supergirl’s fucking cat we’re Streaky! We’re halfway home and I have no idea if we have a contender or complete crap with a couple of lucky stretches that artificially improve the picture. Even if I choose to believe the former (and I do), there’s no way this team plays deep into October without another starter and another solid bullpen option. Excuse me, I mean no fucking way. Omar, you’re on the fucking clock.

    10 walkoff losses before the All Star break. Fuck.

    • Last team to have 10 walkoff losses before July 4 was the 1999 Diamondbacks, and they made the playoffs…where they were eliminated in a walkoff…by Todd Pratt.

  • Andee

    Also, I think this adds fuel to my “Mejia was with the big club to see if they could replace Frankie with him before Frankie got too expensive to dump” theory.

    Remember, though, it’s getting into the playoffs that counts. Once you’re in, only three starting pitchers are necessary, and we’re set there. It’s having a couple of non-arsonists to bring in as relief that will matter, which is why the Padres will win the pennant if they get any hitting at all. Having Tak2 and Dickey as relievers instead of starters will add pen depth in postseason. However, as long as Frankie is around, there’s no way on earth Jerry and Dan will bench him, even if they want to. It won’t happen, it’s not allowed, so all we can do is hope for a trade, or that Frankie sprains his shoelace or something.

    Unbelievably enough, we still have the WC lead.

  • BlackCountryMet

    Coming from the UK, I’m constantly left baffled by “pitch count” and the like, removing pitchers at certain points,even when tye appear to be having a great day. It’s not like K Rod is a GUARANTEE of 3 outs is it? Also why does the closer only ever(or almost always) only throw one inning? If you get a REALLY good one(ie NOT K Rod)why can they not get 4 or even 5 outs? And I’m boggled when I hear them say about a bullpen guy”ooh we can’t use him tonight cos he’s pitched 2 innings on consecutive nights!!” WHAT?

    Anyway…that was crap and a very disappointing end to a top game by RA.

  • er

    other than the closer across town, are there really ANY guarantees in the closer position. it has always been a very streaky position. say we get of k-rod. who would you want to get to replace him? he has been a top-5 closer for 7 or 8 years now and that as good as you can get. i am all for improving the team, but dropping k-rod for matt capps or matt lindstrom doesn’t do it for me

  • mikeinbrooklyn

    I know you don’t wish him bodily harm, but I’m hoping one of these shots goes back up the middle and clips him somewhere–anywhere that puts him on the DL for a bit. (If only we’d had some faith in Heath Bell–imagine how we could’ve spent that money!)

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