As I get older, one of the things I’ve tried to take to heart is that the baseball gods are fickle deities, and as their playthings we have selective memories.
If an ump blows a call against us or our luck turns inexplicably rotten and costs us a game, it’s a tragedy never to be forgotten, a thing to be fumed over for the rest of the season and into the winter, a game that goes in the “We Shoulda Had That One” column for review in September, when you total those unfair losses up and announce that by all rights you should be rooting for a 90-win team. But there’s no column in our mental ledgers for “We Had No Business Winning That One” — should a crazed bounce go our way or an umpire be struck momentarily blind, it’s not injustice. It’s destiny.
Well, put Opening Day in the Column of Which We Do Not Speak, for we had no business winning it. This wasn’t a Met win so much as it was a Nationals loss, with our friends from Washington getting no breaks and commencing to play stupid whenever given a chance. Frank Robinson’s 2006 ulcer? He’ll tell the doctor he’s pretty sure it started today.
To review just some of the bullets that whizzed by our collective heads: Lo Duca ended a hair-raising second with an underhand toss to Delgado to get Brian Schneider out on a swinging bunt, and the ball didn’t go down the line or arrive a moment too late. (I didn’t see a replay, but I’d be amazed if Glavine was covering home.) Glavine kept getting squeezed on the inside pitch and losing his command. Nady, for all that his 4-for-4 looks keen in the box score, had some baserunning misadventures. Beltran made a horrible throw home in the fourth that didn’t cost us. In the fifth Glavine did everything but run wind sprints in a crazed trip three-quarters of the way around the bases. Heilman danced spastically through a downpour and somehow only came out damp. Wright made a nice stab in the ninth and then promptly fired the ball in the dirt — and Delgado picked it clean. And Vidro did the right thing with two out against Wagner by going for a double that would leave the Nats a hit away from tying it — only to just get nipped on a good throw from Beltran for the ballgame.
Oh, and there was that play at the plate, with Soriano getting a hand in ahead of Lo Duca’s tag and Tim Tschida hurrying down from first too late to get into position, leaving him blocked out and unable to see Lo Duca drop the ball and then pick it back up. Nice call on the presence of Royce Clayton summoning up that eerily similar play from Opening Day a decade ago. Would this be the wrong time to note that I’ve always been pretty sure Clayton was safe in 1996?
(While I’m grousing, the fans need to show a little decency and lay off Beltran, even Keith Hernandez couldn’t make that pimp coat look cool, SNY needs to stay on the air for the whole game, and those blue-and-black batting helmets are an atrocity.)
None of this is to say that Opening Day wasn’t thoroughly enjoyable, or there weren’t plenty of good things to see. Glavine looked like The Eventual Met of last year’s second half, refusing to give up on the inside of the plate even when the ump wasn’t cooperating and prevailing in a superb battle against Soriano in the fifth — that at-bat alone was more exciting than the entirety of spring training, with the gutsy inside fastball that sent Sori back out to left yielding a whoop from me on my couch. Anderson Hernandez celebrated 1986 by making like Rafael Santana — if he keeps turning plays like that airborne beauty behind second, no one will much care if he hits .220. Heilman’s struggles were character-building. That character Braden Looper wasn’t in the building. And as you noted, Lo Duca is in no position to get that critical call without nifty plays by Floyd and Reyes. Umpires are only human; they get caught up in the excitement of things, too.
As do bloggers. Today was (of course) a vacation day, and I spent the morning burning off my nervousness by wandering Brooklyn doing the world’s most pointless errands, then enjoyed the first Shake Shack outing of the year before heading home in time for the introduction of the starting lineups. Hmmm. Twenty-four hours that included the first evening of Daylight Savings Time, Shake Shack and a victory on Opening Day? Forget all the above — I have no complaints whatsoever.
Great post, Jason. It's critical for us to realize that, contrary to Billy Wagner's post game assessment, things didn't go exactly how we planned them at all. Glavine, except for a few shining moments, didn't really have it–neither did Heilman, or even Wagner to some degree. The Nationals, the umps, and lady luck handed us a victory and we took it gratefully, but we have to recognize it for what it was. A whole season like this will hardly do, with Reyes, Beltran, Delgado and Floyd being close to non-entities at the plate. Nady's not gonna go 4 for 4 too often either, especially against righties. So we've got a long way to go, but an opening day win sure doesn't hurt.
I also feel obligated to gush over Mike Jacobs' 3-run shot just now against Andy Pettitte. The erstwhile Yankee clearly doesn't have his stuff tonight, but that doesn't make our ex-first baseman's homerun (and remember, Pettitte is a lefty) any less sweet. Worse things could be done on a Mets off day.
Let's see if Delgado can keep pace with Jakey.