“Baseball is a lot like life. The line drives are caught, the squibbers go for base hits. It's an unfair game.”
Typical of the early Mets that Hot Rod Kanehl's greatest contribution to the game of baseball would be a quote. Still, it's a pretty good quote. Kanehl would have liked tonight's game [1]. Well, not liked it — not if he retained any of his orange-and-blue loyalties — but nodded his head at how it unfolded.
Pedro Martinez was ridiculously dominant — except for that second inning. Other than that second inning, he didn't give up a hit. What did he get to show for it? Nothing. Brett Myers? He was pretty good too. Nothing to show for it. The winning pitcher? Tom Gordon was rocked for three hits, including a line drive by Carlos Delgado that did get caught — only it was by someone who bought a ticket. The squibber? It made a losing pitcher of Aaron Heilman, not long after he got victimized by a ball that landed on the line and then somehow didn't bounce into the stands. Kaz Matsui got penalized for not adjusting his batting eye to Doug Eddings' suddenly itinerant strike zone. And poor Julio Franco got ejected without even getting to play.
From the heart-into-throat whooosh! of Delgado's home run to the ya-gotta-be-kidding-me glower of losing on a fricking spring-training play. Ugh.
It's an unfair game. But then Hot Rod told us that a long time ago.
And at least there's something that makes it OK: We get another one tomorrow.