…or we'll undress you on the scoreboard.
They say on any day or night you might see something in baseball you've never seen before, but a ball skipping up an outfielder's sleeve and rolling around inside his uniform as runners circle the bases? Never seen that before, can't imagine I ever will again. (Though, as Gary Cohen noted, the Mets won a game in 1992 when Daryl Boston got hit by a pitch that wound up in his shirt. Set your clock for 2020 and the Mets' next shirt-related adventure.) Actually, poor Ed Rogers did a pretty good job, all things considered, coolly reaching up and fetching the ball from behind his neck. He might have been better off having Julio Franco's single go up his sleeve too, considering his throw to the plate almost left Shea Stadium. (When the ump called obstruction on Miguel Tejada, I was briefly and intensely sorry that that sneaky traitor Lee Mazzilli wasn't still the O's manager.)
David Wright hitting a grand slam, on the other hand, is something I devoutly hope to see at regular intervals for the next two decades. Today's was particularly sweet for the way it erased all the frustration that had been building. Adam Loewen's “Bull Durham” level of wildness (Don't dig in there, boys!) made him appear ripe for a shellacking all afternoon, but it had been a weekend of waiting for shellackings that never came, hadn't it? Wright's drive (on a pretty good pitch) reversed all that in mere seconds, letting the crowd finally give the Mets the roar that a 9-1 road trip deserved. I won't ever understand people who think baseball's boring (which isn't the same as claiming I find every moment of it interesting), in part because all that nothing happening ratchets up the tension until it finally snaps with a big something happening. And then you think, “Oh, I see. The point of all that stuff was to make this a better story. Cool!”
Our lost Friday and Saturday night? We didn't even lose any ground, thanks to the Braves' continuing descent and the Phillies tangling with the juggernaut known as the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. And with that lead standing at a fairly luxurious 9 1/2, there wasn't even a thought of running the full varsity out there for a day game after a night game in wretched heat. That should be good for Delgado and Lo Duca at the tail end of the season, and it's not like we missed a beat with the JV: Ramon Castro looked like the 2005 edition, Julio Franco leapt and hit and ran like he was 27, and Eli Marrero made some nice plays out there in right. (Though his game saver in the 6th was mostly impressive because he had to salvage a bad route to the ball.)
And hey, points to Jon Stewart, who more than demonstrated his bona fides by recalling Jim McAndrew and Joe Foy. Stewart was the other end of one of my enormously rare NYC celebrity sightings: Emily and Joshua and I were walking through the Village when a guy who looked vaguely familiar glanced at my Met cap and touched the bill of his own with a smile. Waitaminute, wasn't that… I thought a few steps later. Yep, it was. He's one of us.
That shirt play happening on Father's Day is appropriate. It was on this occasion 44 years ago (6/17/1962, third Sunday in June; happy birthday to all the fathers out there) that Marv Throneberry famously tripled home two runs without touching second or first. So when you read it on Retrosheet, it says Throneberry made an out to first, Woodling scored, Thomas scored. A blander description of an Amazin' play there never was.
Castro simply needs to play more. That's the diff between him '06 and '05. The more he plays, the more he hits. Paul Lo Duca could use a couple days off anyway.
Extra kudos to Jon Stewart for rooting for the Mets. He grew up not far from where I live in Central NJ, in an area that was traditionally Phillies territory.
I was walking to the movies with my radio when Wright did the impossible and grandly slammed a struggling rookie pitcher who was predictably shutting us down. I went nuts and I got a lot of stares, but it was cool.
Kinda bothers me we couldn't do it for Pedro, but hopefully we'll give him his due at some point.
Wow, I have a lot of newfound respect for Jon Stewart. I take back all the back-handed jibes I made about his hosting the Oscars. He obviously has impeccable taste and very good sense. The '67 Mets? A man of vision. Maybe he should have a segment on SNY. Think you could squeeze him in, Greg?
What a great day for baseball. Besides the Mets winning, we had the Yankees losing in the bottom of the 9th and falling out of first place thanks to the Red Sox sweeping the last-place Atlanta Braves (God, that has to be the second most beautiful phrase in the English language), who blew a Smoltz lead for the 5th time this year. I hope everyone enjoyed that glorious nationally-televised Atlanta bullpen meltdown as much as I did.
I see this weekend as a net plus. One and two against a 4th place team. Isn't that how winning streaks always end ? No ground lost. The Bravos in last. The Skankees humbled in DC.
With the Braves hopelessly out of the race at the deadline, do they put Smoltz & his bloated — for a LAST PLACE TEAM — contract on the trade market?
And might he wind up pitching a meaningful game in September at Shea after all?
Things that make you go “Hmmmmmmmmmm….”
I doubt Smoltz, who has veto power on all trades, would leave Atlanta (maybe for Detroit, as he's from Michigan personally and professionally). The only meaningful game at Shea this September will be — if it happens at home — our clincher, and the Braves are in the first week of September. So Smoltz might pitch that. Might be a little early to clinch, though, even for this juggernaut.
Besides, I don't want Smoltz. The last thing we need is him bringing that losing culture that he's a part of now with him to the Mets.
What's the out of town scoreboard rooting etiquette tonight, pastor? Do we want the evil empire to vanquish our nearest pursuer, with, you know, first things being first and all?
Or should we follow the ususal protocol, especially given that the Phillies aren't really even in the rear view mirror anymore and Yankee post season aspirations looking oh so precarious?
An excellent question, my son. One must be true to one's soul in these dilemmas, regardless of circumstance. With a 9-1/2 game lead, there is no question that we cannot root for anything more Yankee-friendly than a Phillie forfeit.
It's a no-lose situation, but even if we were a game behind the Phillies (HA! — excuse me for laughing at the possibility of us being in such an absurd position), I would root against the Yankees. Anything won with the Yankees' help is not worth having, save, perhaps, a theoretical one-game makeup at the end of the season in which our making the playoffs depended on a National League opponent not beating them (that's when it's every fan for himself). I felt that way in 1999 when I nominally cheered on the Braves in July interleague action against New York-A and I feel that way now.
Our saving grace, beyond our gargantuan lead, is that should things go the Yankees' way at any time over the next three nights, then we incidentally benefit.
It's a Mets world. Everybody else is just living in it.
Thank you, pastor.
I now have clarity on the matter.
In all things and at all times, Fuck the Yankees.
Amen.
“Nominally”? HA. That was not nominal Braves rooting back in '99. I remember being shocked by it, because we were doing our usual Lucy-and-the-football thing chasing the Braves, and the Yankees could actually come to our aid. So when my beloved co-blogger said he was rooting for the Braves, I looked askance at him and got this ferocious glower and confirmation in return.
Crazy, I thought. And then I thought, No, not so crazy. It's absolute purity of heart and purpose is what it is.
(I'll be rooting for the Phillies, but if we were 2 back of them I'd be rooting for the Yankees.)
Oh, and Greg and I are going to the game tonight and I'm bringing him an amazing present. So amazing that if he doesn't blog about it, there is no justice in this universe.
Based on the forecast, I hope it's a slicker.
I think I'd like to see the Yankees win 3 rain shortened games. That way we bury Philly and get to say that the Yankees really didn't WIN the games without help. Plus we get payback from the 5 inning cheap Philly win against the Mets a few weeks ago.
JoAnn
Returning briefly to the subject of yesterday's game, you have to feel a little for poor Adam Loewen. Here's this rookie making his first four starts in the bigs, and he draws a past Cy Young winner as an opponent in every game. No wonder he had the yips.
I feel worse for us when we're forced to face rookies making no more than their fourth start in the bigs. It hasn't been a recipe for success.
I just had the most wonderful thought: the Mets have a big enough lead over the rest of the NL East that we don't need the Yankees to help us out by beating our divisional foes. The Yankees, on the other hand, really need the Mets to beat the Blue Jays and Red Sox because the AL East race is so tight. Wouldn't it be so great if we do beat those teams and the Yankees find ways not to capitalize on it?
I hope it was enough to distract Greg from yet another poor showing buy our usually uncontainable offense. We scored in the first inning again…but two runs charge to Willie Randolph in the 8th, along with some inexcuseable first-pitch swinging, can still beat us. That's back-to-back games I've been to where we've lost 4-2. At least we're not alone against that blond fellow formerly of Boston.
The bile you spew at the Yankees and, especially the Braves, is admirable.