For the Mets, whatever happens between first pitch and final out has become secondary. There are injury woes, draft-pick signings, waiver claims, contract disputes and front-office assessments that are more important and usually more interesting than the outcome of the actual games. At this point, the Mets' 2009 W-L record is a measure of how […]

In some parallel universe, Billy Wagner also jogged in from the bullpen for the 8th inning and retired the side in order. But in that parallel universe, the other eight defensive position were occupied by something other than surplus Buffalo Bisons, and we were thinking about October instead of about April.

I'd like to live […]

Last night Emily and I were out with friends and after dinner we all stopped into a bar somewhere in the West Village, picking our watering hole based on the fact that we could see a little lighted square of Mets game up there above the heads of the bartender and the patrons.

On the way […]

The Mets are now 1-5 on a West Coast trip against crappy teams. Tonight they got beat by Max Scherzer, he of the David Bowie eyes, and Trent Oeltjen, a young Aussie who really ought to retire the moment the Mets leave town. (Trust me, Trent — baseball isn't this easy.) They got beat because […]

To start off on a rather obvious note, game recaps are supposed to say something about the game you just watched, or missed, or fell asleep during, or were going to watch and didn't and now feel guilty about it. Let's dispense with tonight's game in relatively brisk fashion, then:

1. Mike Pelfrey was bad. Again.

2. […]

A recent Facebook status update from yours truly: Watching the 2009 Mets is like smacking yourself in the head with a pan for three hours a night. And yet here I sit. WHAP! WHAP! WHAP! WTF is wrong with me?

Livan is still in, because what's the point. Padres rotate around the bases like a pinball […]

“They battled.”

It's a line that makes any Mets fan cringe and mutter, remembering a miscast Art Howe facing the chop-licking New York media after another loss. It was Art's kindly placeholder comment, his verbal shrug of the shoulders, his way of not saying, “What do you think I can do with this collection of once-weres […]

On June 19, 2001, a new Mets farm team took the field at Jamestown, N.Y.'s Diethrick Park. The Brooklyn Cyclones had arrived — attended by the kind of hype that's not exactly normal fare for the New York-Penn League. The Cyclones were bringing pro baseball back to Brooklyn, and in doing so were healing (at […]