Well, the most important thing is who El Duque isn't: He isn't Jose Lima or Jeremi Gonzalez. That makes me happy. Yeah, I'd seen Julio's stuff and thought big thoughts, but teams with 2 1/2 starters can't be picky, and as we're currently constituted Julio was a reliever searching for a role. And before anyone […]

…Steve Trachsel was bad.

…Gavin Floyd didn't get a rainout.

…Pat Burrell was around to kill us.

…Sal Fasano had short hair and no 70s porn-king 'stache.

…Steve Trachsel was worse.

…Paul Lo Duca couldn't field a one-hop throw to the plate.

…David Bell was tolling for thee, me and everyone else in orange and blue.

…Julio Franco was running bases like […]

Honestly, I dread the Subway Series, and I don't particularly like to go — I've got anger-management issues as it is, so being confronted with braying Yankee fans in the flesh, instead of at the safe remove accorded by TV, isn't the best idea for me. Winning? It's marvelous, sure, but it comes with a […]

Was it that there was no need for this, not with Duaner Sanchez doing just fine and it not being a save situation? All afternoon I'd been thinking how weird it was to watch a Subway Series game and feel totally relaxed. I should have known.

Was it that I'd already let my mind skip ahead […]

I woke up this morning, did my sleepy scan of newspaper Web sites, and thought, “Oh yeah, Subway Series begins tonight.” I skipped quickly over the pointless tales of the tape, glanced at the every-year-it's-the-same feature in which the new guys don't get it and the veterans bemoan what a pain in the ass the […]

Lima Time, and the pitching is lousy

Bats are thumping, when his pitches are high

Brian's hurt, and Maine's finger is crooked

So yes, little Met fan,

It's time to cry….

Well, damn.

I watched this one in the company of my friend Will, a diehard Cardinals fan whose inherent decency has been unsullied by his time in the Gotham irony mines, in a bar on 14th Street. (Last time we witnessed Mets/Cardinals, Will's Ankiel jersey and Cards rooting made him the target of peanut-throwers, which he […]

Hope nobody's on when he hits one.

That, famously, was the scouting report for how to pitch to Hank Aaron, a.k.a. Bad Henry when the Mets were plotting a course past the terrifying Atlanta Braves in this newfangled thing called a League Championship Series. Now, a couple of generations later, we have Bad Albert — Jose […]

No need to panic. But wipe that smile off your face, Met fans. We've got trouble.

In any other situation, Jose Lima would now be James Baldwin: An old starter who comes apart like a cheap suit above 70 pitches is useless to a major-league-baseball team with any aspirations to play extra games. Lima may be […]

This had to be one of the more quietly infuriating losses in recent memory.

First off, early on Gavin Floyd was making Cory Lidle look like Cy Young. He had nothing, and I was actually worried we would run up a big lead in the first couple of innings, watch the Phillies step out after every […]