On the surface, Met fans gave Lastings Milledge one of the warmest major league debut ovations this side of Gregg Jefferies in the bottom of the second inning tonight (and an even warmer ovation after lining out to shortstop in his first major league at bat...probably the most warmly received out in the history of Met baseball, sending him on his way to a 1 for 4 evening.)But was it really for Milledge?
Or was it Mets fans saying thanks?
Thank you, Mets management. Thank you for not ending any of the recent trades end in "and Lastings Milledge"!
Thank you, Lastings Milledge. Thank you for not blowing out your knee or your shoulder or any other appendage on your way to the big leagues!
Thank you, Willie Randolph. Thank you for not burying him on the bench during his time here in New York. Thank you for giving him an everyday slot in the lineup!
Was it a thank you? Was it a sigh of relief? More importantly, was it a mistake to give the hyped up prospect a number like 44? I mean, what are they trying to tell him exactly...
"Lastings, we're going to make you the Reggie Jackson we never had...because we passed on drafting him in 1966."It's like the father who tries to live his dream through his little league playing son.
Well it doesn't matter, because there's bigger problems on the horizon. Namely, that Alay Soler is going to obsess over each and every pitch that he throws (as he did tonight) that he's going either going to wind up in a mental institution, or he's going to get so po'd after a 2-1 curveball hits the dirt that he's going to light himself on fire in front of 35,000 people. And to make matters worse, the Metstradamus crack staff is reporting that the english translation of the name Alay Soler is "Jeff Weaver".
I know Soler and the Mets got their heads beat in tonight, but the last thing the Mets need during this time when they need to fill out the back end of their rotation is a prospect to be institutionalized in public. Does there have to be a separate ambulance equipped with a psychiatric couch parked at Shea? There's competitive...and then there's Gregg Jefferies (and thus, the circle completes).
3 comments:
nice pictures =)
Oh great Mestradamus:
As always, a fantastic article. I think you really hit the nail on the head with Milledge. That round of applause was Met fans being appreciative that this big time prospect made it to the bigs...as a Met.
With all the trade discussions over the past couple years (especially this past offseason), myself and many others are finally sure that Mets management is on the right track. We're a new organization now, finally past the Scott Kazmir debacle (as much as we can be anyway).
We're building talent from within. We now realize home grown talent is not only satisfying to fans, but to the pocketbook as well. If anything, the Kazmir trade was the impetus of change that has finally righted the ships. Thank you Mr. Wilpon for bringing Omar Minaya to the helm.
Thank you for letting us enjoy nights like last night.
I open up the Times today: yet another article about Kazmir, that wonderful freak of nature.
Well-written, yes, but do we really need to be hit over the head with this again? As Mets fans, I feel as if we're continually being forced to repent for our organization's idiocy -- whether I'm reading the paper, listening to talk radio (okay, that's my own fault), or trying to watch the game, they're always twisting that knife into us: "No, it wasn't stupid. It was really, really stupid. Eek."
As much as I'd like to forget about that trade, neither the media nor my conscience will ever stand for it.
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