Thursday, June 29, 2006

Fever Pitch? Only For The Hypocrisy

Let's face it, Met brethren...your team will never get any credit for anything they do, ever. Get used to it.

In fact, we should give up right now because even if the Mets win the World Series this year, the built-in excuses are in place. We should stop blogging, stop rooting, stop showing up. It doesn't matter if the Mets win every game from here to the World Series, and beyond. Because now that the Mets have been swept by the Red Sox, one of the best baseball teams going right now, we apparently don't deserve to play baseball. "The National League is watered down" they say...never mind that the Omar Minaya did a great job signing everybody else's great players to water them down themselves, their accolades are tempered because they're beating everybody whom they've been assigned...until this week.

Obliterated the National League? Ran away and hid from the rest of the division? Won most of the games that you were supposed to win? It all has apparently unraveled in the span of three days because ooh...we lost to the big bad American League. Let's pack up and go home.

These are the points that certain Yankee fans have made before the third and final game of this set, a 4-2 loss which has been as painful as any this season (aided by a hellacious catch by Coco Crisp which prevented the game from being tied in the eighth.) First, you had Mike Francesa...who on Tuesday, before the series began, made it a point to remind Met fans that even though his highness and the court jester made the trip to Fenway to broadcast their show, that Mets/Red Sox is not Yankees/Red Sox. Then went on to prove that point by spending most of the first part of the show interviewing Steve Nash and Brett Favre (topical). Yet today, from the friendly confines of Astoria, the tone from King Diet Coke was, "well, Mets/Red Sox isn't as big as Yankees/Red Sox...but it's still big." Sure, after the Mets lost two games does the proclamation get the qualifier: "but it's still big". If the Mets had won the two games, do we get that qualifier?

But the hypocrisy was in full force when King Yankee fan mentioned that he was rooting for the Red Sox to win tonight.

Wait a minute now, this from the fan base that accuses Met fans of hating the Yankees more than they love their own team. Now we know that's a bunch of Bravo Sierra (that's code, folks). Because it's easy to be high and mighty when your cross town rivals are irrelevant, but now when they're in the conversation again, you have Yankee fans rooting for the Red Sox, which is practically rooting against themselves. Gee, I thought The Greatest Fans In The History Of Fans were above that!

Francesa should be ashamed of himself. The A.L. East is still a tight race which is starting to slip away a wee bit. But the Hero of The Greatest Fans In The History Of Fans is willing to give away a half a game to hate a team more than he loves his own. I hope that the standings at the end of the year look something like this:

Red Sox 94 68 ---
Yankees 93 69 1

It would serve him, and the people that worship him, right.

And don't resign yourself to the fact that "oh, it's just Francesa tweaking Met fans to make good radio." Because this guy is nowhere near the radio (thank goodness), yet is showing leanings towards feeling the same way.
"But despite the discomfort and agita this Sox Barnstroming (spelling) tour has given me, I'm willing to endure for three reasons. 1) I have no choice 2)We don't have to face them again until August and a lot of things can happen between now and then...and 3)Seeing these Mets fan in A)complete denial about what this series means 2)the ones who were strutting around like Horny Roosters when they were beating on the D-Backs and the Phillies....who now realize that their team isn't nearly as good as they think."
Am I being lectured by a man whose team is out of a playoff spot?

After I stopped and asked for directions to B after driving past A and only seeing another 2, and having to go through a detour through some latin phrases, (those he gets right) and finally getting to the end, I realized that I just stopped off at a Yankee blog and got a dissertation on the Mets. Who's obsessed now?
"The Mets coronation as the NL's best team is complete. Outside of the Yankees this weekend, what other series will the Mets have this season that will compare to these two? The NL East is in shambles. I doubt the Braves, Phils or Marlins will put up much of a fight this summer. Only the Cardinals have a chance to challenge the Mets. But I doubt that they have enough pitching."
So we're going to the World Series, is that what he's trying to say? But then...

"This weekend series is the first time the roles are reversed. The Mets will come in as the team with the most to lose. If they lose this series after the Red Sox series, they take a huge blow to their credilbility (spelling) as a World Series contender. Pennant contenders? They're still the class of the league. But noone's going to take them serious as the ones who can win it all. In the menatime (spelling), what happens to the Yankees? Lose, they're in the race and noone thinks they're done. If they win? Cue the Imperial March."
So wait...the Mets lose their credibility as a World Series contender if we lose the series to the Yankees (and it's conveniently forgotten how the Mets beat the Yanks at Shea earlier in the season...I guess that, like all the wins over National League teams, doesn't matter either). But the Yankees use it as a springboard to dominance? By beating a team that lost their credibility? By beating a team that's not as good as we think?

Yet another Yankee fan who wants it both ways. Gloat when they win, then tell other teams they have no right to complain because of the ten minutes in their history when they had Mel Hall that they've had it soooooooo haaaaaaard.

So the fact it took 78 games for the first three game losing streak of the season...the fact that this happened to a team that won a million games in a row and who's in first place...the fact that the Mets are still eleven games ahead of their division, the division they've been assigned...it all doesn't matter if you listen to the hypocrites. We should just go home, and put away our laptops. Because all our team is going to do is get slaughtered by the entire American League in the World Series. It's all been decided.

Spare me.

"My favorite line of the day? The Red Sox fan who told Mike Francesa after Tuesday night's loss to 'bring on the team from New York who can actually play.' Priceless."
Bring them on indeed.

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

This three game sweep hurt...it hurt alot...but we'll still make the playoffs!

Anonymous said...

The operative phrase is "Francesa should be ashamed of himself." But you could've written that at any time over the past 17 years.

Metstradamus said...

It's like that "Draw Four" card in UNO. Good for any situation.

Anonymous said...

shellshcoked. that's the word. fortunately, i also have the privilee of being drunk off my ass thatnks to the bston beer works. now. i was at all 3 of these games. all right. man.

first of all, i was amazed at how EVERY SINGLE TIME davido ortiz or manny comes to the plate, it is an EVENT. everyoine is clapping. amazing.

they clapped for pedro when he was announced in the lineup last night, too. that was beautiful. the guy who stood beside me in the standing room last night paid $100 for his $25 ticket. this was a big series.

every 8th inning, the red sox fans sing "sweet caroline." that was unexpected.

my first night, we were sitting in the bleachers. oh man. every other person was, as my boston friend says, "wrecked." $6.50 a beer ad 2 at a time. it was an endlees procession. i bought the last beers of the game at my stand -- (seventh inning double play, no more beer!) -- a man offered me $10 for one of the beers i was carrying. crazy fenway bleacher folk.

Lastings Milledge had a tough time in Left... he won't half to play that Monster again for 5 or 6 years, though. But the Red Sox fans (bastards!) cheered him loudly after his adventure the first night.

Apparently the radio stations are having contests around here -- call Game 6 in the Red Sox favor the best wy and win a prize! the boston folk realize this is hella lame, to their credit.

Beltran is an awesome CF.

Julio Franco is so ansy on the base paths... wa a s shame he got picked off tonight. i think? shame, shame.

some "bleacher creature" kept making a "COLLECT YOUR SOCIAL SECURITY" joke. fool.

but the worst thing about the bleachers was how this "YANKEES SUCK" cheer would break out every now and again/ i think this ties in with your post, but i'm too drunk to read it at the moment. about this false camaraderie between mets andr red sox fans this ereises. wtf? it was like the game 1 acknowledgements for all the 1986 red sox.... "Evern though our friends, the new York Mets, won that series, the Red Sox WERE the ACLS champions, and we solute them." lame. i mean, it wouldn't have been lame if the playersw had at least coordinated their pants.

Pedro went 3 innins and threw 75 pitches... i guess you know this?

well.

it's ok1

the mets have a huge lead. it's ok.

i believe there's a game tomoorow? against the yankees?

great!

that catch by cococ....

it was, as you said, hellacious.

yup.

good night. ")

Anonymous said...

UNO references . . . nice.

Let's all calm down. It was one series in June. Now, if the Mets meet the Sox in the Series, the Sox are the heavy favorite - I like playing the role of underdog. Nothing you can do about last night - an absolutely sick catch by cereal boy.

But I'll say this - Pedro tops my hate list this week. He's going to have to prove something to me over his next few starts. I really feel like we never had a chance in Game 2 of the series.

Just where was Delgado last night? Did I miss an injury or something? He kills Schilling. I hope this wasn't another case of Willie just giving Delgado "a blow". While we're at it, why does Willie have to use that term as slang for a night off? Couldn't he just say "a rest"?

Anonymous said...

One other thing MD - I have a feeling you'll be seeing a new number 3 batter at Norfolk soon. His name is Lastings Milledge.

Anyone catch the tribute to the '86 Mets on SNY last night after the game? Classic footage of Jerry Morales shanking a fly ball in center.

Anonymous said...

If we lost our credibility this series, it's because Pedro lost his first. Not because he completely sucked, but because he thought a win wasn't as important as the reception he got from RSN.

Ever heard of having your cake and eating it too?

The way the series lined up, taking 2 of 3 would've been hard enough. But make no mistake about it, Pedro's got to lead the charge into his old stomping grounds.

As soon as we got to Boston, it seemed like it was all about "what made Pedro leave." OUR ace. The same one that was blowing Kevin Millar kisses from the dugout when the O's came to visit us.

Are you telling me Pedro's so fragile that he has to be the first ex-Sox to return and be all "management made me leave, don't boo me!" Unreal.

Anonymous said...

In the long run, if the Mets and the Sox meet in the WS this 3 game series will mean nothing to that series. Remember in 1988, the Mets beat the Dodgers 10 out of 11 during the season and still loss the NLCS in 7. Great pitching and timely hitting in the playoffs count for more than prior history especially when the 2 teams don't play each other often.

Toasty Joe said...

Metstra, thanks for perhaps your best post of the year. So much so that I didn't even write one today, I just referred everyone here. Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Please, Mets, take at least 2 of 3 so we can see some sense, logic and humor on the Darth Marc blog just once in our lifetime. Not that I've ever been there...the snippets have been plenty. And let's be honest, it's not like Yankee fans are known for having any one of those three.

PLEASE, OH PLEASE, OH PLEASE.

Just wanna say, MD, if the internet was TV, you would be on Season Pass. And you should know that that is the highest honor I can bestow to somebody.

Mookie McFly said...

Funny thing about Yankee fans is they think we hold the exclusive on the word hate...I don't remember any of them rooting for us against the Braves back in the late 90's. If you're not with us than you're against us. Yeah, Mets fans do hate the Yanks and I thing you cannot root for them ever if you like the Mets but it goes both ways...I wouldn't let Fatso Fran get to you though because most legitimate people know he is a fraud. The fact that Michael Kay (the biggest homer) can compete with them should have Fatso and the angry puppy shaking in their boots. Imagine if they ever put someone legitimate on against them? They'd be dead in the water.

Boy, that was some catch last night by Koko B. Ware...it looked like his arm grew like three inches when he caught up with that ball. Wow, great play...I'd like to see Johnny Damon catch that ball. It would have been a triple if he tried to catch it on the fly like that...

Lets Go Mets...nothing would ease the pain of the last three days like a series win at Yankme Stdm.

Toasty Joe said...

The problem with what Mike and Dog do is that when they compliment the Mets, it's invariably something very short, like "They're good. What else is there to say?" And then they move on to potential negatives. But when they LOSE, they talk for hours about how much they stink.

Anonymous said...

Footnote. Metstra, the hex never even came into play. When the Red Sox were changing pitchers on Wednesday, I asked the Red Sox fan next to me who was coming in to pitch. "I hope it's not Tavarez. I hate that guy." And the Red Sox fan said, "I hope it's not Tavarez, too. That guy sucks!"

Anonymous said...

That series was...pretty painful. I was at Pedro's start, up in the bleachers with a pretty decent contingent of Blue n' Orange.
The seats are really packed together there; an extremely tiny member of Red Sox nation kept kicking me in the back (accidentally? who can say?)whenever they got a big hit, and his parents seemed to take issue with me when I wrathfully cried out "YOU DUMB SON OF A BITCH" at Clumsy McStumbles over in left field.

The "Yankees Suck" and "Fuck the Yankees" chants were pretty lame, if only because their sole purpose seemed to be to get us to join them, and abandon our "Let's Go Mets" chants. (It was pretty heartwarming, actually...we got some pretty good chants going up there, though they didn't seem to spread outside the bleachers. The Sox fans in the area seemed unsure if they were impressed or just amused by our ability to stay behind our team down 8 runs; it sorta reminded me of the dismembered knight in Monty Python.
I'd like to think that I made at least *one* of them legitimately worry that David was about to hit two grand slams, regardless of number of men on base.

In any case, Francesa is a fucking joke, and I hope we take two of three this weekend, because I really, really *don't want to hear it*.

Ed in Westchester said...

My commentary on this past series is simple:

Poo
just Poo.

They stunk, but it was bound to happen. Oooh, a 3 game losing streak, now His Pompousness and The Screaming Ninny get to talk about how the Mets have been exposed. Let me tell you something guys, they ran into a buzzsaw. It happens to all teams. I've seen the Yanks lose more than 3 in a row this year a couple of times. I do not think I have seen them go on a 9-1 stretch. I do see them 4 games out of first.

As for the Dark Lord of the Stupid, he has to learn how to be a real fan. A real fan does not root for the team his team is competing against for a playoff spot. I do not care who they are playing. I did not root for the Braves when they played the Yanks, even though I hate the Yanks. Yank fans better get used to the fact that they need to win the division this year. WC is not going to be there, with the White Sox and Tigers playing so well.

It is interesting that it is we Met fans who are supposed to have the inferioirty complex, yet Yankee fans are rooting for Boston, just to knock the Mets down a peg. Yeah, that's a good idea, lets have the Yanks face a pissed off Met team that just got beaten up by the team we are chasing for the division. Scmucks.

Do I care if they lose this series? Somewhat. But the fact that at worst they will still be 8 games up even if swept allows the bitter taste to be rinsed away easily.
Now, if we happen to go into the Bronx and take 2 of 3, and the Sox sweep, the Yanks fall to 6 out.

I believe I did a good job proofreading, but since unlike the DLotS, I do not have a blog, I don't really care. If I were he, I would be concerned about perception, of people thinking I am a moron since I cannot type simple words correctly, and care so little for my readers that I do not take the time to proofread.

End rant. My apologies for the length. Maybe I should start my own blog.

Let's Go Mets.

Toasty Joe said...

Ed: I'd read it.

Ed in Westchester said...

Sean - Well, the sweep is just a flesh wound. :)
I hope the Mets are the killer rabbit this weekend.

Ed in Westchester said...

Toasty - thanks. I read yours and enjoy it.
Mmmm, sandwiches.

Anonymous said...

Credibility can suck a nut.
In 2003, The Marlins lost to the Red Sox 23-8 and lost the series.
I'm sure it really messed up thier credibility.
Oh wait... Who won that World Series again? The Marlins? Huh? Over the Yankees? Who just came off one of the best ALCS's of all time against the Red Sox?
Oh... guess it doesn't matter.

michael o. said...

Credibility can suck a nut.

Best quote of the year in the comments of the best post of the year. Well done all around.

Anonymous said...

P.S.: People named after cereal should henceforth be disallowed from stealing David's RBIs.

Jaap said...

The Red Sox? Pshaw. Meaningless interleague? Pshaw. 1986. Let them eat that one, let them whoop us when it doesn't matter. The Red Sox are on a roll. Big fucking deal. They won't even knock the White Sox out. They won't even make the World Series. It's a pity Bill Buckner couldn't have been properly sung. Red Sox? Pshaw. Mets, well who the fuck can take them in the NL?
Watered down? Time will tell.
Where is the bloody World Cup coverage is what the expats are asking.

Jaap said...

PS - these word jumbles to log into are getting a bit onorous. Half the time the letters all blend together illegibly. Can't you fix it so all the character codes spell Bill Buckner?

css said...

I'm a lifelong Met fan who has lived in Boston for 15 years, and had front row (OK, 6th row) seats for Wednesday's debacle. Here's what I've learned this week:

a) If these teams meet in the World Series, Pedro can NOT pitch at Fenway. Willie should send him to play with Manny, Papi, Wally the Green Monster, the fans, and his midget if he can find him. However, do not allow him anywhere NEAR the pitcher's mound. I don't care if he has to pitch on 2 day's rest or 9 day's rest - he pitches at Shea and Shea only. Pedro looked like a guy who was invited to his old girlfriend's wedding - and discovered he's still in love with her (or at least he thinks he is).

b) Do the Mets have any starters who can throw a fastball? I know some of them used to be able to do it, but these days it's all 'crafty soft tossers'. Pitting 'crafty soft tossers' against 'crafty, patient veteran hitters' (especially in a small ballpark) equals 'batting practice'. The Mets of '06 can't return to the glory of '86 with everyone pitching like Bobby Ojeda. Get some gas.

c) On that note, Alay Soler is this year's Jae Seo. Get some value while you can, Omar.

d) This week was the best thing that could have happened to Lastings Milledge. I've been terrified that we might be looking at the next Darryl (and I don't mean the home runs). If the kid's humbled a bit, he should be - and it's good for him.

e) The Red Sox are hot but they CAN be stopped. Glavine had them doing nothing but pounding the ball into the turf for 5 innings until he got tired and the ball got up. Then game over. Darren Oliver seemed to figure this out too (although by the time he was in the game was long gone). How come no one else on the staff figured this out?

f) It was nice that Boston fans treated the Mets (and their fans) well (even though I'm now convinced that the Pedro tributes were a nefarious evil plot). Seeing Mr. Met frolicking with Wally the Green Monster was surreal (although my kids - Red Sox fans - loved it). Unfortunately, 'nice' turned into 'pity' pretty quickly. I would have preferred them to be pouring beer on me (as they often do to Yankee fans) rather than the sad head-shaking I've been receiving instead.

It's a long season and it's certainly not the end of the world. But this week definitely s*cked.