Runnin' With Baby Aspirin

The Mets season has been saved by the wonder drug known as baby aspirin. I hope for Tom Glavine's sake, the Mets at least prescribe the cherry flavor for him.

In an unrelated story, Pedro Martinez was recently seen in the trainers room rubbing Robitussin on his ailing calf to help him come back sooner.

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Mike's Mets has been nailing it on the head on the Glavine story...first noting that many of the New York scribes had used Glavine's condition as an excuse to bury the Mets, while taking more unnecessary pot shots at Paul Lo Duca in the process. Today, Mike (with dog in tow) explains that everyone has been tearing ACL's jumping off the Mets bandwagon in favor of Braves West...otherwise known as the Greg Maddux and Rafael Furcal fortified Dodgers. It will be fun to watch all of these writers hit the brakes, turn a doughnut in their Volvos, and race back down to the other end of their Met bashing highway.

(Key Orel Hershiser stat from the annals of Baseball Tonight...at least I think that's where I heard it: The Dodgers have more infield hits than home runs...and the last four teams to make the playoffs with more infield hits than home runs have been knocked out in the first round. So until Kirk Gibson is activated, I'm not worried.)

Of course, many of these scribes are the same ones that are now revising history and telling us that because Derek Jeter tied one of the Red Sox games last weekend, that he should have won past MVP awards...as Chris Carlin had noted during one of his solliloquies on WFAN the other morning. To paraphrase:

"You know, up until now, there hasn't really been an outcry that Derek Jeter was cheated out of an MVP award. Well, after this Red Sox series, maybe it's time for that outcry."

How about we just give it to him this year and call it a freakin' day? Or is there a new rule that every single thing written and spoken about Derek Jeter must be reverential?

Bite me.

And while I'm at it, the Yankees and Red Sox should never be allowed to play baseball against each other again. These overhyped "Deer Hunter" six hour games have gotta stop before I start playing Russian Roulette with six bullets in the chamber. Johnny Damon and Bobby Abreu are making KGB from Rounders crazy..."all day long with your take! Take! Take!"

Right now, the only thing worth watching regarding the Red Sox is Dennis Leary.

But what the Yankees sweep of the Red Sox did prove is that the only thing that matters with this whole American League dominance nonsense is how each team enters the World Series. If the Mets played the Red Sox now, for instance, I doubt the result would have been a Red Sox sweep as it was in late June. However, that's just a hypothetical...the schedule was what it was, just like league alignment is what it is.

However true American League dominance is (and when you look at the interleague records this season, it is very true indeed), it's hard for me to take any talk about it seriously because it seems a convenient excuse for the Yankee biased media to poo-poo the Mets record this season. The clear fact is that none of that matters until we get to October. Outside of stealing Billy Wagner from the Phillies, it isn't the Mets fault that the rest of the National League stinks! Did Omar Minaya, for example, let Leo Mazzone go to Baltimore? Did Omar Minaya trade Bobby Abreu and Cory Lidle for two flat beers and a three pack of VHS tapes? Did Omar Minaya respond to Mark Mulder's injury by signing Jeff Weaver? Can we blame Omar Minaya for Kerry Wood and Mark Prior tearing every muscle in their bodies?

NO!

But that is the tone of what a lot of the media tells you.

So don't believe the hype, boys and girls. Please know that when you feel that there isn't a writer or an insider or even a headline writer in all of New York City that will stop rubbing Derek Jeter's feet long enough to pay the Mets a compliment or two when it's deserved, remember that you have options. Mike and his dog (not to be confused with Mike and the Mad Dog) are there to guide you, as are our other Mets friends in the blogosphere. And remember: no matter who wins or loses, the only thing that matters is who wins and loses in October. Nothing else.