Thursday, May 17, 2007

I Give This One An A-minus

Even Filip Bondy has to admit that when the Mets aren't giving steroids to your kids, writing offensive song lyrics, and causing general disarray for America's youth, they're playing pretty good baseball.

And as today's 6-5 miracle showed, even when the Mets aren't playing good baseball, they're playing good baseball.

Let's face it, with the lineup that Willie Randolph put out there today, the Mets had no business winning today. None. Ruben Gotay (who let a "cramped" Jose Reyes rest) and David Newhan up the middle? Fluff Castro filling in for Paul Lo Duca? Julio Franco at third base? Jason Vargas on the hill? This was a throwaway game. A Sunday lineup designed to do nothing else but rest the troops for the Yankees series.

This was a game designed to give Jason Vargas a renewed idea about what it's like to be in the major leagues, and not necessarily to have him pitch the way he did over the first five innings.

This was a game designed for me to remind you all that former Brooklyn Cyclone Angel Pagan still has the best name in baseball history. Remember when you had Jim Gott ("Gott" meaning "God" in German) facing Tim Teufel ("Teufel" translated in German meaning "Devil"), and you had those titanic struggles between good and evil and it felt good rooting for evil? Well now you have Angel Pagan. That's an internal titanic struggle resulting in evil consequences for the Mets when boiled over.

This was a game designed, at 5-1 down in the ninth, to remind us that you can't win 'em all. Instead, it reminded us that you can win on any given day. You can win any given game where Ryan Dempster is pitching in the ninth. You can win any given game where everybody is expecting Randolph to pinch hit for Gotay in the ninth with David Wright and Jose Reyes on the bench, but instead he lets Gotay hit and he keeps the rally going with a hit to drive in the third run.
"Nice job by my A-minus boys" -Willie Randolph
You can win any given game where David Wright gets a big single in his first ever pinch hitting appearance, and any given game where Carlos Delgado...0 for 4 and a batting average closer to my weight than his...is up with the bases loaded and no shift put on him, which let that little grounder get through to the outfield to score the tying and winning runs.

Yes, you can win any given game. Three given games come this weekend. One team is hot, one team is not. I've learned that in these situations it's best to stay cautious and stay focused. They say you "throw away the records" when certain teams meet. Well, the Mets were really good at throwing away the records when their record wasn't that good. Now that the tables are turned, we need to learn to throw them away still. It isn't going to be easy to throw the records away. However, I'm thankful that the record is one game better than what it really should have been.

8 comments:

Ceetar said...

It was a great game to be at :-)

And Carlos Gomez still looks good.

The Yankees look like a train wreck, and the Mets seem to be driving the train. It's hard to imagine the Mets not burning through these next 6 games on a hot streak. Darrel Rasner? Tyler Clippard? Now the Yankees can get hot at any time, but people have been saying that all season, and they have yet to do so. Excepting against Texas anyway, Maybe they should've seen that as a sign that all things Texas are bad, rockets included.

QueensGuy said...

You know what was particularly awesome about this win? The fact that there were 10,000 grade school kids in attendance. The team just secured an extra 5,000 in annual attendance for the next 60 years. This is the kind of game that turns a casual, along for the ride fan into a lifelong fan.

Anonymous said...

The Mets are playing some exciting ball and they haven't even hit their stride yet. I couldn't think of a worse time to be facing these guys. The Yankees are playing their worst ball since 1993 and the pitching staff has just been horrible. Murderers Row 2007 hasn't been hitting either. The Mets have no business giving up more than a game this weekend. Keep praying for rainouts until Rocket comes.

Anonymous said...

Great thoughts. By the way, Gott is god rather than "angel" Two bad Angel Pagan didn't have a chance to get tagged out by Damion (demon) Easley....

Anonymous said...

Mets have to avoid hubris. Queens has to avoid rain. I have to avoid killing Yankees fans in the UR on Saturday. And the upcoming Braves series is more relevant...

I hate interleague play. The only time I want the Mets to play a DH is on the road in October.

Anonymous said...

Forgive me if this is old news, but I just saw Derek Jeter on the cover of AVON magazine. Does this mean David Wright is next?

Ed in Westchester said...

Forgive me if this is old news, but I just saw Derek Jeter on the cover of AVON magazine. Does this mean David Wright is next?

*Ed calls Omar and ensures theis does not happen.*

Anonymous said...

AVON??

isnt it a cosemtic magazine/catalog??