Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Remember Our Heroes...Forget The Game

The ceremonies before Tuesday night's game remind us all that we should never forget the events of 9/11/2001, nor the heroes that emerged that day. For most of us, we don't need ceremonies to remind us.

But feel free to forget all of the actual baseball you saw after those ceremonies. (Not that there was much actual baseball that occurred.)

All last night's game accomplished was to put a hint of doubt in the minds of Mets brass...in the last two weeks, Orlando Hernandez has sandwich a foot injury with two pieces of soggy bread...a collapse against Philadelphia in the coupe de grace of their now meaningless sweep, and an eight run disaster against the Braves. Hernandez has been the Mets' biggest money pitcher this season, but let's face it: he's old. And he's liable to get a lot older at any time. Is this that time? It isn't as if the Mets don't have the luxury of being able to plug John Maine back into the postseason rotation (assuming you believe that Maine is indeed the odd man out when October starts) if Hernandez continues to falter in his next few starts. It wouldn't be an overreaction to think about putting Hernandez in the 'pen after two bad starts...it's just a reflection of the good problem the Mets have in having five solid pitchers to choose from.

Besides, we know from his White Sox days in 2005 that Hernandez would be useful out of the bullpen. And we know from this season that at the very least, he could be a good pinch runner in the playoffs. After all, he has two stolen bases this season, which is two more than Tim Hudson has. Maybe if Tim Hudson was a better baserunner, he wouldn't have gotten picked off second base on Monday. And maybe if Tim Hudson wouldn't have gotten picked off second base on Monday, he wouldn't be whining and hiding behind the imaginary unwritten rule of pitchers not picking off pitchers.

6 comments:

MetFanMac said...

And in that same article we have Larry Effing Jones complaining, "It's very hard [to accept]. This is my favorite place in the league to play."
Tell me, is there any other a**hole in baseball HISTORY who has said anything like that??

Anonymous said...

I thought it was also an unwritten rule that pitchers don't take big enough leads to score from second with a single to the outfield. Oh, and what about the rule that players don't complain to the media about "unwritten rules."

Anonymous said...

I'll be watching at least part of the game tonight ... I need Maine to put in a quality start for me to feel good about him again.

Mets Guy in Michigan said...

Excellent!

Coop said...

Tim hudson is a whiny b*tch. it isn't like he hasn't been in the NL for two years now, he should know better. Good for Oh Pea to pick him off. Yeah here's an idea - how about the unwritten rule where the pitcher actually WANTS to compete and win the game. shyeah right

Anonymous said...

Hey Metstra. Please put Belicheck on the top of your hate list. He is a cheat and a jerk. Hopefully the league will suspend him, take some draft picks, and overturn the result of the game last Sunday.