Monday, April 28, 2008

Three The Hard Way

It was a daunting task to salvage this Braves series after the horrid outing on Friday night, as they came into the weekend staring down Tim Hudson and John Smoltz.

But oh miracle of miracles, both were chased over the weekend, and everything is right in Met-land ... at least for now.

Chasing Hudson on Saturday alone after three innings was a phenomenal feat considering the success he's enjoyed against the Mets last season (only 2-2, but a 3.33 ERA and a 1.11 WHIP last season). It was so phenomenal that I sat in my chair thinking "nah, he has to be hurt." But sure enough, he's not.

Smoltz however, could very well be hurt as he felt discomfort in his shoulder after his shaky four innings of work during Sunday's Met win. Many, Braves fans and Mets fans alike, will poo-poo the two wins over Atlanta as a result of Smoltz not feeling his best and Larry Jones not playing at all. Valid. But for you Braves fans that come with that argument remember this: Injuries are something that your Braves came into this season being prone/ripe for. It's not like the Braves are suffering freak injuries to guys like Mark Teixeira and Tim Hudson and Jeff Francoeur ... guys who are in their prime and didn't have the injury tag following them. This is happening to the guys over or nearing 40: Jones, who hasn't been injury free since he was telling us to put our Yankee gear on, and Smoltz, who's been healthy since missing all of '00 and most of '01 but is over 40. And let's not forget Tom Glavine, who's never been on the DL until now ... over the age of 40.

(And don't get me started on Mike Hampton.)

Those are the guys that many who picked the Braves to win the World Series (I'm looking at you, Jayson Stark) cited as big reasons. So downgrade the significance of the Mets weekend victories. It's valid. But you're also downgrading your argument about the Braves being a serious World Series contender.

The Mets don't have that to lean on as an excuse, but they do have an old guy in Carlos Delgado who has been awful lately ... until his two solo HR's today which accomplished one very important thing: It made me feel better about ordering that discounted Delgado jersey that I seriously thought about burying underneath the Jackie Robinson rotunda when it comes in the mail.

But Delgado did not want to take a curtain call. Apparently the Shea crowd has become the husband that stayed out carousing all night, and then coming home to his wife (Delgado) and did nothing to berate her and call her things like "fat" and "mean" and "lousy in bed" and "can't hit a curve ball" for weeks. Then all of a sudden the husband tries to make it up to her by buying her flowers, but the wife is still mad so she doesn't reciprocate by baking those Toll House cookies he likes. So Delgado and the fans have a strained relationship right now.

I wonder if Delgado stopped and took the time to think: "WWJD"?

And of course, that stands for "What Would Julio Franco Do?"

"I've got a great deal of respect for the game, and I don't think that's the place for a curtain call." -Carlos Delgado
I hope that the same fans who have been complaining that the Mets lost last year because Jose Reyes and Lastings Milledge fired other clubs up by dancing too much don't come out now and say that Delgado should have taken a curtain call.

That's of course assuming that they buy Delgado's explanation, and don't dismiss it as covering up a desire to stick it to the fans for booing him. Although when you look up "Carlos Delgado Curtain Call" on Google Images, you really don't find a picture of Delgado taking a curtain call. So I'm not sure what to make of it. I just hope Delgado's hitting continues and that I don't get booed at Shea when I wear his jersey.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've read that Delgado has only taken two curtain calls in his life; the first was during a 4 homerun game, and the second was when he hit some milestone (HR X00).

Anonymous said...

I love the injury excuse - we beat the Phillies without Rollins and the Braves without Chipper and a healthy Smoltz. Right. Well, we did it without our starting catcher, leftfielder and number 2 starter, and while our shortstop, first baseman, third baseman and centerfielder all were undergoing horrendous slumps. Injury excuse? I think not.

The curtain call thing - Delgado respects the game too much to give a curtain call after a solo homer, but has no problem dancing a two step with Reyes outside the dugout? Hmmm, not really convincing CD. Even so, the curtain call thing does not bother me a bit. I never really liked curtain calls after every homer (or every hit in Gary Carter's case).

katherine said...

Hilarious.
The fans booed Carlos Delgado because he is doing poorly. So he refused to take a curtain call when they finally cheered him. And then they booed him for refusing to take a curtain call. So now he'll refuse to take the next curtain call because of the refused-curtain-call boos.

I think that's called a negative feedback loop.

Demitri said...

Yeah the injury thing is getting old. You should have read the Philly inquirer - such crybabies, saying they can't win without Rollins or Victorino.

Anonymous said...

Oh crap, no Larry? Smoltz under the weather? Well, then, just give the poor little Braves the two games. Here you go, Braves, you win. So who is giving us the wins that we're owed while Pedro and Alou are on the DL?

Anonymous said...

How do you talk about "Three the Hard Way" without a single Third Bass reference? Why I oughtta ....

Click my name above, boyee!

katherine said...

Can I tell you about a dream I had last night? Because if I tell anyone at work about this they will probably insist I take a leave of absence.

I dreamed that I turned on my TV to find that the Mets game had not been rained out as I had thought, and that the Mets were playing Atlanta and the game was in it's 32nd inning.

Finally after several more innings, Tom Glavine came up to bat for the Braves with a man on third and 1 out. He bunted and Carlos D fielded it cleanly, tossed it to home plate, where it bounced off of the chest of the catcher, allowing the winning run to score.

Anonymous said...

BWAHAHAHA! isn't it great when liberals turn on other liberals. Delgado refuses to honor the flag and support making Iraq free, now all the new york liberals no longer support him and boo him without mercy.

Isn't it great how loyals liberals are? No wonder Bush is the best president this country has ever had. He freed us from Liberals.

BWAHAHAHA! I love it!