Former MLB commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti once warned us that baseball is a game that's "designed to break your heart". What he failed to mention to me was that baseball is also capable of ripping out your still beating heart and showing it to you. Then, it has the ability to eat your heart in front of you and your children. And just as an FYI, baseball will think nothing of eating your children.Bart Giamatti never warned me about those things. Thus, I still watch this stupid game. And I witness things like Mike Pelfrey, like a bolt from the blue, pitch eight brilliant innings (yes, Mike Pelfrey) ... only to watch Country Time come into the ninth and blow it. But not just any blown save, a blown save where the pitch before the game tying three run home run actually hits Mark Reynolds in the toe, clearly shown on replay, yet the home plate ump looked for shoe polish and saw none, and allowed Reynolds to continue his at-bat. Of course, and as I suspected would happen, Reynolds took the next pitch and smacked it towards the back of the picnic area to tie the game while the Mets had them down to the last strike.
It's a game designed to put you in a rubber room.
So even as the Mets came back and won it on a stirring walk-off home run by Carlos Beltran in the 13th, somehow this still feels like a loss. The Mets used to have a way of making losses feel like wins for whatever reason. Now, they win on a walk-off home run in the 13th and all I can think about is how the bullpen is now unnecessarily gassed for Thursday's afternoon game, and that David Wright should have hit one of the five strikes he saw from Edgar Gonzalez in the 13th inning in play and not foul. Maybe I'm only thinking that way to keep myself from writing some dribble about "this is the win that will get our team going", and then going and shouting it from the rooftops in my underwear while offering my Mike Piazza bobblehead as a sacrifice to the baseball gods. But that's how I'm thinking.
It's a game designed to make you use plastic bags as toys.
And of course, I'm also thinking about how Moises Alou can't stay healthy for nine innings, and how his latest calf injury has reduced him to a bumbling mess:
"I'm embarrassed to walk in here and look at my teammates with what they're going through right now," Alou said. "I wish I could stand here talking about getting a game-winning hit instead of, 'I'm hurt, I'm hurt, I'm hurt.'Shakespeare once said that "the fault lies not in our stars but in ourselves". Moises, you're a star ... hence it's not your fault. Your star is simply fading. Dude ... you're 41. These things happen to 41 -year -old ballplayers. So the fault lies not in our stars, but in our general managers for realistically expecting 41-year-olds to play 130 games.
"It's the story of my life. It's not what I want to talk about, it's not what the fans want to hear."
It's a game designed to tighten your calf during rain delays.
Thanks for the advance warning, Bart.
***
But on the bright side, looks like the whole punctuality thing will not be an issue anymore for our friend, Fluff Castro.
Flu-ffy Fluuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuff!
11 comments:
That was EXACTLY what I was thinking--that even though it goes into the column as a "W", it feels like somehow this was really a loss that eveybody was just fooled into thinking was a win.
Put another way, we didn't deserve it.
"I'm not drinking any %#$@% merlot!!"
--Bart Giamatti's son
Flava Flav clock wearing Castro is a goddamned riot. Awesome.
Totally agree. Feels like a nine inning game where Pelfrey goes 4 1/3 and throws 100 pitches.
Its a sad state that we as Mets fans have been brought to this state, especially on a night when both the Braves and Phillies lost in such convincing fashion.
Does David Wright look exhausted to anyone else? Willie should give him a day off, soon.
All I could think of when Billy gave up that homer was Unser, who was at the game and had hoped for a 2 hour resolution - win or lose.
Unser - did you stay or go???
I also can't get at all excited about the ending of the game. Especially since, for a minute, I wondered if they were showing another replay of a Beltran walkoff homer from 2006, which they had confused me with earlier in the game.
I am very happy for Mike P, though. Even if he didn't get the W. It seems as though he has grown up before our eyes in the past year. He has a different look in his eyes now, he used to look chronically bewildered. And what happened to the mouth piece? I am glad not to have to look at that every 5th day.
Metstra - on the hate list, is the RJ Reynolds a baseball player or the Tobacco Company?
BTW - you forgot Harold Reynolds.
That place was silent after Reynolds' bomb (and it was a bomb). Reminded me of the silence after Pendleton's HR in '87.
Wright looks exhausted to me, but what's Willie's choice with Moises and Church out? Right now, we've got only 3 legitimate hitters in the line-up - I'm surprised Beltran got anything near the plate in the 13th.
Fellas, and lady, can we just enjoy a win even if it almost wasn't and made you want to jump off a bridge. Being a Met fan is hard enough now we can't even enjoy wins?
Is it time to put Alou on the 60 day yet. We could bring up Murphy long enough to play a little outfield and spell Davey for a game.
..Wait a minute, Philly lost and we won, oh boy, we're going on a run!!
No. Joylessness is being at Shea like moi, starving more for a burger than a win after they blew it for Pelf (why do they close the pathetic food areas so early?---$9 greasy chicken sounds good at 10pm), watch the DBacks pen throw a shotout (9 innings with no runs and a hit or two) and after Beltran finally got to a pitcher with am ERA over 6, say: Thank gawd I'll get a seat on the 7...
This team has no mojo. Willie should know Wagner's rituals by now, too---he is ONLY effective starting the 9th in a save opportunity. He's your 21st Century Schizoid Pitcher.
Good game, Pelf!
Foxsports reporting that Mets management is not happy with Randolph's decision making. They were not pleased that he let Pelfrey hit and start in the 9th last night. Wagner's record of coming into a game in the middle of an inning is a lot worse than if he comes in to start the inning. The article says that Pelfrey talked Randolph into it. Who's running the asylum?
WAL-LY BACK-MAN, WAL-LY BACK-MAN!
If the Mets had balls that's the guy who should be hired. With some of the crap the players have been doing lately outside the lines, Wally's past sins make him look like an altar boy in comparison. Let's not forget that the "smartest man in baseball" was found dead drunk and fast asleep at the wheel during spring training and he's still gainfully employed. It's time for Wally-Ball!
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