Friday, August 08, 2008

Count On David

Fitting that Sesame Street's own Ernie was at Shea today to help teach the many kids in attendance to "Count On Sports". And all those kids that were out there today learned from Jody Gerut that you can always count on sports to give you a tummy ache ... especially when Gerut waits for the Mets series to decide that there's some lineage to Mel Ott in his family.

So remember for all you kids out there (as Keith would say), sometimes ... bullpens suck. You don't have to tell Johan Santana that as he walked off the mound after being pulled from the game in the 8th after a couple of seeing-eye hits ... and his strut wasn't so much a strut but a hunched over shuffle to the dugout as if to say "oh great, another no-decision" as he left with a 3-1 lead. Sure enough, a spectacular double play by Reyes squared and Nick Evans (along with a bonehead slide by Scott Hairston as Glenn Hoffman was waving him around) could only delay the inevitable as Scott Schoeneweis gave up Jody Gerut's latest bomb to snatch yet another W from the ledger of Johan. I think that everyone kind of expected it, as it was a ninth inning that didn't quite feel like a ninth inning as the crowd had a vibe of impending doom. Alas they were right.

But thankfully, sometimes you can count on sports. And you can count on David Wright ... because he's handsome and he's going to save the day as he did Thursday with a walk off jobby off of Heath Bell. The Mets win, yet the kids learn valuable lessons about adversity, being a good teammate, and not being required to like everybody in your bullpen. Everybody wins.

Yes Virginia, you can count on sports.

But on a related note: perhaps putting the clip of Ernie asking Bert to "count the balls" on Diamond Vision isn't the best way to squash the misconception about Bert and Ernie's sexual orientation. Then again, maybe playing the part of the Gwen Stefani song that mentions a "stupid ho" over the sound system isn't the best choice on kids camp day either. Perhaps the following brilliant, fun filled yet potty mouthed ditty could have been played in homage of Bert and Ernie instead.

(Disclaimer: NOT for all you kids out there)



(And speaking of Diamond Vision ... for what was perhaps the defensive play of the year from Reyes squared to Evans, we in the ballpark could have really used a replay of that. The Monkees sing-a-long can wait ten seconds. Just sayin'.)

11 comments:

MetFanMac said...

Some thoughts:

1) The Kids Are All Right. Evans and Murphy had big parts in the victory.
2) Not getting any bullpen help at the trade deadline was a major no-no. At least Minaya could have given the IMPRESSION of trying; all we heard about was rumors involving hitters.
3) This reminded me of the July 24th game, where Perez pitched 7 2/3 stellar innings, but it was Heilman (1/3 IP) who got the win. I vote baseball institute a Retroactive Wins statistic.

ForWhomJayBellTolls said...

I love that Ernie and Burt mash-up. Just like walk-off David Wright homers, it never gets old to me.

Anonymous said...

Although it seemed to disappear rather quickly, I always wondered about the Ernie-steroids rumors. When you look at the shape of his face it really makes you wonder.

Anonymous said...

Did Cookie Monster also explain to the kiddies that C sometimes is for choking bullpen?

I really wouldn't know what to do if I were Manuel. Can't trust anyone in that pen. Omar is combing the waiver wire for some help - don't hold your breath.

I think the only possibility of someone "stepping up" (to use Jerry's words) is Heilman - he's the only one with strikeout stuff and who can get lefties and righties out. Been horrible this year, no question about it, but there's no one else who can get 3 outs in an inning.

katherine said...

The games are a million times more enjoyable now with all the youngsters. Instead of getting some moldy old retread on waivers, the Mets should go with YOUTH! We're going to lose anyway, we might as well do it with the kids. I am would much rather see Eddie Kunz blow a game than, say, Livan Hernandez.

Metstradamus, did the bwaa-ha-ha anonymous commenters get to you finally or is there some other reason you are now screening comments? If you already addressed this, I apologize for having missed it.

Anonymous said...

I was there the day that Jesse Orosco pulled down the number that shows how many days are left at Shea. He looked pretty healthy and might be worth looking at.

TW said...

Three of us were at the game yesterday, one of the three us left in disgust before the top of the ninth wass even over. The other two stayed to watch Wright make things right. My question is, can we strip the other guy of his Met fan status and flog him to death, or just let him go because he was so excited that Brett Farve is a Jet?

The Evans part of that double play was very promising. I like the fact that these kids can play several positions, maybe we can dump some of the old men we've had as utility players next season and keep these guys on.

At the beginning of the game I commented that because of David's poor play the night before that it would be a perfect time to give Murphy a shot at third and David a day off.

I guess that's why I'm not a manager, huh?

Anonymous said...

for all of the great stats David compiles, he has not had a lot of these kinds of hits, and, by his own admission, this is his first walkoff HR, ever--including tee ball. hard to believe, but true. and a little disturbing. still, the bullpen is what will eventually destroy us. thank you omar, for bringing back all the old familiar faces.

Anonymous said...

I didn't mind the anonymous bwah bwah guy (and I do think he was acting alone). I think we can all take a little ribbing. Hell, growing up a Mets fan in the 70's gives you a pretty thick skin.

The guy probably had nothing else in life but to come here and write that nonsense, claiming to be a fan of the Yankees and whoever the Mets were playing. I pity him.

Metstradamus said...

To answer your question, there's actually other spam ... honest to goodness spam ... that I'm trying to filter out. They target posts that are much older, like months older.

That being said, I'm not against free speech. But I am against the same, tired stupidity over and over again.

Thomas said...

I want to know what the song in the Ernie and Bert song was. Because it was awesome.