Kristina Horner is one of a handful of bloggers who have entered a contest to be able to blog from Antarctica. Certainly, it's a unique and interesting experience, as although people are stationed there at various times, only "cold-adapted plants and animals survive there."I don't need to enter a contest to enter a desolate region. Definitely not tonight, for at this very moment, I'm in Washington, DC. Where the locals distract themselves from the latest foible from their beloved Redskins in many ways ... beer, politics, talking politics over a beer, stalking Alex Ovechkin, and the like. For a few, brave souls, they forget about a loss to the Lions by turning to baseball in the beltway ... the Washington Nationals ... as they combine with the New York Mets to form a rivalry with a long history, fierce competition, and 193 losses combined. There may or may not be more losses in the building then there are actual fans. But for the Nationals' faithful who've arrived, they do so because they love their baseball, and they know that a bright future is just around the corner.
For the Mets' faithful who've come all the way from New York City, they do so because they need acute mental observation. Nevertheless, I'm here ... nine innings, 193 losses, one deranged blogger.
This ...
is Baseball's Antarctica. Only broken hearts and long festering angst can survive there.
Tuesday's game featured all of the broken hearts and long festering angst you're used to seeing live, except with gray uniforms. It really was a microcosm of the season: Mets have a chance to break the game open in the first inning with bases loaded and one out but only score one run instead of the three or four they should have scored. Mike Pelfrey has his bad inning. Mets have a chance to take the lead back with, again, bases loaded and nobody out in the seventh, but score nothing. ("Ooh, we have the bases loaded, who's up? Brian Schneider! Oh, let's get on that Five Guys line.") Stellar defense featuring Anderson Hernandez and Luis Castillo (and by "stellar", I mean "stellar is to abominable as Gold Glove is to Anderson Hernandez and Luis Castillo". And these are the defensive specialists, no?
Then top it off with a heartbreaking ending in which Elijah Dukes (who's defense is also "stellar" at times), makes a spectacular wall crashing catch on a ball which, if it had ten, maybe fifteen more feet on it, would have been in my lap. Seriously ... I'm the guy in the Mets jersey in the front row standing up and stopping my camera because I think this projectile his headed right for me. Seeing that a Metropolitan hit it, I should know better ... I probably would have had the youtube video of the year. Instead, I have a drunk guy in a suit putting his arm around me screaming "Meeeeeeeeets Loooooooose!!!" after saying nothing for nine innings. Awesome.
Oh, and the pointless "Let's put Frankie in down by one" move by our fearless leader which only served to keep the game close so that Dukes can win the game right in front of my nose. Rub it in, why don't ya.
The expedition continues on Wednesday.
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Some other oddities:
5 comments:
When I saw that first picture, my reaction was: "Yes, this game and season DOES feel like being trampled to death by penguins--slow, surreal and eventually fatal."
You treked to D.C. to watch a Mets-Nats game AND you wore a Mets jersey?
That settles it MD, YOU'RE the mvp of the season.
Please. MVP's don't get posterized. And Elijah Dukes posterized me.
If for no other reason, last night's game should convince Mets management to dump the moron who manages the team. Over the last three weeks the Mets have played gutless, uninspired, sloppy baseball. They just want the season to end. Instead of jaking it, a la Wright last week, Dukes face plants into the wall to make the final out. This from a guy on baseball's worst team, playing for nothing but pride. The Mets have no pride, haven't had it in years. That's how they repay their fans. In 2007 and 2008 the Nats and Marlins had nothing to play for by September other than play spoiler. Every one of the games they played the Mets was a battle, with the Mets coming out on the short end both years. Pride, pure and simple. We saw none of that from the Mets this month. Manuel has to be held accountable for the uninspired, lazy, bonehead baseball the Mets have played all year. Let him take his tired quips and chuckles somewhere else.
Oh, I am with The Metmaster on this one. It has been a sad, sad season and Manuel has to go. When even David Wright looks like he is phoning it in there's a bigger problem than an injury epidemic.
At least the Nats only memorialize other teams/players with photos on poles. We have a whole rotunda dedicated to someone who had never even played AGAINST the Mets let alone with them. Like a Tom Seaver Rotunda would have been a bad thing? As great as Robinson was, the whole thing still steams me. A shiny new ballpark that is a shrine to the owner's youth and a team that turned it into a field of nightmares.
Sunday cannot come soon enough.
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