Turning On A Dime

I'm sure many of you were excited to see Gary Matthews Jr. hustle all the way to second on the wind blown base hit he had to lead off Thursday's game against St. Louis. And why wouldn't you be? It's that kind of hustle that has been magnified whenever the Mets showed a lack of it on the basepaths for the last few seasons, or when their opponents hustle to cap off horrible Mets losses to be replayed on YES until the end of time (see: Teixeira, Mark).

So when The Corporal busted it to second, you got a little giddy. I don't blame you.

Now, those of you who admitted you were giddy ... you were the same people who were more giddy later in the day when you found out the Reds had some interest in Matthews, weren't you? Ah? Ah? Come on, admit it. I'll admit it. I was one of those people too.

Well here's your wet blanket: The Reds have denied the allegations ... swiftly and emphatically. They didn't even use the word "investigate" five times in the same sentence. Though they did mention five other outfielders they would rather have than Corporal. No truth to the rumor that one of them was Moises Alou.

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On another note completely, I've seen Ike Davis get two hits, including Thursday's grand slam. You know when you're hungover, and some idiot decides it's a good idea to slam his books on the table and normally it wouldn't bother you but you're hungover and your idiot friend's books sound like the bass drum playing the 1812 Overture? Yeah, that's what those Ike Davis hits sound like.

Buffalo's going to be really good this year (cough ... don't rush him ... cough).

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In close to five years doing this, I've never typed the name "Kiko Calero" in this space. Now that he's a Met, I'm sure this isn't going to be the last time. The key will be: What will I type after "Kiko Calero"? Will it be "big strikeout"? Or will it be ... "James Andrews"?