The one thing that always bothered me about Willie Randolph was the fact that he wouldn't go out and protect his players while they were getting into it with umpires. So you'll forgive me for being excited when Jerry Manuel went out to protect Carlos Beltran in his argument with the highly unprofessional Brian Runge (isn't nepotism wonderful), and then got ejected for "getting" bumped. Of course, Beltran went and got himself run anyway for saying the magic word (which according to Beltran was the highly toxic four-letter word "
weak"), but at least finally the team has escaped the tyranny of the stoic arm folding of Willie Randolph and are on the same page with its manager.
Except that page they're on? It's in a book that has ripped pages, pages with mustard stains on them, the glue in the binding is coming apart, and the paperback cover has been stolen. In fact, the book that tells the tale of the 2008 Mets' season will do more to promote illiteracy than
Officer Barbrady ever did. Who wants to read after that?
In the long run, it's nice to have team harmony. It's nice to have a manager stick up for you. And despite Beltran's refusal to take the bait of the beat reporters after the game and say that yeah, Willie Randolph never went and stuck up for us so he basically lost us, you can't say for sure he wasn't thinking it. But team harmony, however nice it may be, unfortunately means nothing when your lineup at the
end of the night have averages of .293, .258, .205, .230, .148, .254 (which was .224 to start the night), .265, and .234, and can't do anything off of Robert Allen Dickey or Rodney Allen Rippy.
Oh, and your starting pitcher makes Barry Zito look crisp.
(Editor's Note: Kenji Johjima, a .218 hitter with two home runs this season, hit a bomb off of Oliver Perez.)To sum up, the Mets lost
11-0 ... to the worst team in baseball. Yes ... to be the worst you have to get beat by the worst. Our team, at this time, has hit yet another rock bottom. I can't imagine a lower plateau unless Newtown High School suddenly appears on the schedule. (Don't laugh:
they're over .500 unlike a certain other team that plays in Queens.)
Well you thought you were going to have a special Christmas gift under your tree. Instead, you're preparing yourself for Omar Minaya to bring back Tom O'Malley and teach him to play left field at the age of 49 (just a year and a half older than Julio Franco). Well cheer up. Because Omar and The Acquisitions have put together a special Christmas video just for you. So Merry Christmas and get your ticket deposit money ready. (By the way, those "convenience charges" on your Ticketmaster bill ... they went towards the production values for this thing.)
