Christmas In August

It started innocently enough, with two outs and nobody on base in the sixth and the FOX announcers talking about how the Phillies may have found the right chemistry on their team after trading Bobby Abreu and Cory Lidle to the Yankees (as if that was the plan all along).

Jon Lieber had the Carlos Beltran tapper in his hands...all he had to do was toss it to a waiting Ryan Howard to end the inning. Instead, the Mets scored three runs to take the lead without looking back as all talk of Pat Gillick having a master plan ended right then and there as all attempts at revisionist history was stopped in its tracks. Lieber's errant throw and Pat Burrell's inability to catch a fly ball I(on Wright's and Endy Chavez's fly balls) contributed to the Mets' comeback. I'm touched that Lieber and Burrell would be so thoughtful as to send the Mets some early Christmas gifts.

Of course, Country Time Wagner had to give us all more palpitations by putting runners on first and third with two outs after Ryan Howard and pinch hitter Chase Utley put themselves on third and first base, and Mike Lieberthal sent a 3-2 pitch screaming down the left field line, but before you could get the words "tie game" out of your mouth, there was David Wright to save the day, as he did once before against these very Phillies in their park, with a diving backhanded stop. And although he only needed one out this time, it didn't make the moment more spectacular.

On June 22nd, David Wright was hitting .338. On June 23rd, Tom Glavine got win number 11. It hasn't quite been fun times since then for those two. Wright's average had dropped 30 points going into today, and Glavine was stuck on 11 victories. Today, it's Wright's refusal to let his slump follow him to third base that secured win number 12 for Glavine, who is currently sending a gift basket to the Wright residence for this very special Christmas in August.

Small Consolation

So I'm guessing you all are amazed by my reverse psychological impact on Chase Utley's hitting streak. By putting Joe DiMaggio on the August 4th hate list and mentioning that there was a small part of me that wanted Utley to extract the wife beater from the record books, I basically ensured that Utley's hit streak would bite the dust tonight, which it did. Thank you, I'll be here all week. Try the veal, tip your waitress.

Now what I should have done was tell you all how much I like David Dellucci and Ryan Howard...the guys that actually defeated the Mets tonight.

Keep in mind that those are two guys who, in their career, are hitting .205 and .220 against left handed pitching. Of course, Dellucci takes Cousin Oliver deep, and Ryan Howard went yard off of Willie Montanez.

I mean, Pedro Feliciano. The new number threw me off a little bit.

But the bright spot was seeing another old geezer leg himself three bases. Thursday night it was the flu ridden Julio Franco on a single/two base error. Friday, Orlando Hernandez (yes, Orlando Hernandez) drove one off of the left field wall to the surprise of Dellucci, who crashed and crumpled against the left field wall allowing Hernandez to get all the way to third base. Ron Darling couldn't stop talking about how Orlando cadillacked it towards first base thinking he had a home run, then turned on the jets after the ball hit the wall.

I for one, couldn't tell the difference.

But these people are too old to be running around in this heat. I mean, isn't the first thing you hear on the news during a heat spell is to keep your pets and old people indoors? And these two AARP eligible gentlemen are running around out there in extreme heat with various ailments like the flu and high socks? This treatment borders on abuse if you ask me...and I blame Con Edison.

As long as I'm rambling, how pissed off is Utley that the guy that defensively robbed him of his streak is a guy who lists second base as his weakest position?

Here's more creepy stuff: If Chase Utley had made it to game 56 with the streak still intact, he would have had a chance to tie DiMaggio at Shea Stadium.

Utley is tied for the longest hit streak by a second baseman...Luis Castillo also had a 35 game hitting streak in 2002. If Castillo would have made it to 56, he too would have had a chance to tie DiMaggio at Shea Stadium.

Oooooooh!

I don't know what it all means, but the Metstradamus crack staff has also unearthed that Chase Utley's personal assistant is named Lincoln, and Luis Castillo's financial advisor is named Kennedy.

Who knew?

Target Practice?

When next we find Pedro Martinez on an off day, he will most likely have that red wiffle bat in his hands. Will he be using that bat to beat over the heads of his bullpen? And will Aaron Heilman be deserving of that beating?

Petey hasn't been treated very well by his bullpen in the past, especially in '05 when the likes of Braden Looper and Dae Sung Koo having roles that were too important for them. This season, now that Heilman has a role that might be way too important for him, it might be starting all over again for Martinez. It's a shame, because in his second start back from injury (the second start is the one that worries trainers after coming back from a prolonged injury) he looked outstanding while soft tossing the Marlins to death.

Not only was Pedro's start wasted, but the flu ridden Julio Franco had to run all the way to third base after Jeremy Hermida let Egg Whites' single go all the way to the wall for a two base error. Now Julio Franco is of average to slow speed to begin with...but Julio Franco with a flu runs like Pitfall Harry in quicksand. And watching Franco stand on third with that pained "get me outta here" look on his face reminded me of Joe Montana sitting on the bench after Leonard Marshall blindsided him in the playoffs looking like he was going to hurl. And that three base debacle was important as Jose Reyes drove him home with a groundout to tie the game at one.

But on comes Aaron Heilman to walk the park and Miguel Cabrera to crush the Mets spirit again like he did in the All-Star game by not diving (notice Cabrera dove today for a grounder? Thanks a lot). This brings up a question with Aaron Heilman: Most of Heilman's good outings last season came when there was nothing on the line. When given big spots, he declined. This season, he was good in bigger spots until after the first Yankees series. But now, forced into the role of eighth inning guy, Heilman has had two good outings and one awful one. So here's the question: Will Aaron Heilman eventually become the new Doug Sisk? Heilman has gone from trade bait to having a more important role than he had. And it's really a shock that he's still here but certain circumstances dictated that. But will the Shea faithful take it out on Heilman if he doesn't come through as we took it out on Sisk from 1985-1987? While I can't imagine a player being treated as horribly as Sisk was treated back in the mid-80's, Mets fans who attend games this season may see Heilman as the player who will turn out to jeopardize the Mets chances in the postseason. I for one, fairly or not, don't like his chances.

***

Jose Reyes was locked up today for four years.

***

So Darryl Strawberry has chosen not to be at the 1986 championship reunion...after decking himself out in full Yankee regalia for old timers day to play the part of Joe Pepitone's clubhouse kid.

While there is a growing part of me that thinks I should probably wait until Strawberry divulges his reasons I have to ask a question to Mets fans: how many times is Darryl Strawberry going to betray our fan base?

First it was 1988-1990, when all Strawberry talked about was how much he wanted to play in Los Angeles with the Dodgers before finally going there.

Then, he admits during a recent interview that his obsession with the Dodgers and subsequent move there was the greatest regret in his baseball career.

Now, he shuns the organization where he spent his greatest years...and the team which won the only World Series of its era by not showing up to the only 20th anniversary the 1986 Mets will ever have...in favor of honoring a franchise for which he was the 10,483rd greatest player in their history, by showing up to a yearly event where all of the really good players are too old to pick up a glove much less play.

All right. New Metstradamus rule: If you're going to tell me that the Mets don't honor their history by retiring enough numbers, you are no longer allowed to use Strawberry as an example. It's bad enough that Strawberry played with the Yankees. It's bad enough he acquired three rings with them as a bench scrub. But now we can only assume that he valued his time with them more than he valued his time in Queens...even after years away from the game and so called reflection.

And if that's the case, 18 should never go up on the wall...ever.

I don't get it. Is Straw still afraid that Wally Backman is going to kick his ass?

Does this make Darryl a "true Yankee"?

Is he still afraid that Keith Hernandez is going to kick his ass?

Does Darryl get a Yankeeography now?

Is Straw concerned that Kevin Mitchell is going to lure him back into a world of drugs and animal abuse?

Does he owe some outstanding vigs to members of the groundscrew?

Will Strawberry now get a job on YES as Nancy Newman's make up guru?

What's next, Bobby Ojeda isn't going to show up because George Steinbrenner has promised him a plaque in monument park for his three innings of work in a Yankee uniform in that special season of 1994?

***

I don't care what the entire world may say. But I love these uniforms.

***

So two friends are riding down a city block when the driver blows a red light and the passenger is horrified. "What the hell are you doing?" said the passenger. The driver, calm, replies "Don't worry, my brother does this all the time".

About five minutes later, at a busier intersection, the driver blows another red light. This time, three or four cars swerve to avoid an accident. Once again, the passenger is horrified. "Would you stop that!!!" he yells. The driver, unflappable, says "Oh quit your worrying. My brother does this all the time.

Ten minutes after that, the car gets to a green light. And the driver stops at the intersection.

"Why are you stopping at the green light?"

"My brother might be driving today."

That, my friends, is an old joke. But it's the logic used by Tien Mao, calling Filthy Sanchez his idiot of the month on the Gothamist website.

Now I'm the same guy that joked that the Mets have millionaires that insist on riding taxis even after Tom Glavine's accident. But according to Tien, drunk driving is acceptable yet being hungry is not...especially when you make millions of dollars since you could be ordering room service instead.

I see.

Well, now that I've learned that, I would like to call Eli Marrero my "idiot of the day" for waking up this morning with a stiff neck thus getting himself removed from the lineup tonight. Hey Eli! You're a major league ballplayer! How dare you risk getting a stiff neck by sleeping with air conditioning the night before facing Dontrelle Willis!!! YOU'RE A FREAKING MILLIONAIRE! HIRE FIVE OR SIX WOMEN TO WAVE TOWELS, FAN YOU AND BLOW COOL YET COMFORTABLE AIR ON YOUR NECK WHILE YOU SLEEP!

Thanks, Tien, for enlightening me. I'm now going to drink a fifth a vodka and take a drive in Soho looking for some irresponsible rich folk on a late night Samosa run...or maybe I'll just get the eighteen wheeler out of the garage and plow into a late night taco stand or an after hours cigar bar. That'll teach those rich guys not to leave their houses. Idiots!

Miami Heat (Sans Dwyane Wade)

You have to give credit to the 18,239 at Not Ready For Sponsorship Stadium tonight. It might not have reached 103 in Miami as it did in New York City today, but watching a Steve Trachsel start in 87 degree heat is bad enough. But that temperature was just at game time. It got a little hotter for the Mets as the game went along and a 6-0 lead was whittled down to 6-5, thanks to Trachsel running out of gas, and some Picasso-like abstract creativity with the strike zone by home plate ump Andy Fletcher.

Fletcher first gave Miguel "Leave the Diving to Greg Louganis" Cabrera a gift calling a 2-2 strike from Blueback Bradford, which led to Cabrera's seventh inning single which got the Fish runs 4 and 5. Then Fletcher continued his inconsistency by calling a clearly outside pitch to Cliff Floyd with the bases loaded and nobody out strike three, causing Cliff to throw a Danica Patrick fit and get himself ejected.

Then in the bottom of the ninth, with Billy Wagner coming off his fifth blown save the night before by giving up a single and a hit batter, the temperature got even hotter. But with Alex Rodriguez praying for Wagner to blow another save and become New York's biggest boobird, Country Time went through Hanley Ramirez, Dan Uggla, and Roger Dorn like Jose Lima goes through waivers: no takers. And so puts the Mets back on the winning track in the heat of Miami.

Really, it was an ugly win as the Marlins played like everyone thought the Marlins would play going into the season...kicking the ball around like it was the World Cup. But the Mets were shut down for five innings by some guy named Pinto. The Mets lineup obviously didn't realize that all you have to do with a Pinto is hit his back and his gas tank explodes. No dice though.

Roberto Hernandez II made his debut today and struggled a little bit. It was obvious as to why though: He has to get rid of that number. It's bad karma for a reliever.

But the biggest news comes off the field. On the heels of Derek Jeter becoming the new Avon Lady, one of your favorite Mets...not to be outdone...has also joined the marketing and public relations fray with his new cologne:

You Always Hurt The Ones You Love

Many, many people across this great land of ours have had a tough day at work, only to come home and take it out on members of their families.

Upon further review, I believe I unfairly took my frustration over the Mets deadline day activity out on a general manager I love, the patriarch of our little family.

I'm still not a big fan of the Xavier Nady trade.

I still think no move was better than this move.

But I think I was a little hard on Omar Minaya.

Omar, I apologize.

But when you wake up from dreams of Jason Schmidt and Roy Oswalt and you wind up with Roberto Hernandez and Ollie Perez, it's kind of like Eric Cartman expecting all the Mega-Men for his birthday but Kyle gives him "Ants in the Pants" and Cartman kicks everyone out of his house.

To say that Omar panicked was harsh. What I am curious about is how much other GM's knew about Filthy's injury. If they had full knowledge, then obviously Omar was hamstrung, and did what he felt was right. And I will say under the circumstances, Minaya was as creative as he could have been. For me to come on this blog and come off like Minaya just traded Scott Kazmir or something is rather excessive, whether I like the trade or not.

And I still have a hard time embracing it.

But Omar is family. He earned that distinction for all the good that he has done here. And this trade still has a chance of working out. It takes a lot of variables to make it work, including the quick maturation of Lastings Milledge. I actually like Ollie Perez, and Omar did show a little bit of creativity in buying low on him in this trade. He is still a big variable.

I have always thought that one of Omar Minaya's large tasks here is not only build a winner now, but to always have one eye on the future as well. Ollie Perez shows that Omar is always thinking of the future. I probably would have felt better about this deal if this wasn't a trade deadline deal, but rather an off-season deal. But with circumstances being what they were, I just thought this was a strange deal brought about by strange events. And it's the strange events that I should really be screaming about, and not the efforts of Minaya. Because when it comes down to it, whether it's Sanchez or Hernandez...Lastings or X...Ollie Perez in the minors or Ollie Perez in Pittsburgh (some in Pittsburgh might consider that the same thing)...it's important for me to remember one thing: This team is still pretty damn good. And they're still a mile ahead of everyone else in the senior circuit.

Omar did the best he could with the hand he was dealt by that brain dead drunk driver in Miami. And I hope Mr. Minaya will find it in his heart to forgive me for accusing him of panicking. Hopefully, he will see it in his heart to allow me to tag along on his Thanksgiving dinner soiree with Barry Zito. This soothsayer can wrangle up some mighty fine recruiting skills, ya know.

***

Now that that's out of the way, there was a game tonight, wasn't there?

Having only saw highlights, I can only surmise that I didn't miss much.

Yikes!

Momma Said...

Those in the business of talking sports like to put everything in an immediate historical context...before the ink is dry on the transaction. Best ever? Worst ever? Ugliest? Most overrated? Least talkative?

I'm not going to fall into that trap, because I'm not going to proclaim this the worst Met transaction ever...not by a long shot. Heck, this isn't even the worst transaction on a deadline day by a longshot. I will however, challenge anyone to give me a more bizarre 24 hours in Met history, which ended with a formerly undefeated Mets GM resorting to a pure panic move.

"And this is how one simple, formerly unspeakable act can move mountains." -Metstradamus, regarding an Andruw Jones dropped fly ball.

First off, I hope that one of you out there is taking the minutes for this...the first ever meeting of Met fans Against Drunk Drivers. We forget that sometimes, real life gets in the way of the dream world of sports. With one sober reminder of how the real world can work, a pitcher enjoying the best season of his young career can no longer perform as a key cog for a World Series contender gets his shoulder separated. Some jagoff in Miami has a few too many Flaming Alonzos, gets behind the wheel of a car, and unknowingly sets off a chain of events that would change the course of Mets history.

"When they break ground for the new stadium the construction gang will unearth and disturb some ancient Indian burial ground for unlucky and cursed members of the Iroquois nation." -Metmaster

When the day began, Omar Minaya was "swinging for the fences". We heard Jason Schmidt. We heard Roy Oswalt. And swirling in the middle of all of this was Lastings Milledge. We were intrigued. We were excited. Then we were confused.

When the day ended, not only was Milledge not traded, but he's at least a part time starter as Xavier Nady stunningly...inexplicably...is a Pittsburgh Pirate.

I understand the need to have a strong bullpen. Trading for Filthy Sanchez and acquiring guys like Chad Bradford and the since departed Jorge Julio at the start of the season, and at the slight expense of the starting rotation was the right move. But even with the Sanchez injury, there was enough in the bullpen between Aaron Heilman (who I would have put even money on having pitched his last inning as a Met on Sunday) that Omar Minaya didn't have to trade his starting right fielder to get a forty year old reliever, and a project. A simplistic rule of thumb when it comes to trades is that the team that receives the best player wins the trade. Xavier Nady is easily the best player in that trade. Roberto Hernandez is forty, and Oliver Perez, once a budding star, is a prospect turned suspect. That the Pittsburgh Pirates, one of only oh, I don't know, two teams in major league baseball that have no shot at the playoffs, got the better of the first place Mets in this deal is inexcusable. And what kills me is hearing about so many front running teams like the Tigers (Sean Casey), and the Yankees (Bobby Abreu) bringing in good to great players at a cheap price, while the Mets have to fill holes at the expense of a starting player.

Oh, and let me get this straight...six games back of the wild card? Jason Bay and Scott Kazmir get traded for veterans. Fourteen games ahead? Xavier Nady gets traded for someone who might be all right in the future? Who does this? Can this franchise be more backwards? Who trades a starting outfielder for an old reliever and a freaking project when you have an inside chance at the World Series? And this comes from the general manager who once traded Grady Sizemore and Cliff Lee for less than a month of Bartolo Colon? Does this make sense to you? Because I don't get it.

"It's like I don't even know who you are anymore." -Metstradamus, directed towards Omar Minaya

But it wouldn't be a Met deadline day if there wasn't some form of the supernatural involved. And that came when multiple reports had the Mets flipping Perez and Heath Bell to San Diego for a Filthy-like wonder Scott Linebrink. If this had happened, it would have been Nady and Bell for Linebrink and Hernandez, which while still unnecessary, I could have dealt with a little better.

Now deals that are reported as done are usually done, right? Well, according to media outlets (plural), it was done. Done! Except for one thing: it wasn't!!! And the reason it wasn't done was because the Padres understood rule number one about trades: "They who receive the best player wins the deal", and wisely backed out.

If Omar Minaya's grand plan all along was to get Linebrink, then why was the first deal done without being contingent on the second deal getting done? Does that make sense to you? Because once again, I don't get it.

So here's my scorecard on this deal:

• The lineup? Worse today than yesterday with Chavez and Milledge platooning instead of Nady.
• The bench? Again, worse today than yesterday, with Chavez moving to the starting rotation.
• The bullpen? Worse today than yesterday. Although Omar Minaya wasn't the one driving the car that separated Filthy's shoulder, he didn't make the bullpen significantly better at the expense of their starting lineup and their bench.
• And for Roberto Hernandez? Last season there were no expectations, being picked up from the scrap heap. This season, he was acquired for a starting right fielder. Hernandez is no longer the feel good story of the summer. There are now expectations involved...and we know how expectations go around here.

Does your scorecard match mine?

I know, I know, I probably shouldn't be overreacting. David Wright is still a Met. Jose Reyes is still a Met. The Carlos twins are still Mets. It should probably be enough offense.

But Omar Minaya panicked. He panicked because a drunk driver separated Filthy Sanchez's shoulder. He panicked because he employs the only millionaires in America who insist on riding in taxis.

"It's the second time in two years a Mets pitcher has been injured in a taxi. Tom Glavine lost two front teeth in an August 2004 accident while going from LaGuardia Airport to nearby Shea Stadium in a cab." -Associated Press

This whole deadline day just defies logic. Just as Andruw Jones dropping a fly ball at Turner Field defied logic. But maybe it is, in fact, extremely logical. Maybe things were going too good. Maybe, the baseball lords needed to remind us all that even fourteen games ahead, that this is still the New York Mets we're talking about. And as long as there are New York Mets roaming...and attempting to inherit the earth, there will always, as momma said, be days like this.