A Wild Ride

Well, after that first inning, I made an immediate move to clear my schedule for Wednesday night's game against the Pirates: Tom Glavine would be gunning for 300 wins. Eh, not so much.

I'm not sure that I have all that much complaining to do about tonight's game, after Ramon Castro got the start and proved why he should be an everyday player, after the slumping Beltran and the suddenly resurgent Delgado contributed jacks to the effort, and after Aaron Sele "Posturepedic" (No, Berman, you can't have that one!) managed somehow to contain a club that blew away a great on the cusp of 300.

I guess I now have to agree with the so-called baseball traditionalists who whine about pitchers not going deep into games anymore: tonight's two starters, Derek Lowe and Tom Glavine, have 12 All-Star appearances, 2 Cy Young Awards, and one no-hitter between them, and they combined to throw five innings. Five innings between them! It would have been a short start for just one of them, although perhaps a marathon effort for Greg Maddux.

Apparently Marlon Anderson is back on this team. Fair enough. He looked decent in left field, making a nice sliding catch in the ninth when Guillermo Mota was somehow struggling to hang on to a big lead. Perhaps he could give Shawn Green some pointers, who continued to look marginal at best out there, despite a laser rocket arm-type throw to nail our good friend Jeff Kent at third base.

On an aside, did anyone watch that game and not have to vomit in between innings. I'm not exactly a master cinematographer, but what was going on with the SNY crew? They seemed to miss shots, pan to the wrong parts of the field, and just generally provide a weak showing. Perhaps Billy Walsh is available to take over for Bill Webb.

Also re: SNY, has anyone noticed that the score bar keeps changing. Tonight's FSN-type graphic was the third different one employed by the Mets this season on SNY alone. If I had my way, there would be a separate channel just showing a live feed of the scoreboard at the ballpark. Saves the problem of digital snafus, and, at home, you can catch the "Professor Reyes" segments if the Mets are getting pounded.

Anyway, I guess, what with the game being in LA and all, there are celebrities present, some of whom are adorned with Mets paraphernalia. Note two-time Best Actress Oscar winner Hilary Swank on your left. However, Hilary probably has some other types of paraphernalia lying around her house, courtesy of ex-hubby Chad Lowe, if you believe her side of the story regarding her recent divorce.

All in all, I'm not sure if there is any way to describe this game besides surreal. There were some encouraging signs, but the performance from Tom Glavine made it appear as though he has very little in the tank. He was nasty against Cincy last week, to be sure, but Glavine's low strike percentage obviously has contributed to this season, where he has witnessed some of the worst outings of his career. 300 is nice, when it happens, but we need Glavine to be Glavine again. Perhaps getting the milestone monkey off his back will help.

First pitch is at 10:40 p.m. tomorrow, Ollie vs. Brett Tomko. If tonight's matchup was any indication of these games' potential length, you might want to go with the double espresso.

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