Karma

I love it when these karmic shifts occur: when someone due for an unpleasant outcome finally meets it. And nothing makes me happier when the mighty Yankees are toppled.

Earlier in the season, we might not have been prepared to use the phrase "mighty Yankees." After all, the club was in a seemingly unprecedented state of disrepair, as their pitching was struggling and their offense was nearly as bad.

The Mets took two out of three against the Spanks earlier this season, when legends such as Darrell Rasner and Tyler Clippard showed up as starters. One might summon up the image of Mighty Mets, with Carloses Beltran and Delgado resembling actual baseball players.

Oh, how the mighty have fallen. The Mets have been middling at best in June, with an exceptionally dismal stretch of four straight series losses. Perhaps you might recall a recent Yankee winning streak, of nine straight games. The Mets were 1-8 during that span.

Yet the Mets deserve to be relevant within New York. The media (of which I am certainly not a part!) decides to print papers either about the Yankees winning or struggling. You might not find out anything about the Mets, especially not with all the manufactured drama in the Bronx.

Suffice it to say that their time, at least for now, is up. The Mets rebounded tonight, as you might have heard, with a brilliantly-pitched 2-0 win over the Yankees and their $28 million dollar Rocket Man.

The Yankees were certainly out of their element during that winning streak: after all, the team is still poorly constructed and is perhaps the least cost-effective entity in existence (with the obvious exception of the federal government). Carl Pavano is pulling down a cool $10 M and Jason Giambi and Johnny Damon, both of whom abstained from tonight's contest, are earning eight-figure salaries.

Regard now, this team, sans any sort of budgetary restrictions, which placed former Met superstar Miguel Cairo at first base and Melky Cabrera in center field. Josh Phelps DHed. Pardon me if I take a second to indulge myself in a quick chuckle at the Yankees' abject failure to put a halfway decent team on the field.

Okay. You might say that I shouldn't be so joyful. After all, the win was anything but resounding, as the Mets averted chaos in the eighth inning with Pedro Feliciano and Joe Smith on the hill. Don't tell me you weren't on the edge of vomiting when you saw Aaron Heilman and Scott Schoeneweis up in the pen during that eighth. I'm not sure Willie could have scared us any more without flying in Braden Looper or Dae-Sung Koo (he has a 2.51 ERA for Hanwha in 14+ innings in the Korean League so far this year; I checked).

But the Mets managed to sneak by, thanks to outstanding performances tonight by Jose Reyes at the dish and on the basepaths, Oliver Perez on the mound, and Carloses Beltran and Gomez in the field. Gomez, too, was probably the second or third best Met at the plate, recording two bunt hits and blinding us with his speed.

I would give a game ball to Carlos Delgado at the dish, but I think a game steaming pile of dog excrement would be more suited for his 0-for-4, 4 K performance. The humorous thing in all of that is that he probably couldn't have managed to do any worse at the plate. Like, if I went up and faced Roger Clemens, I would probably do no worse than that.

Yet indicative of an incredibly successful ballclub is the ability to win in spite of various upsetting occurrences. The bulk of the lineup, as has been the case with so many of these recent contests, was ice cold. Oliver Perez's wildness was a little frightening.

However, the Mets persevered and won an impressive game. Maybe the case is that the team just needed an intense atmosphere to win, although I might contest that there is no reason to develop a playoff air in the middle of June. We shouldn't be unhappy with tonight's outcome, though.

Maybe 2-9 in the last eleven shouldn't make the Mets superior to the Yankees, though a sweep is thankfully not in the cards. The Mets thereby successfully averted total crisis, backing many of us off the ledge and inducing an overwhelming sense of calm across the fan base.

Call it karma.

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A Hiatus

They are down 6-1 in the bottom of the seventh. Rafael Furcal is on third.

I will take a hiatus of sorts, though I can assure you at least a thousand words, after the next Mets win (if there is one), describing my relief in not having to jump of a cliff.

I am completely and utterly disappointed in this team's lack of effort to avoid resembling their 1962 counterparts.

To quote Casey Stengel regarding that squad, "Can't anyone here play this game?"

Willie should be asking the same. He and the rest of his coaching staff combine for over 4,500 hits in their careers.

Reyes dropped the double-play ball. 7-1. One out. I hate this team.

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Resignation

During Willie Randolph's tenure with "The New Mets," we as fans have become accustomed to seeing a baseball product of the highest quality, and Randolph's managerial style keeps the players hustling. The Mets had a never-say-die attitude, as evidenced by pitching Roberto Hernandez for, like, six straight games, during Willie's first year, for he was the only reliever of any quality.

But when the Mets were snuffed out tonight by Randy Wolf, whose umpire brother needs to cool it on the omniscience, the team seemed resigned to their fate as losers.

Come to think of it, the team has been playing that way for a while. It can be seen in the lack of late rallies, the relievers' inability to hold any lead (or deficit), and other characteristics which have shepherded this team to an unfortunate 2-7 record in their last nine games, with Jorge Sosa having started both Mets wins.

The New Mets aren't resigned, in theory. They fix problems; they never quit. Last year, they were the Cardiac Kids, with Endy Chavez, David Wright, and Carlos Beltran mastering the late-inning walkoff hit. This year, in a game that probably would have proved crucial for stemming the tide of defeat, Willie Randolph sent up his big three hitters in the ninth: Jose Valentin, Ruben Gotay, and Ricky Ledee.

Disgraceful. Valentin was dispatched on a first-pitch swing, and Gotay and Ledee both have K's next to their name in your scorecard. I know Takashi Saito is good, and the rest of that Dodgers bullpen is pretty strong as well, but these are the Mets. Remember that club who ran over the Dodgers in the NLDS, even with Steve Trachsel (by the way, 5-4, 3.82 ERA for Baltimore this season) starting one of the games.

The Mets got out to an early lead tonight, as has often been the case during this losing streak. Yet after three quick runs, the Mets proceeded to cough up runs and hang on for dear life, committing errors and making poor baseball decisions. What is to be made of the smart decision in pitching out during the suicide squeeze, only to see Tony "Not Bobby" Abreu go from first to third on a poor throw by Captain Red Ass.

This team is inexplicably resigned to their fate as a losing bunch: why play aggressively? Why get important hits in the late innings? They are doomed to lose, because of reliever clowns like Mota, Schoeneweis, and Aaron Sele (who was better off in the witness protection program). And don't get me started about Aaron Heilman.
What does it mean for the team when Willie says things like, "Nothing's better." regarding the condition of Moises Alou? The team must sense that sense of urgency from "quality veteran leaders" like Moises, who has missed nearly a month with a pulled left quad.

A pulled quad? Really, Moises? You are making us suffer through Endy Chavez (who's now out for over a month), Ben Johnson, David Newhan, the premature Carlos Gomez era, and Ricky effing Ledee because of your precious quad? Shawn Green, hardly the image that first comes to mind when thinking of tough guy baseball players, missed less time with a broken bone in his foot.

A broken bone, Moises. You have a pulled muscle! I hope your Workmen's Comp is paying well, because if any Mets fan gets a shot at you, I wouldn't be surprised if you met the Phil Leotardo treatment. Moises is not new to this ire, I am sure, as even before joining the Mets he had served fourteen separate DL stints in his career.

Moises is nothing but a cancer. Beltran is slumping. Delgado is seemingly showing signs of life, but can't manage a hit in crucial situations. The Duck is regressing to the mean. Reyes is devoid of that power which showed itself last year.

The spirit of this team is gone, and I don't know who can bring it back. It's more than just complacency: it's that the Mets are essentially smoked for the evening once they fall behind in a game. Fight isn't enough. They have to start coming back. The bullpen needs to keep the team in games.

Sure, there are things that this team is doing right. I like Carlos Gomez, Wright is locked in, Jorge Sosa is a godsend, and the rest of the starting pitching hasn't been terrible, although one would hope they could go deeper into games. I'm not sure the Mets should stop getting out ahead, although it hasn't boded terribly well for them of late. The good behaviors on this team still outweigh the negatives.

Don't stop

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