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Can’t Rain On This Parade

Five in a row! Again! Suddenly, the sky is blue and the paths are rosy. The Mets can do no wrong, the bench players come through with big hits, the bullpen and starters don’t allow runs and the Mets win the games instead of finding ways to lose.

Nothing has changed and yet everything has changed. Pelfrey looks so good that even the Mets of next year look good! The biggest difference in my eyes has been Carlos Delgado. Delgado is finally hitting the baseball hard, laying off of bad pitches, and driving it all over the place. I think Delgado has suddenly become better than he was in 2006, where he was even streakier. His ability to hit the ball hard has changed this lineup drastically, and he’s starting to scare pitchers again. He’s suddenly gotten his batter’s eye back, and as he hits more, pitchers will pitcher him more carefully, which means he’ll be able to draw more walks and consequentially, make less outs and ground into less double plays. If he remains hitting sixth, whoever hits in front of him is going to find more pitches to hit, and do better themselves. I know Endy has been playing well, but it’s no surprise that since Delgado has started hitting, this offense has been hot and those outfield holes have looked a lot smaller. Smaller holes means less desperation for Omar to find another outfield bat, and less desperation means he can be patient and find that diamond in the rough without sacrificing prospects and the future. I look forward to see what he can do over these next three weeks.

Except for a brief euphoria after Santana’s opening game win, or the brief glee we felt in April of 2007 starting with the vengeance sweep of the Cardinals, this may be the happiest Mets fans have felt since Endy came down with that catch. There will still be rough patches; The Phillies aren’t a great team, but there offense will have more hot streaks where they win a stretch of games. This is irrelevant if the Mets continue to perform as they have, as they’ll far outclass the Phillies. There are four games left before the break, and for the first time I find myself not agonizing over having to have a certain record to match a certain record to the Phillies. Barring catastrophe, we’ll go into the break with a virtual clean slate; able to outplay the Phillies, and the Braves and Marlins and Nationals, and win this division.

Chances are the Giants will find a way to score at least one run in their trip to New York, but I have a lot of confidence in John Maine to get the job done tonight. Let’s Go Mets!

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No longer sinking, but rising

And the Mets take three out of four from the Phillies in Citizen’s Bank Ballpark. Billy Wagner made it stressful, but when it came down to it, the Phillies offense just wasn’t that good, and they just weren’t clutch enough to get the job done. In fact, the only win they got was in walk-off fashion in the 9th inning of a game in which Johan Santana should’ve been pitching. Instead Jerry Manuel pulls the Mets ace with only 95 pitches thrown and Sanchez gives it up in the 9th.
Pedro pitched well, but in typical Pedro Martinez fashion falters after he reaches the 100 pitch mark.

The Mets finally give former Met Killer Adam Eaton a loss, get Pedro his first win, and now are only two games out in the loss column. Billy Wagner pitched two of his bad games, and the Mets won anyway. The so-called ‘gamer’ Phillies have been bad, especially last year, after facing the Mets. Let’s hope they continue that trend, and the Mets can win in these final six games. They could even be in first by the break.

Of course, the Mets have showed signs before, particularly against average Philadelphia who they are 7-3 against. A winning record over these next six would be a big step up though. Maybe the Mets really do turn it on now, and take the division they deserve.

Whether last year, or now, the Phillies have been incapable of building or holding a division lead. When it comes down to it, they’re just not a first place team. They’re a mediocre team that can pummel some teams and get hot, and can occasionally get up to play the big game against a better team, but usually that averages out in the long run and they finish where they belong, a couple of games above .500 and in second or third.

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Palette Cleanser for the Phillies

The best thing about the St. Louis blowout is that it set this team into a no-stress, easy going, comfortable mode that it hasn’t had since they went into the second game of the season and Pedro hurt himself. Hit the ball, beat crappy pitching, move along. Carlos Delgado looks freaking locked in. That home run he hit was just a nice, lazy, Delgado(old Delgado)like swing. That recap of the home run would fit in well in 2002, except for the Mets uniform. It was nice to see, and he’s amazing close to being on pace for a 30 HR, 100 RBI season, which you certainly would like to see him keep up at.

Jackie Robinson Rotunda Elevators

Thanks the Pelfrey and the surprisingly rejuvenated offense, there was no late inning thoughts of “How are they going to find a way to lose this one?” and just a nice, relaxing blowout going into the series of the year. Now unfortunately, the Braves suck and have halted the Phillies losing ways temporarily, but they pitched pseudo-ace Hamels against the reeling Braves, almost underestimating the Mets.

The Mets now have 10 games left until the All-Star break, and you’d like to see them be able to turn the corner, put this bad stretch behind them, and starting making confident strides towards first place and the division title. There are a couple of things they need to do that.

Beat Philadelphia. Obviously, anything but winning three or four against the Phillies leaves them right where they were, averagely struggling through the season. While a sweep is unlikely, it’s also possible, and a sweep would put the Mets with the same amount of losses as the Phillies going forward. If they win three, they need to win at least one more than the Phillies during the next six, and go into the break at worse one game out.

Get to the break above .500. If they do win the series against the Phillies, they’d be one over. Obviously a split of the final six against bad teams isn’t ideal, but right now if they could go into the the break one loss out and above .500 in anyway, it’s a good thing.

Win the final Sunday game against the Rockies. A nice solid win to finish up the unofficial first half would be a good way to cauterize the first half and just move forward with winning baseball games in the second half like a different team. Obviously it’s silly and impossible to place much importance on any single game within a 162 game season, but it’d put the team in the right mind frame for the second half.

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Mets Believe Mets Fans Believe They Can Win

I was at the Subway Series games this weekend, and while a lot of the juice has gone out of it, there was still excitement in the air. The lack of juice could be attributed to both teams struggling. I didn’t hear one “Jet-ers Boy-Friend” chant for A-Rod. No Hip-Hip You’re-Gay! No Captain Cologne! (Admittedly, some of these are better left unsaid) There were still a good amount of Yankees fans being positive, cheering “Der-ek Jet-er” and other assorted lame Yankees chants. Despite the Yankees being in arguably a worse position than the Mets, their fans are still more optimistic.

The argument everyone always falls back on is they’ve won in the past. But winning in the past doesn’t do anything for winning in the present. The only thing it affects is confidence, and part of that is fan confidence. Who do you think has more confidence in their team, and their own performance? Cano, or Castillo? Both are playing badly, but one guy is having his head called for constantly and booed. The other is certainly souring faces, but he’s not yet being chased out of town or having fans seriously consider releasing him. Sometimes if you tell someone that they are a certain way enough, they believe it themselves. When Delgado comes up to the plate, everyone at Shea is convinced and screaming at him that he’s going to ground out to second, so he’s thinking about grounding out to second. Just like you can’t stop thinking about the giant elephant in the room. Conversely, Derek Jeter comes up in a big spot thinking he’s going to come through because that’s what everyone always tells him he does. So he hits roughly the same ground ball, but instead it seems to go a little faster, and just seems to find that hole between second and first.

So how about we go about our business as Mets fans with a little bit of swagger and confidence. We just crushed the Yankees, winning the series 4-2. Play that way all season and the Mets would win well over 100 games. We’ve gained on the Phillies, and we’re coming with a vengeance that they should be frightened of. Even bad teams can win frequently, and whether you think the Mets are good, bad, or somewhere in between, lets go out there and root like we think and know they will win the game instead of constantly telling them how they’re going to fail and not good enough for us. Maybe they’ll start to believe it too.

Oh, and Jerry Manuel telling everyone that the it’s the Yankees town isn’t helping. All it did was give fodder to the newspapers to continue talking about the Yankees and treating the Mets like the second team.

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Mets Grab the Holy Grail

Finally! The Grand Slam arrives, and how fitting it comes from our typical clean-up slugger in Carlos Delgado. I’ve toyed with some ‘turning points’ for this team during the year, and just a couple of days ago I realized that the Grand Slam was what was truly lacking, what was truly holding this team back. Well now that’s out of the way, courtesy of the Yankees bullpen.

The Grand Slam is a jolt of confidence, a great turning point in any game, providing a sudden 4-run swing in the runs column. These are some things the Mets sorely needed, and even better is that it came with two outs, so it was a dazzlingly clutch RISP hit also. (picture not from today’s game)

It’s just one game, although it set a record for RBIs by a Mets player in one game, but even better would be if this was a turning point for Carlos Delgado to finish the season, and maybe even his career, on a warpath to a championship. Of course, the Yankees may be clamoring for him to be their DH next year with his performances at Yankee Stadium.

Now everyone gets to head over to Shea to face Sidney Ponson. Let’s get this party started!

P.S. I know the All-Star game is ‘lame’ but I’d still like to see Wright, Reyes and Beltran there. So vote! or something.. Try to reduce the Yankee Stadium love fest it’ll be by bring some Shea representatives.
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An Apple a Day

Little Bit of Silliness

I am always multi-tasking, so it’s rare when I sit down and just focus on the game. This goes doubly for the commercials, but I saw one on SNY during the game the other day and I was amused. They were advertising Mets tickets and the line was “Come see the Apple at Shea!”. I couldn’t help but think, “What, are the Mets that bad that they don’t say ‘Come see Reyes’ or ‘Come see Wright’ they go with the decrepit Apple?!”

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Ray Lines

I just logged in to place a bet on the Mets to win the game tonight, and decided to check the odds for the World Series.

the Mets are back to 15-1, which is what I got when I made my wager pre-Santana.

The Rays, the team that’s never finished above 500?

10-1.

Ouch.

Cue comparisons to the ’69 Mets.

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Inconsistent Consistency

Why was every one calling for change for change’s sake? I mean this particularly in reference to the idea that we needed a manager change and a shake-up. It seems that the biggest problem with this team this year is both the offense and the lack of consistency, both in-game and over an extended group of games.

So why would a shake-up, which by its very nature creates a disturbance and breaks up any consistency. On top of this, the move was made while the Mets were on a winning streak, which couldn’t have been what they wanted to shake up. Maybe what this team needs, or needed, was a steadier day-to-day regiment. A few weeks with the same lineup, healthy left and right fielders, the same manager and coaches, confirmed by Omar to be there all year. Surely giving Willie the okay for sure would’ve deferred some of the distraction, and it’s not like the statement would’ve been binding if Omar then decided, in July as things possibly grew more dire, to fire Willie and others anyway.

It’s too late for that, but now that Manuel is supposedly here all year, and Church is coming back, maybe this team can find a little bit of that daily regiment of monotony to start grinding out some real good streaks.

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The 2008 Holy Grail: The Grand Slam

Grand Slammed to the mat. The problem with the Mets this year is the 4-run home run. They haven’t been successful since they last hit one, which was 2006. Beltran struck out with the bases loaded to end the season and they haven’t made good on an opportunity yet. They’ve certainly given them up this year though, whether to American League pitchers who can barely tell one end of a bat from the other, or to anyone coming up against the bullpen trying to protect a one-run lead. We got rid of Jorge Sosa who was helping put games out of reach by giving up Grand Slams, but what we really needed was for someone to hit one.

This team needs to find that Grand Slam so they can get over this malaise and start winning games again. You’d have thought the Mets bringing up Grand Slam machine, Fernando Tatis, would help them shake off the disaster that was Chan Ho Park and 2007 and get their very own 2008 four run dinger.

It wasn’t a manager or coach change that the Mets needed. It isn’t a Zephyr call up or a mid-season trade. It wasn’t the off-season acquisition of an Ace. No, what this team needs is a grand slam, and when they get that sweet quadruple helping of runs batted in, this team will take off towards the ultimate prize, October and the World Series.

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Book Review: What If The Babe Had Kept His Red Sox?

Book Review: What If Babe Ruth Had Kept His Red Sox?

Chances are you will disagree with the alternate destinations the author takes in these ‘what if’ questions he poses in the book. That’s not the point. The point is to provoke thought on how meaningful and important certain events were to sports and baseball by theorizing about what could’ve happened had they not happened the way they did.

He lays the groundwork for what really happened for those of us that don’t know or don’t remember. Some of the baseball issues he brings up are very interesting. As indicated by the title, one is about Ruth and him staying with the Red Sox instead of being sold to the Yankees. The biggest point he makes is that Boston isn’t as big a city, or exciting a place, as New York and as such Ruth wouldn’t have developed into the huge worldwide icon for baseball that he did. He also discusses park differences, and if Yankee Stadium would even have been built. Certainly the Yankee franchise wouldn’t have been the same without Ruth and his home runs to fuel them, and coupled that with not moving into their own place in 1923 and continuing to share the Polo Grounds with the Giants, they would’ve remained second class (or third class) citizens. He makes valid points about a future path for the Yankees, Red Sox, and Ruth, an while it’s not one I agree with necessarily, it’s still fun to theorize about.

Another interesting baseball alternate-history is what would’ve happened if Josh Gibson and Satchel Paige integrated baseball in the 30s, rather than Jackie Robinson in the 40s. Despite the title, I felt this was the most thought out scenario in the book. There were rumors and suggestions that a team, maybe the Phillies, would consider signing players, particularly these two stars, out of the Negro leagues. There were many different reasons that this did not happen. Not only was there still racism all over the place, but many people felt taking the best players from the Negro Leagues would cause them to suffer and have to fold. However, this would’ve been one of the best ways for baseball to continue successfully. Many of the best players around the league were enlisting to fight in the war, and being able to choose from black players as well as white ones would’ve added some talent to the league that was sorely missing it. He suggests that if both guys were signed by the same team, they’d have the benefit of each other to get through the tough parts of integration, where Jackie had to do it all by himself.

There is a whole section on trades, which is one of the most popularly posed ‘what-if’ questions. Mets fans still routinely like to think about what it’d be like if they had signed Alex Rodriguez, if they hadn’t traded Scott Kazmir, or if they’d signed Vladimir Guerrero. These kinds of regrets and second-guessing of past GM decisions are part of every fan base, and the author here takes some of the bigger trades throughout baseball history and theorizes where the teams involved would be if they hadn’t made them. It’s interesting to postulate about how things would’ve turned out.

Other topics include what if the Cleveland Browns hadn’t entered the NFL? Would they just have vanished into obscurity in the start-up All-America Football Conference? Would the league have folded and all of the players on the Browns dispersed via draft, never to have that successful run together upon entering the NFL? What if Cassius Clay had lost the fight to Sonny Liston? Would he still have become Muhammad Ali? Would he still be one of the most recognized athletes? What about Sonny Liston? Would have retained the title for much longer, or was his time up and was their nothing he could do about it? Did the NHL expand too much too fast? Did doubling in size hurt the quality of the game and the talent pool? Would golf still be the sport it is today if Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus had been anything but extraordinary? Their rivalry really brought fans to the game, and helped make golf into a major event. Had they not both been great, they never would’ve been able to directly compete against each other as much, and had that never happened a lot of the excitement would’ve gone out of the game. These two also altered the game for the other players. Once they started bringing in fans and ratings, suddenly more tournaments started popping up, and bigger prize pools. It was suddenly becoming possible for more than the top one or two guys to make a living playing golf.

Reading through all these what-if situations was fun. Even when I didn’t agree with how things would turn out, It was still interesting to see how much things could change based on small decisions through history.