Great offensive output from the Mets tonight. Carlos Beltran and David Wright were robbed of home runs. Carlos robbed by to a blown call by the umpires and David due to the fact that the Marlins play in a ridiculous football stadium with a 600 foot deep centerfield fence. Carlos getting screwed doesn’t change my belief that instant replay is unnecessary for Major League Baseball. Would instant replay have given Beltran a homerun instead of his third double? For those of you who say yes, ask an Oklahoma Sooner fan about the game against Oregon. When baseball is dragged reluctantly into adopting something new, I doubt they embrace it with open arms. The umpires get it right so often that when they blow a call, it’s a glaring error.

Also, throwing a red flag on the field is effeminate and demeaning for both the manager and umpire crew.

Regardless of the blown call, I can’t imagine why the crew reversed the initial homerun ruling. Rick Reed is a great umpire and crew chief. If Carlos would have sold it more, he would have picked up the first Mets home run of 2008.

BTW, if Carlos hits 73 more homeruns this year, will he get an asterisk (in a good way) home run king title?

David Wright is just raking at the plate. David’s off-season work we’ve heard about paid off, for the first three games anyway. The Mets need a big season out of Wright this year to supplement Delgado’ decline. That diving stop at third was a gem and more surprisingly, David didn’t airmail the throw over Delgado to a hotdog vender on the concourse area. When David hits his prime, it’s going to be scary.

Castillo is growing on me. Luis is a tough out. If he can stay healthy, the Mets may finally have the one-two table setters they thought they had with Kaz Matsui and Jose Reyes.

Castillo could be the Mets answer to Dan Uggla. That guy scares the crap out of me. They have a lot of hitters that scare the crap out of me. The Florida Marlins are afraid of success. If they wouldn’t have run Joe Girardi out of town, the NL East could be better than the NL West this year.

Bottom line, great cathartic win after Pedro’s injury and walk-off loss last night. This season might not be a total disaster after all.

Around the National League East

In case you missed it, Scott Spiezio has been given a minor league contract with Atlanta. Braves general manager Frank Wren was quoted as saying, “Well ya know, a big part of our fan base are douche bags. With Andruw [Jones] going to LA, we felt that took a lot away from our appeal. With Chipper [Larry Jones] and of course Tommy [Glavine] coming back, we felt we were one player away from a complete team of douche bags. Scott brings a heavy douchbagginess factor to our organization that we feel will restore the Atlanta Braves to the franchise of douchiness excellence we’ve established over the past two decades.”

Excuse the absence for the last two days; I was attending the National Grammar Rodeo in Canada. I’m not sure if I’ll be returning next year, it’s just not about the grammar anymore.

That’s what she said…

Whew, they really pushed the limits on that one. I was having panic attacts post 4:00 PM CST that Bill Smith would change his mind, send our kids back and get on the phone with Theo Epstein.

*EXHALE*

He’s ours!

When it was all over, save for the physical, the deal came out to about $152 Million which includes what Santana was owed on his remaining salary and Johan is a Met through 2014 after the doctors sign off tomorrow.

Lets get ready for PSL and the season to begin.

In my entire life, I’ve been a Mets fan and I think I can safely say, this is definitely one of the low points of fandom this organization has seen in my lifetime. The fact that this team let a 7 game lead slip away in September is nauseating. Some may point to 1998 and I say hogwash, in 98 we weren’t supposed to even be there, though certainly disappointing and frustrating it indicated a bright future that lay ahead. The Vince Coleman affair made me ashamed, but I never felt a connection to Coleman. At the end of game six of the 1999 NLCS, I was certainly disappointed but not ashamed. The 1999 team fought with every fiber of their being to get as far as they got.

Now? Pathetic. A team who is so talented, as they will gladly tell you, couldn’t answer the bell with their leader, staff ace and one of the man credited, and deservedly so, as the reason for their turn around. It goes much deeper than that of course, these past weeks have been a foreshadowing of things to come. We as a fan base that prides itself on always believing refused to see it coming. Now its here. This team doesn’t have the heart to answer the bell. In reading the above article from the New York Observer, I couldn’t help but think, “how can you not care, when I care so damn much?”

If you like, hold out hope for this season, I would like to, but I cant. This team has been complacent with it’s complacency for so long, I don’t think they have a battle left in them. I actually spent the better part of an hour pricing airline tickets to see if maybe I could come to Shea and will this team in the playoffs. I found an affordable, or as affordable as airline tickets to New York can be, and when I went to make sure there were Mets tickets available, the site told me it was “down for maintanence.” Well it looks likes the Mets are too. This is certainly one of the dips in franchises long and dubious history.

Tied for first, three to go. I don’t think they have it in them. I hope they prove me wrong. I’m going to keep watching though, tied for first place is still first place, at least there’s hope. 

I am still going to hold out hope. What else is a Mets fan supposed to do. I hope the players realize they are about to let down a loyal and rabid fan base that never says die. We have very long memories. I keep reading the great Dana Brand’s genius, that I believe defines all real Mets fans:
      

This is what has hooked us. This is what we long for. This is why, however much we hate them at times, we love to love this team. However good the Yankees become, they never tempt us. We are stubborn and resolute. We are millions. We
are Mets fans.

Tied for first, three to go. I don’t think they have it in them. I hope they prove me wrong.

Wake Up Mets!

Why is this so hard? I mean, sure any team can beat any other team on any given night, that’s why you have to play the games. But honestly, could we try to hold the worst offense in the NL to, I don’t know, under 30 runs over three games?

I knew it might be bad, I didn’t know it was going to be this bad. Has the entire bullpen contracted Mono? After the last few games, I really doubt this teams ability to qualify for post season play.

I don’t want to harp on strategy or Thursday morning Manage here, but Willie should have gone to El Duque earlier; match up be damned. Sure he would have gotten torched by the media if it backfired, but how could Duque have been any worse than we’ve seen lately? I really hope I wasn’t right back in July.
It’s time to drink heavily and watch the 1999, cheap ass Mets season video, Amazin Again. Can we at least see if Dennis Cook, Turk Wendell and Octavio Dotel are available?

From here on out, the Mets have to look at this like a four game season, forget this god-awful series and play out the last four, hope the starting staff can go deep, get the pen as much rest as possible and hope the offense throws up double digits. However, as great of a pitcher as Pedro is, I don’t seeing Petey go complete.

Let’s hope it all feels better in the Morning…

Good lord this is excruciating. Watching the division lead slip away is almost too much. Right now there is a battle raging in my head. Two sides, let me introduce you to the Rational side and the emotional Mets fan side:

Rational Side: I agree with Willie in juggling the rotation. I really don’t want to go through a post season without Pedro and El Duque.

Emotional Mets Fan side: LAWRENCE AND PELFREY FOR GOD SAKES, THERE ISN’T GOING TO BE A POST SEASON! WE NEED PEDRO AND DUQUE NOW!

Rational Side: They are a solid team, they can turn it on when they need it.

Emotional Mets Fan side: WE CAN’T BEAT THE GOD DAMN NATIONALS, HOW THE HELL CAN WE GET PAST A TEAM WITH A WINNING RECORD!

Rational Side: Willie’s a winner, he knows what he’s doing.

Emotional Mets Fan side: CAN WE GET BOBBY VALENTINE ON A PLANE, WHAT’S HE DOING RIGHT NOW?

Rational Side: Guillermo Mota Sucks!

Emotional Mets Fan side: Guillermo Mota Sucks!

Rational Side: WE NEED TO START WINNING SOME GAMES NOW!

Emotional Mets Fan side: WE NEED TO START WINNING SOME GAMES NOW!

Rational side: Are they going to do this to me again?

Emotional Side: MOTHER F@*!%*R, THEY’RE DOING IT TO ME AGAIN!

Rational Side: I hate baseball!

Emotional Side: I LOVE BASEBALL!

I think both sides have come to an agreement, we still believe, we have to. Face it, if they didn’t, they would have both been long gone by now.

Let’s Go Mets!

I know, cheesy title, what do you want?

I’m not sure how the second sweep of the Mets at the hands of the Phillies bodes for the Mets. The first sweep served as something of a wakeup call, spurring the Mets to their best stretch of the season. This time, who knows what happens now. With a steady diet of Fish and Nats’ games slated to finish the season (with one plate of redbird for variety), the Mets should be able to fend off the Phils and secure their second straight NL East title.

Should the Mets secure the title while simultaneously taking a two week batting practice session to gear up for the playoffs, so be it. This weekends sweep of the Mets makes it more likely that a clinching game occur at Shea, possibly even against the Cards. The NL East title isn’t a lock quite yet, but three and a half games back with the leader up against the East’s celler-dwellers, probably isn’t the ideal place for a team with its sights set on the division. Those Cheesesteak eaters are focused on the Wild Card. Going to sleep last night, the rather disturbing thought crossed my mind: What if they get it?

Lets go Padres!

P.S. Mota sucks!

Coming into Philadelphia with a six game lead, the Mets were given a four game series to knock the Phillies out of contention and solidify the NL East. In the four game series the mighty New York Mets asserted their dominance over the division by…getting swept in four games straight?

That’s about all you can say. Sure the games, well almost all of the games, were seemingly competitive. Save for Monday’s game, they were winnable. It would pointless to recap the key moments. Winners get it done when the game is on the line and chance usually favors the best team. I’m not suggesting the Phillies are a better team; they’re just the better team right now and the Mets just handed them momentum, confidence, and worse, realistic hopes of the East title.

I hope the Mets all got a good look at the Phils dog pile of Chase Utley after capping the four game sweep. I hope they felt like I felt and don’t forget it. I hope it embarrasses them as much as it embarrasses me. I hope it burns…badly. Then they get as angry as I am and they take it out on the Braves.

Not that this Mets fan is in panic mode; it’s more like nervous mode. A two game lead is hardly comfortable. And it’s not over yet. Willie, the veterans, somebody needs to shake up this team. The Mets are heading to Atlanta for three in the dreaded turner field and suddenly we could all be having flash backs to the late 90’s that are all too real. Bad dreams…

A quick note.

I am excited to see Pedro Martinez return to active duty but how unrealistic is it to think that a pitcher coming off surgery that hasn’t pitched in what now is an entire year at the major league level, and really in a year and a half on a regular basis regardless of his resume? Don’t misunderstand, I really look forward to Petey’s return and I like the Mets better with him than without him. But even if he is Pedro of old, he only pitches every fifth day. Pedro’s clubhouse presence may turn the ship, but I wouldn’t count on it.

Silver lining time for any Mets fans on the ledge, ready to jump. The Mets are competing for something other than past Met team’s records for the first time in a while. That concept seems kind of foreign now, doesn’t it? You remember that, don’t you? When a division title wasn’t a certainty.

What’s so great about that, you ask?

Mets to need to start playing dominating baseball, the likes of which we fell in love with in 2006. All year, we’ve been hearing, “as soon as this team gets healthy…” and “When Moises Alou gets back…” Well he’s they’re back and he’s back, let’s go!

If the Mets continue their standard trend since June, a war of attrition so to speak and use wins over Cincinnati, Washington and Florida to coast into the October while the Atlanta and Phillies fall apart, does any clear thinking Met Fan give decent odds of a World Series title.

Oh yeah, back to the silver lining thing. Teams that fight for their playoff lives in September seem to battle harden early. (See Cardinals, 06, White Sox 05, Red Sox 04, Marlins 03, 97.) A dogfight slugfest may be exactly what this team needs to awaken that baseball giant that’s been seemingly napping all season. It’s time for the Mets to come out of that penthouse suite in that ivory tower called NL East for an old fashioned street fight. Winner take all, loser go home.

The Mets need to figure out what the hell their problem is and fix it in a hurry. Besides Delgado, no one has played outright poorly. When the offense is clicking, generally the pitching isn’t. The Mets don’t have “it” whatever “it” is that made this team seem unbeatable last year. Quick name three walk off wins off the top of your head:

1. Castillo’s walk-off
2. Benitez’s Meltdown
3. Umm, uhhhh, umm…

Its time for this baseball club to play to its talent level. Philly’s got the momentum; the Braves have the edge in the historical aspect of the Mets at Turner Field. What do we have?

1. Reyes
2. Castillo
3. Wright
4. Beltran
5. Alou
6. Delgado
7. LoDuca
8. Green/Endy/Lastings

If three any of those three guys go on any kind of consistent hot streak, watch out. We all know what our boys are capable of, now its time to prove something. Were the Mets, it’s always going to be hard. Buckle your seatbelts, we’re going to Atlanta.

Yee-Ha!

During SNY’s telecast of the Mets loss in the series opener against the Braves, Kieth Hernandez said a lot of things. Many times did he include his new crutch adjective “Taylor-made” but what he said in a number of moments during the game was that the Braves were making a statement. I’m not sure how true that is, but last nights loss wasn’t as bad as it may have been perceived.

Long gone are the days of Brave-induced domination, replaced in current times with teams playing about even in terms of head to head competition (or at least when Ollie pitches.) I never had the feeling we were out of last night’s game. If Alou hadn’t spent the game campaining for the nickname “double-play machine” the Mets could have won that game, if not for “the Machine” ruining two promising innings. Alou will likely take some time to get back to the full stride he showed prior to injury. He just better hurry.

Finally, I am loving David Wright’s recent aggression on the basepaths. David is trying to spark the team, as a real leader should. Despite his power slump this season, David shows what a special player he is for all the little things he does on the field, in the dugout and presumably in the clubhouse.

I’ll take two of three the hard way, even if it means going through Smoltz and Hudson. El Duque and Maine aren’t exactly AAAA pitchers.

Let’s Go Mets!

Tom Glavine became the 23rd pitcher to record 300 wins with a 6 1/3 inning performance in the Mets 8-3 win over the Chicago Cubs Sunday night; Albert Pujols reportedly still not impressed.