If the Mets wanna do a three outta four this weekend, nobody here would argue the point…One at a time and all that, but would a series sweep be too much to ask for? You know, just for the heck of it.
—This correspondent, almost four days ago
Ask and ye shall receive.
The wonderful world of linking [1] allows me to prove I didn't see this coming, but I sure hoped it would come. You can't always get what you want, but if you sweep sometimes, you get what you need.
If you ever plan to motor west, taking a detour through Phoenix for four games is the highway that's the best. Reincarnating Ebbets Field in the Shea Stadium parking lot is a waste of time. Let's just build one [2] of what Arizona has [3]. It's already our home away from home. Forget its given name — let's call it Chase Stadium. Say it out loud and it is home. We already have a built-in advantage, with 10 wins in a row there since 2004 to prove it.
The Diamondbacks have certainly snaked their way down the crapper, haven't they? Did Jason Grimsley steal their mojo on his way out? His potential revelations can't be the only thing killing them. This does not look like a team that had been taking its HGH anyway.
Normally, I wouldn't dance on an opponent's just-dug grave, but we're done with the Diamondbacks for 2006, unless we see them in the postseason, which doesn't seem all that likely in terms of…
(No, too easy, too tempting, too many ramifications for karma's sake to slam that Russ Ortiz pitch into the alley.)
Now that we're done with them, I can admit I look at Luis Gonzalez's diminished arm strength with a touch of sadness given all he did for humanity on a Sunday night in November 2001 [4]. I felt almost bad that we ran on him with such impunity inning after inning but I curbed that lack of enthusiasm every time I looked up at the scoreboard. I was warm all over given Alay Soler's Saturday night two-hitter [5] and I practically needed damp towels for the way we went a'whackin' all day Sunday [6].
To prove I'm still very much a Mets fan who lived through all the years when we didn't lead the second-place team by 6-1/2 games and the tied-for-third place teams (one of them being the 11-time-defending Eastern Division champions) by 10 on June 11, I thought I saw flaws today. I worried that we weren't bringing enough runners home early. I worried that Pedro lacked command. I worried…I worried that I was nuts by the third inning when I realized my worries were for naught.
All cylinders were clicked on. Nobody who batted when it mattered didn't do something good. Pedro did what he had to. He'll have extra day rest for two of his next three starts. He was relieved in the sixth and I'm relieved by that.
Couldn't help but think about last August when we burned Arizona last (and to think they had just gotten through rebuilding when we lit another match). That seemed like a real turning point on our season but it was mostly a last hurrah before we descended our way out of contention. But there's one thing that stands out for me from that overwhelming four-game sweep.
Remember the to-do about Victor Diaz tagging up from second to third [7] when we had a double-digit lead? While it was fashionable to tut-tut Victor's unwritten-rules faux pas, I was complimentary toward it because I think it reflected the best of Willie Randolph. This team began to hustle in 2005 and it hasn't stopped since. Even though I did feel a sympathy pang for Luis Gonzalez (he will always be a national hero), I was thrilled to watch us play nonstop ball. Only good manners kept us from winning 25-2 today.
I really believe this is Willie's doing. This is the sunny side of his professionalism rants. Never mind who high-fives who or what's supposed to be shaved or trimmed (he seems to have let up on that altogether). I don't love Randolph the way I did Valentine or Johnson but I do respect the hell out of what he's done with the players' collective attitude. They're a fun bunch in the dugout but they conduct themselves with dead-seriousness when they're on the field. That's infectious in the good sense of the word. Everybody from Beltran and Pedro and Wright to Alay Soler to Eli Marrero to Heath Bell seems to have contracted it.
One more connection to last year I think bears note. I don't remember where I read it, but somebody critiqued one of Ralph Kiner's appearances in the booth at some time in the last year. He had been asked if the 2005 Mets reminded him of any previous edition of the franchise. He said, with no hesitation, 1968. Whoever was critiquing him more or less rolled his eyes as if to say there goes Ralph, being a homer, trying to make us think 1969 is just around the corner in 2006.
Sure, I thought, Ralph Kiner really has to kiss up to the Mets to get a break. The freaking television booth is named after him! And, as has happened more often than not in the past 45 years, Ralph seems to have been right. 1968 was the last Mets season I didn't see, but everything I've ever read about it indicates it was not to be judged by its record (ninth place, 73-89 — best ever to date for the Mets, but still ninth place, 73-89). The story of that year was Gil Hodges came in and, to use modern-day corporatespeak, changed the culture. You might not have picked them to go all the way one year later, but those who saw the 1968 Mets saw a difference in the making.
Similarly, one year later, I'm really feeling what a turning point 2005, with its naked-eye undistinguished 83-79/tied-for-third finish, was for the New York Mets. 1969 is not a perfect allegory for what has followed. These Mets make too much money to be considered a pure miracle in the making (despite some of the miraculous ways we've won this season), but it's not all about payroll and pricey free agents here. It's about guys who know how to do the job and don't take too many breaks from doing it.
It's one thing to import Delgado and Wagner. It's a whole other thing to get the contributions we're getting from Endy Chavez and Jose Valentin and Julio Franco and Orlando Hernandez and just about every new guy who's come in. They came into a situation that had improved markedly in 2005, as the cameos by Ramon Castro and Chris Woodward and, yes, Pedro Martinez reminded us today.
This thing has been building for a while now and it's putting down roots and it's picking up steam and it's spreading out all over the country, not just Arizona.
Next stop, Philadelphia. The view looks good from here.