While the second-newest Met has certainly been embraced, this is a get-it-done town, and funny stories about Shawn Green salsa dancing at Carlos Delgado's wedding or Delgado taping a yarmulke onto his scalp at Green's wedding were only going to do the trick for so long. A two-run double over the glove of the hapless Pat the Bat to turn a 5-5 tie into a 7-5 lead? That's the stuff. Add in some heroics from the Carloses, the Joses and the Endy and it was a bad night for the Phillies.
And how about that Oliver Perez? Sure, we saw things get better down in the Norfolk box scores. But how seriously to take a modest run of success, particularly after those ghastly numbers with the Pirates? Well, Oliver walked off with even uglier numbers and had to be taken off the hook, but he no longer looks like a throw-in, does he? He's got three pretty good pitches, even if he sometimes doesn't seem to know exactly where they're going. It's tough to give up five earned runs on just two hits, but hanging a slider to Ryan Howard on an 0-2 pitch sure makes it easier. One of the better games I've seen that ended with a guy sporting a 9.00 ERA, that's for sure.
Emily and I left the kid with the babysitter and started an evening of successfully calling audibles by walking over the Manhattan Bridge. We tuned in after stuffing ourselves at Dumpling House on Eldridge Street (extraordinarily satisfying dinner for two: $8), then split headphones to see how our boys were doing. The first words over the airwaves, from Howie Rose: “…and has now retired seven in a row.” Normally I would have assumed the missing subject was “Lieber,” but a certain warmth in Howie's voice made me think good things were afoot. As they were, for a while.
My new strategy for Met no-hitters is to talk about them openly (don't tell me it's a jinx — no other strategy has worked), and so that's what we did as we made our way west on Grand Street in search of a bar where we could catch a few innings. We learned of Beltran's heroism somewhere around Lafayette, then rolled into Toad Hall after spying two TV screens full of Mets and nary a Yankee in sight. I guess the visuals weren't lucky: By the end of our first round Victorino had broken up the no-hitter and the shutout and Howard had done a lot more than that. But the staff of Toad Hall were obviously Met fans, so we hung in there until the seventh-inning stretch, then walked south with the forces of good down by a measly run and optimism in the air. Show a little faith, there's magic numbers in the night!
It didn't take long. By Chambers Street it was a rout; as we hit the halfway point on the Brooklyn Bridge it was in the books. The magic number's 20. Zero hour coming into view.
Perez looked more baffling than baffled. Randy Marsh had the kind of strike zone that would get him fired if umpires were indeed held accountable. If he was gonna throw a no-hitter, it was gonna be with several to many walks, regardless. Hence, no matter what we were or weren't saying to ourselves, this wasnt gonna be the night. But Perez deserved a better fate and a better fifth.
We saw young Oliver because of all the veteran pitchers who are mending, which brings me to my petty gripe of the weekend.
Tom Glavine should have gone on the DL. It's a big deal to him and only him that he's never been disabled, not even for the taxi and the teeth two years ago. In this case, Howeish adherence to Zeileish personal goals costs us at the end of the bench. I'm thrilled we have an everyday rightfielder with experience and the ability to hit over Pat Burrell's head (L'Hittim! indeed), but does the demotion of Lastings Milledge, necessitated by Glavine not going on the DL when Bannister/Perez came up, mean Endy's the everyday leftfielder? If he's not, who shares time with him? Who's the righty bat who can play left? Only guy I'm coming up with is Valentin, a switch-hitter who got hot as a leftfielder in May. And he's otherwise engaged these days.
September is supposed to be helpful in sorting things out for October, but with Milledge sent down, unless I'm missing something, a potential weapon for the playoffs has been lost. I know with Floyd, among others, on the DL, there is some postseason roster screwing around to be done, but we've gone from a lefty-deprived reserves to a righty-deprived reserves. Woody came through tonight. Julio took perhaps the worst swing of the year, grounding into a DP on the first pitch he saw when it was still 5-4. Marrero's gone, Diaz is gone, Castro/DeFelice/Stinnett will be saved and none of them is/was that great an option PH'ing and none was a leftfielder.
I'd love Milledge (who's going to be a leftfielder here by next year) gaining experience down the stretch and being one more weapon when it counts. With word that Glavine is going to pitch Friday, it means there was no reason to keep him on the active roster until then.
If Floyd comes back (I hope he does), then maybe this is more of a moot point, 'cause Endy probably goes to the bench. But if he doesn't, will Endy get exposed? Willie continues to talk about him as a role player. I know, Willie talks down almost all his players until he can't keep a straight face, but I'd sure like a righty bat regardless. Unless Omar has yet another trick up his sleeve (is the Fonzie pipe dream just that?), I don't know where it's coming from.
Seemingly small point in the face of what became a laugher in a season that's been a romp, but if we're ever gonna be granted free rein to look ahead, now is the time.
And I thought I was bad with “let my people run”. You should have saved “L'hittim” for Jewish Heritage Day. I am happy that this is the one day of the year I am permitted freely make fun of things.
Although I'm not sure what's worse: that or the co-optization of that line from Thunder Road. :D :D The Springsteen reference makes me wince worse :)
Shawn Green's bat slams
Manny's arm waves
Paul and Carlos dance across the plate
As the stadium bays….
I never understood how Springsteen could be a Yankee fan. It's like finding out Cesar Chavez owned millions of shares of Del Monte.
I am so late to reply to this.
It is kind of devastating in our house. I almost made TBF a shirt with that quote from Al Leiter in that issue of Backstreets, where he insists that Bruce isn't a Yankees fan.
But there is so much evidence.
And it makes about as much sense as Steve Earle being a Yankees fan. But he is. Like, has every single jersey from every single player.