Granted, I’d like to be leading two-oh going into Game Three, but I like our chances with the World Series one-one coming to Shea tonight. I also like John Maine. A lot.
Let’s shake off Game Two. Whatever it is Kenny Rogers did or didn’t have on his hand, we can assume he was waiting seven years for this chance. Glavine pitched well, Rogers pitched better. Let’s just put it behind us. At least we’ve seen him. Besides, if Kenny Rogers’ postseason has been a shock, you have to take El Duque’s return in Game One as at least a mild surprise. Guy doesn’t pitch for weeks and he gives us seven solid innings before turning it over to Aaron and Billy (a 1-2-3 ninth at last!).
This thing’s turning right back in our favor. Wright has begun to hit. Beltran’s still hot (fouling off that impossible curve ball from Wainwright, staying alive and stroking that walkoff triple on the next pitch, of course he’s still hot). Chavez we know can field. He’s bound to poke another one through the infield like he did off Verlander to win Saturday night.
I guess it all comes down to Maine. He pitches very well at Shea as he proved in Game One of the NLDS and Game Six of the NLCS. He’s got to avoid mistakes to Monroe and Inge, who are killing us, but he’s also got to stay aggressive. He has a little American League experience and that can’t hurt (though if it were that impressive, I imagine he’d still be an Oriole; I wonder what Kris and Anna are doing tonight…oh yeah, same as La Russa and Molina: watching us). We wouldn’t be here without him and Perez, and I like the both of them in Games Three and Four. But let’s just focus on Game Three. That’s what at Shea tonight.
Jose will get on and Lo Duca, bad thumb and all, will move him along, and the rest you already know. We play our game, we can win. And all of us, we’re the tenth through 56,000th man, as in man, I can’t wait to get out there tonight! My first World Series game. The Tigers think they know loud? Forget it. This is the Mets‘ den. I’m so excited, I’m shaking again.
Gonna be a cold one. Gotta go start layering.
Let’s Go Mets!
Thank you. I now actually am going to kill myself in my teensy Chicago hotel room on the trip I extended because there's no Game 3 of the World Series I really care about.
Jeez partner. You could have just waited till I was back in New York and stabbed me or something. It would have been simpler.
Not really of course. (The killing myself. The hotel room is every bit as sucky as previously bemoaned.)
The genius was all Beltran. Another baserunner would have stopped at second, but by going hard all the way, Hernandez had to keep running, too. Great coaching by Acta (no wonder he's getting all that managerial consideration). Could've wound up as some truncated version of Kent and Drew in the Dodger series, but our guys know what they're doing. I think all the action on the basepaths confused Molina, probably still dizzy from his unlikely, ultimately irrelevant home run. Pujols bobbling the relay didn't help either.
Buck up. You'll be back in time for Game Four.
You can find me in Row V of the Upper Deck tonight, looking down. Only not in the direction of the field.
True. And that befuddled look on Molina's face in the picture in Friday's papers will go down as one of the all-time classic in-game shots. Right up there with Marichal wielding his cudgel over Roseboro's dome.
Or does he always look like that?
Perhaps ol' Yadier's enjoying a stiff one with Dave Henderson right now. “Yup, I thought I hit a big home run at Shea Stadium, too…”
Greg, I've been a loyal reader and commenter on this blog for some time now. Why are you trying to hurt me?
What did I ever do to you?
This is Greg's way of giving us the Game 3 we are entitled to.
F**king Cardinals. Forcing us to create our own version of reality. I LIVE to see them get mauled by the Tigers in the most hideous way possible.
even if it's by means of scuffing balls
I've been keeping myself occupied by playing and replaying the NLCS on my EA Sports MLB 2003 game. The Mets just keep winning the series. Even when I switch sides and (gulp) become Tony LaRussa, the Mets just keep winning the series. And the weird part is, it's got the 2002 rosters loaded. Mo Vaughn is so clutch on my X-Box.
yes, i've got MY ticket too! it's so pretty, i'd feel bad about giving it up except that with the scanning they do now, i get to keep the ticket (suitable for framing, doncha know).
gotta scoot! game time is 2 and a half hours away, and i want to get there early enough to load up on all the memorabilia i can carry!!!
Um, if you could put Yadier F**king Molina on your Cards team and just keep hitting him in the nuts, I'd really appreciate it. Thank you.
Still amazed that they scored it a triple (2nd walk-off triple in Mets history by the way) …awfully generous scoring considering Pujols bobbled the relay AND had the ball go thru his legs
Consider it done. Him and his two brothers, too.
I really need to create Reyes and Wright and Endy for this game, since I'm too cheap to buy any game with the current or future calendar year in its name.
One of my Christmas presents last year was “NHL 2K6”. My wife didn't get it when I told her that this particular game consisted of 31 empty arenas with a lonely Zamboni circling the ice endlessly.
And while we're at it…why is FOX televising a Cardinals intrasquad scrimmage? Did Budweiser pay them off or something?
Man, so easy to go from hero to goat. I can still hear Howie announcing Beltran's called third strike with the bases loaded. How perfect was it for hero-turned-goat Molina to have the called third strike bounce off his glove, Beltran on third by the time the winning run scored? Only our team could top a grand slam single with a walkoff three-RBI strikeout.
Wow. My neice and I have been playing this mental game since Friday. I can't believe you got it down so perfectly!
Charlie…..you're my hero! I can't believe that there's actually another human being that remembers good ol' Hall of Famer, Juan Marachal vainly attempting to club Johnny Roseboro to death. Since this all but forgotten event, I have often heard Marachal's name spoken reverently, as one of the great gentlemen of the game. I confess that I really don't recall the look his face…..I do, however, remember the look of horror on Koufax's face. It's nice to know that I wasn't really seeing things all those years ago. Thanks again,
jan
You know, we can poke fun at our personal and collective angst like this all we want, but underlying it all is the truth we all believe: that shoulda been us out there.
You know that “dream it and do it” mental imagery stuff you hear from motivational speakers and Amway salesmen and Burger King commercials (“We're ALL full of sit!”)? It may be cheesy and trite, but it's true. This week is the time to burn a mental image of the 2007 World Series championship trophy being hoisted at Shea.
I hope every one of the 2006 Mets, from those who've won a series all the way down to those who watched from the dugout in their first NLCS, watches the Tigers or the Cards (it really doesn't matter which) collect their hardware and pop their champagne this weekend.
Then I hope the Cardinals adopt Target Stores as a corporate sponsor, because in 2007, they're going to have a BIG bulls-eye on their backs, aimed all the way from 126th Street and Roosevelt Avenue.
Cool…I haven't been this worked up over the Cardinals since Whitey Herzog and Terry $@%#ing Pendleton.
Could you all please stop making me cry? Please??! I was JUST starting to get over this.
You go, Dennis!!
Looking forward is great (wtf is this “Tarjay Greatland” I saw on the evening news, btw?), but let us not forget: tonight is a night to look back:
The Ballad of Billy the Kid”>
Yeah.
We all thought “oh-six” would be a replay of “eighty-six.”
Turned out to be a replay of “eighty-five.”
“Next year, we're going to dominate.” — Davey Johnson, Oct. 1985