Good morning. In case you missed Tuesday night’s late Mets game in Oakland, the previously slumping A’s won by a comfortable margin; the Mets collected more than their customary four hits, but to no avail; Travis d’Arnaud homered with nobody on; Dillon Gee struggled through five and two-thirds innings; Gonzalez Germen wasn’t particularly effective in his return from Las Vegas; A’s fans were effusive in their support of their team; the Mets fell to nine games below .500 for the first time since July 7; the Mets’ record of 59-68 aligned almost identically with that of their previous three seasons under Terry Collins, when they were 60-67, 58-69 and 58-69 at the same juncture of the schedule; and 2015 drew another day closer. Good night.
 
Faith and Fear in Flushing made its debut on Feb. 16, 2005, the brainchild of two longtime friends and lifelong Met fans. Greg Prince discovered the Mets when he was 6, during the magical summer of 1969. He is a Long Island-based writer, editor and communications consultant. Contact him here. Jason Fry is a Brooklyn writer whose first memories include his mom leaping up and down cheering for Rusty Staub. Check out his other writing here. Got something to say? Leave a comment, or email us at faithandfear@gmail.com. (Sorry, but we have no interest in ads, sponsored content or guest posts.) Need our RSS feed? It's here. Visit our Facebook page, or drop by the personal pages for Greg and Jason. Or follow us on Twitter: Here's Greg, and here's Jason. |
While You & Your Team Were Sleeping 8 comments - (Comments closed) | |  Print This Post |  Dillon Gee, Gonzalez Germen, Sleepy Performances, Travis d'Arnaud 8 comments to While You & Your Team Were Sleeping |
Piazza: Catcher, Slugger, Icon, Star by Greg Prince is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other online booksellers. 
Amazin' Again: How the 2015 New York Mets Brought the Magic Back to Queens by Greg Prince is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other online booksellers. 
Volume I of The Happiest Recap: 50+ Years of the New York Mets As Told in 500+ Amazin' Wins by Greg Prince is available in print and for Kindle on Amazon. 
Faith and Fear in Flushing: An Intense Personal History by Greg Prince (foreword by Jason Fry), is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other online booksellers. |
|
Copyright © 2024 Faith and Fear in Flushing - All Rights Reserved |
||
I must say I get a kick out of seeing the Mets play at O.co. Being born after 73 and thus removed from any personal hang ups, I feel a nice bit of history. Only 2 parks where we’ve won a World Series game still stand and we rarely get to visit either.
How much more of an investment would our fan base have in these games if we beat the Dodgers in 88?
At this point, during the second half of the season, the only offensive member of this team who has met or exceeded their expectations is Travis d’Arnaud. The rest range on a scale from disappearing act, Granderson, to mediocrity, Murphy. A Met starter can’t have the least bit of an off night if he wants a chance of a win. Give up 3 runs and you’re doomed to a loss. In the second half, take away the 7 games against the Phils, in which they soored 36 runs, the Mets have scored a total of 58 runs in the other 25 games, 2.32 runs a game, they’ve played. Offense does not get worse then this.
Well, to be fair, Lucas Duda seems to have come into his own offensively, although he’s tailed off of late. We always knew Granderson was streaky, but his highs haven’t been high enough, and his lows are Death Valley-esque. The lineup protection used to come from David Wright, but that hasn’t been the case for a while. And the rest, other than d’Arnaud (also streaky), have been invisible. Bottom line: The Mets need a true all-around hitter in that lineup. And they ain’t gettin’ one any time soon.
In good years the Mets never win the 1st game of a west coast trip. Now after not being able to buy a hit against the pitching starved Cubs we’ve got 5 games against a pair of 1st place teams who are both loaded with dominant pitchers.
This dog days of summer raising of the white flag happens every year under TC’s watch, as if they’re fully prepared for a 100 game season and the remaining games take them by surprise. And yesterday I got an email from the Mets with a subject line that said something like “We’ve Missed you This Year.” Yeah, same here.
There are times when flowery prose in the service of reportage seems like a lie, or, at the very least, a misdirection–lipstick on a pig? Appropriate time for this porker to be presented unadorned.
The good news is, maybe Terry is managing himself out of a job. Although I don’t know if any manager in baseball history could squeeze more hits out of this lemon of a baseball team. I’d love for Sandy to give Wally Backman a try, but I’m resigned to that never happening. Wally will continue to tease us by managing in Triple-A until some other team hires him away and Wally kicks their butts into a World Series. Meanwhile, I’m sure there’s a tired ex-manager somewhere that the Wilpons can lure out of retirement for next year. It never ends…
Bottom line is that the Mets need more than just one all-around hitter, this lineup is clearly not just one guy away. Wright needs to return to form, Granderson needs to be better than a step and a half above Chris Young, another OF’er, a shortstop…
Like I read on another site today, every year the Mets seem prepared to play 100 games and the last 62 come as a surprise to them. Another dismal August swoon was exactly what I didn’t want to see, it’s way too familiar.