I feel awful about Tom Glavine not winning his 300th game. Now we're going to have to hear about it for at least five more days.
My dismay is less a matter of personal Glavbivalence than storyline fatigue. Seventeen Mets played Tuesday night in Milwaukee. Sixteen of them lost. But it was only Tom Glavine who was denied a win.
Now the Tom Glavine Chowder & Marching Society will follow him around the Midwest for five long days asking if they can charge those minibar M&Ms to his credit card. For five days, Glavine's relatives and Glavine's friends and Glavine's hangers-on will clog the hotel lobbies of Milwaukee and Chicago. Kevin Burkhardt will have to stick close and become known as the 31st Glavine, lest Mrs. Glavine slip away from SNY's curious cameras for as long as a second.
Mike Glavine might even get another start at first.
Willie Randolph removed Tom Glavine in the seventh after his total pitches climbed to 95, the last of them smacked to center by Damien Miller. With the manager's decision, the pitcher reluctantly turned toward the dugout. With the pitcher's march off stage (and the Miller Park crowd's classy ovation — I wouldn't have done it for Jeff Suppan in a million years), Gary Cohen announced “Glavine can go ice his arm.”
He could also go soak his head, one was tempted to add. Glavine tried to win himself No. 300 and us, incidentally, No. 60. He didn't pitch badly, but, you know, enough with the Glavine already.
By the 13th inning, I had kind of forgotten the original plot of July 31 was Tom Glavine versus history. We were treated to a whale of a game anyway, something you could imagine would be talked about for years if it took place in the postseason. There was indeed a playoff atmosphere, right down to the Mets' inability to get a big hit and Guillermo Mota's failure to record a crucial out.
Tom Glavine didn't nail down No. 300. He left in the top of the seventh with a 2-1 lead. Once he did, the whole thing was out of his hands. The Mets, thus, lost as a team. They also didn't win as a team. If we're going to be asked to stand five-day vigils for our erstwhile Manchurian Brave — Tom Glavine is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life — then it should have been incumbent upon him not to walk five, not to run up his pitch count near one hundred with none out in the seventh, not to be in a position where he would be ordered to abandon his post with nine outs unaccounted for. Once Tom Glavine exited, the odds increased that Tom Glavine wouldn't win his 300th game.
So what?
So the Brewers unfortunately prevailed in this war of attrition.
So Luis Castillo didn't hit like Ruben Gotay; at least he didn't field like Ruben Kincaid.
So centerfield was Milledge Park even if Lastings at the bat was Milledge Lite.
So Reyes and Wright actually went to the trouble of playing like Reyes and Wright in a losing cause.
So Heilman and Feliciano and Mota and Sele and their surprisingly sturdy defense couldn't plug their fingers into the big, bad Brewer dike forever.
So the removal of Jon Adkins from the roster to accommodate an emergency catcher seemed to throw the entire bullpen into turmoil. (By the ninth inning you're using your fifth starter?)
So Delgado didn't look too swift trying to score from first on Green's double in the sixth when they showed the slow-motion replay.
So the replay was shown at regular speed. It was Delgado who ran in slow motion.
So Green is stuck on 29 RBI, or not quite twice as many as Alou has despite Alou missing half of May, all of June and most of July.
So Bernie Brewer didn't have the decency to tumble hundreds of feet to a beery fate when Geoff Jenkins got us all blasted.
So a game I began watching in July and ended watching in August didn't seem to bode particularly well for our October prospects.
So Tom Glavine didn't get his 300th win.
So what?
Moises Alou went practically 300 minutes without an injury. Now that's a milestone worth celebrating.
I was a bit ticked that they kept showing the Glavine family in the stands (and really, do we need to see two upset kids in the stands? Me thinks not) but apparently I couldn't hold a candle to your bitterness about last night's classic, Greg.
To paraphrase Office Space, looks like someone's got a bad case of the post-extra-innings loss Wednesdays.
(Just kidding.)
I was so sure that Geoff Jenkins would do what Geoff Jenkins does, that I turned it off when he came up.
Sometimes baseball is a pain in the ass…
And they ran a SECOND meat race in the 12th inning.
Appropriate, since their failure to hold the lead in regulation qualifies them as weiners to me.
Sigh…
No, you pretty much called it. It was a great game while it was going on, but recalling it a couple of hours later made me crabbier and crabbier. SportsCenter noted it was our first walkoff loss of the year. We were the last team to be subject to one of those.
Where's Bernie Brewer? He is so going down…
Starting to think that maybe we're just not that good. Guys can't continue to choke (yes, I said it) in the clutch 90% of the time and seriously expect to make the playoffs, let alone actually win a postseason series. I was more depressed than angry last night, although Sele not understanding the concept of wasting a pitch when ahead in the count by now got my blood boiling some. Talk all year has centered on who is hurt, who is slumping, who is pressing, who can't get into a groove… y'know what? Some players (like #13 in your pinstripe playbook) can put up stats in a 12-2 game, but just can't get it done when it matters. And I think the vast majority of our roster is made up of those guys.
Ironically, No. 13 in pinstripes couldn't put up his stat in a 16-3 game.
As for the main attraction on our midway, we have a slew of guys who aren't putting up stats and who aren't getting it done when it matters. I don't think they're allergic to clutch situations per se, it's just…
Y'know, I don't know.
A lot of us thought a new hitting coach from a happier era, and the return of an outfielder who probably faced the Mets of that era, would make all the difference. I think there is such a thing as a clutch hitter, and we don't seem to have a whole lot of them. I don't know, either. Fear might be creeping up on faith right now.
I don't want to alarm you or, more accurately, confirm the alarm you've probably already heard quite clearly, but in the 112 at-bats since he beat the Cardinals with a walkoff homer on June 25, everyday starting rightfielder Shawn Green has driven in a total of two runs.
This isn't to put it all on Shawn, because he ain't alone in not knocking 'em in, but two RBI for more than a month from your everyday rightfielder ain't gonna get it done in the League of Nations, let alone the National League.
He has as many as Jose Valentin in the same time span. And Jose Valentin hasn't played for quite a while.
He has one more than Moises Alou in the same time span. And Moises Alou had been away for quite a while.
He has one more than Orlando Hernandez in the same time span. And two more than Rusty Tillman.
You get the point.
I knew that “29 RBI” total looked depressingly familiar and a tad low. But boy, it's worse than that.
The fact that the Mets jettisoned Omar favorite and team mascot Julio Franco gives me some hope that when Carlos Beltran returns from the DL that Shawn Green will be DFA'd and the right field job given to Milledge.
That's as much of a no-brainer as one is likely to encounter in a season.
If you had told me in April of 2006 that by August 1 of the following year, I'd be pining for Endy Chavez…
WOW. Combine that with his fielding acumen, and could we be talking about the mythical “worst everyday player in baseball”?
When it comes to outfield depth, we are staring down a deep Chavez ravine.
You gotta hand it to the classy Brewer fans for giving Glavine a standing ovation as he left the mound…
http://www.americanlegends.blogspot.com/
When is Endy due back, by the way?
You'd have a better chance of seeing him by driving to PSL than any of us up here will any time soon. Read Roger Rubin's report in the Daily News
You put some mustard on that comment.
Yes Greg we get it. You're not a fan of Glavine. I know he had most of his success as a Brave, but he does seem to be a nice guy and he is a Met know (it's not like he's Clemens) . The guy has made close to 700 ML starts and is probably going to be one of the last 300 game winners. He deserves the attention his “quest” is receiving. In all fairness for the 5 walks, the home plate umpires strike zone was mercurial at best last night. I question why Willie, with Wright and Delgado on with no outs in the 10th, didn't have Alou bunt. You score 1 run or 10 runs, Wagners available to come in, in the bottom of the inning to close it out. Just goes to show why Gossage (on a tangent) should be in the Hall of Fame. Bring Wagner in after Glavine and have him prove he's really a closer.
Two RBI is zero more than John Maine has in that timespan.
Gary Cohen raised an excellent point last night, that a big game usually receives a top-notch or at least veteran umpire behind home plate. That's something Glavine (and Suppan) definitely deserved for the occasion.
I know this should go with your post about tonight's win, but is it possible that this crew is the worst in the majors? I have never seen so many blown strike calls (for both teams) in any series I've ever watched in 30 years of being a baseball fan. These bozos working the plate the past two nights must think they get a salary bump with each pitcher they piss off.
Tonight I thought Ron Darling was going pick up a ball and bean one of the umps from the booth.
And he'd have every right to do so.