Driving in Reverse, But Moving Forward

So, we pounded the crap outta LA last night, 13-9. I was out beginning my birthday celebrations and was in no state to view Sportscenter either tonight or this early morning.

I did, however, have a chance to read the postmortems as I enjoy my day off and what is striking is the reversal of fortune that is last night. Everything that was good was bad and everything that was bad was good. Sele relieved, bats performed and Tom Glavine couldn't get it up. When have we seen that all season?

Somedays it all works (or fails to work as the case may be) as you expect and then, wham! It's all reversed. This doesn't have to be a bad thing, but our starting pitching has been precarious all season with injuries and the cobwebby spot for Pedro we have been forced to spackle with Triple-A'ers that have been inconsistent, to say the least.

I like some pieces of the reversal. The hitting is delish. To see Shawn Green actually hitting gives me hope for all my tribes.

Star F@#ker

Sorry about the slack in writing. It is summer, my birthday is this week and along with that comes a plethora of people, parties, events and other whatnot.

But I did wake up this morning, saw the beautiful 7-0 Mets win against the power Padres and Peavy and realized that finally the Mets are star f@#kers. Not only did El Duque throw a filthy game, the Mets bats were able to shut down a top performer like Peavy.

It may be the extra batting practice, who knows. But it appears there is a Passover reprieve. It's my birthday on Friday, so keep it up. I miss bread.

Atlanta lost, so we're 2.5 up. Movin' on up.

A Thousand Cuts

I was on the phone with my Grandma this morning and she asked me what's goin' on with the Mets. She had noticed that their lead in the division has been eaten up and was concerned. For those of you that don't know, they are up from the Braves just game and a half. A lousy game and a half. I cannot even use numbers to describe it as it is so meager.

It's hard to pinpoint just one thing that got us here. I was thinking about this today as I was having lunch and reading today's Washington Post expose on the collapse of the McCain campaign. The article cites rivalries within the campaign as the catalyst, which is not surprising with the elephantine sized egos that you come across in politics. But that sort of stuff breeds all kinds of other even nastier, pettier and more damaging things. In the end, things collapse under their own weight and while you can try to pinpoint the crux, it is ultimately death by a thousand cuts.

For the Mets right now, they are suffering from about 520 cuts - injuries, matzo bats, and no relief relievers. Not sure how the personalities fully factor into this; after all the Mets are not the Yankees with their soap opera like dramas and subplots worthy of a Page Six spread.

Nonetheless, I went on and on about this over the All Star break. So no more moaning and groaning. We know the diagnosis. Now it's time for relief.

Hot or Not?

Times they are a changing'. I have been thinking over the last few days about the brave new world. The Yankees are struggling, last year's World Series winning Cardinals are 7 and a half games out in the NL Central, John McCain is on life support as is John Edwards. What was once hot is not.

Now the big news out of the Mets clubhouse confirms this trend - Ricky Henderson, Lastings Milledge and the end of Julio Franco and Rick Down. Clearly the Julio thing is the right way to go. We saw nothing out of him and at this point, we need the slot in the rotation for a bat that can perform.

We'll see if this works. Tonight's 3-2 victory over the decidedly unhot Reds (basement of the NL Central) may be a smolder. It is nice now, but think there's another heat wave coming.

Halfway to the Fall

It's halfway through the baseball season and not quite halfway through the Presidential primary race, so some thoughts on both.

The Mets record is basically on pace from last year, with one disturbing difference- injuries. We have lost some of our best hitters and pitching staff to breaking bodies. I understand, it happens. But if we're gonna make it through the rest of the season and come out on top after playing the tough NL teams like the Dodgers and the Padres, heck even the Braves and the Phillies, our boys need to get to feelin' better.

Injuries are kinda like losing your staff, a la McCain today. But, the future prognosis of the Mets is probably better than McCain's.

I don't want to just be a crapper. The early part of the season was delish. The injuries really hurt our momentum, we just need to find our groove and get back to it.

Our relief pitching continues to lag. The three S's - Smith, Sele, and Schoenweis, as well as Heilman and Mota, must have an average ERA over 3. Somedays are good, but others have been disasters. We need some solid relievers we can rely on.

Our bats continue to be as flat as matzos. And it is way beyond Passover. It's nice to see Carlos Beltran finally hitting, but right now the only regular hitter above .300 is Jose. David Wright is nearly there, as is Shawn Green, but if we are going to the top come October, we are going to need to see the Carloses cracking 'em outta there.

Batting is like the fuel of the win, kinda like money in politics. I wish the Mets were like Hillary or Giuliani in their respective races, but they're probably more like Obama. Doing ok in the money race, but remaining competitive because of lotsa other things.

Bring It On!

Last night, I went with my neighbor to see the Nats v. Brewers. I mean, who would not want to see the team with the best record in the NL? Well, they didn't play like it. Sloppy fielding handed it to the Nats 5-4, but the Brewers scored 2 beautiful out-of-the park home runs in a football designed bowl that is hostile to the bat, to say the very least.

When we left the game, it was the 12th inning for the Mets, 3-3. I got home about 45 minutes later, the game was still going. Nuts. The Mets effectively played 2 games last night, with pitching for 17 innings. I'm happy to see the fight in them, to see pitching and fielding that kept Houston at bay for that damn long. And then, finally, victory.

I see the fight, I smell the fight, I taste the fight. Bring on July!

Bittersweet

My favorite kinda chocolate is not that sticky sweet milk crap. It is dark chocolate, which is sweet, but also has a faint bite of bitterness. Maybe I just need something bitter to fully enjoy the sweetness of the rest of it.

The Mets are bittersweet too with the terrible news about Carlos Gomez fracture, Do Luca's sentence, and the bruises of the Colorado massacre. But, they did win last night, 6-2. Johnny M. continued his dominance and grace under pressure and Carlos D made some hits. Progress.

We'll see what happens tonight. Pelfrey is pitching, which history tells us may be more like bitters than bittersweet.

T.G.I.A.A.S.B

Just had a lovely DC July 4th - fireworks on a friend's roof. Came to home to see we are continuing in the self destructive gulf of bad pitching that has Colorado outscoring us 17-5 going into tonight's game. And it's only getting worse.... the Rockies have now scored 15 runs. And no, they are not a football team. They're 7 games out of first place in the super competitive NL West.

First our hitting is as flat as matzoh. Now, our pitching is no better than a Bill Richardson for President ad. Times ain't pretty, friends.


T.G.I.A.A.S.B - thank God it's almost the all star break.

Money Can Sometimes Buy Love (At Least in Baseball)

Washington is always atwitter with a story, a scandal, a drama. Aside from Scooter's weaseling, another big story today is the anemic presidential fundraising of Sen. John McCain.

In politics, money is key. You are constantly compared with your opponents, the money race as heated as the pennant race. In baseball, it seems money doesn't always buy victories. The Yankees, with the highest payroll in baseball, are nowhere near the top of the heap.

What's really interesting is the teams that are competitive with a Dennis Kucinich sized pot. The Brewers (at $70 million), San Diego ($58 million), Cleveland ($61 million) are all in or near first place in their divisions. I realize this is not chump change, but when you look at the Yankees ($190 million), Red Sox ($143 million) or the Mets ($115 million) it looks more Kucinich then Clinton. Check it out here.

Baseball isn't quite like politics - you don't necessarily need the bucks to compete.

UPDATE: Yankees won, so maybe I spoke too soon. And the #3 payroll (the Mets) are crashing and burning in Colorado. Sigh. We'll see. It's June. Just like the fundraising numbers, who's up and who's down will look different come the next quarter.

The Fashion of Baseball

The Mets lost today, although I am not bitter. Oli needed a day off and truthfully, Pelfrey has had worse meltdowns than today's - his last five starts in the majors.

But I am not returning to that place. Things are getting better. The Two of the Carlos Three are making stuff happen. And to help the press coverage, the fan psyche and most important, the team psyche, Carlos boldly predicted after they lost the Twins series, the team needed to go 8 and 2. And they've got 8-2. Movin' on up.

I did not see today's game; I traveled back from Philly after a fab brunch off Rittenhouse Square, which is now my favorite park in America that is actually a square. It could be the spectacular weather that has enveloped the east coast, but I just loved Philly. Although I could never love their team!

So my favorite recollection about Citizens Park was this kinda angry, 50 something, moustached, Phillies fan who asked us dripping with jealous sarcasm, "How many different outfits do you guys have?" Me and the random cute Met fans sitting next to me explained that we had 4 different uniforms.

The guy was obviously jealous, as the Philles (although they have a good stadium), they have just two uniforms. And I poked around today and there seems to be no rhyme or reason to the number of uniforms a team wears. The Brewers have 4; the Angels have 4; the Nats, Braves, Orioles and Red Sox all have three.

I know all my blog readers are not quite the fashionista that I am, but you are all baseball fans. Any idea why this is?

The Anna Wintour in me thanks you.