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Baseball

The Worst Is Yet to Come

I kept with yesterday’s Mets game, for reasons even I can’t understand. Perhaps I am drawn to failure, as the salmon is compelled to swim upstream, or Jeff Francoeur is compelled to swing at every pitch thrown his way.

I was in the car on the way to the mall when Ollie Perez had his gutless first inning shit show. I had no faith in Ollie to begin with; I was more interested to hear how the crowd would greet Pedro Martinez on his return. Warmly, as I expected. And early, since he got a turn at bat before even taking the mound.

And when Jerry Manuel made a terrible situation even worse by yanking Ollie mid-batter, I’d heard alls I could stand. As I parked the car, I made a point of turning to another station so I wouldn’t hear the game when I returned. No more Mets today, I said to myself. It ain’t worth the aggravation. Maybe they can mount a comeback, probably they can’t. And in either case, who effin’ cares?

My resolution lasted approximately 15 minutes. In true hopeless junkie fashion, I kept checking the game on my phone, and saw that the Mets dared to make it interesting, scoring four runs off of Pedro. It may have had something to do with the fact that I was at Queens Center, which is my most hated mall of all time, full of the rudest human beings on the planet. That place could turn Fred Rogers into Travis Bickle.

Ignoring my earlier impulses, I got home in time to see the last few innings, and as the Mets mounted a rally of sorts (aided by the Phillies’ less than capable gloves), it looked like they might be able to come back after all. First and second, nobody out, a run already in, a very shaky Brad Lidge on the mound who seemed primed for a total metldown, and Francoeur coming up, who’d been swinging the bat well (and often, as usual). It was at this point that my wife and I had this actual conversation.

WIFE: I can’t watch now.
ME: Why?
WIFE: ‘Cause it’s just too nerve wracking.
ME: But this game doesn’t mean anything. Maybe they pull off an awesome comeback, maybe they don’t. At least they made the Phillies sweat. It actually turned out to be a decent game, in a weird way. So what if they lose? What’s the worst that could happen?

tripleplay.jpgWell, that’s the worst that could happen, pretty much.

At this point, it’s easier to name the horrible ways to lose games that the Mets haven’t managed this year:

  • Sharp liner to center field lands in Angel Pagan’s pocket, winning run scores when he can’t dislodge it.
  • Omir Santos unable to tag out runner at the plate when he spontaneously combusts.
  • Something involving Angel Hernandez. That prick has not reared his ugly head in a Mets game this year, but trust me, he will before the season is over.
  • Attempting a squeeze play, Luis Castillo trips on the same ball he bunts and is therefore out. And also fractures both ankles.
  • Anderson Hernandez unable to turn a game-ending double play when he accidentally inhales a hot dog wrapper.
  • Gary Sheffield hits a walk-off homer, but is called out when he can’t run the bases because he’s been impaled by the shattered end of his broken bat.
  • Shane Victorino gets caught in a rundown and punches Daniel Murphy in the face. Umpires award him a three-run homer for some reason.
  • In his return to the lineup, David Wright fouls a pitch back, which caroms off the brick backstop and hits him in the head again. He now thinks he’s a roguish European baron.
1999 Project

1999 Project: Games 110-116 (Mets Drive 55)

Click here for an intro/manifesto on The 1999 Project.

At the season’s lowest point, Bobby Valentine said he should be given 55 games to lead the Mets out of the wilderness. Game 55 arrived as the Mets returned to Shea, and found the Mets with the best record in baseball, 1.5 games up in first (the Braves shaved a half game off their lead with a win on a Mets off-day).

“When I talked about 55 games, I remember saying, ‘Who knows, maybe we can win 40 of them,’ ” Valentine told Mike Lupica. Amazingly enough, a win in the series opener against the Dodgers would mean the Mets went 40-15 over that stretch.

“Now we’ve got the chance. Now let’s see how we do over the next 55.” As Lupica pointed out, for the Mets to play another 55 games, they would have to make the playoffs.

hundley.jpgThe Dodgers series also meant a Shea return for Todd Hundley. In the Mets’ leaner years, the switch hitting catcher had been a fan favorite (particularly when he set the single-season home run record for catchers). But Mike Piazza’s arrival, repeated clashes with Valentine, and rumors of a drinking problem (among other things) made Hundley expendable. He was dealt in the previous off season, in a three-way trade that brought Armando Benitez and Roger Cedeno to Queens.

The Daily News anticipated a warm reception for Hundley, and no such thing between him and his former manager. Asked if it would be odd to be on the same field as Hundley again, Valentine simply said, “Why would I give a shit?” For his part, Hundley said he wanted “to try to meet [Valentine] in a dark alley.”

The series also meant a return to Shea for LA manager Davey Johnson, who’d led the Mets to a World Series ring. In one of those Only In NY stories, before the series, Johnson was greeted warmly in his hotel lobby by an NYPD officer who was also a September call up for the ’86 Mets. “Funny how small the world is,” Davey marveled.

Continue reading 1999 Project: Games 110-116 (Mets Drive 55) →

1999 Project

1999 Project: Games 104-109 (Flirting with First)

Click here for an intro/manifesto on The 1999 Project.

wrigley.jpgJuly 30, 1999: Mets 10, Cubs 9

The Mets began a six-game road trip by outlasting the Cubs in a sweltering game at Wrigley. A heat index of 114 knocked out local TV transmission and some of the traffic lights outside the stadium. Even players who hailed from the Caribbean and South America said it was some of the most oppressive weather they’d ever played in. “Just thank God there was no Astroturf,” Mike Piazza said after the game, “or they would have been taking corpses off the field.”

Masato Yoshii had his shortest outing of the year, lasting only 1 1/3 innings and allowing seven runs. After giving up a 465-foot bomb of a homer to Sammy Sosa in the first, Yoshii was knocked out of the game by a brutal second inning in which he gave up seven consecutive hits (including a single by starter Steve Trachsel and back-to-back triples by Mickey Morandini and Sosa).

Pat Mahomes came on in long relief and held the Cubs to two hits and one run in 4 2/3 innings, allowing the Mets the chance to come back. He also helped spark that come back with an RBI double that sent Trachsel to the showers in the fourth. The Mets took an 8-7 lead thanks to two-run rallies in the third, fourth, and fifth, but a solo shot from Jose Hernandez in the bottom of the fifth tied the game up. Rickey Henderson responded with a homer of his own in the top of the sixth, and John Olerud hit another to give the Mets a 10-8 lead.

Brought in for the save, Armando Benitez got two quick outs, then gave up a double to Morandini and an RBI single to Sosa that shaved the Mets’ lead to one run. Mark Grace followed with a single that moved the tying run to third. Pinch hitter Tyler Houston hit a shot off of Benitez’s right leg, and the pitcher could not locate the ball at first. After a few helpful screams from Piazza, Benitez threw Houston out at first to end the game.

The reward for their perserverence (other than the win, of course): first place, thanks to a Braves loss to Philly. The Mets hadn’t been in first so late in a season since 1990.

Continue reading 1999 Project: Games 104-109 (Flirting with First) →