My Mets Good or Bad

ב"ה On the mornings after a Mets game, SNY, the network that usually airs the Mets games, has "Mets Fast Forward", a one-hour condensed version of the previous night's game. I'm sure you can understand why I wouldn't want to watch this if the Mets didn't win the night before. Well, lately I've been missing "Mets Fast Forward". Not because my DVR is broken, not because the game isn't carried by SNY, but because the Mets just aren't winning. Granted, they manage to trip over a victory every now and then. It always seems to be a perfect storm rather than a team that's finding its groove. Considering that last night's game vs. Atlanta (after the Mets won the middle game of the series) looked suspiciously like the first game (only the number of runs they lost by were changed to protect the innocent). It's beginning to look as though perhaps the team might not be as good as advertised. Or, perhaps, this is an indication (

ב"ה OK, it hasn't been the best season for the Mets. Granted, it hasn't been the worst, even in this century. There were times when I was proud to wear my Mets regalia and there were other times I was ready to hide, like the New Orleans "Ain'ts" a bunch of years back. Most often, during the dark days of May, June and the beginning of July, after which the "Powers that be" decided it was time for a self-fulfilling prophesy, calling the Mets "out of it" and not even trying to reorganize the team for a possible run at the rather lackluster Braves (if they had been in the NL Central, AL West or AL East with their current record, this far into the season, they'd be in 3rd place). All the Mets would have needed in 2-2 1/2 months of the season would have been to have had a good winning streak (which they usually experience every year but didn't have a good streak this years since April) and that 15 games behind might have evaporated. Gr

ב"ה When I was in high school, I read "8 Men Out". I never saw the entire movie, but I think I can safely say the book was better. I had been obsessed in my pre-high school years with the " Black Sox Scandal ". I didn't become obsessed with the scandal from reading the book; I read the book because I was already obsessed with the scandal. From what I gleaned from "8 Men Out: The Book", the person most responsible for the scandal was Charles Comiskey, then owner of the Chicago White Sox. Comiskey was typical for his generation, a generation of Baseball wherein owners were despots and players were treated as commodities. Thanks to Curt Flood and other brave players, players nowadays are at least paid what they are worth (or more????). But in 1919, Charles Comiskey paid his high graduate players better than his non-graduate players. He put up a wall between the two with the way he treated the less educated players. The players who were involved

ב"ה Jeff McNeil, a new Met, had a great day tonight (ok, that sounds oxymoronic, but bear with me). Today being Shabbat (the Sabbath) I couldn't watch until about 9:30ish and I came in and found the Mets ahead (and then found out the Mets lost last night -- when I had to turn the TV off last night for Shabbat, the score was tied 1-1, so I was pretty disappointed when I found out they had lost a 4th in a row) 3-0 and heard that McNeil had been 3 for 3. By the time the game was over, he was 4 for 4, including a double, and fielded the last 4 outs against the Braves. Not bad. I certainly hope this is not a fluke. I know just about everyone is counting the Mets out, including management, the commentators, the announcers, etc. (BTW, I'm sort of sick of hearing the announcers always down on the Mets and, instead of being happy for the Mets when someone on the other teams makes a bad play and disappointed when someone makes a great play against them -- just who are you rootin

ב"ה So I just got the news that Asdrubal Cabrera was traded. I'm still upset that they traded him to Philly. Cabrera was one of those players who was always there, always in the mix whether we won or lost, he was one of the players getting on base. And, with Cespy out most of the year and Bruce still out, Cabrera was leading the team that was built on hitting home-runs in home-runs. I wish you well, "Sdrubal" (that was my nickname for him) but, natch, as a good Mets fan, I don't wish Philly well.

ב"ה It was nice having Cespy back "home" for one game anyway. He showed us that he's still capable, but now he needs to take care of his body. Take good care of yourself and may G-d bring you back for your sake and for ours. Now that we know Cespy will be out for the season (and likely past spring training and into next season -- anyone else feeling like we wasted some time with him being on the DL without this going into the process?) the rest of the team (once the trading trash-talk goes by the wayside), whoever is left after the t-bomb, needs to play how they played today. Oswalt may have officially gotten the win (and he did pitch well enough to deserve the win) but IMHO, the win should go to Jose Bautista. Bautista made a spectacular catch that saved a run or two, plus he hit a two run homer to cap the Mets scoring (thank goodness he did -- they needed those extra runs!). Without Bautista, we would never have won that game. So we finally won a series, af