Even the underwear models are saddened by these Mets
Now we can all know again what it's like to be a Royals fan or a Nats fan; supporters of perennial losers. Oh sure, there were two years when the illusion of not being a loser lasted until September but even that turned into disaster and the franchise has now found its rightful place; the symmetry of an impoverished farm system, rotten luck, poor calibre stars, lack of charisma and vitally, an absolute dearth of leadership from ownership down to the bat boy.
So, after a weekend of lacklustre losses in San Diego the Mets turned their attention to Arizona, to the D'Bags, a team that had inexplicably given them a thumping at home just as easily (losing three of four at Shitty Field), it appears as they would on the road, a team mired in their own baseball hell of mediocrity.
The Padres and Diamondbacks are of course, the meat and potatoes of the Mets remaining schedule. If they can't even beat lousy teams like these there seems little point in playing out the remaining games of the season because there are no high points remaining, just a prison sentence of loss after loss, demoralising the franchise to irrevocable places.
It's a good job there is no demotion in MLB. As I've probably mentioned before, the football team I support in England, Newcastle United, were much like the Mets were: gutted by rotten ownership, overflowing with expensive, injury-prone players, riddled with a new super form of mismanagement and most importantly, flourishing in a culture of losing. In English football a team that finishes in the bottom three of the division is demoted to the next division down (as if the Mets would be sent to play a season in Triple AAA next season) and that is where Newcastle have found themselves.
So if you think it's bad "just" being a Mets fan, think about being a Mets fan AND a Newcastle supporter.
Newcastle have just begun their new season this weekend. This is after an off season where most of their injury prone stars had to be sold off because without the huge payoff the franchise received for being in the Premiership, they could no longer afford the salaries. The owner, who tried desperately to sell the team and recoup his £120+ million investment, found no buyers for anything less than £70 million and so kept the franchise in limbo all off season. No new players came in. The old ones just left, reducing the franchise to embers. The manager, a former star for the team, was left hanging in the ownership uncertainty and returned to the broadcast booth. The team played their first game of the season in this lesser division on Saturday sporting canary yellow kits as opposed to the traditional black and white striped kits. Canary yellow! They managed to eke out a 1-1 draw against a similarly demoted team but their chances of being promoted back to the top league again next season seem dim at best.
So again, watching the Mets suffer yet another road less against yet another struggling, inferior team is small potatoes. Take comfort in knowing it could be worse.
Oof. Is there such a thing as the Iron Glove Award?
As for the game last night, I sure hope Mike Pelfrey didn't dedicate his start to his new son, Chase. I'll skip the obvious punchlines in that one and just unveil his magical numbers: 8 hits and 5 earned runs in 6 pathetic innings. I suppose we should all be writhing in ecstasy that Big Pelf managed to made it out of the 5th inning. Especially with Angel Pagan compounding Pelf's poor pitching with an incredibly misguided failing dive attempt at Diamondback pitcher Doug Davis' sinking fly ball in the second inning which ultimately cost the Mets the game.
Only the second inning you say? Hell, the Mets don't need much to hang their heads. This isn't a battling team. Every team has a few comeback wins during the course of the season but if you remember back to the beginning of the season, BEFORE the convenient excuse of injuries set in, remember how those Mets would take an early one or two run lead, gradually allow the opposing team to come back and then stumble off quietly by games end with another loss in tow?
This of course says nothing of Pagan's comedy of errors - for an encore to his debacle in the second inning he threw some sort of side-armed ball to the infield which of course the brilliant-fielding Anderson Hernandez couldn't handle but hell, the runner advanced to third, big deal, he was already on second anyway and the single that followed him would certainly have scored him anyway.
Or how about Anderson's throw to the ghost on first in the 8th? Where was Murph? Lost somewhere near the pitching mound, of course! The 2009 Mets, as Vin Scully aptly warned us months ago, are really the 1962 Mets in disguise.
The haunted look on Wright's face says it all.
This was a ghastly game in a ghastly season compounded by the usual suspects of mediocrity and failure. "We were a bad team tonight." Jerry admitted disingenuinely. Tonight? What about all the other bloody nights in between? Have you finally narrowed it down Jerry to this one night?
So, look ahead brave Mets fans, down the long road of misery that awaits.
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3 comments:
I am sorry, but the stat boys cannot compute this. There is no computation for gutless, indifferent, lazy. There is a decidedly human element to this game. Compute all you want. Some stats are very telling. But people have to realilze that there is such a thing as a loser. and a loser GM who compiles a bunch of losers in one locker room. There are also loser fans, who sit and watch this crap. Hell, we vote every four years to show our unhappiness. Why don't we stay away when the team sucks? Angel Pagan is Jose-Reyes-dumb, maybe the dumbest player this side of Vince Coleman or Gerald "ICE" Williams. Pelfrey has become exasperating. If someone comes sniffing this off season I would consider it, but do not offer him around, because you immediiately diminish his value. Adam Rubin is writing about the possibility of Omar's demise now. John Ricco? I would take him. But I am from the "Anyone-but-Omar-and-Steve-Phillips-and-Jim-Duquette" coalition. If they are doing it so they do not have to pay off Jerry and some other front office types then it is typical Won'tpons. It is not about WINNING. But that is not a pre-judgment on Ricco's abilities. Sorry about your soccer team, but I am a Jets and Knicks fan--so I have been hit with a triple whammy. I am the original loser fan.
yes, it's a pity, innit, jdon - these guys played a short stretch of good, competitive baseball and now they just seem to have given up on the season.
I hope Omar goes but I'm sure I can hear all that rubbish about the season being lost to injuries and not being his fault, etc. You just KNOW that's how it's going to play out.
I'm a Jets fan too (I don't follow the NBA too much) and this season, stupidly, like all seasons, I feel strangely optimistic. Go Leon Washington! (he's got a very sexy fan club, did you see? http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg263/abundantstyle/photoshoot289.jpg
you know, Jaap, I have been ruminating on this team. I look at David and I think he is a spoiled player. I think things started well for him and then people began giving him things, like All Star appearances and undeserved Gold Gloves. I wonder about a guy who swears Derek Jeter is one of his idols and never runs out a ground ball. I wonder about a guy it has taken five years to realize that he has to stand up straight and throw overhand to first or the ball tails toward the dugout. It is not one David. It is on the organization that has not coached or prepared him to improve his overall game. The mets stink at fundamentals? That is because they don't even know what fundamentals are. David has been on a team where the players do what they want. Piazza was here his first year. Beltran and his stupid sacrifice bunts has been here since. Delgado, that lazy loser. The jerk LoDuca. Reyes ignoring the manager. All guys that just did what they wanted. On the Mets, the players run the show and Omar lets them do it. As much as I thought Willie had to go, he never had a chance with these guys. All Willie ever wanted to do was teach Reyes to behave like a professional. Reyes hated him for it. He did not want Beltran laying down sac bunts from the three hole, but he could not get him to stop. I am sure he wanted to bench Delgado when he was swinging at pitches that bounced 5 feet in front of the plate in the first half of 2008, but Omar did not let him. We know Delgado despised Willie. Ollie listened to no one. Pedro listened to no one. El Duque? Give me a break. Julio Franco, another disruptive guy who openly spoke against Willie. I use Willie as an example, but I do not think Jerry commands their respect either. They just run to Jeff or Omar. See, it is cultural. David, even the idiot Jose, could not have had a worse set of teachers. I am just ruminating, of course.
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