Grounds Crew Blows Another For Mets

"They need to stop booing Matsui and these guys when they miss balls, they should just give them a standing ovation when they catch one." - Derek Jeter following his two errors in Game One, blaming the grounds crew for his woes.


There are alot of ways that you might chose to look at yesterday's loss to the Yankees and Eight of Flubs by Morrissey in the Post probably puts it as best as anyone today. A gem of an article which unlike Pedro's performance, was not crumpled up and thrown into the rubbish the minute he finished it.

Is it odd that the two most important flubs were both created by the Mets two youngest and most hyper-enthused players on the field, Reyes and Wright? Or Wright and Reyes, however you want the slogan to go? And say what you will about Manager Willie going to the Hernandez well for the fifth straight game in lieu of letting the guy who is supposed to be making his living by closing, The Looper Stupor Experience, actually close out the game, but it was the two kids who let the first two cockroaches of Yankee hope back into the game in the 8th that spellt doom for the Mets in the end.

"That's the moment, man, the moment of the game," Reyes tried to reason of his attempt to bare hand a simple toss from Cairo to start a double play as the sting of the Mets' 5-3 loss to the Yankees sunk in. "You don't think about it, you just want to do it."

Fair enough. Reyes is trying to be clutch, like alot of Mets have been already this season. It didn't work. He's young. In a few months, maybe he will be making that play (provided his hammies don't put the whammy on his season), or maybe a few years, but it is the effort of leadership, the effort to be clutch, that seems important at this stage, I believe. (On the other hand, you can also say that Reyes has a little hotdog in him as well, which doesn't sound as nice as trying to be clutch by making a circus play instead of a safe one when the game was on the line.) - time will tell which was right.

And Wright simply appeared to draw a blank on a routine jab, a pity after the beautiful catch into the seats on a 3rd base side foul that yanked Pedro out of the bases loaded fire. Unlike Reyes he doesn't try to be fancy but he flubs some easy ones sometimes that make you wonder how many more years before he can hone a polish on some consistent talent defensively.

Still, for some reason, it seems difficult to feel too awfully disappointed about the series itself. Yes, taking two of three from the Yankees, kicking some sand in their faces would have been a nice sensation, especially rolling into Atlanta and Florida for a pair of important showdowns. But both loses were fired by defensive miscues, the second baseman and first baseman in Game One and the shortstop and third baseman in Game Three. All infielders. Perhaps we should follow Derek Jeter's heartfelt whinge about the infield play surface at Shea and blame the grounds crew for the errors. It was the grounds crew, my friends, the incarnation of evil and incompetence. If Derek Jeter had to play on such rock and pebble fields of uneven composure when he was growing up, he'd still be in the little leagues, so impossible it is.

So we can say that we lost to the Yankees because the infield wasn't properly kept. The Wheel of Contention spins again to spell another lost series against another contender.

That's what makes me uneasy about this Atlanta and Florida trip.

"The games we play down there [Atlanta] are more important than the ones we played this weekend." -- Mientkiewicz said yesterday.

The Mets have lost the last three series' they've played against contenders - the Cubs, Cardinals and Yankees. And even though the Cubs look like they sit on the precipice of quitting the season already with the Cards jumping out so fast, it reminds us again that the Mets' best hope at the moment is to make sure they beat the teams they are better than. Eventually, if there is to be prolonged infatuation with this team this season, they will start to take some from the teams better than them as well.

*****

Ishii (0-2, 3.96) tries to get us back on track against Horacio Ramirez (2-3, 4.69)and the Braves. The Braves have a few problems of their own for a change with two of their best starters outside of Smoltz and Tim Hudson on the DL at the moment. Finally. Chinks in the armour?

Well, no reason to get excited for the evening to follow will feature Perennial Brave Victim, Tom Glavine against oh hell, what does it really matter? 1-7 with a 9.36 ERA against the Braves is all that matters.

And to follow it up, like a left uppercut following a blow to the solar plexus, none other than Victor Zambrano will perform his disappearing control act for Game 3 of the series.

Should be fun for the masochists.