Statement Game?

The Mets responded convincingly to clubhouse-gate yesterday afternoon, beating the Yankees 7-4 in the kind of crisp, well-played game we've gotten used to seeing about every other day or so. I mean, seriously. The Mets have now won 21 games. After at least 15 of those games there have been encouraging signs that the Mets are finally prepared to break out of this up-down nonsense.

Johan Santana was also pitching. The Mets have now won seven of Santana's nine starts. That's good: you have to win when your ace pitches. Unfortunately, the fact that that the Mets are 7-2 in Santana starts means they're just 14-17 when Johan's not on the mound. The Mets .500 hovering act is only thrown further into relief by the fact that they can only ever seem to look more-than-mediocre when their best pitcher goes.

Still, yesterday's win did have the air of a statement game. Billy Wagner's "f---ing shocker" comments after Thursday's game created the first real controversy surrounding the 2008 Mets. For all the listless play, part of why the Mets have been painful to watch is because it's all been kind of boring. Win, loss, loss, win; they can't seem to get anything going but the overall narrative hasn't changed much.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is that maybe these Mets needed some real trouble. Because Rocky taught us that its not how hard you hit, but how hard you get hit, and keep moving forward. I've been saying that the Mets need something to happen, something to rally around, and while I'm still not sure if the firing of Willie Randolph will be necessary to achieve this, "f---ing shocker" at least carries with it the potential to wake this team up.

And they did respond in kind yesterday. Along with Santana, who despite giving up three home runs pitched into the 8th inning and handed the ball directly to Billy Wagner, which is always a formula for success. Jose Reyes (2-5, HR) and David Wright (3-5, HR) carried the offense, and the third inning Church to Castillo to Schneider-with-the-foot-block relay was a huge play, after the Yankees had already taken a 2-0 lead and the game showed potentially dangerous signs of getting out of hand really fast. Carlos Delgado even turned on a Joba Chamberlain fastball for a key RBI in the 8th inning.

So, once again, we have some encouraging signs. But the trouble with trying to analyze these Mets is that you just don't know what anything is going to lead to. Was yesterday a turning point? That will depend on what the Mets can do against Chien-Ming Wang tonight, and how Oliver Perez does or does not step up in what I hope the Mets consider to be another very important game.

(Image courtesy cinematicwallpaper.com)

Willie Harris, Met Killer

Apparently Willie Harris is pretty good at defense. The former Brave and current Nat, who went Endy Chavez over the center field fence at Shea last season and robbed Carlos Delgado of a potential game-winning homer in the rubber game of a big mid-summer series, was at it again yesterday, laying out on the left field line to rob Ryan Church of what would have been likely been a game-tying bloop double. Harris also contributed a leaping catch Wednesday night and a key sacrifice in the eighth inning of yesterday's game to set up the game's only run and help the Nats take three of four from the Mets, who ended up turning in a 3-4 record on a seven game homestand against two of the National League's three last place teams.

Last season's play against Delgado

So here's to you, Willie Harris. It's always the little guys, who come in late in the game for defense and somehow end up screwing you in the end. I miss Joe McEwing.

****

So the Mets waste the best start of Mike Pelfrey's young career, fail to do squat offensively off the Washington Nationals' pitching staff, and lose 1-0. I feel particularly bad for Pelfrey; that's two good starts in a row for big Pelf, and he's got two hard-luck losses to show for it.

In the 8th inning, Jose Reyes tried to go first to third on a bunt, and got thrown out. At least he was hustling - unlike David Wright and Luis Castillo, who dogged it on Wright's fly ball in the third inning and could only many it to first and third, respectively, when Austin Kearns couldn't make the play. There were two outs, so Castillo really should have scored from first, and he probably would have if he had been running hard.

The Mets, after yesterday's debacle, are now 20-19. If we're looking for some silver lining here, starting the season at a .500 clip at least manages to better illuminate this team's shortcomings. We played the exact same way for two-thirds of last season, but the hot start enabled Willie and the rest of the team to sell us that false, "class of the NL" bag of goods. Now, after playing under the same malaise for the first forty games of this season despite the addition of the best pitcher in baseball, there's no escaping the fact that the formerly upstart Mets have become a lazy, stagnant bunch under their ineffectual manager.

The thing is, I don't even know how this happened. I really don't. Willie, quite honestly, did an excellent job with this team in '05, and especially '06. The Mets, in an early warning sign, had a hard time completing sweeps in the beginning of last season, but they still played .600 ball through the end of May. We all knew they were good enough, and how they descended into seemingly inescapable .500 listlessness is as far beyond me as how they managed to blow a 7 game lead with 17 to play after posting a 9-2 record to begin the month of September.

But they are the Mets, and things don't always make sense. They also looked pretty good in those first few games in Florida. I really thought they were back. Think really hard back to the beginning of April. Did you ever think that, six weeks later, the Marlins would be the ones holding a stubborn two game lead in the division?

As the spring ended and the season got off to fast start those first few games, we really thought that Johan Santana had turned the page. But clearly the Mets remain stuck in the mud, wheels spinning but going nowhere, unable to move on to the new day that the acquisition of the stud left-hander was supposed to dawn.

Interviewed on WFAN yesterday morning with Boomer Esiason and Craig Carton (great show, by the way), Gary Cohen was asked, generally, what he thought of Willie Randolph's job security. In a statement that I thought was pretty frank for a broadcaster, particularly Cohen, he responded: "They better start winning some games or no one on this team is safe."

The tide is turning, and in 2008 no one within the Mets' organization has been lulled into last year's false sense of security.

Is there change in the air? The first subway series this weekend, between two underachieving New York teams, should be interesting.


(Image courtesy graphics.nytimes.com)

Up, Down

At its most basic level, yesterday's doubleheader was a perfect microcosm of the Mets' yearlong toil in mediocrity. They won the first game, lost the second. They went from 71-71 since last June 1 to 72-72. Nothing too exciting there. Just the same old, same old.

Mike Pelfrey (6 IP, 2 ER, 8 H, 3 BB) actually pitched a little bit better in game 2 than Johan Santana (6 IP, 3 ER, 10 H, 1 BB) did in game one. Pelfrey took a loss, Santana got the victory. So it goes sometimes. Life's not fair.

The Mets' offense, which looked inspired in the first game, once again fell flat against a horrible pitcher in the second. The Mets let Bronson Arroyo, who came into the nightcap having given up 50 hits in 32 innings - that's really bad - drop eight frames on them, and were left looking like they couldn't quite figure out Arroyo's 87 mile-an-hour fastball and token curveball. Arroyo, who lowered his ERA to 7.14 with last night's performance, gave up just one run on four hits and struck out nine, turning in an outing that was arguably better than anything we've seen from a Met pitcher so far this year.

The best hope for our season might be to root for another month or so of .500 ball while also - stay with me here - hoping that the Phillies can rip a few off and open up a nice lead in the East. Nothing unovercomeable, just 4 or 5 games. A lead that can be obliterated by a nice hot streak, but that there's no prayer more of the same can possibly erase.

Because that might just further illuminate the sad truth that Willie really doesn't seem to be capable of getting anything more than a win and a loss out of this Mets team. And that's just not acceptable. The only player hitting .300 in a reasonably stacked Mets lineup right now is Ryan Church.

The Wilpons, faced with the ugly prospect of Citi Field boo-birds, will squirm. The pressure will mount for Omar Minaya, faced with the prospect of a sullied reputation despite putting a team on the field that should currently be well on its way to a third consecutive division title, to cut ties with his boy Randolph.

Said Willie after last night's letdown, "I guess we got all our work done in the first game." This isn't going to work for that much longer. It's not working right now.

The Mets will probably win today. Will that mean anything tomorrow?

Unlikely.

(Picture courtesy mlb.com)

Rain Delay

What's in your iPod?

Pedro Martinez says he likes to keep it romantic.

Ryan Church likes Linkin Park.

Aaron Heilman's into Pearl Jam.

When he's not cursing out Cubs fans, Joe Smith is all about the country music. It's okay, he's from Cincinnati.

I was a little disappointed to find out that David Wright also likes country music. I've just, never seen the appeal. Wright also likes Jay-Z, who I personally think is overrated, though he did also say he likes hip-hop in general. I wonder who else he's into. Touching on another genre, he did drop Frank Sinatra's name, which I thought was pretty sweet.

Jose Reyes, unsurprisingly, says he almost always listens to reggaeton.


Carlos Delgado also likes the reggaeton, and Latin American music in general.

Mike Pelfrey says he doesn't have an iPod.

The Mets and Reds will play tonight, but SNY's Kid's Clubhouse is holding down the fort until the tarp comes off the field at Shea. The iPodless Pelfrey will pitch for the Mets whenever things get going; it's a big start for big Pelf, who's out to rebound from three tough outings and prove that his first two solid starts were no fluke.

It's still raining pretty hard at Shea, but I guess they're pretty committed to getting this game in. But welp, there it is. Looks like we're rained out tonight - the Mets and Reds will go for a day-nighter tomorrow, throwing Johan Santana in the day game and Pelf in the nightcap.

Tomorrow's double dip will represent the first two of seven upcoming games against two last place teams, so here's hoping we can get this stretch off to a good start.

(Image courtesy nytimes.com)

Another Day

Another failure by the Mets to build any sort of meaningful momentum. Confounded for six innings by Chad Billingsley, who improved to 2-4 on the year last night, the Mets' offense turned in another listless performance against a mediocre pitcher.

A .500 team never fails to play .500 baseball. The Mets are 2-2 in their last four games, 3-3 in their last six, 5-5 in their last ten games, 7-7 in their last fourteen.

You get the feeling that, after winning 15 games last season, if Oliver Perez can't finally put it all together consistently in a contract year then he probably never will.

OP was roughed up again last night

I feel bad for Omar Minaya. I really do. People question whether the Mets have hit their ceiling; sports pundits who are bad at their jobs and Mets fans who don't know what they're talking about suggest that Minaya should be fired along with Willie Randolph if the Mets fail to make the postseason, or don't get it together.

But it's his fault? The guy's made three mistakes since he took over the Mets. Their names are Heath Bell, Henry Owens, and Matt Lindstrom. Two career minor leaguers and a so-so young pitcher on the New York/Triple-A shuttle, all traded away in the '06 off-season in deals that haven't really yielded anything for the Mets. Ben Johnson, acquired in the Bell deal, was, in fact, released yesterday. From AAA.

Since the big moves early in his tenure, in New York's what-have-you-done-for-me-lately environment Omar's only acquired the best pitcher in baseball for an extremely light package of might-miss prospects, built the Mets a solid bench, and brought in Ryan Church and Brian Schneider in a move that, while criticized at the time (I was a critic), so far looks like a winner for the Mets.

Omar Minaya has put a team on the field that should win 95 games. Disagree? The Mets won 96 in 2006 win Tom Glavine at the top of the rotation for most of the year. And Steve Trachsel as the no. 2 starter. In '08, the .500 Mets look like the '05 team without the energy. Braden Looper was our closer that year.

Willie Randolph keeps saying everything's going to be alright. Dude, you're not Bob Marley. Shut up and manage a major league baseball team. Of 2007's dark shadow, Randolph says:

“In spring training we were past that. Obviously the fans are having a tough time moving past that. So we just hope that they eventually get behind this team, because we’re going to make them real proud before the year is over.

“We live in an environment where they want it when they want it. Believe me, my team is really solid and together, how we look at ourselves. I don’t think that we define who we are by the reaction we get. We know mentally where we want to go, who we want to be, and we can’t get there until September. In the meantime, you’re going to go through your ups and downs, your scuttlebutt or whatever it is. I think we understand in this town that’s the way it’s going to be.”

It wasn't "alright" last September, and it's not alright now. For almost a full calendar year the Mets have been a .500 team. For the same amount of time they've played as if nothing will allow them to take a step forward without also taking one back. It's great that our manager is calm and optimistic, but that plus whatever else he's doing is obviously not getting his team to play up to its potential. And what in the lord's name is "scuttlebutt." I'm so sick of this guy.

At the beginning of last season I thought that the circular, Senatorial sentences that Randolph always speaks in were strategic, a coy front while the General rallied his troops in the clubhouse before every game to go out and kick ass. Last September taught us that, truth is, that's the only thing Willie really knows to say. And when some adjustment seems required? Oh we're relaxed, we're gonna be fine, we know what we have to do, we play hard, we play to win, says Willie. Everything's gonna be alright...

The Mets, quite obviously, need to elevate their level of play right now, and Willie Randolph, for nearly a year, hasn't seemed capable of getting them to do that. For every series win against Arizona or Philadelphia there's a decisive loss the next night. The Dodgers have now won 11 of 14 , after last night's victory. Think really hard for a second. Can you even imagine the Mets pulling that off right now? Sad, right?

You can't blame the manager for everything. Steve Phillips really did do a crappy job assembling the Mets teams of the early 2000s, when Bobby Valentine got the ax. But sometimes the blame can't possibly fall any place else, and it's beginning to seem pretty obvious that Willie Randolph's sunshine and lollipops demeanor isn't doing anything for the Mets right now. The Mets remain in need of a jolt, a kick-start, and if the ultimate leader of this team, Willie Randolph, is incapable of providing that, then a change has got to be in order.

I'll give it to Memorial Day. Julio Franco just retired...

(Image courtesy ap.google.com)

I'll be!

Another team makes a late-inning error against the Mets, sparking a three run ninth and handing the Mets a 5-2 victory.

The Mets take two out of three in the desert from the "class of the National League."

After losing 13-1 to the class of the NL, circa 1991.

If Barry Bonds and vintage Bobby Bonilla combined to hit 13 home runs against the Mets in one game, and the year was indeed 1991, then it might be okay to lose that badly to the Pirates

I love roller coasters!

Which reminds me, Oliver Perez pitches tonight against Chad Billingsley and the Dodgers.

One in the same

(Images courtesy southernledger.com, usatoday.com, nysun.com, dailygalaxy.com)

13-1 (ouch!), Inconsistency, Blogging

Yeah, the Mets lost 13-1 yesterday. I watched the first inning and a half, left before Oliver Perez's meltdown, went out to a job interview, came back, and the score was 8-0 in the top of the sixth. Before I could watch the Mets hit again, I saw David Wright muff a routine grounder, Angel Pagan misplay two deep fly balls, and Pirates' lead grow to 13-0. Perhaps if I were watching a basketball or football game there still would have been a chance. Baseball? Not so much.

Pagan took a bad route to a ball in the left-center field gap and let it fall; Perez just pitched badly

I'm actually kind of relieved that the Mets lost the way they did yesterday. It was ugly, turn the page. The bullpen didn't blow it, the offense can't really be blamed, it was just a terrible day. And maybe it was one of those wake-up call blowouts, just what the Mets needed to finish a month where, quite frankly, they're lucky that .500 ball has kept them within a game of first place.

So I'm not too concerned about yesterday, in particular. Are the Mets lucky that despite the ongoing inconsistency, the Florida Marlins are still the only thing between them and the top of the NL East? Yes. Do I continue to be disturbed that we're still seeing a lot of the same things that sealed our fate last year? Yes. Will our upcoming road trip to Arizona and LA tell me a lot more about where we're at right now? Absolutely. Micah Owings, Brandon Webb, Dan Haren. We match up okay, with Maine, Pelfrey, and Santana, but if we win two games this weekend I'll still be shocked. The D Backs are 20-8 for a reason.

But I want to touch briefly on something else that's drawn my attention. Metsblog, basically my primary source for everything else going on in the sports blogosphere, had an interesting post last night about a roundtable discussion on Bob Costas' HBO television show, Costas Now.

Here's a video clip of the discussion, if you're interested.

The upshot, essentially, is that Costas hosted a discussion on his TV show about internet media with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Buzz Bissinger, along with the founder of the popular sports blog Deadspin.com, Will Leitch, and Cleveland Browns Wide Receiver Braylon Edwards.

Bissinger was angry, and clearly determined to seize his chance to call out Leitch, as the representative of everything unholy in new media, modern journalism, whatever you want to call it - blogs, basically. Leitch spent the majority of the segment defending himself, Edwards just kind of sat there, and Costas seemed to side with Bissinger.

“I just think that blogs are dedicated to cruelty, they’re dedicated to journalistic dishonesty, they’re dedicated to speed…it is the complete dumbing down of our society,” offered Bissinger. (metsblog)

The animosity goes both ways. Every Tom, Dick, and Harry behind the keyboard thinks they can do a better job than the people with actual press credentials, and the people with credentials (Bissinger, Costas), who have worked hard to establish themselves as journalists, written books, won Pulitzers...those guys feel threatened by decreased newspaper readership and a seismic shift in the way people around the world get their information, and they see blogs and other forms of new media as inferior to the good old days, when if you wanted to be a sports reporter you had to work your way into the press box.

Either blanket opinion totally oversimplifies the meaning of new media - which isn't going anywhere - and perpetuates an acrimonious relationship between some bloggers and credentialed journalists that probably shouldn't exist in the first place.

Sports bloggers like Leitch, or myself for that matter, aren't trying to steal Buzz Bissinger's thunder. We're simply taking advantage of a new tool that allows us to communicate the experience of being a fan, or a sports observer, or whatever. And, despite what Bissinger and Costas might suggest, blogs aren't dedicated to bringing people down.

Says Costas, in the brief segment on Leitch before the roundtable talk, "if you're an athlete, you don't want to end up on Deadspin" - he's referring, here, to Deadspin's propensity to link stories depicting athletes partying; I linked to a Deadspin story last December, when it was reported that John Maine caused a bit of a stir at a New York City nightclub. Bissinger and Costas see this as trash. I don't. I could care less what John Maine does on his spare time, and I think I like him a little bit more when I get to glimpse him as more of a real person.

Deadspin is a fan site, not a news outlet. And as fans, we've always been interested in who are sports heroes are outside of their uniforms. Even if they're not our sports heroes, and just random athletes, there's still a certain curiosity there.

Putting this dispute aside, that's also not the only thing that gets on Deadspin. Deadspin, or even my blog for that matter, certainly most of the other blogs that I link to (save metsblog) are not report-and-recap sites, they're really exercises in creativity, more than anything else. Creativity in communicating a fan's perspective. That's something I would think two esteemed journalists should welcome, certainly not frown upon.

Some bloggers might have visions of journalistic grandeur, but most of us aren't really thinking like that. We just do what we do - we're fans and we write about being fans. We might be a bit more blunt - I called Aaron Heilman a pouty little sissy recently - but there's always a line between what goes through a fan's head and what gets written in the newspaper. Aaron Heilman just had a bad outing if I'm writing for the wire. And most of us, despite a different take on the whole thing, still can write pretty well, thanks.

Still, Bissinger doesn't like the tone of a lot of these blogs. He's referring more to the comments section, I think. If that's his problem, he might want to cruise over to the New York Times' politics page, where updates on recent campaign trail developments certainly attract some harsh rhetoric, if not inappropriate language. It's not just confined to impolitic sports blogs; this is what happens when everyone gets a voice, through the comments' section, or their local town meeting, or whatever. Some people are crazy. They can say whatever they want, but they're crazy. We have free speech in this country. We've been walking this line for 230 years. The internet, really, is just the supreme manifestation of one of our founding principles.

And it's not like credentials are going anywhere. If you want to write for a real news outlet, you still have to know what you're doing - you're just more likely to be posting to a website in addition to having your work printed. "Real" journalists - in sports, politics, the entertainment business, everywhere - use blogs as a more effective way of communicating to a changing audience. A revolutionary tool, to provide up-to-the-minute insights and analysis, thoughts and observations in the middle of a game, a debate, an election night. Check out this one, this one, this one, and this other one as a few examples.

And there still is a line between Mets beat writer John Delcos' blog for the Journal News, and Ted's Fansite. That's not to say that Ted's Fansite is illegitimate; it's just a different mode of communication. The balance is part of the wider internet medium and, ultimately, the future of sports, politics, everything really.

Besides, Buzz Bissinger should watch himself. I haven't read any of his stuff, but I hear he's pretty good. Still, for every blogger using harsh language, there's a guy with credentials who doesn't know his head from his left foot and uses good grammar to still sound like an idiot. Marty Noble was the biggest homer in the world last season until the tide started turning for the Mets; many bloggers pinpointed some of the threatening issues with last year's team long before Noble caught up to the curve.

Bissinger's eruption the other night was clearly the past. He might want to have a few revelations, or the future is sure to keep smacking him in the face.

(Pictures courtesy nytimes.com, signonsandiego.com)

The third inning

It's the third inning, and the Mets are already down, 2-0. David Wright's at the plate with a man on base. You may recall that in a similar situation the last night, Wright drew a bases loaded walk. Then Carlos Beltran and Ryan Church drew bases loaded walks to put the Mets ahead, 3-1. Unfortunately, Angel Pagan, perhaps gunning for a bases loaded walk of his own, then struck out looking on a 3-2 fastball to end the only real threat the hapless Mets had all night. They went on to lose the game, 6-3.

But that was yesterday and this is today. It's the third inning, and the Mets are down, 2-0. David Wright's at the plate with Endy Chavez on first base. After going 8-11 in Philly last weekend, Wright is 0 for his last 19 and desperately needs a base hit. What does he do? Bang! Base hit through the first base hole into right. The Mets have two runners on base for Carlos Beltran.

You may also remember that Beltran hasn't been hitting the ball too well lately; despite a couple of good games in Washington, his average on the year is still closer to .200 than .250. You're expecting bad things, hoping for good ones. But where did that get you last September, or when Aaron Heilman came on to face Felipe Lopez on Thursday...sorry, I'm getting off track. But you're still not expecting good things. Until...crack! Beltran hits a long drive to center field...

Is it going to go over the fence? Is Mark Kotsay going to catch it? Is this going to somehow turn into a painful double play? I don't know!

The ball falls in on the warning track behind Kotsay. Endy will score to tie the game, Wright's being waved around third. Kotsay gets the ball to the cutoff man, Braves backup shortstop Brent (Brant?) Lillibridge, but he's too small and skinny to possibly come up with a good relay throw so Wright's going to be safe at the plate and the Mets will take the lead, right?

Holy crap, Lillibridge fires a bullet to the plate. Wright slides feet-first, attempting to poke his toe around the glove of Braves catcher Brian McCann. What's the verdict, Blue? Wright's safe! With a fist pump!

Things are going good, real good. The Mets came through in the clutch, with singles and doubles instead of RBI walks and groundouts. The Mets tie the game at 2 in the bottom of the third inning.

But wait! It gets better! Ryan Church is up, and, and, wait for it, BAM! Church knocks a shot right over the first base bag, and it's headed for the right field corner. He doesn't have the best speed, and Francoeur's got a pretty good arm, but it's kicking around back there, and he's going for three...he's safe! Yay! Church comes through! Singles, doubles, triples, the Mets are ahead 3-1!

And then? Uh-oh, it's no fun Delgado, here to ruin everyone's fun. He hits a weak tapper to first base, but Mark Teixera can't throw home because Delgado's in the way, and Church was running on contact so he scores, and all of a sudden the score is 4-1 Mets! Sweet!

No fun Delgado, here to ruin everyone's fun and refuse to give curtain calls. Gosh!

The Mets get just one more chance to score the rest of the game, and don't capitalize. But the damage is done. The Braves get back a run against Heilman in the sixth, but Sanchez and Wagner shut the door and the Mets have a 4-3 victory, their second in the last five games!

****

Not to place too much stock in four runs, but that's exactly the kind of inning we needed. The Met offense had looked so pathetic, with the RBI groundouts and runs scored only on mistakes by our opponents, that I had genuinely forgotten, a little bit, what it felt like to watch the Mets put together a solid attack. And Sunday's win, with the three home runs - two of them by Delgado - who decided to be no fun anyway and not give a curtain call even though he had just hit two homers, got us a series win against the big bad Braves, our third (series win) in four tries against them and the Phillies. And so while I don't doubt this Mets team's ability to be inconsistent, the third inning on Saturday afternoon was refreshing, encouraging, and exactly what I needed to see. Maybe it's a building block...who knows.

Johan (3-2, 3.12) goes for the Mets tonight opposite Ian Snell (2-1, 4.21). If we win three in a row, that's called a winning streak. It has happened before!

(Image courtesy mets.com)

Not cool!

Anyone reading this blog on Monday morning may be expecting me to say something about the Mets' somewhat redemptive but altogether sort-of hollow series win over the Braves this weekend. Considering the fact that the Mets could well come out of this Braves series and lose 2 of 3 to the Pirates these next few nights, I think I'd rather hold off until I can put two pretty good games in context.

But I'll tell you what I am angry about: SNY is sleeping with the devil. More accurately, the devil across town.

Has anyone else seen the new spots Derek Jeter is doing for Ford? One features about 30 seconds of people across the city of New York finding different ways of complimenting Derek Jeter and affirming that "that guy's got an edge." It's funny, right, because they could just be talking about the Yankee captain's legendary ice-cold nerves in clutch situations (thought not as much in the Yankees' consecutive first round playoff exits the past three years). Or it could be a deodorant commercial, right? Oh man, I was on the edge - no pun - of my seat the first time I saw that ad. What is this guy endorsing? Lending his "edge" to?

But wait, of course! They're all talking about his car! Ford's newest mid-size SUV, the Edge.

How could I be so remiss?

There's another commercial where Jeter plays himself playing it off as a coy sales associate while some Haley Joel Osmond looking little kid can't believe his parents aren't being sold a new family-size automobile by his pro baseball hero. "Jeter" drops several hints as talks up the Edge and its panoramic vista roof, showing off the Air Jordan wristbands under his dress shirt and the cleats he's chosen to wear instead of regular dress shoes. Finally the jig is up when Jeter makes an all-star play to catch a stray pair of Ford Edge keys and flip them into the hands of the perfect family's eager father. The commercial ends with a magnanimous Derek Jeter giving the wise kid an autographed baseball.

I'm sure Jeter is loving the extra millions he's currently earning through his latest media whore-out - he's signed on as the poster boy for Ford, specifically for the Edge SUVs. I hope he likes the free Ford Edge he surely drives to Yankee Stadium every now and again.

But let me be clear: that crap has no place on the METS television network. I understand that Sterling Mets owns only a third of Sportsnet New York, and that it does purport to be the network of New York Sports; unlike YES - the Yankee Entertainment Station, or whatever, the network with its Yankeeography segments, Michael Kay sit-downs, and homer announcers, dishing out propaganda that the Russian political regime would surely admire.

Still, the TV home of the Mets can't run some other ads? And it would be one thing if I only had to see Derek Jeter's face plastered over my team's television network like, once a game. That's not the case though. I'm seeing one of the Jeter ads at least once every break between innings.

I know the money, class, and Yankee image thing appeals to the Wilpons. Always has. But the mere fact that our well-spoken, good-looking young star would rather spend more time working on his swing than his endorsement pitches doesn't make it okay for us to repeatedly run lame ads on our station featuring the arguable face of our crosstown rivals.

Our guy's better than that

Is nothing sacred?

(Photos courtesy carbodydesign.com, davidwrightfoundation.com)

Is anyone surprised?

They certainly shouldn't be, not when it comes to witnessing another implosion by Aaron Heilman.


This guy might be. Aaron's his guy. He (Heilman) is just in a little funk, he'll snap out of it, start making some good little pitches, get some good little innings under his belt. Give him some time.


And this guy? He bends all the way over to pick up that routine grounder 9 times out of 10. Nothing you can do about that, just buck up and get it back against the Braves this weekend. His average will creep up, he'll get in a nice little groove.

And the Mets, as a whole? They're his guys, too. Big boys, they'll get the hang of it. They play hard night in and night out, for Willie, because they're his guys. We'll all sip a little champagne at our nice little party at the end of this long little season when we win this whole thing.

We're just starting to gel, give it some time.

Fire Willie.

Heilman allows slam as Mets fall to Nationals (Newsday)
AARON BLOWS IT AGAIN (New York Post)


(Pictures courtesy metsarebetterthansex.blogspot.com, metstradamus.blogspot.com, gotnysports.blogspot.com)