My apologies to any readers who are either diagnosed schizos or just happen to be sleeping with one. I meant to say, “The Highly Erratic (And Possibly Bi-Polar) Mets”, a club who on Friday managed to a) score 15 runs at Yankee Stadium despite featuring a batting order that had Trot Nixon, Marlon Anderson, Fernando Tatis and Brian Schneider hitting 6-9 respectively and b) make Sidney (Fucking) Ponson (above) look like a decent 5th starter in the nightcap at Shea.
Though Carlos Delgado’s club-record 9 RBI performance in the matinee made most of the headlines, Mike Pelfrey (barely) getting thru a labored 5 innings was as crucial as it was improbable. Jerry Manuel didn’t want to tax his relief corps too heavily in either contest (whoops!), and if Friday proved anything as conclusively as both ballparks having no idea how to cope with capacity crowds (Mets officials being slightly more competent than their Bronx counterparts when it comes to getting fans into their seats with 40 minutes of their arrival), the Yankee pen (Mariano Rivera excepted) is an absolute disaster. Though the roof really caved in on Edwar Ramirez and Ross Ohlendorf — perhaps the only person booed more lustily by Bombers fans than Jose Reyes — the tone was most certainly set by Dan Geise (4 IP, 6 runs, 5 hits, 4 walks), a starter apparently under the impression he’s being paid by the hour. It took over 120 minutes to complete 4 1/2 innings Friday afternoon, and at one point I was pretty convinced the 2nd game in Flushing would have a delayed start.
After sundown while facing the Aruban Assassin, the Mets failed to cash in on bases loaded scenarios in the 2nd and 3rd innings, and when Delgado grounded out to strand a pair of runners in the first, he was jeered by a portion of the home crowd. Say what you will about Mets fans, but their ‘what have you done for me lately?’ ‘tude is pretty hard to shake.
On another tip, say what you will about Yankee fans, but the overwhelming majority of them are smarter and nicer than the woman in Sec. 35 of the Tier Reserved seats who spent much of the afternoon screaming “THEY CAN’T EVEN SPEAK ENGLISH” each time Beltran or Delgado came to the plate. At least I think it was a woman — Craig Carton‘s voice isn’t usually that high and I’m presuming he can probably get better seats.
Bases loaded, one out, Ponson on the ropes having thrown over 60 pitches and Jose Reyes comes up. Does he a)swing at the first pitch b)pop up c)kill a rally d)represent everything wrong with a supposedly good offensive team e)all of the above?
The answer is e. I had to turn of the tv at that point because I knew that Ponson would ‘deliver’ an unspectacular performance and win anyway against a punchless team that seemed to shoot all of its bullets in the first game. Disgusting!
to say nothing of the Mets accomplishing zilch off Kyle Farnsworth. But it was outta reach at that point anyway. the only remaining entertainment value from a day of schleping around the MTA’s finest routes was in guessing how long it would be before a WFAN caller referred to Sid Vicious as “a right-handed David Wells”.