With the Mets’ complete and utter capitulation in the Wild Card race, some of you fair weather fans might be searching for a reason to bother turning up for this afternoon’s Jae Seo / Livan Hernandez duel. If Jose Reyes’ campaign to win the stolen base title isn’t enticing enough consider there’s at least a 50/50 chance you’ll get to witness Frank Robinson or Jose Guillen going berserk.

From the Washington Times’ Mark Zuckerman :

Guillen was plenty fired up last night, if not necessarily in a good way. Though he has been mouthing off in the clubhouse with more regularity lately, the outfielder has done a pretty good job of keeping his emotions in check on the field. But he let them get the best of him last night when plate umpire Bill Miller punched him out on a borderline called third strike on the inside corner with the game tied 3-3 in the fifth.

Guillen stormed back to the dugout, said a few curse words to Miller and was promptly ejected for — he said — the first time in his major league career.

“[Guillen] yelled and cursed at me out of the dugout,” Miller told a pool reporter. “I ejected him. That’s it.”

Well, actually, that wasn’t it. Guillen wasn’t done venting. From the dugout, he flung his helmet, four bats and a pair of batting gloves, then a protective shin guard. Each heave was met with a roar from the crowd of 24,049 and mostly indifference from those on the Nationals bench, who simply wanted to stay out of Guillen’s way.

“A lot of these umpires, they think the fans come to the stadium to see them,” Guillen said. “Sometimes, it’s not right, some of the stuff they do. Right now, it looks like they have full power in baseball. They can do whatever they want and they get away with it.”

“Come to the ballpark,” Robinson said. “Expect something to happen.”

As slogans go, it isn’t quite “Catch The Rising Stars”, but these are desperate times.