Misery Loves Company: Two Guys Watch Baseball

Games 81 through 83 - Mets

Mets 3, Expos 1
Mets 7, Expos 6
Expos 11, Mets 4
Record: 36-47

Fresh off that chapter we'll just call "The Hindenburg Rides Again," it was nice to get a series win, even if (a) it was against the overachieving Expos; (b) that Dominican chap who appears near the finale of contests in an attempt to end the game via throwing baseballs by batters ruined Aaron Heilman's bid for his first career win, only to steal the victory for himself; and (c) they appeared headed for a sweep until Jae Seo lost it fairly early and Art Howe, whose hook is slower than Muhammad Ali's these days (and the NY Post would also say his head is equally shaky . . . sorry, awful joke), turned a few bad pitches into a few bad innings, sealing the loss. But again, a pleasant rebound.

Speaking of the Expo(nentially more inspiring than the Mets)s, Juan Gonzalez and Carl Everett vetoed trades to "Montreal" as this series was going on, prompting Bobby Valentine to turn to the camera in a Dennis Miller-style rant and tell Bud Selig and the brain trust that is MLB to get its collective head out of its collective backside and determine the fate of the Franchise Someday To Be Formerly Known as Les Expos sooner rather than later. His point was valid, but just another in a long line of good reasons this club needs to move now; nobody wants to go to a team who has road trips to home games, who can't do much for their salaries, and who has a huge question mark in terms of overall future. Would you take a job with a company as unstable as the Montreal Expos? It's further evidence that the glorified vaudeville act of the Puerto Rico / Montreal Corridor is hamstringing this ballclub's future potential. I guess the thesis in Mr. Russell's book review hits the mark; with every move the think tank that is baseball's executive office makes, they make John Rocker look like Andrew Carnegie.

And just to put a local slant on this obvious-to-everyone-except-everyone-that-matters argument, why aren't they already having a groundbreaking ceremony in DC or Arlington? Please, people, somebody put a gun to Bud's head and make him send the Expos to the nation's capital . . . so I don't have to read any more Thomas Boswell articles in The Washington Post about it. Forget the joy that having baseball in my neigborhood would bring me. I just can't read the same article re-written for the 5,000th time.