Misery Loves Company: Two Guys Watch Baseball

Games 149-150 - Mets, or Yearning for the Yesterday of the 154-Game Season

Cubs 4, Mets 1
Cubs 3, Mets 2
Record: 63-87

Okay, okay. The New York Mets major league baseball club has been mailing it in for a couple of weeks after gutting out an admirable second half, and frankly, so have I. I noticed it, Rob noticed it, and apparently one of our many readers finally noticed it enough to call me on it. I'm sorry. There is no excuse. Even if the team has apparently said "No mas!" and returned to its corner, I should be above it all. I'm not, but I should be.

Here's the ugly truth about what the season has become. The roster of aging veterans and green rookies was starting to click and nurture visions (possibly delusional) of success in '04. Without warning, the veterans aged 100 years, the rookies regressed to early childhood, and the vision of next summer became all too blurry.

As soon as I alluded to the fact that my revocation of positive comments had turned Jae Seo's slide around, he promptly took the loss in four straight outings. Sure, most were the product of the anemic hitting, but one thing is for certain: he should sue me the next time I say something good about him. Jae, you suck.

Jose Reyes is now on the 60-day DL with a sprained ankle. The New York faithful (all three of us) are holding their breath.

The young hitters' current BA's:
Jeff Duncan: .189
Danny Garcia: .214
Jorge Velandia: .229
Marco Scutaro: .211
Prentice Redman: .176
Steve Trachsel is hitting .185 and looks more comfortable at the plate.

The Mets have now lost 11 of 12 after sweeping the Braves (who clinched a playoff spot last night). Last night Mark Prior struck out 13 Mets, including Jeff Duncan on a high check-swing on a ball that hit the dirt and skidded to the backstop off his foot, negating the runners' advancement.

The Mets recently called up Mike Glavine. Yes, Tom's brother. I can see where they're coming from: you definitely want to appease your 9-13, 4.49 ERA, $11M ace. Next signings: Mark Leiter and Cesar Cedeno.

Speaking of which, you pretty much know what kind of season it's been when you see that Roger Cedeno has been allowed 443 at-bats.

John Franco: "I think we need a front-line pitcher and a closer, someone at the end of the game who you can count on day-in, day-out. If you look around the league, everybody has that guy but us. We did have him and we traded him." Hmmm, when he says someone you can count on, did he mean count on to implode one every four outings? Because that was the only consistent things about him. Boy, I hope he was misquoted.

So, let's recap the last couple of weeks. Loss after loss after loss, no hitting, no pitching, no fielding, low morale, low attendance.

How 'bout them Red Sox?