What Difference Does It Make?

Suddenly, and sadly, we're at one of those momentum-halting breaks in the action where brutal reality wakes us from the dreamlike state of baseball fandom. The bizarre and tragic news of ex-Met pitcher Cory Lidle's fatal plane crash into the side of a Manhattan apartment building derailed all of the focused attention on the New York Mets and their playoff future. It's just a rotten development for baseball and a depressing day for the people who watch, coach, and play it.

Deep confession time - I'd be lying if I said I didn't consider how the tragedy might affect the Mets tonight and in this series. The weaker team in any match-up hopes for any sort of distraction to upset the odds. Not that the Cardinals could be glad for such a startlingly horrible distraction, but New York residents must be a little frazzled today, and the Mets may be no exceptions. Getting back to playing baseball was a nice salve for more globally horrific events of the past, so perhaps a Mets win tonight could have a similar effect on a smaller scale. That's about as much as I want to incorporate someone else's personal tragedy into thinking about my team's baseball games.

A more usual disturbance to the Met train could be the weather. There is always a ton of chatter as to if and how a rain-out affects the outcome of the series; Captain Kurkjian thinks it favors the Mets unless it means Chris Carpenter gets an earlier start. The latter appears to be a definite possibility, to the point where some supposed tide could turn the Cards' way from it. I actually am hoping to hear a whole lot about it, and then to see the Metbats thump the ace in another display of the sports press being a day late and a buck shy.

In truth, I am wishfully thinking that none of the above will make a difference on the result of this series, and that the better team -- by my calculations, anyway -- should prevail. It's been since Saturday since the Mets played, though, and I'm just itching to see them get out there again. Game on . . . finally.