The Late Late Show

Games 70 & 71 - Mets

Angels 6, Mets 1
Mets 5, Angels 4 (10)
Record: 35-36

It's interesting. I've stayed up the last two nights to watch the Mets game in its entirety, both times lasting till around 1:00 AM EDT. This I was decidedly not doing a few weeks ago. After I'm sure they're cooked, after I have taken to lambasting the Mets' front office with venom I usually reserve for that of the Washington Redskins, now I choose to lock in?

While they were looking clueless and getting drubbed in every aspect of the game Tuesday night, it was a train wreck that sucked me in but more of a desire to watch Jerry Manuel at work that kept me hanging in there. As much as I lamented his insertion into interim manager status a worthless endeavor, I will be more than willing to offer a mea culpa if he continues to show some of the fire you could see traces of that night.

Last night we saw something we haven't seen the Mets do very much -- find a way to win. Oh, they've found plenty of ways to lose ballgames this year. Elizabeth Barrett Browning couldn't keep up with the number of ways they've lost -- the team was losing games in new and creative fashions like it was their job. And though last night was but one win, it was a good, solid win over a very respectable Angels team that the Mets stole by getting to their relatively untarnished closer and making a Damion Easley 10th-inning tater hold up. Well worth a groggy morning for that.

The denial that ever-lovin' sports fans like me engage in is pretty silly, but I am staying as attuned to the Mets now as I have thus far in '08. Mets Township: rational thinkers need not apply.