I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down

Games 75 & 76 - Mets

Brewers 10, Mets 6
Brewers 6, Mets 3
Record: 37-39

So in the bottom of the 4th with the bases loaded -- loaded in part because Kelly fell down on a routine fly ball -- this kid hits one over Ahmad's head in left. Ahmad retrieves it and fires it to Tanner, who throws a one-hopper to the plate, one that hit Engelberg in the gut but somehow caromed over to the backstop, allowing the 3rd run to score. But then when Amanda picked up the loose ball, she hurled it down to Jimmy Feldman to try to get the hitter there . . . but alas, she whipped it into left field, so all four runs came around to score on the play. Suddenly it was Brewers 5, Bears 2.

The Mets fill the air with beautiful music these days . . . music like this!

Any time I feel like the Mets make a play where even on our old beer league softball team we'd be annoyed at the poor level of play and boneheadedness . . . well, I need to stop letting that feeling get to me, because it's happening over and over. Tonight's play, filed away with the other moronic gaffes of the season, are starting to form a recurring theme for Jerry Manuel's fleeting 2009 season.

Here's the problem: you might absolve Manuel from any responsibility for the team's losing record because of the extreme ridiculousness of the injury situation. And you might not be wrong in doing so. Somewhere, though, you have to wonder why players like Ryan Church, Luis Castillo, Johan Santana, and other high-priced veterans keep making rookie blunders.

You have to look at uncannily bad defense.
And putrid baserunning mistakes.
Giving games away over and over and over again.

And you have to wonder if Omar Minaya places the blame on Jerry's shoulders the way he did last season when Willie's boys were engaging in similarly dysfunctional behaviors. And if there will be any consistency the way you want consistent treatment from GM's, managers, umpires, and parents (but not bartenders). And even if eventually the crosshairs will leave the manager's visage for something more . . . General.

For now, though, Willie's in the other dugout smiling. Actually, when FSN Wisconsin interviewed him the inning after the T-ball home run, Willie Randolph was laughing out loud. Saying the right things, but actually laughing. And he has every right to be.


[Of course, for all the Mets have shamefully done this season, they still have haven't done what the Red Sox did tonight. Not yet at least.]