Send in the Clowns

Games 95 through 99 - Mets

Astros 5, Mets 4
Mets 10, Astros 3
Mets 8, Astros 3
Mets 7, Rockies 3
Mets 4, Rockies 0
Record: 48-51

In baseball, as in life, sometimes you have to bottom out before you can begin the slow crawl into recovery.

Did the Mets bottom out this week? Seven games under .500, yet another PR debacle, one firing with more being predicted, with the deals of the past making the trade deadline utterly inconsequential? If it's not rock bottom, we're at least in the same zip code here.

And out of nowhere, the Metmen rattle off four in a row for the first time since May. Huh.

One quick, tangential note on the Tony "Slash and" Bernazard quagmire and resultant press conference spasm . . .

To the legions of members of the media coming to the defense of . . . a member of the media: please step away from the soapbox and take Adam Rubin off the crucifix. As much as Omar Minaya's blurty tirade was misdirected and confusing, the multiple accounts indicating that Rubin's reporting was overblown and incendiary (perhaps consistently so) explains the lumping of Mr. Rubin in with the other self-serving media types we learned about in entomology. This sad, stupid situation seems to have enough associated blame to hand out to a number of people. Over at the Wheelhouse (the blog, not the crap shout-fest on SNY), Jerry listed the few folks who'd be spared his axe when it came to giving the Mets a much-needed enema. No sportswriters -- in fact, no media people outside the SNY broadcast booth -- would be spared.

Enough about that, but here's the thing: I have actually gotten to enjoy the last few nights of Metball, and if one more hideous, public embarassment was what it took, send in the clowns and let's see more humiliation.


Editor's Note: The casual mixing of metaphors is often forgivable, but dear lord... to incorporate the use of an axe into the administering of enema is beyond cringeworthy, it's like watching the New York Mets run the bases. My apologies.