Games 121 & 122 - Mets
Braves 4, Mets 3
Mariners 11, Mets 9
Record: 64-58
Here's the sad truth... when Rob and I were in our groove . . . oh, say, late in that fateful 2004 season (fateful for the Mets in that their 71-win campaign meant the last that Art Howe would ever manage, though the Moneyball film -- fair or not, and I don't give a damn -- hammered in the final nail)... oh, geez, did you get all that? Phew.
Sorry. Case in the very point I was trying to make. My point: back then, when we were grooving, MLC was as pertinent and spunky as any of the Mets or Sox (or Mets/Sox in one crazy coincidence called East Coast Agony) blogs in a relatively new medium. Sure, we looked up to many of our peers. But we got props from a number of them along the way for what I'd label was our "clever crasshole" brand of baseball reporting. Rob captured the angst of eight decades of ultimate futility in a banner year while I force-fed myself 162 doses of Metdreck and pulled few to no punches. Candidly, I got a ton of joy when strangers from the same brutalized fan bases would laud our work.
Later, Misery Loves Company faded into the ether about the same time that many of our mates hung 'em up. Only the strong survived.
Now, however, those strong institutions that have stood the test of time have both been rewarded by what I presume is a decent fiscal return (ad city) and elevated their games to something truly worth tuning into.
As opposed to my drivel.
For example, tonight was the 60th anniversary of the Beatles playing at Shea Stadium, and there was an appropriately light-fare tribute to that event at Citi Field. If you haven't watched footage from that night in 1965 (a textbook display of why the band quit touring to focus on record-making) or the cool doc Last Play at Shea, stop reading (you already have) and go watch something. Catnip for Marls, I assure you.
Anyway, as tonight unraveled in increasingly predictable fashion, I made my way over to a site that stands as one of the originals from our heyday: Amazin' Avenue. Far from simple reporting and bemoaning of the state of Metville, those folks deliver the same clever crasshole work we once did, but better.
Exhibit A, their parlaying of the Beatlemania at Shea into a theme, a la "Help." Here. Not bad, AA.
And that's all I have to say. Go there for better stuff.
Although... just for kicks...
Why wouldn't you go with "A Fool on the Hill" to portray every member of the Mets' pitching staff?
I mean, that's easy pickin's.
"Golden Slumbers" for Soto when runners are aboard. Too easy.
I don't know. It won't be long... until Mendy is yesterday. You know what we need? Something. You know what we weren't doing at the trade deadline? Fixing a hole or 6. Where are the Mets' problems? Here, there, and everywhere.
Eh. Leave it to to pros over at Amazin' Avenue. I'm so tired I'm only sleeping.
