Baseball Like It Oughta Be

By Jack Flynn
Posted Friday, June 12, 2009

Hardball is back.

It made its way back to New York this week, thanks to three wonderfully tense games with the Philadelphia Phillies at Citi Field. The results were less than satisfying, as the Phillies won the final two games in extra innings, but the series brought out an edge in the Mets that has been missing for too long.

Johan Santana set the tone in the series opener, pitching seven gutty innings and clearly showing his displeasure at Jerry Manuel’s decision to remove him in the eighth inning. It was the right decision – Santana had given up four home runs at that point – but it was refreshing to see Santana’s passion on display in a tight situation.

Starting pitchers are supposed to want the ball when the game is on the line. It’s impossible to know for sure, but there is a lingering feeling that too many of today’s starting pitchers are more than willing to throw six or seven innings and then hand it off to the bullpen.

Santana is a different breed – and this year in particular it seems that he is rebelling against the kid-glove treatment he has been given his entire career. Manuel would do well to harness that competitive fire and put Santana on a personal four-day rotation to get a couple of extra starts out of his ace.

The real spark, however, came in the ninth inning of Game 1, as the Phillies were desperately trying to stave off defeat. A ground ball by Matt Stairs had all the makings of a game-ending double play – until Jimmy Rollins executed a textbook take-out slide to disrupt Alex Cora’s relay throw.

Mets fans surely howled when they saw an arch-rival like Rollins go so far out of the basepath to take out Cora, but the play was 100 percent legal. Take-out slides are becoming a lost art and Rollins was simply exhausting every option to keep his team in the game.

However, instead of shrinking away from the rough-and-tumble play, the Mets seemed to embrace it. It seemed like every New York baserunner sliding into second base on Wednesday and Thursday was doing so with the single-minded intent of taking out Chase Utley. It was a rough series all around for Utley, who was also barked at and then stared down by Mike Pelfrey on Wednesday for having the temerity to step out of the box during an at-bat.

What is especially interesting is that some of the Mets’ feistiness this week was directed at their laid-back manager. Santana was demonstratively angry when Manuel took the ball from him on Tuesday night, which some took be a showing-up of the skipper. Manuel tried to dismiss it afterwards and Santana denied it in the press, but Santana’s histrionics nevertheless caught the attention of many observers.

In that same game, David Wright was seen yelling at Manuel for not arguing a blown call at the plate in the sixth inning. Replays showed that Fernando Tatis was clearly safe, but Manuel never uttered a peep despite Wright’s exhortations. It was another curious decision by the manager, who may need to take the temperature of his team and start matching their intensity.

You may remember that “Hardball is Back” was originally the slogan of the 1992 Mets, a team that showed only a passing familiarity with the concept. That team finished 72-90, in part because the “hardball” that the marketing execs promised us never seemed to materialize on the field.

That has not been the case this week, though – and this newfound spirit is manifesting during one of the most important stretches of the year.

The Phillies series is behind them, but the Mets are traveling to the Bronx to face the New York Yankees in the first Subway Series of the 2009 regular season. Whatever your feelings on interleague play – and I think that there’s no reason why these two teams should be playing six times a year – these three games have the potential to be just as exciting as the Phillies series.

The Yankees are licking their wounds after being swept yet again by the Boston Red Sox, and they have a different personality than in years past. They are far less likely to tolerate a take-out slide against a middle infielder or a starting pitcher jawing at them from the mound.

Will the sparks fly at Yankee Stadium this weekend? If the Mets can keep their intensity level high, it will make for more compelling baseball.