Queens: The World's Happiest Place?

By Mike McGann
Posted Sunday, July 13, 2008

It seems hard to believe, but just four weeks ago, the Mets were in the World’s Second Happiest Place™ Anaheim, Ca. home of both Disneyland and Angel Stadium and violating a lot of local ordinances just by pretty much being the most miserable bunch of stiffs in baseball.

Flash ahead a day short of four weeks later: eight straight wins, remarkable pitching, timely hitting and a roster imbued with a new and refreshing fighting spirit and suddenly, Shea Stadium, that old wreck of ballpark in Queens, almost literally on her last legs, might just really be the World’s Happiest Place™.

Now let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. Those old enough to remember the last time the Mets fired a manager mid-season, will remember the explosive start Bud Harrelson got off to as manager, only to see his team, and ultimately, his managing career, crash into the sea, a burning pile of baseball wreckage. And yeah, the starting left fielder — Moises Alou — is done for the season and possibly for all seasons, while the starting right fielder continues to star in medical update of the day bulletins. The second baseman is on the DL — and may or may not have a bit of a motivation issue — and the starting rotation and bullpen seem poised to be anything between marvelous and Marvelous Marv Throneberry, depending on the week — or even the day.

But today, July 13, 2008 there’s something in Flushing that wasn’t here four weeks ago: hope. The Mets are just ½ game out of first going into tonight’s Sunday night game against the Rockies, riding a silly eight-game winning streak and maybe most importantly, playing with passion and fire not seen in this team since 2006 — and maybe since 2000. Right here and right now, the sense is that there will be a pennant race one last time at Big Shea, that the four-level trash can will not go quietly into the night of dead ballparks and that maybe the original Signman, Karl Ehrhardt, will look down from his seat in the great Field Level in the sky and smile once more.

Meaningful games in September? Hell, it didn’t look like there would be meaningful games in July — nothing beyond a baseball yard sale in the final week. Now, barring an utter collapse — and the reality of such a collapse in 2007 makes another one that much more of a reality this year — there will be meaningful games played in August, at least.

And the best guess now is that this race goes down to the end, game for game with the Phillies. And no one should be shocked to see the Braves comes back to life and climb back into things, either. Based on their runs scored/runs allowed numbers, they should be over .500, but like the Mets have played in some bad luck, unlike the fading Marlins who appear to be rapidly regressing to the mean after being unusually lucky during the first half.

Maybe one thing that helps with the race to the wire is new manager Jerry Manuel’s decision to stop ignoring the 800-pound gorilla in the room: the 2007 collapse. Unlike Willie Randolph, who treated it like a bad bout of flatulence, once should attempt to ignore, Manuel made it clear that confronting and defeating the demons from the crash are the only road to salvation. The only way the Mets can overcome it is to beat the Phillies down the stretch, lift the cloud and end the questions and the doubts about this team and this group of players.

Like all hot streaks, this one will end, maybe as soon as tonight. But the key to the season is whether the Mets continue to do the little things, play with fire and manage to keep cool under pressure. Right now, this team increasingly looks like a group that has had a burden lifted and finally can relax and play baseball.
 

The entire baseball world is mourning the passing of Bobby Murcer, a class guy and virtually no one had a bad word to say about. We at Flushing University join that and have Murcer and his family in our prayers.
 
The Mets, this time, took the smarter, safer path with Ryan Church. It looks like his most recent head issues come from long-standing migraine issues — and he’s been given a clean bill of health from the Cleveland Clinic, one of the top concussion medical facilities in the nation. In retrospect, he probably didn’t need to go on the DL, but it was smart of the team to shut him down and make sure. As of right now, Church may only miss another five games, and return during the crucial series at Shea against the Phillies.
 
So what’s going to happen with left field? Sure, Fernando Tatis has been remarkably productive so far, but few expect that his current hot streak will continue. The Mets continue to look for other options, one of which will be Angel Pagan, expected to rejoin the team after the All-Star break.

And while the Mets have had talks with Pittsburgh about both Jason Bay and Xavier Nady, the Pirates want too much back in return. Another, more likely trade option is Raul Ibanez, whom the Mariners would like to deal in a salary dump. Ibanez is a decent hitter and a solid citizen, but would make the Mets a little too left-handed in the lineup — still, Ibanez could probably he had cheaply and his contract is up after this season.

Another option will be to bring up Fernando Martinez — which presents some of the same issues in terms of making the lineup too left-handed, but also is the least expensive. Adding F-Mart to the mix in a left-field platoon with Tatis and/or Pagan might also work the rest of the way — and give the Mets an indication of whether Martinez is ready to be in the Mets’ outfield everyday in 2009, of which many people in the organization already seem convinced.

Most of the talk about the Rockies’ Matt Holliday is well, talk. The Mets aren’t that excited about adding a guy who doesn’t hit so much away from Coors Field and would likely not be anywhere the same hitter at Shea or CitiField. Don’t take much stock in the whispers that the Mets are ready to deal Aaron Heilman, either. He continues to pitch better of late and seems to be happier under the new regime — and when he’s on, he’s one of the better set up guys in the National League. And Heilman may get a shot at the rotation in 2009, the word around baseball suggests, as the Mets have just three pitchers under contract for 2009, although, increasingly it looks like the Mets will work out some sort of extension with Pedro Martinez.