Reality Sets In

By Matt Himelfarb
Posted Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Last Friday, before Pinstriped Leviathan began raping the New York Mets with authority, I caught the last ten minutes of SNY’s Subway Series special. When reflecting on the Mets infamous inaugural season in 1962, the narrator echoed that oft-repeated line: “The Mets found new and imaginative ways to lose baseball games.”

Flash forward three days later. No need to recount the particulars of the moment. Rubber game. Francisco Rodriguez. Mariano Rivera. Second career at-bat. Bases load. Walk. You know the deal.

I am probably the most rational, un-group-like thinking Mets fan this side of the Mississippi. After that loss, however, to put it euphemistically, I was pissed. You know pissed- like Johan Santana was pissed when Fernando Martinez got his cleat stuck in the outfield at Miller Park, clearing the bases. In typical Mets fashion, as Ryan Braun (who drove the runs in), rounded third, he strayed far enough from the bag for Santana (covering home), to gun him down at third. Yet, he threw the ball away, Alex-this-guys-a-future-major-league-manager-with-great-baseball-instincts-Cora failed to back the throw up.

All of that likely could have been avoided had Gary Sheffield been playing deep in left field, as my dad astutely noted- it is the fourth inning for crying out loud, let them get the sac fly and tie the game. Like Santana’s error itself, the Mets fundamentals this year have been ludicrously atrocious. Their base-running god-awful. In particular, I’ve taken issue with whoever’s encouraging these guys trying to steal third base with less than two outs, when most of them are fast enough to score on a single. You can’t blame Jerry Manuel for freely admitting that those still standing try to make things happen, but he only reinforces the pressing attitude that has pervades this entire team.

So back to me being pissed off. After watching K-Rod’s meltdown Sunday night, tres errors in the series opener, and squandering god knows how many opportunities in between, my tirade went from screaming towards the television towards my Facebook status. Let the enormity of that sink in folks: Facebook. I can probably count less than five diehard Mets fans among my several hundred friends there. There, I wrote on my wall: “The New York Mets: Finding New and Imaginative Ways to F—K up beating the Yankees since June 12th, 2009.” Change it to “Finding new and imaginative ways to F—K up beating anyone”, and it’s more relevant.

When I was trying to compile my thoughts for a slightly coherent column, however, I realized I needed a dose of rationality. And than, I experienced a game changing epiphany: The Mets suck. It is as simple as that. Why should I expect anything else? A New York baseball fan should not let three out four against the Cardinals delude him or her into thinking otherwise, the second one takes an assessment of this roster. This team is scrappy. Low at how Jerry’s held these boys together. They may be a step above a AAA team at times, but they sure are fun! Awesome. How adorable.

For one, the Mets are getting well below league average production from Ryan Church, Fernando Tatis, Daniel Murphy, Alex Cora, Luis Castillo, and Fernando Martinez. Pitching wise, between John Maine, Oliver Perez, and Mike Pelfrey, you don’t know what you’re going to get- or if they will be healthy enough to pitch at all. . In the short run, Fernando Nieve might give you a good string of starts. He has some decent breaking stuff, but he leaves his fastball and changeup up in the zone far too often with no real bite. In other words, he’s closer to Jorge Sosa than he is Aaron Small 2005. You gotta love Livan Hernandez, but he is going to come back down to earth to at least some extent.

No miracles on the horizon there.

Unless Omar and co. does something big, the Mets are a bad, well below .500 team, and as the sample size increases, the results will bear that essential truth out.

You can contact matt at: matthimelfarb@gmail.com