Uncle Sandy, Or .......

By Professor Tom Starita
Posted Thursday, May 3, 2007

......... or Aaron Go Boom!

Or Enough Is Enough. Or I Was Wrong. Take your pick.

Since the beginning of last year, I have had a casual argument with my friend, Rich. Nothing serious, strictly Mets related. I always believed I was right and he was wrong, no matter what the evidence showed. Well, it takes a big man to admit when he is wrong and that is exactly what I intend to do in my debut column for Flushing University.

Rich has been right the entire time. He was right at the beginning of last year, he was correct at the end of last year and he has certainly been dead on accurate in the first month of 2007.

Simply put, Aaron Heilman is not good, and should definitely NOT be our eighth inning pitcher.

I tried to rationalize his struggles early last year. Duaner Sanchez took his job and he was having trouble focusing in the sixth and seventh innings. I was at the Sunday game last July when Aaron fielded a come backer and yet somehow failed to get the out at first. I thought for sure Willie and Omar had seen enough and we were giving up on him. Rich would call him everyday asking if the trade went through yet. Then, when we held on to him and Duaner hurt his shoulder, I thought maybe this was his moment of redemption. Sure enough, the Aaron Heilman of 2005 suddenly showed up. I figured for sure this would shut Rich up permanently. The guy was lights out over the final two months of the year. Still, Rich kept saying he will somehow sabotage the season. I thought he was just being a glass half empty kind of guy.

Then he threw the pitch to Molina.

Even then I tried blaming the loss on our inability to score when it mattered most. I also tried to avoid all conversation with Rich. I thought for sure all I would hear was, “I told you so.” Instead, Rich figured this was a means to an end, by ending 2006 there was no way he’d come back and have any shot of ruining 2007. But come spring training, despite the trade rumors, there he was, good ol number 48, waiting for his turn to pitch.

Ignoring all evidence pointing to how dramatic home runs ruin pitchers' careers (see Lidge, Brad, Williams, Mitch, Wohlers, Mark, Benitez, Armando) I thought there was a shot Aaron could learn from the mistake and return an even better pitcher.

In the words of my Pop-Pop, “wrong again”.

Rich’s brother Mike even came up with a nickname for Aaron; “Uncle Sandy”. We were watching Aaron struggle through yet another outing around May of last year when Mike noticed Aaron kind of pouting in between pitches. “He looks like the one strange uncle every family has. You know, he’s single, moody and you have to force your kids to go over and say hello to Uncle Sandy”.

From that moment on, whenever someone refers to Aaron, especially when he’s struggling, they use the nickname Uncle Sandy. It’s never a good thing when an athlete can be compared to an eccentric uncle!

Rich is so confident in Aaron’s lack of ability he proposed a bet to me, starting from April 21st. Every time Aaron gives up a run I owe Rich one dollar. Conversely, every time Aaron strikes out a batter, Rich owes me one dollar. No matter how badly a pitcher is struggling there is NO WAY I could turn down the bet. At the very least I should be up $20 by the end of the year.

Well, here we are, a week and a half later and we are EVEN!

EVEN!

I know Omar and Willie's philosophy of playing out the first third of a season before making any real decisions. This allows players who are scuffling along the opportunity to succeed, such as Jose Valentin last year. So I’m not saying trade Aaron off the team. Maybe Aaron is hurt and is trying to bridge the gap until Guillermo Mota comes back. If that is the case, although I give him tremendous credit for putting the team ahead of his own interests, there comes a time where a player recognizes his limitations. It seems like every outing involves a minimum of two men on. The perfect example was the game against the Marlins Tuesday night. This was a game well within reach, especially with Wright/Beltran/Delgado coming up in the eighth. Until Aaron promptly served up a back breaking two run home run.

(Sound familiar?)

Since I’m not one of those people who simply complain, I am offering up a solution as well. At the beginning of the year, Willie talked about how the only role set in stone is Billy Wagner in the ninth inning. All I want our manager to do is casually maneuver Aaron away from the eighth inning. Let him come in during the sixth inning. If he isn’t hurt and is just in a slump, the reduced pressure will allow him to get his head back on straight. In the meantime a committee of Scott Schoeneweis, Joe Smith and Pedro Feliciano can bridge the gap to Billy. Notice I made no mention of Ambiorix Burgos. Maybe down the line he can become what Armando Benitez was for us in 1999, the lights out eighth inning guy. But there is no reason to push him now and suffer for it.

Here’s what I know. Right now there is a small possibility I could owe Rich a couple of dollars come October. Even worse, there is a large possibility of Uncle Sandy giving up another big hit in a crucial spot come October.

Please Omar, the collective fan base barely survived the end of last October. There is no way we could survive a similar result this October.

Here’s something else Tom knows, feedback is always appreciated. If you agree with Rich, are distant cousins of Aaron Heilman and take great offense to the column or simply want to express your hatred for the nickname “Uncle Sandy”, write to me at MrStarita@yahoo.com. Or, if you want to express your opinions in person, find me every Saturday at Shea, Mezz Section 16 seat 15.

(editor's note: Or you could join the Discussion in the Forums, RIGHT, TOM?)