Thursday, May 22, 2008

INSTEAD OF TALKING ABOUT THE METS.

I cannot even talk about last night’s game. I am glad that Carlos at work (one of the few token Mets fans in a space filled with Yankees die-hards) was in another office today, because I could not have had anything to say to match his sad, Eeyore-like gaze upon me as I got off the elevator this morning.

I am not sure at what point last night it was, exactly, when I looked up, realized that it hadn’t gotten any better and wasn’t going to get any better and OMG WAS THAT ANOTHER HR and I picked up the remote and said, “If you don’t mind--”
“No, this is about the time you turn it off,” TBF added, grimly.
“I feel like a bad fan.”
“You don’t leave the game if you’re there, but there’s no point in continuing to watch this.”

Monday wasn’t much better, you know, having Gameday blatantly open at work and just being in disbelief as the afternoon progressed. Starting to watch the second game when I got home that night, and then sitting through it, TBF falling asleep so hard that I finally sent him to bed proper around 10pm. Stubbornly, I was going to continue to watch, and when Ramon Castro got on base I couldn’t stop myself from thinking, Okay, it’s rally time. Here we go.

And the papers this morning are all screaming “WILLIE GO?” and the Post at least has “WILLIE WATCH” somewhere on the back page (while focusing on Joba Chamberlain) and the Daily News says, “There’s another baseball team in this town? Really? OMG JOBA CHAMBERLAIN HAS TO THROW A BASEBALL POOR BABY”. And Big Mike from Hyde Park calls WFAN and announces that Citibank held a press conference to say that they were pulling out of their Citi Field sponsorship and instead would be opening Metropolitan Lanes, a large bowling alley, instead. (As if a 8-0 win against the Orioles after all this time gives a Yankees fan any bragging rights.)

I wasn’t going to watch the game last night but then I did and now I wish I didn’t, but if I hadn’t I’d be sitting here wishing I did. I don’t know why it’s more comforting to have actually watched them lose in such spectacular fashion than to just read the box score, but somehow it is.

But, I said I wasn’t going to be talking about the 08 Mets.

Instead let us talk about a wonderful Joe Posnanski column about “Who is the Mets best everyday player?” I link this here because unless you are like me and actively go out of your way to read good baseball writing no matter what team it is written about (and even then you would be forgiven for not wanting to read the beat writer for the Royals, although of course Mr. Posnanski is more lauded than that), you would probably not run into this piece, and you should.

Anyway, for most teams a “who was the best every day player” discussion either brings up an instant and incontestable name (In Kansas City, it’s George Brett, in Boston it’s Ted Williams, in New York it’s Babe Ruth) or a a series of names worth arguing about (Killebrew or Puckett? Reggie or Rickey? Morgan or Bench or Rose?). But with the Mets, wow, who is it? Obviously if you just want the best player in team history, it’s Tom Seaver, he’s the face of the franchise, but among everyday players … Cleon Jones? Darryl Strawberry? Edgardo Alfonso? Who?

We can talk about it here, because it certainly beats talking about anything else, but you should also go over there and add your thoughts. Because there are not enough Mets fans representing.