Skip to main content

Beltran, Glavine and ...

"I need somebody to hit!"

No, those words weren't those from Jerry Manuel to his team during the final weekend of the season. Instead, I choose to quote from the immortal comic strip character Lucy Van Pelt.

Charlie Brown went away for an extended period of time and poor Lucy had no one to pick on.

That's kind of how I feel about the 2008 Mets.

In 2006, I could be mad at Carlos Beltran for not swinging.

In 2007, I could be mad at Tom Glavine for not caring.

In 2008, who am I supposed to be mad at.

It's wasted anger to be upset with Scott Schoeneweis, considering he's dealing with personal issues of a much larger scale, with the premature birth of a child. For that matter, it seems silly to be angry at relievers who were thrust into roles for which they weren't really fully equipped to handle.

It's wasted anger to be mad at Jose Reyes or Carlos Beltran, or Carlos Delgado, or David Wright. Their seasons were too good.

It's wasted anger to be mad at Jerry Manuel. I'm not a huge fan of his, but I can't criticize the job he did.

It's wasted anger to be mad at Omar Minaya, especially considering he's ours for the next good while. I can criticize Minaya for going too long on the deals for El Duque and Pedro, but I've got to praise him for Fernando Tatis, the Milledge deal, and being smart enough not to trade Daniel Murphy or demote Mike Pelfrey.

So I sit here, and listen to talk show hosts make fools of themselves, suggesting that the Mets trade David Wright.

I come up with my own knee-jerk suggestions (Beltran to the Yankees for Chamberlain and Cano?) and make wishes for acquisitions two months from now (Orlando Hudson would be quite nice).

I surf the internet, looking for footage from the closing ceremony, the majority of which I missed due to work obligations and general frustration (I did see the ending live).

I reminisce about my favorite Shea moments (we'll get to that) and make my offseason plans for this site.

I commiserate with my fellow Mets fans about all the shouldas, wouldas, couldas, and deal with the taunts and comments from the non-Mets fans I know.

And with all that, I also do a lot of what Charlie Brown did, when he got back to the neighborhood, and ran into Lucy again.

I sigh. And I move along.

Comments

czaradio said…
SNY is airing the closing ceremonies Friday nite at 8, and you can now also buy it on iTunes (although I think you have to buy the game, too, and I'm not sure you'd want to spend money on that).
DealShaker said…
Oh, I can blame Jerry Manuel, no problem! Sunday was, for all intents and purposes, a one game playoff game. Win or go home. I believe that the term "All hands on deck" was used several times. So, you have your entire pitching staff (minus Santana) at your disposal in the bullpen. This means Pedro, Pelfrey, and Maine were in the bullpen available for your use. And who do you choose? Schoenweis? Brian Stokes? Bobby Parnell? Bad decisions by a bad manager. You obviously needed to save one starter for the next day, but not all three. Your bullpen failed you all year and here was an excellent opportunity NOT to use them. You blew it. Kind of makes me wonder, "Was is the bullpen failing late in the season or a manager that didn't know what situations to use his pitchers in?"
Anonymous said…
I blame Howard Johnson. As hitting coach, he has to get these hitters prepared to hit in the clutch. When i was watching the games yesterday where the bases were loaded, there was a clutch hit (The Flyin' Hawaiian for the Phillies, Russell Martin for the Dodgers), they delivered. The same situation for the Mets, they blow it, even with less than 2 outs. I was frankly surprised that they kept HoJo when they fired Willie, because he was part of the problem back then, but got glossed over during the firing. Wright can't hit when it counts, but he's got great stats. What does that matter otherwise? You need a coach that can help you with those clutch situations, and HoJo has failed miserably. And I write this as someone who loved watching his success as a player, so it really pains me.

Popular posts from this blog

Trip(le) Through Time

In their illustrious history, the Mets have had one 'Triple Crown Winner,' so to speak and I'm not talking about the typical meaning of the term. I've gotten some queries recently as to whether a walk-off triple is even possible and I'm here to tell you that it is. There has been one, and only one, in Mets history, though I don't have the full explanation of circumstances that I would like. It took place against the Phillies on September 10, 1970. This was a marathon game that would have fit in perfectly with those having taken place so far this season and allowed the Mets to maintain a temporary hold on first place in an NL East race oft forgotten in team history. It went 14 innings, with a tinge of controversy in a negated Ken Boswell home run, a thrilling play by Bud Harrelson, who stole home in the third inning, and some stellar relief pitching, in the form of five scoreless innings from Danny Frisella, aided by Tim McCarver getting thrown out in a rundown b

Best Games I Know: Phillies (Updated)

  The best wins against the Phillies in Mets history …   May 5, 2022 – Mets 8, Phillies 7 The Mets score 7 runs in the 9 th inning to overcome a 7-1 deficit and win in Philadelphia.   April 29, 2022 – Mets 3, Phillies 0 Tylor Megill and 4 Mets relievers combine on the second no-hitter in franchise history.   September 22, 2016 – Mets 9, Phillies 8 (11) The Mets tie it in the 9 th on a Jose Reyes home run and win it in the 11 th on a 3-run home run by Asdrubal Cabrera.   July 17, 2016 - Mets 5, Phillies 0 Jacob deGrom pitches a one-hitter. Only hit is a single by Zach Eflin in the 5 th inning.   August 24, 2015 – Mets 16, Phillies 7 David Wright homers in his first at-bat in more than 4 months. The Mets hit a team-record 8 home runs.   July 5, 2012 – Mets 6, Phillies 5 The Mets score 2 runs with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9 th to beat Jonathan Papelbon. The winning run scores on David Wright’s bloop down the right field line.   August 13

The best Mets ejections I know

When you think of the Mets and famous ejections, I'm guessing you first think of the famous Bobby Valentine mustache game, when after Valentine got tossed, he returned to the dugout in disguise. You know it. You love it. I remember being amused when I asked Bobby V about it while we were working on Baseball Tonight, how he simply said "It worked. We won the game." (true) But the Bobby V mustache game of June 9, 1999 is one of many, many memorable Mets ejection stories. And now thanks to Retrosheet and the magic of Newspapers.com , we have a convenient means for being able to share them. Ever since Retrosheet's David Smith recently announced that the Retrosheet ejection database was posted online , I've been a kid in a candy store. I've organized the data and done some lookups of media coverage around the games that interested me post. Those newspaper accounts fill in a lot of blanks. Without further ado (and with more work to do), here are some of my findings