I feel like I have a lot on my mind this evening, first and foremost, that I hope my students don't view me as a "rakish nerd". (See comments from yesterday.) Or, for that matter, a rakish anything. (Actually...just looked up 'rakish' - I've been called worse.)
Right behind that, though, is Tom Glavine. Everything I read mentions the fact that "Glavine is still stuck on 295 wins", "Glavine is still searching for win number 296", "Glavine has his second consecutive rocky start". I feel like we're missing the bigger picture - how about the fact that Tom Glavine is just 5-5 with a 4.67 ERA. That's more than just Saturday's start against the Yankees, and last week's start against Detroit. Sure, Glavine has had a couple of starts this year where he should have gotten a win, but either the team couldn't score runs or the bullpen hurt him (the same situation he's faced throughout his Mets career), but he's also hurt this team. Saturday's game was a typical Tom Glavine loss - he gives up a bunch of runs, but the Mets keep coming back and putting him in a position to win....but he keeps giving the lead right back. You pretty much see this pattern developing by the third inning when he has games like this. (OK, perhaps I'm overreacting - I'm looking at Glavine's last 10 starts, and the numbers aren't bad....but he seems to have had more bad starts than just the past two against the Yankees and Detroit.)
Now, not far behind Glavine in my mind is the fact that this game was one of those 1pm Saturday games, so I had no chance of watching it. I still don't understand the TV rights on Saturdays...and it's not fair to people like me that they play 1pm games on Saturday if they're not going to allow those games to be put on the 'Extra Innings' package.
The Mets lost this game despite taking separate leads into the bottom of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th innings, but Glavine gave all of those leads back. The Mets have now lost 8 out of 10...but they are still high achievers. I was switching channels before bed on Friday night, and caught the Mets on 20/20 on ABC. Of course, I stopped. They were doing a report on luck/superstition, and mentioned the Mets' shaved heads from their trip out to San Francisco. The reporter said that people who have such superstitions usually have a higher intelligence, and are usually high achievers. Consider my worries about the 2007 season over. It would be nice, though, for the Mets to take this series.
David Wright extended his hitting streak to 17 games in the loss. I only half-caught it during Friday night's game, but there's something about this hitting streak being the third 15-game hitting streak of Wright's in a certain amount of time, and he's the only guy in history to do that. But I'm not sure what he did/is doing. Also, I think David Wright is a better hitter when he's not on a hitting streak. When he's on a streak, he gets a dinky hit once a game to continue it. When he's not on a streak, sure, he'll have an 0-fer, but he's more consistent, if that makes sense. I won't be sorry when this hitting streak comes to an end.
Finally, on Saturday's game, I'm mad at Carlos Beltran. The Mets rallied in the 9th against Mariano Rivera. They loaded the bases, scored twice, the second run coming on a 2-out single by Jose Reyes, batting right-handed against the righty Rivera (Reyes also stole 2 more bases). Beltran, representing the go-ahead run, popped up to end the game. Wonderful.
Ray's Pizza johnnymets.blogspot.com Player of the Game: A-Rod had a homer, but Derek Jeter hit the go-ahead homer and was 4-for-5, so I give the honor to him. Jeter was 4-for-5 with 2 RBI, 2 runs scored, and he stole a base. Jeter's homer came in the 4th inning, with the Mets ahead, 5-4. He put the Yankees ahead to stay, at 6-5.ONE MORE NEGATIVE NOTE: I feel like it's been one negative thing after another this week - no hot water, the car crash, the Mets losing...and I'm usually a positive person. But one last (probably) negative thing before I get back to positive things, with the winning streak the Mets are about to go on beginning Sunday night. The tie clip I mentioned in the Friday posting, which I have clearly been wearing incorrectly for the past three years, has been misplaced. I think I lost it on the last day of school, when I changed clothes at school and was cleaning up the classroom. I have no idea where it ended up. I'd be sad if I can't recover it.
CUBS FIGHTING AGAIN: I don't know if I've ever weighed in on baseball brawls before. The Cubs-Padres fight got me a little riled up on Saturday, so I'll weigh in now. Yes, they're exciting, they get the blood pumping, like all fights usually do. The Wife absolutely loves them. But in the end, they make me sad. I think this dates back to a fight between the Mets and Cubs in the early 90's, when Rico Brogna got tossed into the brick wall behind home plate by (Cub) Turk Wendell. Brogna went on the DL with a shoulder injury shortly thereafter, and was never the same when he came back. I always blamed it on the fight. So I get a little upset when I see them now.
I also think most of the fights are silly and contradictory. I feel like the players of today have no business defending the 'honor' of the game. With so many of them tied up in steroids, and I'm sure so many more looking the other way, that's the first thing. Secondly, supposedly this brawl started because a couple of guys had a problem with Alfonso Soriano looking too long after a homer he had hit. I just think it's hypocritical to throw at someone for that these days - are you going to throw at every single batter? Everyone poses after they hit something...even if it doesn't leave the park. Everyone shows someone else up throughout the game. It's disheartening, but if you're going to get upset at one person for it...get upset at everyone who does it.
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