Mets 7, Astros 3 (53-58, 10 GB)

OK, new plan. If the Mets win every game from here on out, and everyone else in the NL East loses every game the rest of the way, playoffs, here we come! The Mets beat the Astros Tuesday night at Shea Stadium, and the Braves, Marlins, and Phillies all lost. (The Expos won, but they're so irrelevant, unless they're beating the Mets 19-13.) Anyway, that's what we'll cling to now. I know the season's over, but they're not called the Miracle Mets for nothing. Let's see what they can pull from their rears this year, these Miracle Mets. FYI, the Mets are just 7 and a half games out of the Wild Card, trailing just the Cubs, Padres, Giants, Phillies, Marlins, Astros, Reds, and Brewers. That's like the entire National League.

So, lots of highlights Tuesday night. It was actually a pretty good game to watch, or at least the first hour and 45 minutes was, which was all I got to see. I left the house after the Mets took a 4-3 lead in the 4th. David Wright had a huge game, 2-for-4, with a homer, and 2 RBI. (That's now 4 homers, en route to 755+, and 12 major league RBI for the future Hall of Famer.) Wright drove in the go-ahead run with a sharply hit single up the middle, following up the exact same thing by Mike Cameron one batter before.

Let's just briefly talk about Tom Glavine. As poorly as he pitched last year, 2004 has to be the worst year of this guy's life. First of all, he's pitching great, but can't catch a break because the Mets don't score runs when he's on the mound. He's 8-10, with a 2.92 ERA. That's just wrong. Then, there's what happened to him yesterday. His cab gets into an accident right outside LaGuardia airport, and he goes to the hospital with stitches in his cut lower lip and no more two front teeth. He's out of the hospital right now, but will miss Wednesday night's start. Just a bad year for Glavine. And now the johnnymets connection: For those of you who attended the big johnnymets wedding, you may remember my sister had a cast on her wrist. She broke that wrist in a car accident right outside LaGuardia airport. From what I hear about the Glavine accident, the accidents happened in pretty much the same spot. So I'm basically like Tom Glavine's brother at this point. (FYI, my sister is recovering. The cast is gone now. And she still has her two front teeth.)

Well, it's Wednesday, which means it's time to check the mailbag.

This e-mail comes from someone calling himself Scott, who would be my former roommate who tried to steal $600 from myself and Kevin from Wilmington. But being that I hate the man, I don't believe it's really him. But let's see the e-mail, shall we:
"John...
Does it bother you that the future "ace" of the Mets pitching staff has a girl's first name?? Check it out....Kris is short for Kristin!!! I have a girls last name...and I can tell you, its never been a problem for me. I mean...look at my life. I was a success in college, success as a roommate, and now...well, if you only knew what I was up to!! Anyways...girls first name on the ace....bother you?? Scott Salley - parts unknown"

Well, "Scott", it does bother me actually, that Kris is short for Kristin. This is an unbelievable development, folks, which I'm very grateful to "Scott" for pointing out. He refers to the ESPN player page for Kris Benson, and sure enough, that page shows his name as Kristin James Benson. There's no doubt, though, that Benson is all man. He is, after all, married to a former Penthouse model. So I guess Kristin can slide.

Well, speak of the devil - if it isn't Kevin from Wilmington. Here's what Kevin writes:

"Johnny.... Big time fan of your site. Keep up the great work. Anyways....I don't want to say "its over"....but "it don't look good" after this weekend's sweep. So....Let's look ahead to next season. With Hidalgo and Benson both free agents...will the Mets keep both or either or neither?? Will they make a run at Carlos Beltran?? What do you see the Mets lineup and rotation as for next season?? I'll hang up and listen. kevin - Wilmington, NC "

Wow. A legitimate e-mail. Well, Kevin, to be honest, I've been so focused on this season that I haven't been looking ahead too much. But next year is promising....and a little unsure. I think the Mets definitely keep Benson. Hidalgo, I'm not so sure about. As Steve from Manhattan points out every time I speak to him, the Mets wouldn't pay for Vlad Guerrero, why would they pay that much money for Hidalgo? It's a good point, but the way Hidalgo is playing for the Mets right now, they would probably hate to let him go. As for Beltran, I don't see that happening. I think everyone's happy with Mike Cameron in center field, especially lately. So here's what I'm seeing for next year:

2B Kaz Matsui
SS Jose Reyes
3B David Wright
1B Mike Piazza
RF Richard Hidalgo
LF Cliff Floyd
CF Mike Cameron
C Jason Phillips
Pitching Rotation: Tom Glavine, Kris Benson, Al Leiter, Steve Trachsel, Victor Zambrano

It's a pretty good-looking rotation, my only worry is that Leiter and Glavine might be having their last good years in 2004. But we'll have more on this in the season preview here on johnnymets.blogspot.com in March. And, yes, I do believe David Wright will be batting third in 2005. Speaking of the future Hall of Famer, Dave from Brighton writes in again:

"With David Wright on track to spend a half season with the MajorLeague club, will he be in the running for Rookie of the Year honors. If not, would he still be eligible next year, even though he'll have a half season of experience under his belt?
While we're on the topic, what would you project for him next year, stats-wise. If he can have a 6 RBI game every day, that would put him on pace for approximately 1,000 RBI. Is this impossible, or just unlikely?"

Dave, Dave, Dave. That's just stupid. Everyone knows 1,000 RBI in a season is just unlikely, especially when we're talking about Wright. As for Rookie of the Year, David Wright is going to have to go gangbusters for the rest of this season in order to add that award to his Hall of Fame resume. The rules, I believe, are a player can't have 130 major league at-bats or 45 games on a major league roster and still be considered a rookie. So Wright's a rookie right now...and won't be in 2005. As for a projection of stats, I would say he's going to be a consistent .300 hitter, 30 homers, and 130 RBI. What else would you expect?

One final note: The Mets are wearing patches on their left sleeves for the rest of the season simply saying "Bob Murphy", written around the outside of the Mets emblem. Very classy. And before Tuesday night's game, the Mets honored Murphy with a video montage - it was very good. Well done by the Mets. And on Wednesday at 2PM at Saint Patrick's Cathedral, there is a public memorial for Murphy. Just FYI.

Mets 6, Brewers 5 (51-55, 8 GB)

First of all, a big apology. This is no way to start a new feature on this site, by promising your e-mails on Wednesday and not delivering. On the other hand, it still is Wednesday as I write this, so it's not really like I lied. Next week, though, I will have the mailblog ready by Wednesday morning, to keep consistent with your regular reading schedules.

I hope everyone remembered to watch my brother's show Wednesday night. If you watched it, you missed the Mets tying the game at 3, but you could have switched over immediately afterwards and seen the Mets take the lead. I hope you watched it, that show is more funny every time I watch it.

Damn the Mets. Everytime I want to write them off, they come back and look fairly impressive. Now they're scoring runs...if they keep this up, with the great pitching we expect from the staff, they might have one more run in them. Damn the Mets. Damn me for thinking so damn positively.

Let's check out the mail, because the first e-mail illustrates my above point about the Mets' "one more run" this season:

Kathryn in Watertown writes, "I've been looking at the Braves' record and the Mets' record. Let's say that the Braves win half of their games for the rest of the year. They'll finish out at 87-75. That means the Mets will have to win nearly 2/3 of their remaining games to finish ahead of the Braves. (If they win 2 out of 3 they'll end up at 89-73). So my question is, do you think this is possible or did the Mets screw themselves out of another year this past weekend?"

Well, Kathryn, the Mets sure didn't help themselves any by being swept by the Braves this past weekend. And I think it's asking an awful lot for the Braves to win only half their games the rest of the way. But that's what we, as Mets fans, have to hope for. And to be honest, 2 out of every three is not a stretch for the Mets, depending on how Victor Zambrano pitches on Thursday afternoon. I believe we've already seen Kris Benson's worst start (on Saturday against Atlanta), and Tom Glavine is not likely to pitch as poorly as he did on Sunday. Al Leiter has been awesome, and Steve Trachsel has strung together a few pretty good outings in a row. So if the pitching keeps them in games, starting with Zambrano's first start in a Mets uniform on Thursday, who knows what the Mets are capable of.

Here's another e-mail, this one from Dave, in Brighton, "Longtime reader firsttime writer.
10 GB. At what point do you fire up johnnyjets.blogspot.com?"

Well, Dave, johnnyjets.blogspot.com will be frequently updated during training camp, and I will direct your attention there through this site as I write about the Jets. But the deficit's 8 games. So we can't give up hope on the Mets just yet. Thanks for the plug on johnnyjets.blogspot.com.

Here's another e-mail I received, which I believe to be a ruse: "Nice blog, man. Thanks for the kind words. Keep it up!
-TGBWEL"

TGBWEL, of course, stands for THE GREATEST BALLPLAYER WHO EVER LIVED, and the name on the e-mail was Jose Reyes. But I think someone, namely Kathryn from Watertown, is playing a cruel, cruel joke on me.

OK. This is a regular weekly event, so if you want to share your thoughts, drop me a line, johnnymetsmail@yahoo.com

Just a note on Bob Murphy, who died Tuesday of lung cancer. Murphy could also be known as TGBWEL - THE GREATEST BROADCASTER WHO EVER LIVED. There was nothing like sitting by a radio on a summer day/night, listening to Murphy broadcast the Mets. He may have lost a bit over the years, but just hearing his voice was reassuring, even when the Mets sucked. I don't really know how to express how good he was. If you're a Mets fan, you know. If you didn't grow up listening to Bob Murphy call the Mets, I don't know how to express what you missed. But I'll try. Imagine listening to a baseball game, and having the perfect picture of the game painted for you. And imagine not even thinking about who was describing the game to you. I hope that begins to give you an idea of what made Bob Murphy so great.

Update: Bad news. The Daily News reports this morning that Hall of Fame broadcaster Bob Murphy is suffering from lung cancer. Murphy, of course, retired last year after broadcasting Mets games since their inception in 1962. There's never been anyone better, in my opinion. Everyone here at johnnymets.blogspot.com wishes him nothing but the best.