Wednesday, June 3, 2009

A Mets Scene: Glass Half Empty vs. Glass Half Full

Scene: Exterior
Mets vs. Pirates Rain out, PNC Park, Pittsburgh, PA. Glass Half Empty, and Glass Half Full sit on the bar table in the ballpark restaurant.

Glass Half Empty:
Same ‘ole Mets…get on a nice run and bam, lose two in a row to the lowly Pirates.

Glass Half Full:
Yeah, but we’re only 2 ½ games out of first place.

Glass Half Empty:
But now the Braves are in the thick of it with a dramatic come-from-behind win last night and a great trade for Nate McClouth. That’s a big move for them and could make them better a team than ours. And we’re the team with all of these injuries and nothing’s been done to fix it. I’m like, Omar…what are you doing?

Glass Half Full:
Well for one, he traded Castro to make room for a surprise catcher who’s not only been a great story for this 2009 club, but he’s a big part of why they’re – as I said – only 2 ½ games out.

Glass Half Empty:
I’ll give you that but really, if we have to rely on Omir Santos to get us to the Promised Land, then we will once again, be doomed.

Glass Half Full:
No one is saying that Omir Santos is the saviour for this organization. But, you have to admit, the guy has been clutch…

Glass Half Empty:
Too bad we can’t say the same for David Wright. What is with this guy already? He’s on pace to strike out like 500 times this year! Hey, David, shorten the swing and go to right field already. And please, for the love of mankind, stop over-breathing when you’re stepping into the box with men on base. You’re idea of trying to relax is actually causing you to think too much about the situation.

Glass Half Full:
As bad as Wright has been, and as much criticism as he has received this year, the guy is still hitting .330 and is on pace for close to 100 RBI. Judging from all the heat he’s been taking you would think he’s Luis Castillo.

Glass Half Empty:
Wright has been brutally disappointing all around; I don’t care what his average is. He had a stretch of 15 good games and that’s it. Plus, he is an awful thrower. Good glove, bad arm. And while you’re on Castillo, can we please dump this guy already? How many more times do I have to watch him swing the bat like a school girl. Really, he swings like a little leaguer. And the opposing teams’ defense plays him shallower than when a pitcher is up. Omar dropped the ball once again by not signing Orlando Hudson, who by the way hits 3rd in the lineup for the best team in baseball right now. We’ll see him at the All Star game for sure.

Glass Half Full
Castillo is hitting .290 you know. It’s not like he’s hitting .240. He’s been productive.

Glass Half Empty:
Look. For crying out loud, Raul Ibanez has more home runs right now David Wright, Carlos Beltran, Carlos Delgado and Gary Sheffield combined. Combined! And we’re nearly 1/3 of the season in.

Glass Half Full:
Yes, and remarkably, we’re still only 2 ½ games out.

Glass Half Empty:
We play sloppy baseball. We make errors all of the time. We don’t slide, we don’t touch third base, we send runners home when they have no business being sent home, we don’t run hard out of the box, I mean this club is hardly a fundamentally sound team. They’re pathetic out there.

Glass Half Full:
Do you realize that we have been playing without Delgado, Reyes, Beltran recently, Ollie Perez and…we have fielded a roster that more closely resembles a Babe Ruth league team? And…yet we’re right in the heart of the pennant race.

Glass Half Empty:
Perez? I’m glad you mentioned that thief. He’s literally stealing money from the Wilpons Madoff style. Omar should be fired based on that signing alone. I still can’t believe we have him and passed up on Derek Lowe.

Glass Half Full:
I’ll give you Perez. I never wanted to resign him but you have to give it to Omar for brining in Livan Hernandez. He’s been a pleasant surprise. And what about the signing of Sheffield? Imagine where we would be without him?

Glass Half Empty:
Well let’s not start singing Omar’s praises just yet. Sheffield can implode in a heartbeat, and we all know the Livan dream is going to turn into a nightmare sooner or later. And by the way, Putz has been a disaster, a complete bust. He’s going to kill us.

Glass Half Full:
Well at least we don’t have the same bullpen from last year, which is what had sunk us the prior 2 seasons. Yes, Putz has been disappoting. But, we have K-Rod who has been nothing short of perfect, and we have this kid from the system, Bobby Parnell who has been brilliant. Throws hard, has developed a wicked slider. There’s two key guys right there that we didn’t have last year.

Glass Half Empty:
Parnell will flame out. Everyone will talk about pitch count, innings pitched, that this is his first long season, yaddah, yaddah, yaddah. I mean, we’ve already pissed away like 10 games this year that we should have won. How about the Santana game in Florida, the dropped fly ball by Murphy, or Reyes’ error against the Braves? And of course the Putz debacle the other night, when we blew a 5-0 lead. We flat out stink. And to tell you the truth, I'm tired of this team losing all the time. I'm still hurting from the last two choke jobs!

Glass Half Full:
Yes, we’ve been terrible. We’ve played poorly; dropped routine pop ups, missed bags, failed to slide, lacked clutch hitting, didn’t run hard out of the box, and mismanaged games. Putz has underachieved, Razor “Not So Sharp” Shines has exhibited signs of attention deficit disorder, and yes, Raul Ibanez has out-homered all of our big bats combined, but we did take 2 out of 3 in Fenway when no one thought we’d win a game, and one of those games was one of the most dramatic regular season victories in recent memory, and yet, after all of that, after all of that garbage, negativity, the heartbreaking defeats, we’re still only 2 ½ games out and there are 111 games left to play. A hundred an eleven! We've had an inordinate amount of injuries, guys with stomach viruses. We’ll get Reyes back and Delgado will return for his Willis Reed moment. And I still have faith Omar is going to pull off a race-changing move. In the meantime, what are you, a ridiculous Mets Lifer going to do? Are you going to dwell on the past, go over and over on the shoulda, coulda, wouldas? Or are you going to buck up, enjoy the ride, and rally behind this 2009 Mets team? This is, what we, as baseball junkies live for. Baseball seasons come around for only 6 months out of the year. And right now we are just entering our third month of another competitive, heart pounding, nail biting run. You're tired of all this losing? So am I but remeber one thing, we're not the Pirates and always be thankful you're not a Cubs fan. It’s your call. Either you’re in, or you’re out. I know what I’m going to do. I’m going to BELIEVE!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Fantastic post. "Oliver Perez, the thief" is just genius as is Razor "Not So Sharp" Shines.