Willie Randolph New Brewers Bench Coach, Guarantees More Guillermo Mota

Congratulations Willie Randolph on landing a new job. That Mets' paycheck was about to run out so it's good to see you out there pounding the pavement and submitting those resumes.

So you're the new bench coach for the Milwaukee Brewers. Way to go. You found the only team dumb enough to take Guillermo Mota off the Mets hands. But hey, he's your guy so this must be a perfect fit for you.

I'm pleased to see you back in baseball and I'm hopeful that you'll be influential in bringing Mota into every game the Brewers play against the Mets.

Show Me Some Pride You Scared Bunch of Little Girls

The Marlins have nothing to play for except for pride and the fact that they want to destroy the Mets for personal reasons.

The Mets have everything to play for, but are playing like a bunch of school girls. You want to play four-square, that's fine but you've got all of November to do it. This is crunch time and you guys are acting like a group of spineless, one-celled organisms.

Do you enjoy having the media in your face talking collapse every day? Do you like getting booed at your home field because you can't do diddly squat? Do you like being the laughing stock of baseball? If you do than by all means keep it up, you're doing a fine job.

But if you hate the fact that history is repeating itself, suck it up and play with some pride. So you might not make the playoffs this year. So you screwed up the final month of the season. You can still play with some heart for the fans, for New York, and for yourselves.

This is the final weekend at Shea when Mets fans from across the country are making their pilgrimage back to Queens to say farewell. All the Met greats are going to be there, but I'm here to let you know that right now none of you will be included in that group in the future.

Show the fans, the city and this stadium some respect and win these next two games regardless of what the Brewers do. Play with some pride for crying out loud. You look like a bunch of nancies out there. It's a wonder you won 80+ games.

Choke II Almost Complete

I'd like to thank the Mets for showing up tonight and really putting on a strong effort, only going down 6-1 to the Marlins. I mean, really, it was only a 5 run difference so there is a silver lining folks. 

Wow...are you kidding me? As incredible last as night's game was, they inexplicably come out tonight and lay an egg - which, really is the Mets' way when you come to think of it. 

Is anyone surprised with the way this game ended up? The Marlins, who of course despise the Mets, and take great pleasure in knocking them out of it, thrive off this type of atmosphere, while the Mets, true to form, puke all over the pressure and willingly get throttled. Sure, this club has been resilient, bouncing back from bad losses but the big problem is, they lose more than they win when it's counted most. Do you realize that not only do the Braves and Phillies own us, but the Marlins do as well? 2 straight seasons they're going to kill our hopes and our team just stands there like scared little men, and accepts it.

 

Much has been made about the Brewers going in the tank losing 15 of 19 in September, but everyone failed to realize that no one, no team in sports, let alone baseball, collapses better than the Mets. Everyone has a chance when they're chasing the Mets down the stretch. And so the Brewers, deserving all the credit in the world, have reeled off 5 straight victories during crunch time, unlike our beloved Mets who are just about finished polishing off their second straight September choke job. 

So once again, thank you NY Mets. This has been a fun, exciting ride, believe you me. Can't wait to see how you follow this one up next year, especially in September. That'll be triple the fun. 

  

HUGE WIN!

Well, that was easy...

Un-freakin'-believeable! That, Mets Lifers, was 

H-U-G-E! Just when you thought this team was dead (raising my hand), they picked themselves off the mat once again and fought their way to one of the more improbable victories this team has had. There wasn't a Lifer alive who thought they would pull this game out, especially after going down by 3 in the 7th. But somehow, by some miracle, they got the job done and find themselves still tied with the Brewers with 3 games to play. 

I'm not really sure how many more of these games I can take. I seriously tried to remain calm early in this game. I had almost a resigned feeling after last night's embarrassment. I didn't even feel excited when Church tied it up at 3. I just knew we'd give it back. So I held my emotions in check all the way until Ramon Martinez (love this guy!) came to the plate in the 8th, down by 2. Then, I was sucked right back in again...yelling at Jerry on the TV for leaving Martinez in to hit. "Noooo.....why are you leaving him in there???" 

From then on, my chest was burning, heart was pumping and I was loving this game and team all over again! For some crazy reason, I live for these games. More often than not, we are let down, hearts ripped out, and we all know how this team has a knack for that, but it's games like these that keep me coming back. I can never get it out of me. The swing of emotions from last night's devastating loss to tonight's exhilarating victory reminded me of mine and Dave's first posts to this site more than 18 months ago. 

 

1 1/2 Games

With 7 games left in the regular season, 1 1/2 games is the key to the Mets fate. The Mets are 1 1/2 games behind the Phillies for the NL East. The Mets are 1 1/2 games ahead of the Brewers for the wild card.

Welcome to a painstaking final week of the season.

In my estimation, the Mets will have to go 7-0 and the Phillies will have to go 4-2 in order for the Mets to win the NL East. Now I don't know which is more unlikely that the Mets won't lose a game this week or that the Phillies will lose 2 games.

The Mets chances are better for the Wild Card where the struggling Brewers are almost as inconsistent as the Mets of late.

At this point, I'm with Bryan when he said that he doesn't care how the Mets get in the playoffs as long as they get in. I couldn't agree more. The real key to this week is being able to win that extra game the Mets have to play. Their competition have 6 games remaining where the Mets have 7.

I've been asked this morning if I'm nervous, anxious, and even depressed about the current Mets state. My reply is that my emotion is more anger than anything else. I haven't given up hope yet, but that's just one Aaron Heilman appearance from changing.

This is a week for the Mets to win back their faithful fans. A week for David Wright to prove that he's not our version of A-Rod. A week for Delgado to cement his status as the NL MVP. A week for Carlos Beltran to make everyone remember what he did in the '04 playoffs. A week for one bullpen pitcher to take silence the critics.

One week. One and a half games. Or it could end up just as one big disappointment.

I Love the Brewers Bullpen

Wow. The Brewers bullpen is just as bad as the Mets. Who thought that there could be two totally unreliable bullpens in the National League, but lo and behold there are!

The Brewers were up 6-2 with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th, and ended up losing 7-6 in extra innings.

Sound familiar? I know. It's creepy.

The crack squad of Guillermo Mota and Eric Gagne are as formidable as Scott Blowenweiss and Aaron Heilman. The crazy part is both the Brewers and the Mets are competing for a playoff spot. Imagine the situation both of these teams would be in if they had a half decent bullpen.

Could the Brewers be the 2008 version of the 2007 Mets? Possibly. In any case I'm officially scoreboard watching as much as I'm following the Mets. Sometimes it's just less painful.

Hey, How About that Wild Card?

Wow, the Mets took the lead in the wild card race on Tuesday. That's about the only positive thing that you can say.

While the Phillies continue to scrap, claw and slap their way to victory, the Mets conversely shrivel, shrink and scare themselves into yet another loss at the hands of that stellar pitching staff known as the Washington Nationals.

David Wright made a comment after the game that as a competitor "this is fun." Oh really? Striking out with runners on base when your team needs you in the clutch is fun? Getting outdueled by the worst team in the league is fun? Watching your archnemesis continue to win while you wilt is fun? If that's fun than sign me up for an eye gauging because that must be a reall ball.

Oh yeah and now that we're in second place for the first time in over a month and need a win about as desperately as we ever have, let's throw Brandon Knight out on the mound to win that crucial game. That sounds like a really stellar idea.

Hey Milwaukee Brewers fans, we feel ya.

I Am Thankful

I am thankful this evening, thankful for not having watched the debacle that took place at Shea earlier this afternoon. Fortunately for me, I took my 2 ½ year old daughter to see a Beatles cover band perform in Manhattan, which was a ton of fun and very kid friendly. When the show ended, I got in my car and quickly turned the game on. Mets were up 6-2 and I was already “putting it in the books” as Howie would say. My daughter then requested to hear some U2 (good taste) for the ride home; I obliged. About a half hour later I turned the game back on only to hear the score was tied up at 6. Ridiculous.

Anyway, as I got home, I turned the game on the tellie, and saw the Mets were down 8-6. Predictable. I proceeded to watch one inning and witnessed Delgado literally drop a ball thrown to him from Wright. That would have been the third out of the inning. Instead, that runner went on to score to give the Brewers a 9-6 lead. Embarrassing.

At this point, I was pretty tired, so my wife, like a good middle reliever, watched my two kids while I went to dose off. (Anyone with kids knows naps are tough to come by so when you get a chance to take one, you jump on it). When I laid down, I unfortunately, put the radio on, volume low, and listened to yet another pathetic moment in the game. With man on first and third, Luis Castillo grounded out to first and Clark was thrown out at home. Delgado popped out to end the inning with the bases loaded. This was the fifth double play in 5 consecutive innings, and the second time the Mets had 1st and 3rd with no outs and didn’t score…against Mota of all people. Awful.

So I am thankful I did not see every inning of this game. Disgusting.

Finally

18 hits! 12 runs! Finally the Mets enjoyed a laugher today as they pounded Brewers' pitching and remarkably went 9-12 with two outs and runners in scoring position. This was vintage Mets baseball. It's been a while since we've seen this kind of display and I have to say, it feels good.

I'm not going to get too excited because I've been burned too many times this season, but you have to give credit to this team for taking the last two games and ultimately the series. Milwaukee is a tough place to play and for the Mets to bounce back from a heartbreaking defeat Tuesday is a true testament of their resiliency. They showed they had guts and really put a thumping on the Brewers.

Tomorrow, the Mets are off the Chicago to play the first place Cubbies. It won't be easy as we face a red hot Carlos Zamrbano, going for his 15th win of the season.

I hate day games during the week. Thankfully, there's always MLB radio to stream the broadcast through the computer.

Bats Wake Up

The Mets hit 3 home runs tonight and went on to defeat the Brewers 8-5. Oliver Perez survived a rough couple of innings to win his 10th game of the year.

Earlier in the night, this post was going to start by ripping Randolph for sitting Milledge in place of Marlon Anderson, but since Marlon hit a 3 run jack and drove in another with an RBI single, I really can't say anything. But then I figured I could get on Randolph for not sitting Green instead of Milledge. So what does Green do? He hits his first home run in 114 ABs. Don't be fooled however, he's been horrible, and his play in right field tonight was hardly gold glove material. My wife actually laughed when she saw him flop forward while the ball blew past him to allow a run in the second. He actually did look like Gumby out there.

What I will say though is that I want to see Milledge play every day. Just let the kid play a consistent stretch of games, see how he bounces back after an o-for last night. Show some confidence in him.

El Capitan, Ramon Castro did it again, as he hit a 3 run bomb in the second and got us back in the game after an early 3-0 deficit. With the offense struggling like it is, I thought for sure we were going to lose this one. But Ramon gave us a jolt of confidence at the right time. Thankfully, I can sleep well tonight.