Big Men - Big Times

The times were similar for both teams. One team had climbed to the top of their division after five months of mostly turmoil, only to find themselves hanging onto the lead by a thread. The other had made the playoffs for thirteen straight years but were in danger of getting swept by their most hated rival.

Each team would weather the storm. Each of them would accept their challenge and survive. And each would have some heroes of the day, but, in each case, the biggest hero would be their big man.

For the Mets, it would again be Carlos Delgado, whose heroics have been so numerous, I half expect him to come out of the dugout in gleaming armor and wielding a lance instead of a bat. To borrow from Richard Adams in his great story Watership Down, Delgado’s walk-offs and game winning hits have been, as the rabbits would say, “hrair”, which means a great many, as rabbits can only count to four.

For the Yanks. it would be Jason Giambi, who, despite his prodigious numbers this year, had been branded most recently as a non-performer in big spots, as had his even more infamous teammate, Alex Rodriguez. The Giambino had been benched quite a bit as of late, as his fielding and running game lagged somewhat behind his bat, which was saying a lot.

As this writer has most often been a Yankee-hater, and as I was otherwise occupied for the Yankees afternoon game, I only heard about Jason’s big hits after the game. The last thing I heard on the radio was Susan Waldman somewhat viciously panning Arod and Giambi for their failures to hit with runners in scoring position. That reaming was followed by Arod flying out with runners on first and third. Giambi was spared only because he wasn’t yet in the game.

The next thing I know, one of the gym rats is running around with an ear to ear grin, for not only had the Yanks won, but they did it against Jonathan Papelbon. Only later did I discover that it was my favorite Yankee who did the damage. And, to be honest, I guess I really don’t hate THESE Yankees. Not these pitcher-less and Posada-less Bombers, whose biggest hero for the year had been Mike Mussina.

And not THESE Yankees, who had converted Joba Chamberlain from the holder to limited starter, then full-blown starter and now slated to become the holder again after his time on the DL. Not THESE Yankees who actually looked forward to Carl Pavano’s return, with good reason as it turned out.

And not to belabor a point, but the boys in pinstripes are still holding on, notwithstanding Cano’s massive inconsistency, Arod’s fall from grace, Damon’s misadventures in the outfield and Jeter’s off-year. It’s easier to count the blameless, only the Moose and Bobby Abreu of the core group, and of course the ageless one, Mariano Rivera, in any event decidedly less than “hrair”.

But the main reason they’re still breathing a breath of life today is Jason Giambi. In the biggest game of the year, on the very precipice of disaster, the Giambino was the man once again, mustache and all, coming off the bench to destroy the hated Red Sox and their peerless (if tainted in Yankee-land) closer Papelbon.

It’s almost always the big men who draw the attention in any sport, and it’s no different for baseball. And no big man personifies that relationship more than Carlos Delgado. Since July 13^th, the Mets have only lost four games in which Carlos Delgado has had an RBI. And with the Mets relief staff, that’s saying an awful lot.

Delgado has, if my math is right, 43 ribbies since July 13^th. But that doesn’t really tell the story. He’s had at least one ribbie in 20 different games, and the Mets are 16-4 in those games. And, in many of those, Delgado has had the walk-off home run or the game-winning RBI. So he’s been, um, good.

Delgado always has a smile, it seems, even when he’s not doing so well. It’s really a pleasure to see him make some numbers for his new contract, and playing the complete game at first base too. And nobody celebrates like the Mets, and especially when Delgado’s doing well.

You have to admit, the Mets are a cool team to root for, and Delgado’s maybe the coolest. The big guy, playing like the big guy in that batters box and around that keystone bag. He strides (slides) back towards that dugout, big smile, amused that he can still be the man, at least right now, and all those big hits will go a long way towards ensuring his future too.

Even the manager’s cool. If Delgado has been Lancelot, then Manuel has been Merlin. It really is extraordinary the presence of the man when talking baseball, so comfortable, like talking to the local hardware store guy about your patio, for your seven houses.

And the big man is certainly making him look good. The record’s good, they’re up by a game instead of down by a game, and Carlos’s two dingers had a little bit to do with that. Those Phillies, they ain’t so baaaad.

So there it is. Giambi and Delgado, two big men in New York making their presence felt in that lineup. The rest of the guys can be faltering, on both teams, guys like Beltran and Arod, but these big first basemen can take you where you want to go, all by themselves sometimes. At most they need just one or two other guys to do something…..walk, get a little base hit, a sacrifice, whatever, and the big men can do the rest.

They say timing is everything in life. And so it is for these two big fellas. A little hot streak for them both right now, the Yanks chasing the Red Sox and the Mets trying to just hold on, would be perfect.

Great Game - Bad Result

What a game ! Forget about the Red Sox-Yankees; last night was all about the Mets and the Phillies. It pains me to say the Phillies were just better, but I really think they were. The Phillies endured the slow start, the Phillies fought back, the Phillies got the big hits and the Phillies had the better relief pitching. And of course they won it by a score of 8-7 in 13 terrific innings of baseball.

The things that'll stay in the mind's eye of this Mets fan are as follows:

1.Brian Schneider, the catcher acquired for defensive purposes, totally misplaying a very good relay throw by Damion Easley in the bottom of the 9th. That was the game right there.
2. Delgado and Beltran looking silly against Brad Lidge
3. the brilliant relief pitching of Aaron Heilman in the 10th through the 12th
4. great plays on ground balls by Delgado and Reyes

But the worst thing about last night's game was that every time a Phillies batter came to the plate, I worried a lot. For every Mets batter that came up in those late innings, I expected nothing. And got it.

Jimmy Rollins, Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, Shane Victorino and even guys like Jayson Werth are big-time players. When the game is on the line, they seem to come through. The same can't really be said for these Mets, as much as I hate to think it.

As good as Delgado has been since Manuel took the reins, he hits mistakes. If a pitcher can get a good breaking ball over the plate for strikes, he can take Delgado out. The same goes for the other Carlos, Beltran.

In that bottom of the ninth against Lidge, they weren't just ineffective, they were pitiful. Beltran, as he does way too often, took two breaking balls for strikes, then missed by a foot on a ball in the dirt. Delgado at least took a few swings, even if he missed by quite a bit on every one.

The Mets still have the edge in starting pitching though, and hopefully Johan Santana will continue his hot streak tomorrow. If the game is decided by the bullpens, the Mets will be in bad shape.

Even though Aaron Heilman was magnificent last night, he won’t be able to throw tomorrow. I have no faith in Schoeneweis whatsoever. He looks as if he doesn’t care. I don’t think he does. I’d like to see the Mets just drop him.

Smith and Feliciano can be good in spots. Luis Ayala should have picked up another save last night, but he was done in by his catcher. The Phillies had made the big mistake, sending the slow-footed Jayson Werth home on a hard shot to right. Church gunned it to Easley. Easley gunned it to Schneider.

If Schneider steps up to take the throw, the runner is out by a mile. Instead, Schneider backed up and made an easy play difficult. The game hinged on that play.

The great players look forward to those opportunities and step up. The lesser ones back down. Schneider backed away and the game was lost. The Phillies had tied it. I waited to see whether Schneider would redeem himself at the plate later on. That sometimes happens with good players. Schneider showed nothing.

While it’s not impossible that the Mets can still win this division, I have to say it doesn’t look good. The Mets seem to have taken a step back with the “additions” of Church and Castillo. John Maine’s injury looks ominous at this juncture. And Pedro looked his age last night.

Negatives, I’m full of them, I guess. There are some positives. Baseball is such a weird game and the season is such a long one. Players who look bad one night can look great the very next day. But the chemistry the Mets had seems lost for now, and the Phillies should just get stronger, what with last night’s big win and Rollins playing better.

But Reyes and Wright are great players. Wright made a big play on a hard ground ball to his right to save the game last night, even though he did look a little clumsy in doing it. He gets the hits when they’re needed more often than not. He looks confident in big situations.

Reyes is just a great player in all aspects of the game, a guy you love to watch and a guy who loves to have you watch him. He does it all, at the plate and in the field, on the basepaths and even in the dugout.

The Mets need more players like them. Too often, the two Carlos’s can’t overcome good pitching. They feed on the pedestrian guys, but there aren’t too many of them on teams like Philadelphia, or Houston for that matter.

And I really liked the chemistry they had there for a while, with Argenis Reyes at second, Murphy and Evans platooning in left field and Tatis in right. While there’s certainly nothing wrong with a player such as Church, his return to the lineup hasn’t added anything yet.

I’m certainly hoping these Mets can come back still one more time from a hugely disappointing loss. They certainly have the right guy on the mound today to do just that. And then there are Perez and Pelfrey and Pedro too, when he’s feeling it. But Maine’s loss looms large, and then there’s this bullpen.

Is any lead too large? Is any ballpark large enough to hold the ball in the park against this team of relievers? Will Jerry Manuel’s head bust wide open one day after still another exercise in juggling totally inconsistent relievers? It’s like doing the Sunday Times crossword on a daily basis.

Whatever happens down the stretch, one gets the feeling that it’ll be exciting. And I guess that’s just about all we can realistically hope for, great baseball, good pitching, good hitting, plays at the plate and extra innings.

Fitting Endings

It was fitting, I thought, that the Olympics should end with 400 Chinese shakin' their butts in the air. That's just the way I was feeling about the Olympics as they finally wound down, except my pants would have been at half-mast. While the beginning of these Olympic Games were practically earth-shaking, and the middle was excellent, by the end, I was ready for baseball again, oh, and football too. It was the two concurrent fantasy football drafts though that really did me in.

As I had feared for some time now, the Mets were not able to put away a team with good pitching. Although they hung around for ten innings, it was the middling Astros who took the third game of the series yesterday. And, as expected, the starting pitching was pretty good. That the relief pitching was less good, if not downright awful, had to be expected too, I guess. It had to catch up with my Metsies sometime.

The Giants-Jets game was a real yawner too, I thought, though we did see some pretty good defense, I suppose. That Osi Umenyiora was lost for the season is a real heart-breaker though. We can only hope it's not a forbidding omen, and that albatross I thought I saw flying over the stadium was just a gigantic pigeon, gone crazy from too many hot dogs and beer. Oh well, at least I won't have to spell his name again this season.

The most startling football news though, for fans not interested only in the local teams, was that Kurt Warner may have kept his starting job in Arizona over the bonus-baby heart throb from USC, one Matt Leinart. Kurt has been pretty darned good this exhibition season, but the word was that Leinart would surely be the starter. I'm sure salary negotiations may have played a part, too, in Warner's sudden ascension. When handing out millions to anyone, it's kinda nice to see them on the field, especially in Arizona, a place that has never happily given away anything, just ask Anquan Boldin.

In fact, if salary negotiations thrill you, this is your season. (Turn, turn, turn). Plaxico Burress may get some kind of extension and Antonio Pierce has had his hands out too, we are led to believe. At least the Jets seem a lot more settled right now, having already doled out multi-million dollar contracts to quite a few newcomers, such as Faneca and Pace. They may even be able to protect what's-his-name althoughthat wasn;t much in evidence on Friday night.

That the football season starts on a Thursday night thrills me not. What a stupid way to start a season. I know. I have to learn to adapt to change, Olympics in China, Jamaicans winning all the sprints, and making a big deal about the Redeem-Team beating friggin' Spain in basketball. Ho-friggin-hum. Kobe-Kobe-Kobe, WOOHOO.

But this piece is supposed to be about fitting endings, right? Well, based on this beginning, I'd have to say it would be entirely fitting if the Jets made the playoffs, what with about five rather extreme additions to both offense and defense. But for the Giants, alas, it doesn't look good. To lose Osi after losing Strahan is taking two big hits right off the bat. The rest of the league wasn't standing still, you know. I expect both the Eagles and the Skins to be more formidable this year. You can be sure Donovan McNabb will be singing no sad songs for the G-Men.

But now I must turn to the most fitting ending of all, the end of yesterday’s Mets game. I guess Mr. Manuel can’t spin a miracle every time out after all. Finding the right combination of mediocre relief had been a Manuel specialty as of late, but yesterday wasn’t one of those days. Well, actually, it did look as if he’d pull it off one more time, but he ran out of options at the end.

Pedro Feliciano gave up two, two, two big home runs in the top of the tenth to pretty much seal the Mets fate Sunday afternoon. And I say it was fitting only because the Mets have not been able to secure a top reliever after losing Billy Wagner. They did secure a pretty fair holder, if you will, but he had been used up in the ninth.

I suppose the real story of the game was that Oliver Perez could only put in 6 1/3 yesterday. Heilman relieved Perez in he seventh but couldn’t hold the lead for the southpaw starter, giving up two hits while retiring only one batter. Schoeneweis and Smith finished out the seventh and eighth very nicely too

Luis Ayala, the reliever they did acquire, has been very good, and he continued to be, pitching the ninth inning to a very good effect. But in the 10^th, Manuel was running out of options; there were only two relievers left.

Manuel opted for the lefty Feliciano. It was not his day. And it was very quickly not his day; no infuriating walks or seeing-eye base hits yesterday that in the past had brought Jerry out to the mound for a magic pitching change. No, yesterday, it was all over very quickly. Boom. Boom. Down two.

Duaner Sanchez, the last reliever, did finish out the tenth with no further damage but the Mets didn’t show much in their half of that 10^th inning and it was all over. The Astros closer, Jose Valverde, handled the top of the Mets lineup pretty handily yesterday.

But all is not lost. The Mets still retain their first place position in the NL East. They can tie the Astros series 2-2 with a win tomorrow and, as Mike Pelfrey takes the mound, things look pretty good, especially if he can give them seven or eight good innings. Then it’s the Phillies for two and Florida for three.

I sure hope the starters can keep on keeping on. Otherwise, there may be more fitting endings to come.

So Low and Solo - Kudos to Good Coaches

Never did a coach in ANYTHING have it so wrong. Former U.S. soccer Coach Greg Ryan last year removed the goalie who got them to the 2007 World Cup semifinal and replaced her for some ridiculous technical reason with Briana Scurry, a good player too, but one who had pretty much rode the pines throughout the entire U.S. run.

Of course, Scurry gave up four goals and the U.S. lost their World Cup semifinal to Brazil, but that was the least of the damage. The decision ultimately resulted in bad feelings all around for the team as Solo understandably voiced her strong opinion that she would have stopped those goals.

Virtually the entire team turned against Solo. Only a few stayed in Solo’s corner, one of whom was the woman who scored the winning goal in overtime against Brazil in the Olympic gold medal matchup. She is none other than New Jersey’s own Carli Lloyd from Delran.

The score was 1-0. That it went that far and that long was due almost entirely to Hope Solo, whose save after save after save turned back the athletic Brazilians. After the match, even the Brazilian soccer coach lauded Ms. Solo. And her U.S. teammates finally relented in their sworn enmity to her as they all celebrated their gold medal.

I’ve read that Solo’s fine performance was her redemption. I don’t think so. Was it her vindication? Yes. Absolutely. But she needed no redemption in my eyes. She had always been the hero of the melodrama, she and the young women like Carli Lloyd who stayed with her.

If one had said it was the U.S. soccer team’s redemption, I could have gone along with that, if only it hadn’t taken them so long to see the light. Too many of them, in siding with a coach, initially no doubt to save their own skins, and then staying with their petty convictions all the way to the Olympics final, earned my total disrespect, and their victory really does very little towards earning my understanding, never mind forgiveness. In a way, they didn’t deserve such a positive result.

But I am extremely happy for Hope Solo and her compatriot, Carli Lloyd. They both came up big when they had to. And although the rest of them obviously played a large part in that great U.S. victory, I can’t help feeling that some of them just went along for the ride. Most of them just did what was easiest.

Too much is made of team unity, especially in the light of ridiculously harsh circumstances. A young woman who had just lost her father and who had to give up her conviction to win one for her homeless Dad, had to watch hopelessly as her replacement allowed ball after ball into the net. How many of us in those same shoes could have held their tongues?

There should have been some glimmer of understanding for Hope Solo, the best goalkeeper in the world. And the people who run the Olympic programs should have some recourse in the event that a coach seems to lose all perspective.

Sometimes a coach loses the forest for the trees. In a sport such as soccer in which every game means so much, there should be the ability for the Olympic organizers to rescind an awful decision before it can impact the big game. Ryan’s hopelessly misguided decision impacted the entire women’s soccer program for a full year.

One coach with a surprisingly good grasp of the forest is Jerry Manuel. Mr. Manuel proved that again Thursday night with his handling of Pedro Martinez. Pedro had pitched well for 5 full innings before getting knocked around a bit in the 6^th. But Manuel had Pedro pitch the 7^th as well, and Pedro obligingly retired the three batters he faced.

And in the 8^th, Manuel had Pedro face the first batter with the intention of replacing him whether or not Pedro retired that hitter. Done to eliminate any need to have to play the righty, lefty game with relievers down the stretch, it is the kind of thing Manuel has done over and over since he took the reins from Willie Randolph.

It’s the simplest of things yet proves to the players that the manager’s head is always in the game; that it has a very good chance to win as long as that guy is at the helm. It’s the kind of thing Willie seemingly never thought of, or perhaps the kind of thing he thought would have been over-managing a situation.

Willie always seemed to think his guys would win the game, that all things considered, in the end, the best players would prevail, and he had the best players. Such a strategy may have worked for those strong Yankees teams of yesteryear but it never seemed to suit these Mets, either the 2007 or 2008 variety at any rate.

And, after the game, Jerry went out of his way to praise the efforts of David Wright, for his great plays in the field, not just his formidable bat. And, rather than harp on the mistake David made on the basepaths, Manuel just joked that he had been in no-man’s land; that he wanted so badly to score.

Coaches and managers mean so much in sports. And not just for their tactical moves either. It’s way more than that. Every player has to believe in the manager’s concern for the outcome, his ability to make it so, and for his genuine humanity.

So kudos this evening for the 2008 U.S. soccer coach, who had the foresight to convince his team that Hope Solo should be one of them. His name is Pia Sundhage. Don’t ask me to pronounce it.

And the same for Jerry Manuel, who makes all the right moves, or most of them anyway. (Just today I heard John Heymann say that Manuel wasn’t a LaRussa or a Scoscia. Maybe it’ll take a World Series to change his mind).

One More Chance

You can’t beat the Olympics for poignancy, for pathos, for drama. One chance. That’s all you get for gold. A body of work means nothing. As opposed to professional baseball, a sport for which it’s all in the body of work, and individual failures can and usually are overlooked, especially if your team manages to be successful.

Never were these truths more evident than last night, when strange mishaps befell favorites in the 100-meter hurdles and 400 meter run while a decision on a start value in the balance beam saved gold for one of my favorites in these Beijing Games. And, thousands of miles away, the Mets won another with an assist from one of their formerly vilified relievers who got still one more chance.

I almost cried for Shawn Johnson as it became evident that the little pixie would win her first gold. For a few minutes there, I thought that the beautiful Nastia Liukin would edge Shawn out again in the balance beam competition.

To be honest, Liukin’s performance looked better to me. But it didn’t carry the difficulty value of Shawn’s. So Shawn finally took gold after winning three silvers. With gold for both U.S. roommates, they can now draw lots for who gets to use the shower first. Now there’s a picture.

But even if Shawn had fallen right on her pretty little head, her failure wouldn’t compare to that of the favorite in the 100-meter hurdles, Loli Jones, whose heel clipped the penultimate hurdle hard enough to make her stumble, thus enabling the other young women to pass her by.

She said later that she knew she had the lead, and she was going hard, and the hurdles were coming back to her so fast. One can only imagine how quickly those hurdles were coming to her as she sped over them like Mercury on mescaline.

There was the 400 meter, and a great start for Sanya Richards that may have brought on a fateful cramp. Whatever the cause, it spelled gold and silver for two others but just bronze for Sanya. And weeping in the wings as the full realization of her misfortune overwhelmed her.

There was the renowned Chinese hurdler who had been regaled by his countrymen for months before straining his Achilles so badly that he couldn’t make it much past the starting blocks, producing still another poignant moment for the world and NBC.

One chance every four years. Most competitors get a chance at two Olympics, three at the most if they are lucky enough to catch that first one at an early age. Or if they happen to be named Dara Torres, who at 41 has defied all the rules for some time now.

For most of the athletes in track and field, gymnastics, swimming and many of the other sports contested at the Games, they get one shot at fame, and, if they’re lucky, fortune.

I’m quite sure we’ll be seeing quite a lot of all the gold medal winners in the years to come, not just Mr. Phelps, Ms. Liukin and Ms. Johnson. They’ll peer at us from newspapers, the sides of buses and in TV ads hawking everything from slippers to perfume. (In fact, for the roommates at least, I’m quite looking forward to it).

But we shouldn’t get too overwrought about the losers’misfortunes either. They’ve enjoyed the process of getting to these Olympic Games, I’m quite sure. They haven’t enjoyed every single practice maybe, but in the aggregate, through all the time and money and injuries, they’ve had the time of their life. In fact, for almost all of them, it is their life.

And it’s a pretty good life. It’s most certainly a clean life and usually a simple, uncluttered life, one in which money becomes secondary. Most of the good ones hold a job, of course, but they never let it occupy their thoughts too much. It never becomes an obsession. If an employer asks for overtime, they soon find something else. Or, if nothing else presents itself, they can always become personal trainers.

Of course, they’ll never become millionaires, as they would have if their specialty had been baseball. In baseball, athletes are judged on their body of work. Through 162 games, year after year, they get the opportunity to either excel or fall flat on their faces.

For my favorite team, the Mets, their relief pitchers are the perfect examples for the multitude of opportunities athletes can truly get. For Aaron Heilman, Scott Schoeneweis, Duaner Sanchez, Pedro Feliciano and Joe Smith, the opportunities keep coming.

More often than not, they fail. But, through a curious mixture of management and luck, each one of them isn’t allowed to fail long enough to lose the game. So, in a most curious way, I guess they have been successful. After all, the Mets are still in first place in the NL East, even if Jerry Manuel is looking a little grayer every time I see him.

Last night we got to see still another reliever the Mets added to their game of musical chairs in the person of Luis Ayala. Luis was magnificent last night, which means he’ll be terrible next time out if the Mets fortunes hold to the same pattern.

Scot Schoeneweis was Manuel’s closer of choice last night. And he provided a most uneventful ninth inning. Whether he’ll get to see another ninth inning soon is questionable, of course, but he’ll undoubtedly get some more opportunities, for better or for worse. As will each of the other Mets downtrodden relievers.

But as long as the book of charms Manuel is consulting seems to be working, I hesitate to complain. If form holds, this relief corps will fail as often as they succeed in their mission, but when they do fail, it won’t be a long-lasting failure. Jerry won’t have it.

One thing is sure though. Unlike these Olympians, they’ll get at least one more chance, and probably one more than we’d like.

Olympic Musings

What is it about Jamaica? How can one little island nation produce two gold medal winners and two silver medal winners in the 100-meter dash? Is it the rum, the weather, the ganja?

Usain Bolt took the men's 100 in a world-record time of 9.68 seconds while Jamaican women swept all the medals in the women's 100. Led by Shelly-Ann Fraser, a spritely smiley-faced slip of a woman, the Jamaicans seemed to be off the line first, faster in the middle and faster at the end.

Sharone Simpson and Kerron Stewart finished in a dead heat for second for the two silver medals, cementing Jamaica’s spot as Number 1 in the world. Especially impressive was Ms. Stewart’s lean at the tape to tie her countrywoman. Would that the Americans were close enough for a move such as that to even matter.

While the Jamaicans were making a shambles of the rest of the world in the 100-meter, Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin continued to demonstrate their mastery in gymnastics, taking the silver and bronze respectively in the floor exercise.

No athlete in these Games has impressed me more than Shawn Johnson. Shawn has not only been great in every discipline but she also has been most gracious to the other competitors and most unapologetic for not taking gold in any one of the events.

Shawn’s just enjoying each and every day. Here is an athlete who honors the process itself, appreciates her good fortune in being able to compete in these Games, and is happy with whatever color medal is hung from her neck. As long as she has given her best, she is delighted for her effort, while being the first to congratulate fine efforts put in by her competitors.

Shawn represents the purest Olympic spirit, and, if there were a medal for showing class in the face of adversity, she’d have won it going away.

Meanwhile, her roommate continued her assault on the record books by taking the bronze in the floor exercise after having taken gold in the all-prestigious all-around competition. Nastia Liukin has been classy too, of course, while not having had the opportunity to show as much grace. That is to say, she’s been relatively more successful.

I wish I could say I was more interested in other aspects of the Games. While the U.S. mastery in swimming events has been interesting, especially given the extremely close finishes in many of the races, I just can’t get into it, never having been a swimmer myself, I suppose.

When I see badminton or table tennis or even a more popular U.S. sport such as field hockey, I change the channel. To me, the Olympics is all about track and field, gymnastics and weightlifting. And, when I think about it, why should the other events count for anything?

Actually, that’s not entirely true. I’ve figured it out. Take women’s softball, for example. It’s a sport I like and have played, and there is no other outlet that affords me the opportunity to watch the finest in the game play it.

Even for other sports I’ve played, such as baseball and basketball and tennis, why should I watch? I can watch the best that these sports have to offer by simply tuning in to the Mets or Yankees (well, not THIS year, heh-heh), the Knicks or Nets, or this week’s tennis tournament.

I don’t think this attitude pronounces me devoid of patriotism either. Except for an opportunity to watch the best competition in a sport for which you have a legitimate interest, why watch at all?

There was a time when professionals weren’t allowed to compete. In those days, I’d certainly have more interest in watching the best amateurs compete, especially in the major sports, if I may call them that.

But why should I care if the U.S. basketball team beats Spain? I’ve seen all these guys before and I’ll no doubt see them again, and again and again. The same principle applies to baseball, tennis and even soccer.

Any athlete at any level knows that proficiency in anything is acquired through practice, dedication and, only then, talent. If Spain beats the U.S. in basketball, does that mean that Spaniards are innately better at it?

If Jamaicans are winning the 100-meter dashes, it’s because their program attracts better athletes, has a better coach, or, at that particular long moment in time, its athletes are working harder, its coaches coaching (and recruiting) smarter.

That’s what makes the Jamaican success all the more surprising. A tiny island nation has apparently used more of its resources on the 100-meter than has the big bad United States. The fact that at least one of them competes for a U.S. college doesn’t really change the equation; it just means Jamaica had to be more resourceful in its source of funding.

In the men’s 1500, was I supposed to get excited that the guy we basically bought to run the 1500 for us got beat, that he failed to qualify? There’s actually a little poetic justice in that. The fact that he conserved so much energy in the semifinal to not even qualify for the final made it even sweeter.

Did the U.S. really need to add this fellow to its citizenry? He could have won an automatic berth in the final by simply finishing in the top five. He opted instead to use the automatic clock in his head and figured wrong.

Three Russian women took the top spots in tennis. Was anybody surprised? Should we be upset that the Williams sisters didn’t try harder? Pardon me but I just can’t get excited about it. They just finished playing each other in the Wimbledon finals. They represented their home country quite well in one of the only tennis forums that really matter.

So I’ll continue to watch these Olympics in my own peculiar fashion, reveling in the athleticism and admiring the athletes’ dedication.

But reserving my admiration for those who deserve it.

Just the Right Touch

As this is written, I recollect Michael Phelps touching that wall .01 seconds ahead of the Serb and Nastia Liukin doing more things right than all her competitors. Of course, in Olympic competition, there are ample opportunities to witness athletes reaching back for more, calling on reserves they knew they had because they'd done it before, not because it's easy but because they want to win.

Given the opportunity, these types of competitors will win. In professional baseball, the type of effort I'm talking about is witnessed very seldom on a seasonal basis but you can see individual efforts that approach a true hundred percent once or twice each night, sometimes by great players but sometimes by those lesser talented guys who are just tired of losing, or tired of seeing their names in the papers in a negative light.

In 162 games, the duration of the baseball season, you really can't expect to see that kind of effort every night. You CAN expect to see it more than once in a while though. You DO see it practically all the time from some of the greats; I'm thinking of the Mariano Riveras of the world, the Ernie Bankses, those players who really love the game itself and revel in their ability to play it.

More often than not, though, in baseball, you see guys going through the motions, and you hope that will be enough to carry your team through July and August and get you into a position to win in September. The good teams manage the situation with finesse and just the delicate touch needed to carry 25 different personalities to the promised land, which is the playoffs in baseball.

Just the right touch. In 162 games, it means having that touch just a few more times than the opposition. It’s the touch that keeps good players playing well, and great players playing great. And sometimes, in just the right situation, it’s the touch that gets mediocre players to play over their heads.

Does Joe Girardi have it? Joe Torre? Jerry Manuel? Yeah, I think they probably do. Did Willie Randolph have it? I don’t think he did. At least, not in the time he had to demonstrate it.

That touch can sometimes be interpreted as heavy-handedness. When Jerry Manuel honestly talked about having to do something to win games after Monday night’s excruciating loss to the Pirates, even proposing to use starters in relief situations, it appeared heavy-handed to his relief staff, a staff that seemed to be sleepwalking for quite a long time, a staff that was proving to be one of the worst in baseball, a staff that didn’t seem phased by their mounting ERA’s or even the team’s mounting numbers in the loss column.

But they DID take notice of Manuel’s comments. They took considerable offense. They had a meeting with raised voices, the loudest voice ironically being one of the worst offenders, one of the veterans, one of the guys who was successful as recently as a few years ago, but hadn’t done much last year in the Mets collapse, and had done perhaps less as this year’s team was falling into oblivion.

Manuel’s comments were made Monday night. Since then, they’ve won four in a row, and the relief staff has never been better. They had every opportunity to lose Tuesday night’s game but Pedro Feliciano did the job. On Wednesday, they weren’t needed. On Thursday, after a shaky start by Joe Smith, Duaner Sanchez saved the day. And last night, Sanchez and Heilman triumphed again.

It doesn’t matter that the teams they beat were Washington and Pittsburgh. Wasn’t it Pittsburgh who beat them Monday night? Wasn’t it Pittsburgh who rose from the dead against a relief staff too bored with itself to appear to be even trying?

Just the right touch. Are those relievers still peeved with Manuel? Probably. I don’t care. If it takes a left-handed attack on their self-esteem to get them going, that’s not Jerry Manuel’s fault. The Mets as this is written are back in first place again.

It’s very difficult to say what that right touch is exactly. It’s the touch that got Delgado going, that got Reyes playing smarter, that got Perez pitching to his ability, that got more players to play hard, to have fun, to take pride in itself and start winning games.

The right touch; it’s ideas like roles for the pitching staff (until the relievers seemed not to want ANY role), like rest for some of his core veterans, like staying with hot bats, like giving his team a lift with minor-leaguers showing promise. But that’s not all it is either.

It’s visualization too, as Manuel speaks of another long run of wins he feels his team can put together, or a run of good at-bats that Delgado can put together. It’s praise out of nowhere for deserving guys like Beltran and Reyes. It’s praise such as that that gets Reyes to snag that ball in the hole last night; that gets Beltran to charge that ground ball through the infield and fire home to nail that Pirate at the plate.

The right touch. It’s all of the above and probably some other things too, more ethereal qualities such as inspiring confidence just in the thoughtful way he answers questions, or inspiring loyalty in the way he rewards deserving players and sits the rest. It’s a commitment to winning with guys who will get him there, not just filling out a lineup card with guys who’ve been there before.

Thoughtfulness, flexibility, sincerity, commitment….and just the right touch, usually applied at just the right time.

It’s a long season. There’ll probably be times when even this manager may seem to be sleeping, as I’ve thought on a few occasions this year, occasions when he could have walked a batter to face a pitcher, for example.

More often than not though, Manuel will do just what’s needed…. with just the right touch.

No Relief In Sight

The Mets and Yankees both got to celebrate wins last night and, no doubt, either Joe Girardi or Jerry Manuel may have taken the opportunity to enjoy a cigar, but not because either of them had a closer. Actually, Girardi had a great one who failed for once and Manuel had a setup guy, a lefty specialist who succeeded for once.

The results were the same, of course. Pedro Feliciano made sure the Mets one run lead held up in the 9th, while Arod and the X-Man powered home runs in the 12th to save the Yanks and Mariano, who experienced the ignominy of giving up a 3-run homer to Delmon Young in the 9th to blow the save.

For the Mets and Manuel, it was another nail-biter for sure. After each of the first two outs was recorded in that ninth inning and while their stud rookie Kunz was warming up in the bullpen, Manuel agonized as to whether to leave Feliciano in there.

What a choice, a talented rookie or a hard - luck lately veteran, one who had given up more than his share of home runs in his crazy season. The victory moved them to within 1 game of the Phillies, who lost a tough one to the Dodgers.

For the Yankees, it was a nice breather that provided them an opportunity to showcase their sluggers in extra innings and keep pace with the Rays and Red Sox, even though the trusty Mariano finally did have a bad day. That Arod and Nady both came through for them in that 12th inning should jump-start their Minnesota trip and provide the impetus they need to survive this road trip.

Even though the Mets are much closer to the Phillies than are the Yankees to the Rays, somehow you still have to like the Yankees chances just as much. After all, the Yanks have a closer, arguably the best one in the league, Papelbon and F-Rod notwithstanding. The Mets closer, Billy Wagner, is still on the DL, and it's kind of iffy what kind of performances he'll be able to deliver upon his return.

<>While the Yankees can breathe a sigh of relief and look forward to a game like last night’s not happening again for a long time, the Mets can only look forward to more of the same. Of course, the Yankees have a quite different problem, a lack of starting pitching, something the Mets have in abundance.

So pick your poison, either enjoying a lead for six or seven innings only to lose versus trying to catch up to your opponent for the entire game. While simple arithmetic would seem to favor the starting pitching, after all, seven good innings should be better than just two or three good innings, it doesn’t seem to be working out that way.

<>Of course, the Yankees do have a better lineup, what with Arod and Abreu and Nady and Damon and um, anyone….anyone… While in most years you’d have to add Jeter to the list and Matsui and Posada too, this is not one of those years.

Of course, the Giambino still powers them over the wall too, but, all in all, you don’t get that feeling that the Yanks are capable of piling it on as they had in the past, maybe because they’re behind a lot of the time. Of course, last night they had Mussina going, good old Moosie, their only really effective pitcher this year. Wang’s gone, Joba’s hurt, Pettite hasn’t been Pettite-like and um, Giese? Don’t make me say “Pavano”. Or Kennedy for that matter.

<>All that being said, however, their losses haven’t been as excruciating as have those of the Mets. That Pirates loss of Monday afternoon was so painful to me, I can scarcely talk about it. Neither could Manuel. That relief staff has been more than just bad.

And, by all appearances, there is no relief in sight. Billy will probably be back, and hopefully, he’ll return pretty close to form. I personally think Duaner Sanchez can come back stronger than he has shown, especially in big spots, much as he did on Monday before he was relieved after a couple of nice innings.

<>And, even as pedestrian as the others have been, if they can just move from bad, bad, bad to only middling, that would be a boon to the Mets chances. Let’s face it, there isn’t much talent available out there in the market, and, if there were, you get the feeling the Mets wouldn’t pursue it.

One gets the distinct feeling that it will be the next GM who pursues anyone new. Much as the Knicks and James Dolan made Isiah live or die with the talent that he put together, so it seems the Mets have put the gauntlet to Omar Minaya. I wish I could say that it’s unfair. But there have been too many acquisitions that have just not produced at all.

<>Of course, if the Mets can somehow pull through, a distinct possibility still, I’m sure Minaya will be retained. If Pedro can stay healthy for the rest of the year, the Mets starting pitching is just a shade short of awesome. Their plug-ins in the lineup have been creditable and there is Wright and there are Beltran and Delgado and Reyes.

I would say to Manuel, though, that it is getting late. If Pedro has gone six and says he can go more, stay with Pedro; the same for Santana and the other fine starters, Perez and Pelfrey and Maine.

<>If Sanchez gives you two good innings, stay with Sanchez, at least until he shows signs of weakening. With a relief corps as questionable as this one, can you really afford to NOT play the hot hand and stay with that hot hand until it turns cold.

It’s time to do a little thinking outside the box. All those rested arms will avail us nothing if we never get to the promised land.

It's The Journey - Really !

While everyone else in Beijing seems to be focusing on Michael Phelps, the swimmer who, miraculously, STILL has a chance at winning eight gold medals, this writer and erstwhile weightlifter will be focusing on Olympic weightlifting, or, at least what little of it can be captured among NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, and USA. (I still can't find Telemundo).

Most impressive of all to me is the story of Melanie Roach, who took 6th in the Women's 58 kg. division. for the U.S. What's amazing to me about Melanie is that she equaled her amazing performance of April, 1998 in Flagstaff at the American Weightlifting Championships, totaling 193 kg. At 33 years of age, after a back injury, after marriage and kids and ten more years of life, Melanie took center-stage in Beijing, China. And, from the looks of things, she's still flashing that radiant smile.

I personally witnessed that Flagstaff, AZ meet. In fact, I still have the videotape. At that time, I was a master lifter, who, at a bodyweight of 77 kg, could snatch about 80 kg and clean and jerk about 110 kg. On that day, I witnessed a young woman surpassing my totals at a bodyweight of 19 kg. less (that's about 40 pounds less) and SMILING while she did it.

That day Melanie became the first American woman to clean and jerk double her bodyweight. I went home to Jersey with a renewed sense of determination and, thoroughly inspired by Melanie, who was a Pritchard-Kosoff at the time, eventually snatched and jerked about 15 kilos more in both lifts combined after another year or so of training.

Ms Roach hurt her back shortly thereafter, apparently, and had to quit the sport. Then there was marriage and children, and, by accounts I have read, she didn't lift a weight again until 2005, when she awakened one morning with a hankerin' to make the Olympics team of 2008!

Well, make it she did, and did herself and her country proud. Here is a person who perhaps most spectacularly embodies the notion that… it’s all in the journey. For, although her results have been spectacular enough, they are nothing compared to the trials and tribulations and life experience that took that sweet face to Beijing, China to finish 6^th in the entire world.

That’s the reason for my frustration with the news coverage of these (and every) Olympics. The focus is always on the results only and Americans only and the beautiful only; no one else need apply. We’ll cover the ridiculous sport of beach volleyball more than any other. And why? Because gigantic string-beans run around in bikinis!

We covered the heck out of the “Dream Team” in basketball four years ago and finished third. This year, all we hear is about Michael Phelps’s hopes for breaking Mark Spitz’s record of 7 swimming gold medals.

Well, Phelps was VERY lucky to win his second yesterday, and not for his efforts so much as for the effort of his teammate, Jason Lezak, who swam the fastest 100 meter leg in history to touch that wall a millisecond in front of the French anchorman. Instead of marveling that Phelps has now won two golds, we focus on the fact that he needs six more for eight. Ridiculous.

I still haven’t seen Melanie on TV; why should we see her? She only took 6^th. That the U.S. usually can’t compete internationally with the rest of the world goes unnoticed, that a 33-year old woman accomplished the feat is lost, that she did it despite injuries and all the rest-who cares? She finished 6^th. She doesn’t wear a bikini. She’s not a gymnast. She’s not a swimmer. She doesn’t compete in a sport in which we excel every four years.

Perhaps I’m taking a cock-eyed look at this whole thing. After all, I did get to see the magnificent Chinese 17-year old Quong in the 56 kg men’s competition and the 62’s were televised as well. And there is the companion web page. It’s the most extensive and comprehensive Olympics coverage ever.

So why am I so irritated? It’s the focus. The focus is always on the medal count. How important is that really when half the sports are those we don’t play at all? Badminton, beach volleyball, rhythmic gymnastics, synchronized swimming, trampoline and water polo are sports, sure they are, but when was the last time you played badminton competitively? Or even SEEN it played seriously? Besides you and cousin Jackie beating Uncle Harry and little Jimmy on the 4^th of July?

The medal count is ridiculous. China, you got it. Meanwhile, I’ll have fun watching the sports we play in the summer… baseball, basketball, soccer, and, for me, weightlifting, although it’s more of a year-round activity and almost always done indoors, so why it shouldn’t be a Winter Olympics thing is beyond me.

But the whole thing is larger than life, I have to admit, especially as staged by China. That opening ceremony was, by all accounts, the single most memorable experience in their lifetimes. This reporter missed it, but I did manage to see a lot of people walking.

But, if this extravaganza is all about promoting peace and harmony, why do I have to see the single worst President of the U.S. on TV discussing his chastising of his buddy Putin for attacking Georgia? And why focus on Iran’s dissing the swimming heat because Israel had a participant?

So, all in all, like most people I guess, I have mixed feelings about these Olympics, at least the coverage of it. And, after all, there’s always the remote control. Push a button and it’s gone, as it is now, as I watch the Mets try to hang on against the Pirates, and win one for Pedro.

But as soon as Heilman turns my stomach over one more time, I’ll turn back to the Olympics, I’m sure, or maybe I’ll get to the gym and do a couple of snatches. For Melanie Roach.

Goats to Heroes

It was beginning to look like the same old script for the Mets yesterday afternoon. There was another great start by Johan Santana. But in the eighth inning, with the score 3-1 in favor of the Mets, Santana gave up two consecutive singles and Mets manager Jerry Manuel decided Santana had had enough. He had to go to the bullpen, a pen that had been producing more horrors than an Alfred Hitchcock flick. Surely the Mets would lose another.

But it was not to be on this day. Not this day. On this day, the Mets would FIGHT. On this day, Jerry Manuel would manage his behind off, Mets fielders would sparkle, and David Wright would finish off those tough Padres with a two-out walk-off home run.

Manuel was brilliant. Sometimes the things that work the best are the simplest. What Manuel did in those eighth and ninth innings was to simply remove his pitcher every time that hurler failed to produce...which was quite often, really, about as often as you might expect from a bullpen that had been rapidly becoming one of the worst in Major League Baseball.

The first pitcher Manuel called on was Duaner Sanchez, which made perfect sense to me at the time. After all, Sanchez, when he's on, can be brilliant and he probably has the best stuff of them all. He's used to pitching with men on base. But Duaner let Jerry down again, hitting the first batter he faced. Bases loaded. Jerry came out and immediately removed him from the game, a move not only simple but just.

Next he called on Pedro Feliciano, the lefty who had been relatively decent lately. Good move. Pedro induced a fielder's choice grounder out of the very dangerous Brian Giles; the Mets got the force at home. (They also got a totally unnecessary throw to second from the catcher on the play but why not be magnanimous today).

With one out now and the bases still loaded, Feliciano managed to get another ground ball to Jose Reyes's right that just managed to get by a diving Jose. The hard single produced just one run though, so the Mets retained the lead. But a hit is a hit, and Manuel removed Feliciano for Joe Smith, a right-hander who can get the double play on occasion.

And Joe did the job perfectly. What came next was the play of the day, and maybe a play that will live forever in my mind, the kind of play that showed how badly each Met wanted that win, wanted to get out of that inning. And get out of it they did.

Smith got the ground ball, but it was hit hard and well to second baseman Argenis Reyes's right. Argenis was beautiful, diving to snare the ball, quickly flipping to Jose, who had to hurry his throw to first. Jose's throw was in the dirt and to the outfield side of first. But Nick Evans stretched way to his right, grabbed that hard throw on the short hop, and hung on. Picture-perfect double play. The Mets survived the eighth, still holding on to the one run lead. One inning down, one to go.

The Mets would do nothing in their half of the eighth, a harbinger of worse things to come for Mets fans only too aware of what adventure this pen could dream up. And it was a sign of another failure of these Mets, their inability to add to a lead in the late innings. They would have to make that one run lead stand up.

Manuel went to lefty Scott Schoeneweis for the ninth. Schoeneweis had teamed with Smith to successfully close out the Padres in the series opener. In addition, although the first batter would be a switch-hitter, the second man up would be left-handed batter Jody Gerut, who had homered earlier off Santana.

Schoeneweis got the dangerous Headley to pop out but he would leave a ball right over the plate for Gerut and he complied by knocking the ball over the right field wall for the game-tying home run. It was a shocker, although for this sorry bullpen, that statement is kind of difficult to defend. What it did was seemingly stop any momentum and erase any benefit the Mets had gained from that terrific double play they'd managed to eke out in the eighth.

Manuel stuck with his game plan for the night though, immediately coming out to take the ball from the grumbling Schoeneweis and hand it to Aaron Heilman, Heilman of the hard luck, Heilman, who had given up a 3-run homer two days earlier to these very same Padres.

But Heilman would not let Manuel down. Not this time. Heilman would calmly retire the next two batters in order, the first on a strikeout and the second on a harmless ground ball. Although somewhat sullied, the pen had managed to at least keep the game tied and give the locals a chance to take the game in the ninth.

Which is what they ultimately did, of course, but not without a little more angst. Former Met Heath Bell would pitch the ninth for the Padres and it seemed to me that he’d done more than his share against his former team in the past.

But Endy Chavez gave the Mets high hopes by singling to center, putting the winning run on first base with nobody out. But then things started looking bleak again. Jose Reyes failed in his bunt attempt, popping out to the pitcher. Then his namesake Argenis Reyes hit the ball solidly but lined out to left. Two outs.

So it was all up to David Wright, Wright who had made a critical error on a ground ball to help lose Tuesday’s game, Wright who had made bonehead mistakes on the bases, Wright who had insisted to Manuel that he wasn’t tired, that he didn’t need a break.

And he didn’t. Wright hit the ball over the left field wall.

Dog Days All Around

The Mets have taken it on the chin so often lately that it was almost shocking that they actually managed to win a game last night. Not that they made it easy on themselves. Fernando Tatis had the game-winner once again, but it almost wasn't. A 9th inning rally by the Padres fell one run short and the Mets finally won a game. And they did it without their closer, Billy Wagner.

Up and down relief pitcher Aaron Heilman was on a down cycle last night and tried his best to give the lead back to the Padres in the ninth but Jerry Manuel wouldn't let it happen. After giving up a run, a hit and a 3-run homer, Manuel had seen enough. He brought in Joe Smith and Scott Schoenweis to get one out apiece and the Mets hung on.

The Yankees didn't do nearly as well against a Texas team that seems like a Murderer's Row. Young phenom Josh Hamilton greeted Yanks starter Andy Pettite with a 2-run homer and it was all down hill from there. A rookie named Matt Harrison went 7 innings for the Rangers, while Ranger sluggers Chris Davis and David Murphy ensured the win despite some late-game heroics from another Yanks new guy, Richie Sexson, who banged a grand slam to deep centerfield in the 8th.

They don't call these the "dog days of August" for nothing. Major league players have all withstood the rigors of playing about 115 games and they're not that close to the end. Players start getting really tired. The weather is really hot, especially if you're playing in sun-baked Texas. And players start going down.

The Yankees have to hope Joba's shoulder is ok, because if it's not, they're in pretty bad shape overall, what with a 6 1/2 game deficit to the Rays and quite a few games on the road staring them right in the face. While all their trading deadline pickups are working out for them, Nady and now Sexson and Pudge Rodriguez, they never did get the pitcher they coveted, and now they may have lost another starter, maybe their best one.

And, of course, the Mets are going to have to tough it out without their closer. Billy Wagner has some forearm problems for which there was no forewarning. (Sorry). They surely missed him last night. No lead seems secure enough these days for the Mets as all their relievers seem worn out.

Manuel has had to abandon his plans for defining bullpen roles as one after another of them has failed him in big spots, Duaner Sanchez, Aaron Heilman, well, you get the idea. The Mets starting pitching will have to go deep into games for the next week anyway, or until Wagner returns. Hopefully, he'll be able to return.

The Mets seem to enjoy their position just short of the division lead. Much as Big Brown, that magnificent thoroughbred of Derby and Preakness fame, who won the Haskell Stakes Sunday, likes to just hover on the outside shoulder of whatever nag happens to take the lead, so the Mets seem to be just hanging around.

But will the Mets have anywhere near the finishing kick needed to outlast the Phillies or Marlins? I guess we’ll see, but they surely haven’t gone out of their way to improve their situation.

While the Yankees and other teams such as the Dodgers and Brewers made some moves, the Mets have stayed pat. One wonders whether Minaya is on a strong hold from the ownership, once again, much as Big Brown’s jockey practically strangled his mount in the Belmont.

It’ll be nice to get a reprieve from baseball for a while, as the Olympics will take center stage for a couple of weeks. The Games should also give us all a break from the baloney Bret Favre has been dishing out. Can there be a “dog days” of football’s exhibition season? If I read one more thing about the phony “quarterback battle” between Pennington, the clear starter and leader of the Jets, and second-year guy Clemens, I think I’ll be sick.

There is no joy from this corner of the world as this football season kicks off. I cringe at the piracy being foisted on Giants and Jets fans as the Maras and Woody’s of the world cry the blues as to the cost of building a new stadium, THEIR new stadium.

Oh well, at least the taxpayers of New Jersey will be getting a break. The stadium costs will be borne directly by the users. Although there is justice in that, I do hate to see football becoming only a rich man’s game. And, how near is the day when professional football becomes pay-per-view only?

It’s ironic that all this spending on stadiums is happening precisely at the juncture of what may become a very serious recession. And maybe a long-lived one. While I can see the Super Bowl Champion Giants surviving while the rest of the world goes to hell, it’s a little more difficult to say the same about that team with the ugly green uniforms.

Will the Jets be playing before a crowd of 25,000 a year from now? It’s possible. While I can see that a Giants season ticket could be considered an asset, the cost of which could later be transferred to a new owner, will Jets fans feel the same way about their ducats? How much risk will they be willing to assume? Isn’t it easier to just watch from home?

But enough doom and gloom. I guess these really are dog days. I should be looking forward to finally being able to watch Olympic weightlifting on TV, or, at the very least, on my PC. I love all the track and field events. Gymnastics can be interesting, and then there will be soccer and basketball. And, of course, the whole extravaganza of the opening ceremonies coming to us from Beijing.

But will anybody be able to breathe?

Serious Likeability

While the Mets couldn't get out of their own way in Houston, playing a totally un-watchable game in managing to get swept by the middlin' till now Astros, the Yankees were locked in a death match with their most formidable foes, the Los Angeles Angels (yeah, that's right the ones of Anaheim).

From beginning to end, it was a classic. John Lackey, the Angels starter, had everything going his way early in the game, and looked much as he'd looked five days earlier when he no-hit the Red Sox for 8 1/3. Darrell Rasner, the Yankees starter, seemed to have trouble every inning, and the locals seemed lucky to be down by only 4-0 after four innings.

In the bottom of the fourth, in fact, the Bombers were embarrassingly bad. Bobby Abreu and Derek Jeter combined to erase an RBI Nady should have had after he’d hit a sacrifice fly to left field with one out. But Abreu tried to take 3^rd and was thrown out before Jeter crossed home plate. Jeter could’ve run harder and Abreu shouldn’t have tried to advance.

In the fifth though, the entire complexion of the game seemed to change, as Dan Giese struck out two of the three Angels he faced. And, in the bottom of the inning, newly acquired Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez knocked one over the left field wall. It was still 5-1 but you had the feeling the Yanks wouldn’t lie down just yet.

After Giese delivered another uneventful inning in the 6^th, the Yankees went to work, Jeter, Abreu and Arod managed to load the bases once again. After Giambi popped out to left, Nady struck again, cracking a long, seeing-eye ground rule double to deep right-center. Betemit knocked in a third run on a groundout, and now it was really a game, the Yanks down just 1 after six.

Giese set the Angels down still again in the seventh, withstanding a Garrett Anderson double, and you had the feeling the Yanks were ready to roll. And they did. Bobby Abreu knocked in Jeter with the tying run before Nady struck once again, homering to score Abreu and Arod, who had singled. So it was 8-5 Yankees after 7.

Edwar Ramirez looked like gangbusters by fanning the first two batters he faced in the eighth. But then he started to unravel, two walks and a single loading the bases for the newly acquired Angel, Mark Teixeira, who wasted no time at all in smashing one into the right field seats for a grand slam. So now the Yanks were down one yet again.

In the bottom of the eighth, the Yanks would come back once again though, and Joe Girardi showed why he’ll be a manager in this league for a long time. After Pudge had singled, and with the weak-hitting Melky Cabrera at the plate, Joe seemed to manage Melky’s at bat, pitch by pitch, until, after he had worked the count to full, Girardi sent in a pinch-runner for Pudge.

Joe became a genius after Melky bounced one to short, but with the speedy Christian running on the pitch, shortstop Eric Aybar muffed the play, and all hands were safe. Then Christian stole third and scored on the bad throw to third. The Yanks had tied it once again. After that, the Angels started unraveling, seemingly making mistakes every time there was an opportunity. The Yanks would finish the eighth inning up 14-9, which turned out to be the final score after Jose Veras set the Angels down in the ninth.

What was most remarkable about the game, besides the wild swings in fortune, were the main perpetrators of the scoring. They were the “new guys” for both teams., Xavier Nady and Mark Teixeira, and, of course, Pudge, who smacked that first home run to open the Yankees scoring and prove that John Lackey was not invincible.

In fact, it was another “new guy”, Justin Christian, the pinch-runner, who really broke the game open, not only with his speed on the hit-and-run, but also the steal of third and subsequent errors he forced. Yes, speed did kill on this afternoon, and, for once, it was the Bombers who would put it on display.

It had to be a most unnerving experience for the Angels. Hadn’t it always been the Angels who’d used speed and guile to outscore their opponents? And hadn’t it been their heavy-hitter Teixeira who should have knocked these upstarts out with his grand slam in the eighth? And wasn’t it the Angels who had the best relief pitching in the land?

Not yesterday. Dan Giese pitched three beautiful innings to keep the Yankees around. And, even though Edwar Ramirez gave up that big grand slam to Teixeira, he didn’t really look that bad doing it. By that I mean he had some trouble with his control, in part because his ball has such movement. And Veras looked great in the ninth. There would be no need for Mariano on this particular afternoon. Even their other “new guy”, the lefty specialist Marte, showed his face in the pen, perhaps just for show.

How can I be a Yankee-hater with the team they have now? What’s not to like? Nady adds zing to their lineup, in just the right spot. Pudge looks like a new man. I always liked the Giambino and Damon. And Melky, he can grow on you too. Cano’s been a hit machine.

I haven’t liked a Yankees team this much since the one I found impossible to hate, the one with Tino at first, and O’Neil in the outfield, and that clutch third-baseman Scott Brosius. Not to mention Chuck Knoblauch at second and there was even the young Alfonso Soriano. That was the year 2000. It’s been about eight years of Yankee-hating ever since.

But these guys are seriously likeable. Look out, American League East, this Yankees team is for real. They knew what they needed. They went out and got it….unlike the Mets.

A Tribute to Manny

Yes, baseball is all about pitching and defense, but you wouldn't know it from the action on deadline day. Hitters carried the day. In three pretty huge surprises, Manny Ramirez went NOT to Florida at all, but wound up with the Dodgers, and gets to be Joe Torre's player, no longer his nemesis. Ken Griffey Jr. leaves the Reds after all those years. And Pudge of course will wear a Yankees uniform.

Only the Pudge trade could even be remotely related to pitching, as the catcher, of course, is one half of every pitching matchup. And Pudge will have to represent the defense as well, for Manny surely won't be a Gold Glover, and Griffey, though he'll play centerfield in his new role with the White Sox, is kind of long in the tooth to be able to make an impact that way anymore.

Yankees fans are thrilled. Not only did they pick up one of the very best catchers in the game, but they won't have to face Manny anymore. Mets fans are happy too, for, although the Mets made absolutely no deals, they won't have to face a Marlins team with Manny on it.

All those pitchers who could have gone elsewhere, Washburn, the guys in Toronto (pick a guy), and just about every pitcher not playing for a contender, was fodder for the rumor mill. But the GM's went for hitting on the last day. And WHAT hitters!

Manny Ramirez is a career .312 hitter and he's hit 510 homers. Ken Griffey Jr. is a career .288 with 608 home runs. Pudge isn't really in the same class but he does hold some records for 4-hit games. And his .302 career batting average over so many years stamps him as an All-Star candidate as well, though he's hit "only" 293 dingers.

Dodgers fans should be especially happy. Over a 2-day period, they picked up Casey Blake from the Indians, another power hitter, and now they get Ramirez. The Dodgers weren't scoring enough runs, something Mr. Torre, after all those Yankees sluggers, can't really deal with. And now he won't have to.

Torre’s outfield juggling may not cease altogether, but he’s certainly holding some more powerful cards. The Dodgers hit only 74 home runs this year, next to last in home runs and fifth from the bottom in RBI’s in both leagues. Casey Blake has 11 homers and 58 rbi’s while Ramirez currently has 20 dingers and 68 ribbies. Dodger fortunes look much brighter as their pitching has been good, currently holding the league’s third best earned run average.

I know some of the Boston faithful think this was a good move, as they did get Jason Bay, a productive and powerful presence himself, in return for Ramirez. And, of course, he won’t be nearly the same pain in the butt.

How much of a true “distraction” he ever was for the Red Sox seems a bit unclear. For a guy who’s been a distraction, he sure gets more than his share of accolades from his team mates, former and present. Former Sox now with the Dodgers, Derek Lowe and Nomar Garciaparra had only good things to say yesterday. Big Papi was pictured hugging Manny the other day, no doubt his realizing their days as the top third and fourth hitters in the league would soon be at an end.

I think Manny’s problems were with management alone. All the players seem to acknowledge his hard work and appreciate that he is a family man, a guy who does his job and then goes home to his family.

Of course, the players didn’t have to worry about the gamesmanship Manny used in his all-out effort to maximize his income over his last playing years. And they weren’t on the hook for his salary. So, in the end, the Red Sox got off the 40 million dollar hook for just the 7 million they sent the Dodgers to pay Manny’s salary for the rest of this year.

Boston’s management may be happy for now, but I have a feeling they’ll be despondent in October. Jason Bay is just not Manny Ramirez, not only with the bat, but I have a feeling they’ll miss the way Manny’d play all those balls off the Fenway wall.

But, most of all, they’ll miss his sense of fun, his enthusiasm for the game and especially his pure hitting ability. Jason Bay can’t be Manny. He’s a one of a kind.

Boston’s management says they’re tired of Manny’s antics but those antics won them a World Series in 2004 and 2007. Jason Bay hits a hundred points less than Manny with runners in scoring position.

How many times have we seen Boston opponents intentionally walk Big Papi only to have to face Manny? And how many times had Manny stuck their strategy right in the eye? Manny has to be the best hitter in the league following an intentional walk. I don’t have any stats on which to base this claim, just an observation. If I had to guess, I’d say it was about .660.

Ortiz and Ramirez, Ortiz and Ramirez, Ortiz followed by Ramirez, how many times have those words struck fear in all but the Boston faithful? No more. For an avowed Yankee-hater (in general), these last days before the deadline have been an ominous sign of things to come, a portent of doom for the un-striped.

So, for an old baseball fan, I guess it’s interesting that Griffey goes to those other Sox in Chicago. And it’s kind of interesting that the Yanks got Pudge too. And, yeah, it’s the first time ever that three future Hall-of-Famers have been traded in the space of 24 hours. Cool.

For all that, the real story yesterday was Manny Ramirez going to the Dodgers. Churchill said it best, “never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”

For Boston, the few have lost a key man.