The Beat Goes On

The Mets saga conTINuuuuues. Just when you’ve decided not to watch, even on TV, here come the Mets again, the Mets you expected, well, maybe not expected exactly, but the team you know they could be, iff they would just pitch once in a while.

Well, pitch they did, well, Pelfrey sure did. It seemed as if he was suddenly unhittable. How nice for him. I just wonder where the heck that pitcher goes every fifth day? It’s like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Pelfrey. Maybe he can only whip the San Francisco’s of the world?

Then there was this kid Parnell. He sure did very nicely in his first start ever. The kid has some speed and some stuff too. Hell, he could be the number two starter. I got almost excited as the Weather Channel guys at the prospects of that new tropical storm, or the Republicans after helping kill any healthcare changes.

Anyway, in the short term, there’s somebody besides tired old Livan friggin’ Hernandez and the crazy lefty Perez to throw out there. The depth chart now reads Santana, Pelfrey, Hernandez, Perez and Parnell. That’s not too shabby really, they sure are all different. It’s just that you’d like to see some more consistency, y’know?

But starting with the last game vs. Arizona, the Mets are on an impressive run. Crazy Ollie pitched that last game and allowed just one run in 5 1/3 impressive innings. Even the atrocious reliever Sean Green couldn’t lose it for him. Then it was Parnell with the shutout, a shaky Santana which is still not horrible, and then Pelfrey’s little gem. A Mets fan could get used to this.

And just when you thought the baseball gods had forgotten about the Mets, here they came with one more salvo, leveling the one remaining core guy, good ol’ David Wright. It came in the form of a shot to the head, of course, that nobody thought was intentional, but….still. There may have been a feeble attempt at retaliation as roly-poly Bengie Molina was hit by a pitch much later on, but you can never really get even for your rock going down for the count. With a concussion, he may as well be lost for the season, especially this season.

Fernando Tatis is now our third baseman, backed up by a fella named Andy Green, who is, surprise, surprise, a very light-hitting guy indeed. But the lineup against the Giants on Sunday was Pagan, Castillo, Sheffield, Francoeur, Tatis, Murphy, Santos and Anderson Hernandez, which can be a pretty entertaining group. I’m looking forward to seeing if Livan can get by SanFran’s Joe Martinez.

Oh, but just to keep things in perspective, the Mets are 55-62, 12 games back of the Phillies in the NL East and 9 ½ behind the Rockies for the wildcard. And they’re way way back on that list too. It’s good that football season is almost upon us, unless of course you’re a Yankee fan.

The Yankees are way ahead of Boston and are 41-18 at home, the best home record in either league. They lead Detroit in that respect by a game but Detroit has a losing record away from home. The Yanks are also 33-26 on the road. They have the best overall record in both leagues, Mark Teixeira is being touted for MVP and Jeter just passed Luis Aparicio for most hits be a shortstop. So what’s not to like?

Aside from this innings thing with Joba, there’s almost nothing left to criticize. You see little chinks now and then, like Sergio Mitre maybe not being that good, and I suppose Chad Gaudin hasn’t really proven anything yet. And now Matsui’s a little banged up.

But with the Yankees, if they’re close through 6 or 7 innings, you get the feeling they’re going to win the game. There are not that many teams you can say that about.

The big news in the American League is the Texas Rangers. It looks as if they have the staying power to outlast Boston for the AL wildcard. They put them away yesterday head-to-head after losing a tough one a day earlier. And with the same pitcher to close things out, Frank Francisco, who had a 2.01 ERA before Boston lambasted him for 6 big runs on Saturday.

Ian Kinsler, Michael Young, Josh Hamilton…the Rangers have got a hell of a team and even the pitching is holding up. It’s a pitching staff put together by a real man named Nolan Ryan, who pees on pitch counts. This team stayed together and played well, even after losing Hamilton and Kinsler to injuries for, in Hamilton’s case anyway, a good portion of the season.

The Red Sox seem a mess compared to what they had been. Between injuries to key players like Matsuzaka and Wakefield and performance funks from the likes of David Ortiz and the shortstop position, the Red Sox are hanging into the race by the tips of their fingernails. And their confidence had to be shaken by the sweep the Yanks laid on them.

So things should be quite tolerable for the rest of the baseball season, even for a Mets fan. When boredom really sets in, we can just tune in to the NFL station and watch some exhibitions. For me, I’ve been checking out the quarterbacks for fantasy purposes, especially QB’s who changed teams or whose team was enhanced by some key additions.

In Buffalo, I watched Trent Edwards looking good throwing to Lee Evans, even with Terrell Owens out with a bad toe. On the other hand, the much-ballyhooed Jay Cutler looked lousy with da Bears and Kyle Orton didn’t look that great in his exhibition. Tony Romo looked as if he was trying a bit harder to stay in the pocket and looked pretty good while Donovan McNabb seemed to have an easy time of it in his few minutes on the field.

Then there’s Mark Sanchez. And we’ll see Eli tonight!