Just A Quickie

Baseball, it's funny. Last column, I blasted Jose Reyes, David Wright and Mike Pelfrey big-time. And I stand by that criticism. But last night, as the Mets "thrashed" the very tough Colorado Rockies, 1-0, Reyes got what turned out to be the game-winning sac fly and Pelfrey out-pitched the Rockies Ubaldo Jiminez, who has only been the best pitcher in baseball this season. Wright's frustrations continued from his vantage point on the very far side of the batters box.

But it was a great game. Pelfrey's stuff returned miraculously, everything was dipping down. Takahasi pitched a 1-2-3 eighth inning and K-Rod closed it out, no problem at all. Beltran got a key intentional walk to give Reyes an opportunity to bat, proof that Rockies manager Tracy doesn't waste his time looking at box scores. Reputations are a wonderful thing.

Of course, the Braves won again but at least the Phillies lost. And I have no doubt that the blue and orange will continue to struggle. But Niese will be going tonight against the Rockies Francis and I'll take that matchup any day of the week.

I can be thankful too that my thousand words of yesterday got lost in Microsoft Word somewhere. I won't be using that program anymore, thus saving me countless hours trying to figure out their new "intuitive" menus. I'll just chuck it all right into Netscape Composer (7.2) and hope for the best. I don't need no stinking spell check. I don't need no stinking word count. I'll just stop when I'm tired, which, today, might come any moment now. But it's a nice day, I won't think about the gigantic, unstoppable iceberg or the woes of the financial community, the worthlessness of the American dollar, general joblesness, or the lack of rain.

I won't worry about the Mets either. They'll do just fine without me, and Beltran too, for that matter. Beltran cleared waivers yesterday, no surprise.

At least the Yankees lost. That they lost to my second favorite team, the Texas Rangers (we don't need no stinking pitch counts) made it all the better. My third favorite team, the San Francisco Giants, lost to the Cubbies though and it wasn't that close. And Tim Lincecum got lit up pretty good, showing once again the frailties of pitchers, for anyone not named Ubaldo Jiminez.

I'm only now beginning to think about the football season. That the Jets didn't have the foresight to save enough money to sign the league's best cornerback, Darrelle Revis, is slightly disconcerting though. I guess I can't be surprised. They treat their own very shabbily and have since Tannenbaum took the helm. So there will be no Faneca, no Washington, no Revis maybe. They'll go forward with a rookie guard, LaDainian Tomlinson and whomever to man that corner slot. Good luck with that!

Rex Ryan and Woody Johnson are now assuming a "we don't need no stinking Revis" stance. And they've only offered him 5 million guaranteed. Shameful.

Just a word before I close re Isiah Thomas and his return to the Knicks. I've seen articles that absolutely kill him for a lot of different things. Everybody mentions the sexual harrassment, something I never believed, and everybody mentions Larry Brown getting fired. And I've even read what a fine evaluator of talent that he is! What a crock! Let me just say two words "Eddy Curry". Forget about the horrors of Jerome James, forget about Marbury and Hardaway, forget about everything else. Just the spectre of having the guy who picked up Eddy Curry, in the worst trade known to man, anywhere within ten feet of the owner is downright terrifying.

Okay, that's enough. Maybe if I stop when I'm tired, I'll write more often. (I think the Mets have finally begun to screw up my motivation....thank God for fantasy football).















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