Just Too Much..

It was just too much, way too much to absorb...a full schedule of football games, a Mets doubleheader against the hated Phillies, Brett Favre vs. Chad Pennington. Who could even think about Serena winning another U.S. Open?

Sunday certainly didn't disappoint, if you were a Mets fan, a Jets fan, or a football fan in general. The Mets salvaged the third game of their series against the Phillies behind Johan Santana and still more heroics from Carlos Delgado.

The Jets pulled a tough one out against a surprisingly tough Miami team and, for those who just love football, NFL style, Tom Brady hurt his knee, not a happy circumstance, surely, but one that seemed to open up new vistas for teams in the AFC East. That could mean the Bills, who looked ridiculously strong against the Seahawks, will battle it out with the Jets and Pats for the division title.

The great Peyton Manning and his Colts couldn't beat the Bears! And da Bears looked like the old Bears, all defense and just enough offense. And, oh yeah, Serena Williams beat Jelena Jankovic for the U.S. Open title.

Of course, that Mets win was the best for this writer. Not only did Carlos Delgado rip two loooong home runs, not only did Johan Santana baffle Phillies hitters into the eighth inning, but Luis Ayala gave Mets fans hope that he may be a legitimate closer, no matter what happens with Billy Wagner's elbow.

It was a channel-flippers delight. From my perspective in Toms River, there were two football games of particular interest, Eagles-Rams and Jets-Dolphins. Maybe it was fortuitous that the Eagles and Number 5, Donovan McNabb, pulled away rather early from the lowly Rams, allowing that much more attention to be paid to Chad Pennington’s comeback against the Jets.

Chad came within a couple of inches of bringing the Fish all the way back from a 13-point deficit versus the Florham Park boys in green, foiled in the end only by the quick and sure hands of cornerback Darelle Revis.

Of course, all that action afforded very little time to catch Pedro Martinez and the Mets endure an old-fashioned wuppin’ by the Phils. Just as well, I guess….who wants to watch a favorite pitcher get whacked?

Other surprises abounded around the league. There was Jake Delhomme threading the needle to one of his more obscure wideouts with zero seconds on the clock to break the Chargers’ hearts and signal the return of John Fox and his Carolina Panthers.

There were the horrid Detroit Lions lying down against the Falcons and letting LaDainian Tomlinson’s former backup in San Diego, Michael Turner, light them up for TD after TD. And B.C.’s own Matt Ryan’s first career pass went for a TD for 62 yards!

The Cowboys seemed to be having a field day vs. the Browns until Tony Romo got bent, folded and mutilated by three giant bodies in brown. But not before he hit Terrell Owens for a vintage touchdown.

There was another new QB in Baltimore too, a really tall fellow named Joe Flacco who ran one in from about 40 yards out. And there was Ray Rice from Rutgers making some nice runs too. That all this occurred against the Bengals of Cincinnati and their whacko wideout Ocho Cinco made it all the more enjoyable.

Expectations of a great game between the Saints and Buccaneers materialized as Reggie Bush wowed the Bucs secondary with moves they’d never seen and a stiff arm too. Drew Brees hit Devery Henderson for about 85 yards. But old veteran Tampa QB Jeff Garcia wasn’t able to bring the Bucs all the way back this time.

In some quarters, they said the Eagles would be tough, but nobody said it with conviction except those rabid fans last seen shrieking “Fly Eagles Fly” into the night. But a rook named DeSean Jackson seemed all they said he might be. And little Brian Westbrook was pretty huge once again. Oh, and did I mention the 90-yarder to a fellow named Baskett?

After the totally uneventful Giants win over the hapless Redskins on Thursday night, not much was expected in the way of excitement this first Sunday in September. Surely there would be the same stories this year, New England, San Diego and the Colts would dominate the AFC action. Jaguars and Titans would threaten but weaken down the stretch. The Cowboys would once again rule the NFC, and the same Giants and Packers would threaten once again The Bears would be terrible once again.

In one fell swoop though, the Pats lost the best QB in either league, maybe for the season. The Chargers lost with no time on the clock, the Colts lost to the Bears. And Ben Roethlisberger and his boys in black and gold lit up the scoreboard, with cameos by Hines Ward and the return of Willie Parker.

Hmm, maybe things will be different this year.

Maybe anything is possible. Rookie quarterbacks can excel in this league, and wide receivers too, if just given the opportunity. Old QB’s can still return from injuries to wow the crowd, big defense and heart can still win games, and old-fashioned power football can still be overwhelming.

And it’s not over yet, this first NFL week. There is still a contest between those formidable Vikings and Favre-less Pack coming up, those same Vikings accused of tampering with good ol’ Bret. It should be a war.

Despite all the strange pigskin happenings though, the highlight of the day was still that Mets game. Delgado’s first homer dented the scoreboard at Shea, impressive enough, but his second seemed to soar over the stadium’s upper deck. And those two dingers followed a two-run single in the first that put the Mets on top for once in this series.

Thanks to Santana, the Mets wouldn’t need anybody but Delgado on this night. Howard, no problem. Utley, who’s he? Jayson Werth, fuhgeddaboutit.

The Mets are still up by two. WOOHOO!

Arms and Feet.....and Inches

Every time I looked up, it was a Mets arm making a big play. Carlos Beltran cutting down a runner at the plate, Endy Chavez doing the same but to second baseman Damion Easley, David Wright diving to his right to snare a hard ground ball, springing to his feet and gunning to Delgado. And relievers....there were relievers everywhere, and all doing their job.

Yes, the Mets cemented their hold on first place in the NL East by edging the tough Brewers in Milwaukee last night by a score of 6-5 in ten innings. But it wasn't easy. And they didn't do it with starting pitching either, although rookie Jonathan Niese did just enough to keep his team in the game.

But Jonathan, who looked so very good in the first three innings, came apart in the fourth. Five straight hits sent him to the dugout without retiring a single batter. But no worries, out came Nelson Figueroa to put out the fire in the fourth. Just to show it wasn't a fluke, Nelson pitched a scoreless fifth as well.

Figueroa would be the first of a veritable parade of Mets relievers, six of them to be exact. Duaner Sanchez followed with a scoreless sixth, Brian Stokes gave up only one hit in the seventh and eighth. Then on came the specialists to pitch the ninth, Feliciano to handle the big guy, Prince Fielder and another lefty, and Smith to handle the right side.

Of course, the Mets weren't doing anything either against the Brewers relievers either. In fact, after the third inning, the Mets bats were virtually silenced by Manny Parra, the starter, and then Guillermo Mota, the slowest relief pitcher in the world, not his velocity, but the duration between one pitch and another. Then fireballing Eric Gagne retired the Mets in the eighth before Salomon Torres survived the ninth but not the tenth.

In the tenth, David Murphy came through once again with a pinch hit single to center, and he moved to third base on a very strange play. Jose Reyes's bunt was fielded nicely by catcher Jason Kendall but his hurried throw to first was to the inside of the bag and arrived at exactly the same time as Jose did, thus enabling Reyes to dislodge the ball from Fielder's mitt.

Endy Chavez then hit a sacrifice fly ball to right field that scored Murphy with what would become the deciding run. But not before some more cardiac arrest for Mets fans in the bottom of the tenth. Ayala looked brilliant in striking out former Met Mike Cameron and was somewhat less imposing when Bill Hall just got under one for a long fly ball out to Tatis in right.

Then the real fun started. The Brewers had still one more gigantic guy on their bench, a fellow named Nelson who creamed an Ayala delivery to right field for a 2-out double. The very scary Gabe Kapler then walked, making this reporter very happy indeed.

This brought up Rickie Weeks, who had homered in the first, had hit 3 more singles throughout the course of the game and who had scored two of the Brewers runs.

Rickie appeared to have done it one more time when he stroked a hard liner to Wright's right that was foul by about an inch. Big sigh for Mets fans. Rickie couldn’t come through one more time as Ayala struck him out on a ball that just dropped a foot into the dirt. The Mets had escaped once again.

Although the Mets made all the plays they had to last night, I have to say the Mets were lucky last night too. Lucky because of the baserunning blunders of the Brewers. Both runners thrown out didn’t use their feet to slide, opting for the ridiculous arm slide to the side of the bag. It may work sometimes but it didn’t last night, and, as Keith Hernandez pointed out, it should be put on the shelf.

So there were the arms the Mets threw at them all night long, the feet the Brewers could have used, and the inches by which the possible game-winning hit was foul. Taken together, it seems as if that’s quite a lot of good fortune to befall our locals on one night.

But the Mets keep rolling. They don’t hit half the night and come up roses. In the first game against the Brewers, Reyes made a silly attempt to steal third and was thrown out. That was the kind of play that signaled the end for the Mets under Willie Randolph.

Not so for Jerry Manuel. Not so far anyway. He keeps making all the right moves. It’s bordering on eerie already. He has nurtured and cajoled and made seemingly countless trips to the mound these past few weeks and somehow keeps coming up roses. But I’ll take it.

I’ll take the trips to the mound along with the miraculous fielding turnaround, and the hot hitting from Delgado and now Beltran. I’ll take the platoon in left of the kids Murphy and Evans too. And the defensive replacement of Chavez in left field. And the better pitching from Oliver Perez, and the same for Pelfrey and even Santana.

I’ll take it all because we Mets fans had to experience the excruciating losses under Willie. You’ll never convince me that this improved play in all aspects of the game by this Mets team is just good fortune finally finding its way into the Mets dugout. No, these successful moves are all too calculated. The will to win is right out there for everybody to see. Manuel will make the moves he has to.

Tomorrow, this passion play resumes with Perez going against a Brewer pitcher who has been “lights out” for the last month, a fellow named Dave Bush. It should be very interesting, but if there’s a rabbit waiting to be pulled out of a hat, I’ve got to think the hat’ll be blue.

Ten Four ...Joba... Over?

Although I’m a Mets fan through and through, and would love to wax poetic today about Jerry Manuel’s relief-pitcher shuffling, or Jose Reyes’s diving stop on that hard line drive today to end the game, or even Beltran’s newly regained power at the plate, let me today turn my thoughts to those other locals, those Yankees, who, after all, have been written off by even their most loyal followers. But there is still hope.

Playing 2-4 baseball at home in their last six, losing all kinds of different ways over that stretch, and facing ten games in four different and distant cities in the next ten days, one might think the Yankees were done. I'm sure we've all heard it these last few days, "Stick a fork in 'em, they're done". Well, I'm here to tell you, it ain't necessarily so.

The Yanks are now 72-64; the Red Sox are at 79-57. Over in Minnesota, the Twins are 77-60, just 1/2 game behind the White Sox in the Central. So the American League wildcard will be decided among these four teams. I'm conceding the AL East to the astounding Tampa Bay Rays, who nobody thought would do anything different this year, except my little brother, of course, who will remind me of this at the drop of a hat.

If the Yanks can take the Tigers tomorrow in a makeup game in Detroit, then fly to Tampa and take two of three, then fly to Seattle and sweep, and then fly to LA, drive over to Anaheim and take 2 of 3 from their old nemeses Angels, they'll be at 80-66 in ten days.

The Red Sox seemingly have an easier time over the same ten days, traveling to only one city over this same time period to face the Texas Rangers. Sandwiching that series will be six at Fenway - three against the lowly Orioles but then three versus those Tampa Bay rascals. Even if the Red Sox take both series against the Orioles and Rangers, if they lose 2 of 3 to the Rays, they’ll be 84-61 in ten days. The Yanks at 80-66 would then be just 4 ½ games out for the wildcard with 13 games still to play before playing the Red Sox at Fenway for the last three.

The Red Sox will then play 14, featuring Toronto for half those games. Toronto has the best starting pitching in the league, in both leagues maybe. The other seven are versus those pesky Rays again, and the Cleveland Indians, who have seemingly risen from the dead. If the Red Sox were to falter just a little, going just 6-8 over that stretch, they’ll be at 90-69.

The Yanks would have just 13 games versus the Rays, White Sox, Orioles and Blue Jays. If the Yanks can go 10-3 over that stretch, they’ll be at 90-69 too. And they’d still have to take 2 out of 3 at Boston to take the wildcard. But it’s certainly still do-able. The wildcard winner Yanks would then be 92-70.

I won't bore you with the details of the schedules for the Twins and White Sox over the same time period but, after only a cursory inspection, it looks pretty easy for them But my point is that this game is baseball, and just go ask the Colorado Rockies what can happen in this strangest of national pastimes. Or the Mets for that matter.

The Twins and White Sox are, after all, just, well, the Twins and White Sox. It’s entirely possible for them to falter too. In fact, for the Twins, who have been doing rather well as of late, it’s almost a sure thing. So, for the purposes of this exercise, I’m assuming the Twins will fold and the White Sox will take the Central. The Twins, now at 77-60, would just have to lose 11 of their remaining 25 to finish at 91-71.

That may be a little too complicated for most people not totally obsessed by numbers and the vagaries of baseball. Let me simplify it for those folks. Remember me saying the Twins are the Twins? Well, the Yanks are the Yanks. But they have not really been the Yanks for most of this year. And they soon will be.

You can see that Hideki Matsui has rejoined the team after his knee problems. And, while he hasn’t been hitting for average yet, he’s already been knocking in some runs and you can see his affect on the team.

And Joba Chamberlain will be coming back too. But not as a starter, where he did not seem as formidable over five to seven innings as he did for just one. I must say that seeing Joba almost every day for just one inning beats seeing him for six or seven innings every five days. Just think of it, five amazing Joba sightings every single week. WOOHOO!

Arod showed some life yesterday and Giambi continued his little hot streak too. With Matsui back, the boys are all in line, so to speak, with the whole team back except for Posada. And the pitching hasn’t been that bad. Incredible as it may have seemed, Pavano was great in his two appearances, Ponson could have been a lot worse and Rasner is credible too. Mussina has been great. Pettite hasn’t been but there’s no reason he can’t come back to form either.

If the Red Sox were not showing signs of weakness, it would be a lot more difficult to predict a close finish. But really, they’re getting very little from Big Papi and they let Manny go. How long can they really expect Pedroia to go 10 for 10? How long before Youkilis reverts to the late-season Youkilis of old?

Beckett’s a little banged up too. The Red Sox are really not the Red Sox who won the World Series. And the Yankees could soon be the team that made the playoffs those thirteen years in a row.