In what can only be described as a bizarre coincidence, I, too, am off during the All-Star break. Time to ruminate.
Admittedly, I am surprised with how well the New York Mets are playing. Sure we dropped three up in Boston, but that was to appease the gods, who so mercilessly ripped victory from the Red Sox in 1986. There was a team reunion before the first game. Bill Buckner was invited, but decided not to go; meanwhile, Roger Clemens took the mound in Houston for his first start of the season, 20 years after the Mets won and Orosco flipped out like a kid cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs.
The '86 Mets will reunite later this year at Shea. It will be good to see the old gang, some out on parole. I wonder if Keith and Darryl will have a go at one another for old times sake. I look forward to seeing Davey Johnson, who was criticized for being too technical when reporters learned he was using a computer to set his line-up, but when you consider that HoJo, Dykstra, Teufel, and Kevin Mitchell were essentially platoon players, who always seemed to get big hits at clutch times, you get the feeling Davey knew what he was doing. Of course, he still can't figure out Tetris.
Back to the '06 Mets. Randolph's greatest feat this season has been keeping Wright and Reyes cool. I mean those kids are super cool. Think about it, 23 years old, voted to the All-Star team, 12.5 game lead in the East ... At 23, I was playing baseball ... RBI Baseball on a beat-up Nintendo in the valet booth of the Crest Hollow Country Club, which brings up another coincidence: The Detroit Tigers, a good team in RBI Baseball, are in first place now, too.
Wright, Reyes, Beltran, Lo Duca, Martinez and Glavine are certainly having big years and are worthy of comparison to the '86 team in that they have a confluence of veterans who know how to play the game and explosive young players who can ignite the stadium and get fans to forget about how many beers they had and how many All-Star ballots they filled out.
This Mets team has a personality emblematic of its skipper, cool, calm, and collected, but I'd like to see it develop the swagger its predecessors had. Looking back at the Red Sox series, when Varitek stuck his shin guard in Reyes' chest much the way Zindane speared his opponent at the end of the World Cup, Reyes sat on the ground while the rest of the team watched with baited breath. I thought of the time when Ray Knight punched Eric Davis for sliding into third a bit high in a game in Cincinnati. Knight was like a crazed dog. If only Reyes got up and smashed Varitek like Michael Barrett did A.J. Pierzynski earlier this year, even Alex Rodriguez would feel vindicated.
And while we're on the subject of the other All-Star third baseman in New York, let me ask you this: Two outs, runners in scoring position, who do you want at the plate? The guy with the blistering .380 avg. in such situations, or the one hitting more than 100 points lower.
Yeah Wright ...
Admittedly, I am surprised with how well the New York Mets are playing. Sure we dropped three up in Boston, but that was to appease the gods, who so mercilessly ripped victory from the Red Sox in 1986. There was a team reunion before the first game. Bill Buckner was invited, but decided not to go; meanwhile, Roger Clemens took the mound in Houston for his first start of the season, 20 years after the Mets won and Orosco flipped out like a kid cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs.
The '86 Mets will reunite later this year at Shea. It will be good to see the old gang, some out on parole. I wonder if Keith and Darryl will have a go at one another for old times sake. I look forward to seeing Davey Johnson, who was criticized for being too technical when reporters learned he was using a computer to set his line-up, but when you consider that HoJo, Dykstra, Teufel, and Kevin Mitchell were essentially platoon players, who always seemed to get big hits at clutch times, you get the feeling Davey knew what he was doing. Of course, he still can't figure out Tetris.
Back to the '06 Mets. Randolph's greatest feat this season has been keeping Wright and Reyes cool. I mean those kids are super cool. Think about it, 23 years old, voted to the All-Star team, 12.5 game lead in the East ... At 23, I was playing baseball ... RBI Baseball on a beat-up Nintendo in the valet booth of the Crest Hollow Country Club, which brings up another coincidence: The Detroit Tigers, a good team in RBI Baseball, are in first place now, too.Wright, Reyes, Beltran, Lo Duca, Martinez and Glavine are certainly having big years and are worthy of comparison to the '86 team in that they have a confluence of veterans who know how to play the game and explosive young players who can ignite the stadium and get fans to forget about how many beers they had and how many All-Star ballots they filled out.
This Mets team has a personality emblematic of its skipper, cool, calm, and collected, but I'd like to see it develop the swagger its predecessors had. Looking back at the Red Sox series, when Varitek stuck his shin guard in Reyes' chest much the way Zindane speared his opponent at the end of the World Cup, Reyes sat on the ground while the rest of the team watched with baited breath. I thought of the time when Ray Knight punched Eric Davis for sliding into third a bit high in a game in Cincinnati. Knight was like a crazed dog. If only Reyes got up and smashed Varitek like Michael Barrett did A.J. Pierzynski earlier this year, even Alex Rodriguez would feel vindicated.And while we're on the subject of the other All-Star third baseman in New York, let me ask you this: Two outs, runners in scoring position, who do you want at the plate? The guy with the blistering .380 avg. in such situations, or the one hitting more than 100 points lower.
Yeah Wright ...
