Mets Looking All Washingtoned Up

Wow. What just happened? Will we look back on these days as the last few happy moments when our beloved team looked post-season bound, whether it deserved it or not? The next few games have an ominous feeling to them. It occurred to me watching today's game, and this is all I will say about the abomination I witnessed, that the Mets might not be headed for the playoffs at all, and I have been in a reality-denying stupor for an entire season. The reality is that the Mets have Jekyll and Hyded themselves from a complacent state to a barely racing state.

They are 30-30 against their own division. They have lost 1 million games to their closest rival. They look like they don't know what game they are playing. Hey these Gnats have bite, you're thinking. Hey this team still controls its destiny. Does this look like a team you want in control of anyone's destiny?

"Only two guys in here have the ear of almost everyone," one player said. "Moises [Alou] and Carlos Delgado. Maybe Paulie can help ... I hope so."

Cranky Marty Noble's vaguely ominous writing style is finally appropriate for the Omar Mets. And his quote captures something about the mysterious clubhouse. I'm not sure its something good. These guys need to be told?

The Mets seem to need some leadership, and the debates will rage on as to where that should be coming from. This swoon does not bode well for a manager increasingly known more for his poor in-game strategy than his motivation of men. Willie looks sadly overmatched to some, and proudly resilient to others. I note in passing that Omar has been awfully quiet for a NY GM. However, with all the shiny teeth in the Willie Randolph era clubhouse, it feels an awful lot like the Art Howe Mike Piazza era.

Um, is it time to make the relief pitchers do some fielding practice?

You could console yourself with the comforting points that great humanitarian, Mets Walk Offs , made the other day, namely that Von Hayes and Mike Schmidt tortured the '86 Mets too (the Mets were 8-10 against Philly that year) and that turned out fine. Or you could strip off all of your clothes and leap from a bridge into a passing garbage truck.

Metsblog is reporting that El Duque is wearing a boot. Not that encouraging huh? In other news Guilermo Mota has also been fitted with an apparatus to preserve his health:




This way, he may be able to sneak out of NY at the end of the season unharmed, blending in with thousands of Metsfans dressed the same.

The baseball gods are angry at Los Mets, my friends, and if you don't believe that, explain how the Phillies hung on to beat the House of Cards 13-11 in a game Philadelphia was leading 11-3 in the sixth.