"This is not Armageddon to us"

Here I am, my night's sleep is in the hands of St Louis pitcher Mike Maroth and it is the 14th inning, one out and a Phillie on second. Its’ around 10pm and I think I know how this one is going to end.

Howard mercifully goes down on a check swing...Here comes Ron Barajas. I feel like I must have eaten at his restaurant at some point.
Maroth a strike on the outside corner.
Maroth allows a base hit to Barajas and the Phillies go on top.
It’s over.
Jason Werth triples, its 7-4.
Now its really over.

So I can reflect a bit.

The Maine is sunk.
The Mets were bested by the Grimace and Loog Noogie or something.
Alou is down as you had to know he would be.
The team is now 0-1 after pow wows.
Tom Glavine starting to feel like he really would like to spend some more time with the kids.
Fans are rioting, although mostly attacking each other (the nouveau riche are not known for their class).
There are headlines reading “Mussina stars as Yankees inch closer.”

I can only think in staccato. Are the Mets bending or breaking? When will they be done bending if they are just bending? How can a team with a pitching genius such as the Jacket in their employ mismanage their staff so egregiously. And fail to get a single decent throwing performance out of anyone save Pedro and the peanut guy. In the Steve Phillips era, there'd be heads rolling and the streets of Flushing would be filled with blood. It feels like a million years since Pedro had his W and his mojo flushed down the toilet. It is getting increasingly difficult to swallow Willie’s lame sounding talks, though, really what the hell is he going to say? Even if you believe that Willie is more a part of the problem than the solution, at this point, we’re really just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic lifeboats.

Here's Willie trying to sound in control but sounding as out of touch as George HW Bush in front of a supermarket price scanner:

"When I'm with my players, I'm very passionate. And I get ticked off once in a while, and I get in their face and stuff like that. ... I spoke to my guys briefly just now, and I allowed them to have a get-together on their own ... just sit down together and talk about the game and what they're doing and stuff.

"What I do every day is interact with my team. There's some guys you have to get in their face, and there's some guys you have to give a soft hand to. We still feel good about where we are ... we, as a group, are going to keep things in perspective. For us, there is a calm and a feeling of wellness, even though we haven't looked that way."

This team sucks a pony. I am beyond venting to blow off steam. There isn't any steam left. Willie if this ain't Armageddon to you, then I hate to see what's coming.