Bridge Work

I like the Mets. I'll admit it. I'm not just talking about this edition of the Mets, but the franchise in general. I'm not one of the anti-Mets crowd that exists among Yankee fans, although I understand the feelings that bunch has as well. The thing is, the Mets are the Yankees little brothers and they wear a uniform that says "New York" across the chest. I want the Yankees to win everytime we play one another, but I'm not mad at the team from Queens.

When the Mets are bad, I don't care actually. Their success and failure is beyond the range of my personal attention, but it's nice when both NY teams are in it. When the Mets are bad, it's funny. When they're good, the town is electric. I love New York when there's that crackle of energy in the air. I like it when Yankee hats on the street are sprinkled with Met hats. It means that things are right in the world. The Subway Series in 2000 was one of the high points of my baseball fandom, as I rode the A train from Brooklyn to the Bronx, via Manhattan. Yankee fans and Mets fans met each other underground and in the most friendly and competitive way engaged in debate about the clubs. Sporadic and spontaneous chants of "Let's go Yankees....Let's go Mets" would break out at any moment, and good natured verbal sparring ensued. It was heaven.

I was a high school student in 1986 when the Mets and Red Sox put on their 7 game show. The Yankees were good, but not great, and I often found myself on the bandwagon of the Amazing Mets as their colorful cast of characters entertained New York. From Day One until his final days in a Yankee uniform, I was a Darryl Strawberry fan. Still am. I was a Doc Gooden fan, when the debate about Clemens and Gooden was something other than a cruel joke. I liked fat Sid Fernandez, and Ron Darling was always a good performer to watch as well. The only guy on that team that turned my stomach was Keith Hernandez. Only a real Mets fan could love that jackass. I remember wishing that Straw knocked him out when they went at each other in Spring Training in '89.

That brings me to today. The Mets are fun to watch, and they are for real. These are not the high priced Vince Coleman, Eddie Murray, Bobby Bonilla Mets. These Mets are good players, and a very good front of the rotation should help them go far. Pedro and Glavine are aging, but tough, and seem to have enough left in their tanks to drive the bus to the last stop. If only they had Scott Kazmir. How bad does that trade look now?!!!! The Yankees are limping around trying to keep the pace with the surging Red Sox. The Mets smell blood. Sounds like a recipe for disaster.

The thing is, we lucked into a few favorable pitching matchups in this series that should help us hold our own. El Duque against Mussina had to favor the Yankees. Duque is one of my all-time favorites, but he's been shaky and Mussina is having a stellar season. The rain-delayed 2-0 victory was a beautiful thing to behold. 1-hit Yankee pitching that spanned Moose and virtually every beleaguered member of the pen. Moose's tweaked groin sounds more like a creaky veteran thing than a real injury. I'm not going to think about it again unless it turns into something later. It was the pen that deserves a pat on the back.

I've been killing the bullpen this year. Sturtze, Erickson, Proctor, Farnsworth....whoever was blowing up at the time has heard it. I've called for Colter Bean, T.J. Beam, and prayed for Octavio Dotel. The pen has been bad at times. Let's face it. Last night they were lights out and won a very important ballgame for the Yankees. Just when it looked like the door was open for a Mets comeback, the gang came through. My favorite moment was Proctor telling Torre that he wanted to "fucking finish this thing." I could read his lips as he practically spit in Joe's face. Does anyone else think that whole thing was weird?

After Scooter blazed pitches across the plate against overmatched Mets hitters, Posada suddenly calls time and calls the trainer out. I didn't see anything weird, and I still can't see anything weird in any of the replays. Torre asks him what he wants to do, as if he's going to say, "Well....I'm one strike from finishing a perfect inning, but please remove me." His response speaks for itself...both the words and the next 97 MPH pitch. Nice work Proctologist. It's been awhile since he performed his medical work on a group of hitters instead of the other way around. He also gave Posada an earful in the dugout in front of the YES cameras. Jorge confronted him to explain why he called Joe and the trainers and he basically gave him the "whatever. F-You" look in response. That's the closest thing we're going to get to the Bronx Zoo these days, but it was funny. It's easy to laugh when you pitch to one batter above the minimum as a team.

Trachsel against the Big Unit is up next. Keep it rolling Yanks.