MEMO to SNY: Cut it out, cut it out, now. We’re not that stupid.
The Mets blew another one, Wednesday night in St. Louis. They had a 7-5 lead in the eighth, but lost to become a 41-43 team. They had David Wright on third, one out in the eighth, but then couldn’t touch undistinguished reliever Chris Perez.
At 7-7, start of the bottom of the ninth, Carlos Muniz, who’d done nothing well in his brief big league career, was brought in to face the Cardinals’ three, four and five hitters. The No. 5 hitter, Troy Glaus, homered to end it.
Yet, SNY’s postgame show told a far different story about the Mets, a fanciful tale filled with hope and wonderful messages about the very near future.
First, hosts Matt Yaloff and Ron Darling told us substitute second baseman Damion Easley continues to pound that ball, three hits and three RBIs that night against the Cards. Woo-hoo!
Well, that is good news for Mets’ fans, especially given that Easley is 38 and is filling in for 33-year-old Luis Castillo, who despite injuries and questionable desire, is in the first year of a four-year, $25 million contract.
The Mets on Wednesday came back to tie after trailing, 4-0. Then they came back from 5-4 to take a 7-5 lead. Then they allowed two in the eighth and one in the ninth, to lose.
And those, according to SNY’s studio hosts, are the kinds of happenstances that should hearten Mets fans!
“So many positives in this game” cooed Darling.
“There were a lot of positives,” chorused Yaloff.
Darling continued: “For a team that has not come back from a three-run deficit to win a game all season long, they did it twice tonight. They showed a lot of fight tonight. But as the season goes on, they show a lot of fight and don’t get rewarded for it.”
I had no idea what he was talking about either. But the mere suggestion that the Mets’ are a scrappy, determined bunch, that these are the unrewarded “Fight Back Mets” when they’ve been a dead team since last August is insulting.
So cut it out, SNY. Just cut it out.
Jim Kaat visited YES’s Yankees booth Monday and it was as if he hadn’t lost anything off his smart ball. After admitting that he doesn’t miss, “three-hour, 54-minute games,” he gave us something to think about. He noted Mike Mussina‘s broad range of pitch speeds, that night, something Kaat said he hadn’t before seen from Mussina.
If only Kaat had stopped by the Yankees radio booth, say in the bottom of the sixth, with the Rangers up, 2-1, Jason Giambi on third after tripling (John Sterling gave it his tie-game home run call), two out and a 3-2 pitch to Jorge Posada.
Sterling called ball four to Posada – he even identified the pitch as “outside” – then broke the news that Posada was out, that he swung and missed, strike three. Actually, Posada was called out for going too far on a checked swing.
The Harness Racing Hall of Fame inductions are this Sunday in Goshen, N.Y., “The Cradle of the Trotter” and the original home of the Hambletonian. Among those inducted will be career standardbred journalist Murray Janoff and the late Sonny Werblin, as a race track pioneer.
Condolences to CBS’s Jim Nantz upon the passing last week of his father, Jim, at the age of 79.