After Mets Loss, Nobody Even Wants to Play the Blame GameWillie Randolph cried. After the worst late-season collapse in baseball history, the Mets manager spoke to his team. Tears welled up, his voice cracked, and players later told reporters that the stoic manager actually wept. It was out of character and emblematic of the fact that what happened to the Mets (or, rather, what they did to themselves) was just sadder than anything else. Today in the papers where fans who were denied postseason play should have at least gotten to enjoy a spirited round of the blame game, there was surprisingly little finger-pointing at Randolph. It was almost as if the sportswriters felt bad for him.
the sports section
Plunking Toward Postseason
Baseball in New York has now descended into the energetic predictability of mid-career Oasis. (Which ain’t all that bad. The Gallagher brothers nearly sold out Madison Square Garden last time around and, after a few vodka cranberries and an Excedrin Migraine with extra caffeine, they sounded damn good.) There’s possibility of another Yankees-Sox matchup to which noted philosopher king Derrick Coleman would say, “Whoopty damn do.” Then there’s the lure of another Subway Series. Seriously, who is really rooting for twelve days of Mike and the Mad Dog frothing over Torre versus Randolph or reprising their asinine argument of whether Billy Wagner is entitled to use “Enter Sandman” as his entry song? I’d rather have my molars removed without anesthesia. Or watch Dane Cook shout inane baseball promos for Fox. Oh crap, that last thing really happened.
the sports section
Hundreds and Hundreds
To recap the weekend in local sports milestones: Tom Glavine pitched a win against the Cubs in Chicago last night, notching his 300th and becoming the first Met to do so. Also yesterday, up at Yankee Stadium, Hideki Matsui hit his 100th home run, a day after A-Rod — finally! — hit his 500th. We’ll note only that none of this happened Friday night, while we sat, shvitzing, in the Stadium and Rodriguez, a full nine days after his 499th homer, could manage only a double, a walk, and a sacrifice fly. Boo. Well, actually, yay. But also a little boo.
photo op
Glavine a Ball
The Mets beat the Pirates at Shea last night, giving 41-year-old Tom Glavine his 299th win. He’ll have his first shot for 300 Tuesday night in Milwaukee, and it’s sort of a shame it’ll be out of town. But, then, more than twenty years ago we saw Tom Seaver, then with the White Sox, pitch his 300th win at Yankee Stadium, and it was a lot of fun. Which, granted, may also have been because it was Phil Rizzuto Day, and the team gave the Scooter a Holy Cow — an actual cow, with a halo affixed to its head — named Huckleberry. We were 9, and we were quite amused. Anyway, cool picture of Glavine last night, right?