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Bullpen Woes, Bullpen Blows

I didn't really get to watch any of the game last night, but I was fortunate enough to hear the Mets latest bullpen implosion on the radio. Prior to that, while Tom Glavine was looking like Tom Glavine, I was at Applebee's, where every TV set was tuned to the Yankees/Red Sox game, wearing my Manny Ramirez shirt, drawing countless dirty looks, and cheering on my second-favorite team.

I'm a Met fan. Normally, such a declaration would draw a chorus of snickers, "Sorry to hear that"s, and consoling pats on the shoulder. Not here, though. Unlike the rest of the Yankee-loving free world, this is Met territory. I am a Met-loving Yankee-hater. There is no such thing as a Met fan who also likes the Yankees, and don't let anyone tell you differently. Some people claim to like both teams, but those are always Yankee fans who root for the Mets except when they play the Yankees. They sympathize with the Mets, and figure some of their aura and mystique could rub off on the Mets simply by pulling for them. Thanks, but no thanks.

Yankee fans don't hate the Mets because the Mets don't pose a significant threat of any kind to the Yankee empire. I've been reading my advance copy of Jeff Pearlman's new book, The Bad Guys Won, about the '86 Mets (I'll put a review up as soon as I'm finished with it), and it recalls a time when the Mets were the only baseball team in New York that anyone cared about. A time when the Yankees were second-class citizens, and the Mets were the biggest thing in sports, possibly even in pop culture. I'm about halfway through the book, and it's really a great read. There's so much insider information straight from the players about the players, it's almost alarming how little if anything was taboo.

Anyhoo, as I started saying before, Tom Glavine pitched a helluva game on Friday night, giving up only one hit through seven innings, only to watch the Mets bullpen give the game away. Orber Moreno (I jumped the gun on him a little bit, huh?), Mike Stanton, and Stormy Weathers were completely useless out there, while giving up six hits, a walk, and seven earned runs. Thanks to the newfound power stroke of Eric Valent, the Mets came back to make the score 7-6, only to fall short.

Okay, so 5-5 after 10 games isn't so bad. We could have won this one, the game we lost in San Juan, and had leads in the two games we lost in Atlanta. With anything resembling a bullpen the Mets could easily be 7-3. Oh well, I guess I should be happy with .500.