After watching what happened with two out in the bottom of the third Saturday and the score nothing-nothing, we can definitively say John Maine knows how to throw the ground ball that will get him out of trouble.
He always seems to have that uncomfortable stretch early, though. Saturday it was in the third. Second and third after Lilly's bunt and it's not looking good. But he gets Soriano, the big out, and we held our breath on Theriot's weird grounder off the mound. But Reyes makes a sweet grab and a strong throw and nips the runner at first to escape with no damage. Ball beat the runner and the first baseman is on the bag and the ball is caught. That's it. Very close play, but credit Marty Foster for staying with it the whole way and not being swayed just because Theriot called himself safe crossing the bag. Credit Delgado, too, for making the stretch and holding on to the the damn thing. He's not the greatest fielder in the world, but he got the job done.
The third was the turning point. After that, the Cubs didn't score and Moises Alou's two solo homers carried the day. Thanks to Reyes' glovework — the replay showed just how nip and tuck it was, but the guy was clearly out — Maine could settle down. Lilly only gave up those shots to Alou, but it's not like the Cubs were putting anything on the board after the second.
What a nice 2-0 win for the Mets under this scenario. I'd hate to think what might have happened had that call at first in the third gone the other way.
The blog for Mets fans
who like to read Search
GET THE BOOK!
Faith and Fear in Flushing: An Intense Personal History by Greg Prince (foreword by Jason Fry), is available now via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other online booksellers. Recent Entries
Recent Photos
This Month
Month Archive
About Us
Faith and Fear in Flushing made its debut on Feb. 16, 2005, the brainchild of two longtime friends and lifelong Met fans.
Greg Prince discovered the Mets when he was 6, during the magical summer of 1969. He is a Long Island-based writer, editor and communications consultant. Contact him here. Jason Fry is a Brooklyn writer whose first memories include his mom leaping up and down cheering for Rusty Staub. Check out his other writing here. To comment on the blog, register here. Or you can email us at faithandfear@gmail.com Use Facebook? Come check out our page, or drop by the personal pages for Greg and Jason. Or follow us on Twitter: Here's Greg, and here's Jason Faith and Fear Shirts
The Faith and Fear in Flushing "numbers" shirt has been seen from Verona, N.J., to Venice. You can get yours right here -- price about as cheap as we can make it. Blog Park @ FAFIF Yards
Dream Seats (Sit Back and Enjoy)
Amazin' Avenue Metphistopheles MetsBlog Mets Guy in Michigan Metstradamus Mets Walkoffs Mike's Mets Field Level (Close to the Action) Always Amazin' BlueAndOrange.net Eddie Kranepool Society Hot Foot MetsGeek The Mets Police Real Dirty Mets Blog Loge (Unique Perspective) The Ballclub Brooklyn Met Fan Dana Brand Mets Fan Blog The InterMet Loge 13 Mets Are Better Than Sex Mets Grrl Met Silverman My Summer Family No No Hitters Optimistic Mets Fan Remembering Shea Section 528 Take the 7 Train Yankees 2000 Curse Auxiliary Press Box Daily News: Surfing the Mets John Delcos' NY Mets Report Flushing Fussing Improve Conditions (Tim Marchman) Journal News: The LoHud Mets Blog Newsday: On the Mets Beat Post: Mets Chat The Record: Amazin' Stories Star-Ledger: On the Mets Times: Bats (Mets Posts) WFAN: Ed Coleman Mezzanine (Great Distance) 213 Miles From Shea Archie Bunker's Army Chicago Mets Fan It's Mets for Me Let's Go Mets Lone Star Mets Mets Fan in Chicago Southern Mets Transplanted Mets Fan Upper Deck (What a Crowd!) 24 Hours From Suicide Betty's No Good Bitter Bill Global NY Mets Fan Blog Go Mets Die Braves Gotta Believers I Hate the Mets Matt Himelfarb Met Baseball Mets Fans Forever Mets Fever Mets Heads Mets Lifer Mets Merized Online Mets Prospect Hub Mets Prospects Mets Today Metsies & Other Musings Misery Loves Company Mostly Mets Mr. Metzyzptlk Never Forget '69 Oh Murph Perfect Pitch Pessimets Pick Me Up Some Mets Priced Out of the Citi Rational Mets Musings The 'Ropolitans Seven Train to Shea Studious Metsimus The Wright Stuff Ya Gotta Believe Zisk Online Mets Extra
You Could Look It Up
Baseball Almanac: Mets The Baseball Cube Baseball Library Baseball Prospectus Baseball Reference: Mets Cool Standings Cot's Baseball Contracts ESPN: Players ESPN: Scores Hall of Fame Metaforian Mets by the Numbers Retrosheet Salary vs. Performance Ultimate Mets Database The Youth of America Buffalo Bisons Binghamton Mets St. Lucie Mets Savannah Sand Gnats Brooklyn Cyclones Kingsport Mets The Braintrust Daily News The Journal News Newsday New York Post The Record (N.J.) The Star-Ledger New York Times Road Apples Atlanta Journal-Constitution Miami Herald Philly.com Washington Post Press Notes Ballhype ESPN Clubhouse: Mets ESPN Local MLB Press Pass Sports Illustrated: Mets Sports Illustrated Vault SportsSpyder Yahoo Mets Grant's Tombs Polo Grounds Shea Stadium CitiField Out of Town Scoreboard Ballparks, Arenas & Stadiums Ballparks of Baseball Ballpark Tour Baseball Pilgrimages Clem's Ballpark Diagrams Digital Ballparks Frank's Ballparks Jay Buckley Baseball Tours Mike McCann's Engaging Images Stadium Page Frequency Bob Murphy CW 11 Gary, Keith & Ron MLB Extra Innings Neil Best's Watchdog NY Baseball Digest Radio Roadtrip SNY WFAN XM Radio YouTube: JPhilips41 The Picnic Area 19th Century Mets 100 Greatest NY Days Armchair GM Bad Mets Brooklyn Ballparks Bugs and Cranks Carl's Mets Page CBS Sportsline: Mets Centerfield Maz Crosstown Rivals DGW Photo Blog Eephus Pitch Flushing University Forgotten New York Gotham Baseball Hot Dog Vending at Shea Howard Megdal I Heart Mets Inside Pitch Jackie Robinson Foundation Knuckleball From Hell Long Island Ducks Mathematically Alive Meet the Matts Met Camp Met Fan Book Mets Fan Club Mets Images Mets Pulse Mets Short Mets Tube Mets Zone New York Mets Hall of Records NY Mets Report NY Sports Day NY Sports Dog NY SportSpace A Piece of Shea Productive Outs & Cracker Jack Pro Sports Daily: Mets Rumors A Quest for Keith Record Online SABR NYC Save the Apple SportSnipe Steve's Mets Photos TNYM True Fans Bleed Blue & Orange Very Unofficial Mets Site Extreme Baseball At Home Plate Baseball Analysts Baseball Bookshelf Baseball Card Blog Baseball Crank Baseball Fever Baseball Limo Baseball Talmud Baseball Think Factory Baseball Toaster Blogging Baseball Bobby V's Way Brent Mayne Cardboard Gods Cardboard Junkie The Dead Ball Era The Dugout Dugout Central Excruciating Baseball Lists Hardball Times Israel Baseball League Japan Baseball Daily Jewish Major Leaguers Life in the Minors Negro Leagues Baseball Museum Quality At-Bats Rob Kirkpatrick 1969 SABR Sports Collectors Daily Squeeze Play Cards Stats on the Back Streetplay Super '70s Baseball Cards Topps Baseball Card Blog United States of Baseball USA Today Write On Sports Yard Work Multipurpose Stadium American Legends Blooming Ideas Brooklyn Mutt Can't Stop the Bleeding The Daily Fix Dan Shanoff Deadspin Gelf Magazine Getting Paid to Watch Get Untracked Gil Meche Experience Hot Stove New York Jeff Pearlman The Jestaplero Joe Posnanski Ladies... Legend of Cecilio Guante Mike's Neighborhood New York Magazine: The Sports Section Riding With Rickey Scratchbomb Straight Flushing Uni Watch Uni Watch Blog The Rotunda Amazinz Crane Pool Forum Grand Slam Single Happy Recap Board Mets Refugees The Mofo Talk Baseball Everybody's Comin' Down Mets: Official Site The 7 Train LIRR FAFIF Says...
Very Hot Stove
Met Hell First Circle Second Circle Second Second Circle Fourth Circle Fifth Circle Aw Heck Sixth Circle Seventh Circle Eighth Circle Ninth Circle Redemption Look Who's No. 100-1 Criteria 100-91 90-81 80-71 70-61 60-51 50-41 40-31 30-21 20-11 10-1 * Years to Remember 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 Moments of Silence Hunter S. Thompson Bernie The Cat Nate Fisher Donn Clendenon John Spencer Lou Rawls Tom Belcher Five Years Later Cory Lidle Highlight Films Greatest Hits of 1986 Winter League 2005-2006 The 2005 Faith and Fear Yearbook |
Saturday, August 4
by
Greg
on Sat 04 Aug 2007 08:39 PM EDT
by
Greg
on Sat 04 Aug 2007 06:19 AM EDT
I don't have any of the quotes at hand because I haven't saved what I've read or transcribed what I've heard. But I'm pretty sure at various times this season, I've read or heard or both from experts and would-be experts that the Red Sox or the Tigers or the Angels are the class of baseball, never mind the American League. And that the Dodgers or Padres or Brewers or Braves are mortal locks of some sort in the N.L.
The Mets? They've been hyped up and hyped down and hyped out. I sense another hype cycle beginning. We can handle the Mets on our own without listening to outsiders. Have you checked the standings lately for everybody else's performances? All those lock teams are pretty ordinary lately. The Red Sox are the only club that has held its own (we're all probably pretty happy about that, at least in a second-hand way) and they haven't been particularly torrid. The Tigers with all the young pitching and explosive offense? They just dipped into second behind the Indians who were recently teetering on the brink. The Angels? They're barely holding off the Mariners of whom you've barely a word since John Olerud was making Steve Phillips look dim (not that Steve needed much help). The Padres were fading until they stopped. The big bad Dodgers wouldn't be in the playoffs if the playoffs started today, the scheduling of which would be a shame since we'd have nothing to do by October. The Brewers last night took back the lead they gave away to the Cubs. The Cubs were dead earlier. They're plenty alive now. The Diamondbacks weren't going to be that much of a factor. They're in first place. The Rockies were no factor at all. Now they're closer to first in their division than the almighty Braves are in ours. They're also a tick closer to the Wild Card — remember that? — than Atlanta, which is also behind Philadelphia, another team that wasn't going anywhere but hasn't gone down in flames as of yet. I'm not here to offer any reliable forecast for the next two months. I wouldn't write off the Yankees, for example, because that seems like a pretty good formula for disappointment. The Cardinals don't seem likely to make much noise, but they're still within hollering distance where they sit. Do the Twins ever recede quietly? Don't take your eye off them. By next week everybody I've mentioned could all be in the thick of it or barely clinging to the thin of it, hot as coals or cold as ice. It will mean something because wins and losses add up like crazy over the big One-Six-Two, but it will also mean little when prognosticators and pontificators try to tell you this one here's the obvious favorite while that one there's doubtlessly done. Somebody's bound to be right once the stopped-clock equation is invoked, but I won't believe a word of it until I see an "x" or "y" or whatever you choose to use to denote a clinch next to somebody's name. There is little to be gained by coronating or dismissing anyone right now, including us and our five-game lead. I'd rather have it than not, but by next week our margin could shorten, could lengthen, could stay inert. Who knows? Nobody, that's who. Why don't more writers and broadcasters get that? There is no great honor in circling a particular name in early August and bleating "AH HA!" just as there is no shame in not knowing until late September the outcome of an extremely long campaign. I signed up to watch all 162. I can wait 'til the end to find out what happens. |

