So I'm working on a computer I haven't used in years, one that dates back to Aaron Heilman's rookie year. Back then, this computer seemed very promising. Now it's outdated and clunky and the only reason I'm using it is because until my usual computer is pronounced fit, it's all I've got.

Hit you over the head much? No more than the Jody Gerut did to Aaron Heilman. We won, so bygones can be bygones for a night, but ninth innings are obviously not Aaron's bag, baby. Until he becomes a free agent and signs with the Cardinals and Tony La Russa converts him to a starter (or a shortstop; it is La Russa), he's stuck in the bullpen with the rest of the well-meaning schlubs who couldn't close a jar of Taster's Choice, let alone a baseball game.

But I like Aaron. He gives me no reason to, but he seems not unlikable. Forlorn, actually, is what he seems. He struggled his first couple of years, was turned to amid desperate straits in early 2005 and threw a complete game one-hitter. There is not a single Mets starter in our pretty good rotation who has thrown a nine-inning one-hitter for us. Yet they're all still in the rotation. Aaron was asked to leave the rotation not two months after his one-hitter and was never invited back. He got pretty good at pitching a given inning, whether it was the seventh, the eighth or, on occasion in '05, the ninth. As with this computer (which I schlepped home as part of a severance package because I once read an article that said if you're laid off, demand your computer), I thought that was only the beginning, that this thing is going to keep unveiling marvels and wonders for us all to enjoy. Instead, Aaron, like this 2003 iMac, peaked quite a while ago. Now and then he gives it his all and it's a big, big help. Other times he gives it his all, and a four-run lead grows lonely quickly.

Aaron Heilman has been a Met pitcher longer on a consecutive basis than any other Met pitcher (Pedro Feliciano, up in 2002, never pitched for another big league team but he did wander outside the organization a couple of times). That puts Aaron in Jose/David territory as far as homegrown pitchers who never pitched anywhere else go. But that's about as far as that analogy will fly. Aaron Heilman, No. 1 draft status and all, has never been a golden boy on this team. He's never had a role that quite suited him. He may still produce wonders and marvels in his career, but it won't be as a Met.

But I have a consolation prize for him. I've been rereading one of my all-time favorite baseball books, Ballpark by Peter Richmond. It's about how Oriole Park at Camden Yards came to be, about what a unique idea it was, how all involved took great pains to create (not imitate) the retro ballpark style, why it replaced locally beloved Memorial Stadium. Columnist John Steadman wrote during the period when not every Baltimorean was sold on the Camden charm, "If it's being built to look old and rundown, we already have one of those."

As the Memorial finale approached, it became a sentimental mission in Baltimore to have Mike Flanagan throw the final Oriole pitch. Flanagan, a 23-game winner for the A.L. champion Birds of '79, came up in 1975. He was the next in a long line of great Oriole pitching products. He lasted a dozen years before being traded to Toronto in a classic deadline deal in which a veteran is sent from a lousy team to a contending team. The Oriole Way by then, 1987, was just a memory. In 1991, at age 39, he came home to Baltimore to relieve and, by his own admission, maybe throw that ultimate Memorial Stadium pitch. On that Sunday afternoon, the fans clamored to have him come in from the bullpen and finish off an era. He did, and it was, Richmond recounts, beautiful.

When I reread that passage, it got me thinking about who should start the final game at Shea. I mean really should. If we leave out fantasy picks like Seaver and Gooden (who's only 43, y'know), I concluded, sadly, there's no obvious choice. None of our current starters has that kind of Met tenure that demands the ball. Yeah, I thought, Pedro, kind of, but...ah, not really. I'm more concerned that Pedro has a next start, not a last start. Santana, as much as we're relying on him for now and beyond, doesn't speak to Shea's history. Pelfrey is mildly appealing in this context as potentially the next righty flamethrower to dominate the National League, an extension (we hope) of the Tom & Doc lineage. It's not a great fit, but it would do by default. (And unless you're yearning for time to almost literally stand still on September 28, I don't think there's enough of an emotional connection to sign Steve Trachsel to a one-day contract.)

Tuesday night, however, it hit me. It hit me like Gerut hit Heilman. Let Aaron do it. Let Aaron have that final start at Shea Stadium. Let Aaron, who was a batterymate of Piazza, who was on the same staff as Leiter and Franco, who was drafted by the defending National League champions, who threw a complete game one-hitter, take the ball. Let Aaron Heilman have one final moment he can enjoy at Shea Stadium. Aaron's sucked up a lot of thankless innings (and, yes, given up a lot of long home runs), but he's likable enough. Give him the ball.

Besides, if we're gonna rely on him to close anymore this season, it's not like that final game is going to have implications beyond the sentimental.