It's the sport of kings...better the diamond rings

Football....

At half time, the ramp was packed full of angry Giants. Jerry, Danny and I met in our usual spot and all 3 of us had very annoyed looks on our faces.

We were losing to the freakin Jets! Eli Manning had a 0.0 rating and was 3 of 10 for 22 yards and an pick. Plex had no catches. Jacobs fumbled.

The feel good of last week's thumping of the Eagles had worn off and we were looking at the prospect of losing to the Green guys for the first time since 1993.

Would TC respond? Or would we start hearing about his job security again?

Then the 2nd half began. First series. 6 plays. 80 yards. 5 of those plays on the groud with the ridiculously large Brandon Jacobs taking it to pay dirt to cut the lead to 3. Leon Washington, the Jets only exciting player, than returned a kickoff 98 yards for a score to push the lead back to 10.

Then a few punts. Then the Giants had the ball back. 9 plays and 68 yards later, Jeremy Shockey (welcome to 2007) romped into the endzone and it was back to a 3 point game.

And then a star was born. Pennington drove the ball down the field. Throws into the end zone to Cotchery...PICK OFF AARON ROSS. Get used to that name folks.

Giants get the ball at the 2. They go 98 YARDS!! Plax to pay dirt on a ridiculous stiff arm. Giants lead 28-24!!

And then.....AARON ROSS AGAIN! This one on a duck from Chad. Aaron takes it in the end zone and the celebration was off.

Manning was 10 for 15 for 164 and 2 Tds in the 2nd half. Plex has five grabs for 124 yards, all in the 2nd half. Jacobs had 20 carries and his first 100 yard game. Evem Ward added 56 yards and a touchdown on 13 attempts. (Can someone name this tandem something? Like maybe REALLY BIG THUNDER and Lighting?) And most important, Aaron Ross had 2 HUGE interceptions and we FINALLY may have a lock down corner.

A few more Giants points before we move on...

1. Just so i'm clear, Can David Diehl play LT in this league?
2. Is Mathias Kiwanuka a problem playing LB?
3. Do we miss Tiki Barber and his locker room diatribes?
4. Does everyone want to fire Reese?

3-2 with the Falcons, 49ers and Fins up before the bye.

Non-football quick hits...

1. Is the Phillies next pep rally scheduled at City Hall today? Seriously, how has there not been more made about this? They had a freakin quasi-parade for winning the division BEFORE THE PLAYOFFS STARTED!

2. JOBA! JOBA! Oops sorry, wrong blog.

3. Ubaldo Jiminez and Manny Corpas!! Doug Davis and Livan Hernandez!! Rockies!! D-backs!! Your 2007 National League Championship series, next on TBS!!

4. OK, some quick yankees. How does Torre bring in Joba in a 8-3 game last night?!? Did he not realize they were up 5 runs and play again today? Likewise, how does he bring in Rivera on Friday in the 9th of a tie game to face the bottom of the order rather than bring in Vizcaino in the 9th to face 7-8-9 and then have Mo for an actual save opportunity in the 10th or 11th or whenever? Did he think he was at Yankees Stadium? Seriously, what Steinbrenner announced is just not cool but can you really blame him? Torre is making Willie look like a smart man.

5. Avery out for a up to a month, rough start to the season, Rangers.

I will be back later with a review of this past sunday's tailgate.

yet again...

Kaz Matsui..... just saying

Last Night:

Kaz Matsui started the rally for Colorado in the bottom of the 13th with a leadoff double.....just saying

The End

My apologies for not getting this up sooner but Sunday was a long day and I needed yesterday to recover and gather my thoughts…

The first and most frequent question I received since Sunday was “Are you OK?”. I answered this in the most honest way possible. “Not yet. But I am not shocked”.

The retort has been something like this each time “Jeff, how are you not shocked, your team just went through one of the greatest collapses in sports history and you are one of the biggest fans of the Mets I have ever met!?

Let me explain…

I didn’t want to believe it, but the collapse didn’t start in September. It started in June. My friend Mark, a friend from college who I hadn’t spoken to in years prior to this season but has now become a good friend thanks to our shared loved for this franchise, had been telling me all year and my Dad had the same message. “This is not a good baseball team”.

I didn’t want to believe that. We were in first again. We held first place over the past 2 seasons more than any team in the game. We were robbed of a World Series appearance by Yadier Molina and the lucky Cards and we were going to show the world that we were back this year and ready to right our wrong.

We came out of the gate playing inspired baseball. Reyes and Beltran were killing the ball in April. Wright came out of his early season funk in May. John Maine was an early Cy Young favorite. And then June hit.

Read this sentence slowly. From June 1-September 30, the New York Mets were two games under .500.

Crazy, right?

So while blowing the 7 games with 17 to play and 1 game with 3 to play is truly devastating (yes Glavine, it’s devastating), this has been going on for 4 months.

After the games on May 31st we were 34-18. From then on they went 54-56.

Does that sound like a playoff team to you? It sure doesn’t sound like one to me. How could I be shocked when my team won more than 4 games in a row once?

Which brings me to my points about the ball club moving forward:

1) Omar deserves A LOT more heat than he is getting. The questions to fire Willie are warranted but it was Omar’s choice not to make any big free agent pitching signings. It was his choice to not bring back the Bradford’s and Oliver’s. It was his choice to trade away Owens, Lindstrom, Bell, Ring, Bannister, etc. It was his choice to bring in Schoenweiss, to re-sign Mota, to re-sign a 45-year old El Duque and a 48-year old Julio Franco. It was his choice to not help re-shuffle the bullpen during the season when it was painfully obvious that we were 2 arms short at least. It was his choice to fire Rick Down, (a Willie guy) and hire Rickey Henderson (a known slacker in the clubhouse). Etc etc.

I have been a HUGE Omar fan since the Day the Wilpon’s gave him the keys. But a 54-56 record is not just a reflection on the manager. It’s a reflection on the team overall and the man who built the team. It’s still In Omar We Trust but he has a very big offseason ahead of him.

For the record, I believe Willie should be back.

2)Quick hit on the free agents and what I think we need:

- Thanks for being a Met to: Tom Glavine, Paul Loduca, Jeff Conine, Damian Easley, Shawn Green, David Newhan, Brian Lawrence, Mike DiFelice, Sandy Alomar Jr., Jorge Sosa and Aaron Sele. You can argue about LoDuca but I am not interested in a 35-year old catcher on the down side of his career who loses his temper way too often.

- Guys who will be back but we don’t really want: Duque (signed a 2-year deal), Mota (2-years), Schoenweiss (3 years), Wagner.

- Possibly on the move: Milledge, Heilman, Pelfrey, Gomez.

- Questions: Castillo, Alou, Marlon (being him back)

3) Things that need to be addressed:

- I still think, as I have all year and most of last year that we need a #2 hitter. I know Reyes had an awful September but slumps are part of baseball and he is far from our problem. I liked Castillo’s fit on this club but the guy is a singles hitter who bunts 40% of the time. I know some people want Castillo back and I would be fine with him as the #8 hitter but we must get an impact player to bat second next season. This team could score 75 more runs next season with a capable bat in the 2 hole.

- The starting rotation: Pedro, Maine (playing all 2nd half with a hip injury that requires surgery makes me love this guy even more. What a game on Saturday) and Ollie are locks to start the season. Pelfrey went 3-1 in the 2nd half after a ridiculous 0-7 first half but he was still getting hit very hard. Opponents batted over .298 against him this year and .304 in the 2nd half. He has talent but harnessing that in NY is easier said then done. Not sure if he has a spot or not. Let’s be honest, we need a #1 starter. I know there are very few out there but this has to be on top of Omar’s to-do list.

- The bullpen. Do I need to say more?

It was a terrible ending to a very long season. It was both sad yet quite relaxing to go home yesterday and have no game to catch. I will watch the playoffs as I am a baseball fan at the core but it will be with very little emotion.

To end…I want to say a special thanks to the people who I spent the season with the most: My co-blogger Jason, my friends and co-workers Dani and Lynne for the nightly email chain. Mark (you were right buddy, they suck), Goldberg (although he’s a Yankees fan, he is also a great baseball fan who puts up with my daily Mets rants), the entire Giants tailgate and lastly to my Dad. For if not for my Dad, I would not be a Mets fan.

My Dad just had surgery on his knee last week. He was in the hospital recovering as we were finishing off the end of the collapse and I was calling him to update him on a regular basis. For those of you who know my father, he isn’t exactly the most optimistic fan. But ya see, he has a reason he is this way. He grew up in Brooklyn in the 30s and 40s and lived through season after season of heart break. He, like many other baseball fans of that generation naturally took on the Mets as their new team in 1962, 6 seasons after the Dodgers and Giants left town.

On Sunday, my Dad called after the game as I was in the parking lot readying for what was to be the best Giants game I can remember in a long time. We exchanged the same type of words each of you guys did with your loved ones and as the conversation ended, the only thing I could think of was the famous words of his beloved Brooklyn Dodgers…

Wait until next year….

Thanks to all for reading…please pass this along to any fans you know and I would love your comments.

Devestation

I will be back later with a full season review and thoughts on the biggest regular season collapse in baseball history.

At least Big Blue came through last night.

14 hours at Giants stadium. 1 season lost. 1 season re-born.