As most of you know, when this team starts getting me down, I go old school. I take my laptop out to the porch with my radio tuned in to WFAN in an effort to remember why I love this game so much. Don’t get me wrong, I love watching the game on TV, but my father, a baseball purist, loved to listen to the game on WFAN when I was growing up, so in a way, it’s paying homage to the man who made me love this game and this team. So here I sit, listening to Evan Roberts on the radio (my baseball personality crush) and taking a second to remember what I love about the Mets. For me, there is nothing more pure than listening to the game on the radio. Even going to game is modernized now, with all of the big screens and sing alongs.
Since there is no game on this afternoon, my mind is filled with thoughts of the past few games and the upcoming All-Star Break. First off, the obvious thing on everyone’s mind is the Church-Francouer trade. It just seems like a bizarre trade. Good or bad, you have to admit it’s weird. Trading within your division (who you are playing next week!) when neither team is really out of it yet? Weird. I woke up thinking that this was a dream. This sounds like a trade that a WFAN caller came up with on Mike’d Up one afternoon (because we all know that WFAN callers suggest some of the oddest trades I’d ever heard). I get that he’s younger, and yeah, they needed to shake things up.
But let’s be realistic, this had NOTHING to do with age or talent. And I mean NOTHING. It had to do with two teams who didn’t like their right fielders, reasons unknown. We know Jerry Manuel didn’t love Church and there are rumors now about Francouer training with Texas Rangers hitting guru Rudy Jaramillo, which ticked the Braves off. So make no mistake, neither team wanted their player, and they both wanted to shake things up. Will it be a good trade? Well, that remains to be seen. I think that it couldn’t get any worse, and that Francouer certainly has more potential because of his age, but this one will just have to play out.
Moving on to a more reoccurring theme, Manuel’s ADHD line ups. I mean, Murphy had two doubles on Wednesday and made an amazing (albeit LUCKY) play at first, and you…sit him on Thursday? Right, yes, I see it now. At this point, you have to ask if he WANTS the team to lose. Look man, with Beltran going on the DL, your job is pretty secure. Despite the mismanagement of the bullpen, the line up and oh just about everything, all the injuries mean you have an excuse. Acting this erratic is really just adding insult to injury at this point.
But as I said last year, summer has just begun. Do I think we will make the playoffs? No. But could it happen? Of course it can. You never know when a team will slump, you never know if we will get hot when our players return. The boys of summer are here, we are at the halfway point, lets see what they do.
Pete Lappin (3)
