There's been a lot going on in sports this past week. The Red Wings fell in an exciting seven game series to Sidney Crosby and his Pittsburgh Penguins. Crosby however suffered a dislocated vertibrae, seven crushed ribs, a broken tibia, a fractured big toe, senile dementia and gonorrhea.
Sidney Crosby relaxes after a grueling game 7.
In hoops, Dwight Howard and his Magic men fell to the Lakers and the inevitable legends of Kobe Bryant and Phil Jackson.
Even Mike Vick was in the news, being released by the Falcons. No shock there. Plaxico Burress's gun, Kyle Orton's arm, Brandon Marshall's fist and Brett Favre's ego have all been lurking in the corners of the NFL.
An SI cover I'm sure we'll see in about a month.
Given such a wealth of topics to discuss, I feel, as a die-hard Yankee fan and overall baseball junkie, that I just can't help but take a closer look at this weekend's debacle of a series between the Yankees and the Mets. Never before have two mediocre teams generated more interesting events than the 2009 Yankees vs. Mets. It's funny, so little did I care about the 09 Subway Series that I almost ignored it entirely on Friday to watch Game 7 in the NHL finals. Almost.
Castillo demonstrates the position most Mets fans felt themselves in after his little league flub on Friday night.
Luis Castillo's horrifically bad error on Friday cost the Mets a sure win. In fact, the game WAS over. A-Rod broke his bat in frustration. K-Rod celebrated. Castillo dropped a ball my daughter could have caught. And that's not hyperbole. My five year old would have made that catch. She's been practicing.
Are you kidding me? How could you drop that? I'm five and I'd have caught it!
And of course, after a ho-hum 6-2 win on Saturday, the Mets were body-slammed on Sunday, with Johan Santana having the worst outing of his entire career, giving up 9 earned runs in 3 plus innings of work en route to a 15-0 shellacking on Sunday. Because that's what the Mets are all about this season. Humdrum wins and monumental defeats.
Pretty much how Johan Santana felt on Sunday.
But it wasn't just this weekend vs. the Yankees, though those were certainly two of the more memorable games. Losing 9-8 on a dropped gimme pop up, then having your all-world ace getting eviscerted 15-0. There have been others...ohhh how there've been others.
As far back as April, when Daniel Murphy dropped an easy fly out which led to the eventual winning run to score vs. the Marlins. Also in April, against the Padres, Ryan Church spectacularly misplays a flyball into a 3 base error and then Pedro Feliciano graciously balked home the winning run. Once more, in April, Carlos Betran fails to slide while trying to score from home and then Daniel Murphy, the Demon Butcher from CitiField, misplays another flyball and the Mets lose to the Cardinals, 6-4.
Daniel Murphy settles under a fly ball, using razors instead of a glove, to make the catch.
But it doesn't end there. Oh no. In May, Sean Green's walk off walk allows the Phillies to win 6-5 in 10 innings. Mike Pelfrey's THREE BALKS allows the Giants to win 2-0. Three balks in a season is amazing by the way. Three balks in 1 game? Inconceivable! Also in May, the Mets lose to the Dodgers in a game where they make FIVE errors, including allowing the winning run to score on a throwing error. But the biggest error was a mental mistake by Church, who misses third base, while trying to score what would have been the winning run. The Dodgers appeal and Church is called out.
If you find yourself in a confusing situation, simply laugh knowingly and walk away - Ryan Church.
And in June, the Mets get swept by the lowly Pirates, blowing leads in the first two games of the series before getting blown out 11-6 in the series finale.
The Mets haven't just lost games in freakish fashion. They've lost players as well. Carlos Delgado is out with a severe hip injury. All-world shortstop Jose Reyes is out with a torn hamstring and there's no timetable for his return. JJ Putz is out three months after elbow surgery. Gary Sheffield - signed to fill in for Delgado - is now going to have an MRI on his knee after hitting two homeruns during the Yankees series. Add to that Oliver Perez's transformation into Steve Blass and David Wright's startling loss of power - 5 HRs on the season so far. Five. Melky Cabrera has six. - and you get what appears to be a recipe for disaster for the 2009 Mets. In fact, things haven't been this frustrating for the Mets since they drafted Steve Chilcott over Reggie Jackson.
Combine the Yankees inability to beat the Red Sox with the Mets constantly finding new and inventive ways to lose and you have the makings of a very frustrating remainder to the baseball season for New York sports fans. And now, there's not even the NHL or NBA left to distract us. Football doesn't really start up strong until at least August. What does that leave? NASCAR? That could work. Based on the way the Mets and Yanks have played, I think I'd rather drive really fast in a circle until I explode than watch either one of them.
