CitiField of Shattered Dreams at Monday, June 29, 2009

This past weekend the Yankees swept the 3-game Subway Series at CitiField by pounding the Mets on Friday night 9-1 with CC on the mound. On Saturday, the Mets were completely silenced in a 5-0 one-hitter put together by AJ Burnett and the bullpen. Sunday night the Yankees squeaked by with a 4-2 win, in which Chien-Ming Wang got his first win of the season, and Mariano Rivera recorded his 500th career save as well as the first RBI of his career. For the season, the Yankees took 5 out of 6 from the Mets and reminded everyone once again why New York is a Yankee town.

I realize that the Mets are a team being held together by bubble gum and duct tape right now. Mets fans will not stop reminding me that Carlos Delgado (DL-May 11), Jose Reyes (DL-May 22), and Carlos Beltran (DL-June 22) were not in the lineup this past weekend. Nor will they shut up about how they’re pitching staff is also depleted; John Maine, Oliver Perez (LOL-really? Who cares!?), and JJ Puttz are all out with injuries. On top of that there are a handful Joe Schmoe players the Mets that are also on the DL. Yes, all these injuries hurt. Yes, the Mets might have had a record better than .500 going into Milwaukee tonight if some or all of those players weren't hurt, but enough with the blaming of the injuries.

Injuries are a part of sports, and although it is a fact that the injuries the Mets are experiencing are at the extreme end of the spectrum, it is also a fact that the injuries are not to blame for everything that has gone wrong in Flushing this year. Beltran has been out for less than 10 days. Reyes' long DL stint is not a direct result of his original injury, but rather a poor original diagnosis by the quacks on the Mets medical staff. Sheffield has not been awful in trying to pick up some the slack dropped by Delgado being out. So its not like they Mets' players have been missing all year. Besides, these are things every team has to deal with.

So injuries or not, it does not excuse the way the Mets played this weekend. The Yankees looked like they were playing against me and 8 of my friends. Did I mention none of my friends nor I have ever played professional baseball? It was just mental error after mental error. They shot themselves in the foot in the first inning of game 1 and game 3 of the series to set the tone for those games. In game 2 they did not even bother to show up to play. Although I am a Yankee fan, I've always pulled for the Mets and rooted for them to do well. I just didn’t think the Mets would just lie down and let the Yankees and us Yankee fans take over their new ballpark for three days straight. Beating the Mets this way is not fun. It’s like using a cheat code to win in a video game. Who does that!?!?

I think the main problem is the manager, Jerry Manuel. He’s a demotivator, plain and simple. He does not fight for his players on close calls, plays favorites, does not inspire his team, and I really believe the team is no longer responding to him as they should. This past weekend during the Subway Series, Manuel made some comments about how it would be hard for the Mets to score runs and that they’ll “need to catch a break here or there, or error or something like that to amass some type of threat at this point”. He went on to say that “we need to catch somebody on a bad day” to win.. Way to instill confidence in your team. Basically he’s saying the Mets can’t win unless a win is handed to them via sloppy play by the opposing teams. He’s waving the white flag like, and we’re not even at the All-Star break.

Seriously? Get rid of this guy! Wright is not the problem. Reyes is not the problem. Beltran is not the problem. Maine, Santana, Delgado, Castillo, Schneider, Pelfrey, Puttz, and Rodriguez are not the problem. Minaya is not the problem. The problem, right now, is Jerry Manuel. No question. Fire the uninspiring, gutless, robotic, poor excuse for a manager and Lets Go Mets! Who’s with me!??!?!