N.Y. METS ~ Give Terry Collins Today's Game Ball

From the desk of:  HEAD-BUTTING MR. MET


NEW YORK METS:  Can I Get a Buffet Table Please?

I wouldn't exactly use the word glib when describing Terry Collins' handling of the Media.  But if you're practiced in the art of Mad Libs, oh what fun it is super-imposing; replacing; transposing; tramping; and imagining the words we think Terry Collins really wants to use when trying to explain bizarre re-occurrences of Met Baseball such as the likes of Tuesday and Wednesday night's losses to the Pirates.


There's been more plain speak oozing out of Coach Collins than we've received from a Met manager since 2002.   In a much more broader sense, I'm tired of all managers who, when dealing with a microphone in their face, take the scenic route in telling us nothing.   Only the really good Tricknologists make themselves worth listening to.  Terry Francona is a guy like that just to name one.


Other managers have rolled their eyes towards the sky when bombarded with redundant questions after a loss and have even cost themselves jobs by not cooperating with Media interrogations when delving into the reasons for ineffectiveness and futility.  Other times, in managerial attempts to  rationalize every detail for a pack-mentality Media, they just become more ensnared by the unforgiving web of Q and A's.


The Mets?


After a couple of weeks, no one was listening to irrelevant Art Howe anymore.  He was as exciting as a yawn.  Willie Randolph kept feeding us a steady diet of "My Guys" this and "My Guys" that.  He was stone faced with the Media and it cost him.  They tripped him up so badly, Willie practically called his boss, Fred Wilpon, a racist on his own network.  Bad move Willie.  That's the real reason why the Mets whacked him in the middle of the California night.  But that's just me and my opinion.


Jerry Manuel had 'em all laughing.  He got out of sticky situations with jokes.  It paid off too - depending how you look at things.  But if you're like me, the Media took it too easy on the Mets during Jerry Manuel's days in the dugout and couldn't see the tidal wave of problems headed the Mets' way......because their eyes were too teary and they were all too busy getting rubber legged with laughter after every orgasmic witty line the Jerry Lama uttered.  So it's not until 2011 that so many of them woke-up and realized the Mets had problems.


Anyway, I like the way Terry Collins cut the Media off at the pass last night.  He just said "I'm running out of things to do!" and gave 'em the old "What do you want me to tell you?".


It's like telling someone to go....


Again, if you're like me and are just waiting around for the Sandy Alderson Trade Deadline Fire Works Extravaganza, then Terry Collins can be an maniacal as he wants to be.  I say, ...Good for him!  He's saying things that need to be said and more importantly, need to be heard!  Managers usually pay a price for speaking their minds in this manner.  But g'head Terry, I'm on your side now.  Because I wasn't always.  You're not a "Stinking Fool" Terry.  The questions the Media ask over and over again make managers look like fools if they can't negotiate them well enough.  Handle them the way you did Wednesday night, and the next writer will reconsider a stupid question.  At least it worked for a night right?  Loose lips might cost you your job down the line, but isn't being a manager transient in nature anyway?


Yea Terry!  Rip em a new one.


I think we can all see why Terry's players mutinied on him out in Anaheim.  He gets hot.  But I don't think we've really seen that Hot Terry; not by a long stretch...yet.  However, after last night's game, I thought his reaction was appropriate.  Or maybe he just got me on the right day.  But I think not, because I've liked him more and more as the season has progressed; even as the Met roster is regressing due to injury and impotence in yet another season.


I don't care much for things like, "this was the biggest comeback in 11 years"....STUFF.  It's just another needed regular season win.  Too bad the Mets couldn't get graded on a curve right?  Then you could throw out games like the last two as if they were their two worst grades in grammar school (because they play like Little Leaguers sometimes).  But we can't; and the Mets can't, and so finally a manager calls players out the way they needed to be.


Terry Collins is too old to play for them.  So he did the next best thing on The Day After;  He stole one.


Just make sure someone gives Terry today's game ball for taking it upon himself to seize a moment and a game, but not until after his players finally responded to their scolding and got him close enough to win for them; because what he spoke last night was truth.  They struggle to do it themselves.





I'm Not Breaking Out The Party Hats And Noise Makers After Today's Win.

.....Because Mike Pelfrey couldn't handle The PIRATES! 


That's why I'm only playing marbles with Jon Niese and Dillon Gee for now.  I've been talking about our young pitchers learning how to be a staff instead of just being pitchers.  I've been speaking about doubling-up and tripling-up on effective starts.  And when I mean our young staff, I speak directly to Niese, Gee and Mike Pelfrey.


R.A. Dickey, in spite of the Mets' implosion the other day, provided a stellar start within a sequence of good starts by the Mets and is starting to show more consistency himself.  If he pitched the way he did with a bad heel, break his foot and he might throw the Mets' first ever no-hitter.  But he's not part of our young staff; not of the future anyway.  But right now, yes, we'll take him, obviously; hands down.


But even in the Mets current situation, there's still a case to be made for stringing together quality starts and playing sound defense.  Timely hitting is third in the equation.  The Ol' Amazins proved that out once before.  But today, Mike Pelfrey is becoming problematic in that age old Met formula.  We have absolutely zero indication which direction his mind; pitching; season; and career will go at this point.  As if by choice, he remains an enigma.  Where are we with Mike Pelfrey?

He above all pitchers on the Mets was supposed to be taking a huge step forward this season.  There's foolish expectations; slim expectations; and then there are logical expectations.  Pelfrey fell into the latter and he's failing like a broken umbrella in a monsoon.


The Mets surged back to beat the Pirates this afternoon in dramatic fashion.  Whoo-Hoo!  But Mike Pelfrey suffered another personal mind-blowing and debilitating loss.


Ponderous.





Mike.BTB