Legends of the Upper West Side

It's a sore and sweaty A.F.O.M.G. coming at you this afternoon. Like many other companies out there, the place I work at has a policy of asking all employees to spend one day of the year working on a community-minded effort (not mandatory, just not not mandatory).

These projects can be any number of things (caring for the elderly, Habitat for Humanity, assisting with schoolchildren, etc.). Me, I make a point out of getting outside and using my hands, and so it was that me and 21 other members of [insert company name here] shoveled, scraped and spaded our little hearts out building the Great Berm of 108th and Riverside Park.

A berm is basically a little hill of soil that prevents rain water, 40 juice or urine from spilling into areas where they're not intended. Why they're not intended for these areas wasn't quite clear to me. What was clear to me was that by the time we were done, we had built just about the best berm you're likely to see in this little town of ours. And when the other side of that berm is flush with wildlife, well, you can thank us later.

Today was an uncommonly beautiful day outside, so rather than hoof it back to the 1 train or bus it home, I decided to walk back home through Riverside Park.

I'm glad I did it. Along the way home I saw the ballfields of my youth, the old dirt doublefields where the real Momo used to sock dingers against a young fireballer named A.F.O.M.G. (and just about anyone else the West Side Little League could throw at the guy).

The real Momo was that kid who hit puberty in about the 3rd grade and had all the coaches and parents asking to see the birth certificate. He was a beast.

The fields have a different look to them now. Nicely groomed grass now coats the side of the field where right-handed batters used to try and hit it over the Beige Monster in left, and there's an actual fence now to tee off against.

The field where lefties would tee off against the Beige Monster is now some soccer-lax multi-purpose piece of liberal bullshit. Oh well, there were always people playing soccer in the outfield anyway so maybe it's best to have a permanent line of demarcation between the two (the outfield fence).

Exiting the park I headed up to West End Avenue, passing the old West Side Montessori School where I cut my teeth and past the ivy-clad building whose exterior served as the office for Mr. Pitt on Seinfeld.

And for me, the little trip down memory lane and the satisfaction of a berm well built was enough to get my mind off of the shittiness of the game last night.

I mean, teams go through rough patches. Generally speaking you hope those rough patches come against teams you're not in direct competition with, but even after the sweep Philly's still 5 games back, Atlanta 3.5. Our swoon comes as virtually every member of our outfield has gone on the disabled list, but most of those guys will be back sooner rather than later.

The only truly distressing aspect of the sweep was how shaky our bullpen was. There had been a general discomfort level with Aaron Heilman and Scott Schoeneweis just about all season, but this week it got truly nasty, with the home fans booing lustily first at Heilman and then at Schoeneweis.

But what are you gonna do? You could DL Schoeneweis, who seems to have some leg issue or another, but what about Heilman? Nothing you can do but let him pitch his way out of it, unless you think the past 2 months of shaky pitching completely lays waste to the past 2 years of his career.

I think this is just the ebb and flow of the game. Players get injured and teams lose their edge. Shawn Green will be back soon. Moises Alou will be back soon, or he won't be, it's really hard to know. And more than likely the Mets will round back in to form. They were 35-19 through 54 games; knowing what we know after 58 games should we really worry that much?

If anything, worry that the Phils are better than their record, or worry that we haven't played very well against the NL East. But this Mets team will be fine, don't you worry.

And if you have to worry, well, maybe think about taking a little walk around the area you grew up in. I'll get another chance to do something like that tonight and tomorrow in Chicago as I travel to the home of A.F.O.Mrs.G.

- A.F.O.M.G.

(Images courtesy of skatecity.com and newsday.com)