Final Countdown

Normally when the Mets lose a game like they did on Sunday I feel compelled to write about it immediately. I have to get it off my chest.

No doubt it about, this was a terrible loss today. The bullpen will hear about it in the papers, but really this was a collective loss. The Mets had first and second and no one out two innings in a row and couldn't push home a run. Can't pin that on the bullpen.

So here we are. 1.5 up in the wild card, 1.5 down in the division.

Jon Niese takes the ball against Chicago tomorrow in what must be the biggest start of his life. Niese has looked awful and brilliant, so it's impossible to know what to expect. Hopefully the Cubs will still be in some sort of post-clinching haze, but even if they are who knows what'll happen.

Uncertainty rules the day, but for once, I'm trying to think positive. Or really, I'm trying to keep it all in perspective. As bad as this loss was today, we're still two losses up in the wild card, and only one loss down in the division. 7 left to play for us, 6 left to play for Philly and Milwaukee. By the end of tomorrow, we could be tied in the loss column with the Phillies.

The Brewers have three gimme games with Pittsburgh before closing out their season with the Cubs. The Phils have three with the Braves and then three with the Nats.

Things won't be so easy for our Metsies, who have four with the Cubs before closing with three against the Marlins. But you know what, fuck it all. We play our best ball against the tough teams, and we play our best ball at home.

All we control is what happens with us. We don't control the schedule, and we don't control what happens with the Phillies or the Brewers. If we play good ball, we'll make it to October. That's all there is to it.

As a general proposition, the offense is clicking right now. So put your faith in that, and in Johan, Ollie, and Pelfrey. And for tonight at least, Jon Niese, too.

* * * * *

As I write this, Mariano Rivera is in to close it for the Yanks. In a moment, surely, it will all be over, and Yankee Stadium will never host another ball game.

Without being sentimental about it, I have to say I have no idea why they're doing it.

It makes me think back on Agard, the glorious dorm where I lived my sophomore year of college. Agard was old and creaky (anyone ever play Resident Evil? Think of one of the mansions those games were set in) and amazing. You could feel its age, you could feel its history.

The year after I graduated they got it in their heads that Agard needed an upgrade. So they renovated it and now everthing's new and shiny.

The old library filled with stately couches and dusty old tomes is gone, replaced by a shiny kitchen with modern appliances. A gorgeous flat screen now hangs prominently in the stately old living room, sucking the life out of a room where formerly there was nothing but a fireplace and couches and your friends to busy yourself with. The only thing missing is a circular table in the design of a yin-yang.

These things are improvements, but the soul of the building is gone, built over and left behind. I'm sure the students who live there now love it, and I'm sure they'd never want to occupy the rickety old building I once lived in. But me, I'd take age and history over sleak and modern any day.

And so it'll be with the new Yankee Stadium. It'll be shiny and nice and have great seating, and no doubt they'll trot out Yogi Berra and Reggie Jackson and all the others. But it'll never be the same place. It'll never be the place where Babe Ruth once played. As much as I hate the Yankees, I always respected that part of going to games at Yankee Stadium.

And now it's over. And for us Yankee haters who respected that small part of Yankee history, going to games at Yankee Stadium will never be the same.

- A.F.O.M.G.