Not-So-Sweet Seventeen

There are 17 games left in the Major League Baseball regular season. For most fans, this just means that the only have to ignore their team's crappy season for two more weeks before they can move on and focus fully on the NFL. For some, it means that they only have two more weeks to see if their boys can pull it out and get into the playoffs. For Mets fans, after what happened in 2007, "17-games left" means a little something different.

As a sports fan, particularly as a baseball fan, there are many numbers that stick out in my mind. 755 was the home run record. 41 was Jackie Robinson's number. Cy Young won 511 games. Cal Ripken, Jr. played in 2,632 consecutive games. Nolan Ryan had 5,714 strikeouts. Pete Rose had 4,256 hits. Then there are the landmarks: batting .300, the 30-30 club, 100 rbi, 300 K's, 300 wins, 3000 hits, 500 homers.

As a Mets fan, I have my own list of numbers: 1962, 40-120, 1969, 1986, Game 6 and many others, but sadly the number 17 has been replaced on my list...it used to stand for Keith Hernandez.. Plaxico Burress did his best trying to give it positive connotations for me by scoring the Super Bowl winning touchdown with a 17 on his shirt, but sadly, the number is still tainted.

I have a friend who is another Mets fan, who is one of those people who wants everyone fired all the time. He can't stand anyone on the team; they are all a bunch of primadonna chokers. No heart. No fire. No talent. Over-the-hill. So when this guy whined throughout the second half of 2007 that the Mets were gonna blow it, I always had to take it with a grain of salt. "They have a huge lead and they are playing fine...not great...but fine," I thought.

My wife works with this guy and she would come home occassionally and ask me what was wrong with the Mets because the guy had been particularly nuts that day. I can specifically remember one conversation with her in the beginning of September, 2007. She asked how far behind they were, and I said, "Behind? They are way out in the lead! He is nuts. He hates Willie Randolph for being too calm when everyone loved him for that same trait last year. The Mets are fine. They're in the playoffs for sure; they may not win it all, but they are in."

It has been pretty well documented that with 17 games left, the Mets had a seven game lead in the East and then the wheels came off. They had played mediocre baseball for most of the season leading up to that point, and finally they bored the baseball gods enough that they turned on the team and everything went wrong. Within days, you could feel this momentum building as the season plumetting down the tubes.

Still I reassured my bride (and possibly myself), "They are still way out in the lead. They would need to lose a game every other day to miss out and they'd still probably get the Wild Card. They are in the playoffs." As it turned out, they pretty much lost a game every other day and on that last fateful Sunday, the ball (and season) rested in Tom Glavine's experienced left hand. Then that bastard completed the sobatage he had been serruptitiously working on since arriving in Port St. Lucie in 2003.

I was working at CBS on their NFL coverage that last day and was trying to figure out if we had a satellite available so I could watch the Mets game. Sadly (or perhaps, luckily) there was no way to get the game on since we were recording all of the NFL games for the show. So I had to follow along with the Mets game on the internet. Glavine allowed 73 runs in the top of the first inning to the Florida Marlins, a team that had was 3-158 on the season (don't quote me on those stats).

In their last 17 games, the Mets allowed the Division to be stolen out from under them, and now with 17 games to go this year, the Mets again sit atop the East with the Phillies on their heals. Only this time the lead is only three.

From an objective point of view, I can see that the collapse of 2007 and the subsequent mistrust of the number 17, are the kinds of things that make sports great. They are the reasons we root in the first place. It is like getting your heart broken by a girl - you need that in order to really enjoy the good times later. But from a subjective point of view, I will tell you right now that if they blow it again, I am going to punch Tom Glavine in the face, steal a crane from Citi Field and raze Shea Stadium to the ground.

Two Hall Of Fame Pitchers And Some Fat Guy

I can't believe I am about to type this, but I completely agree with Hank Steinbrenner. He said after Joba Chamberlain's first start n Tuesday that he doesn't understand why everyone is making such a big deal out of it. "Any other player on any other team" wouldn't have drawn so much attention, so why did Joba? Steinbrenner says it was all media hype.

The problem here is of course that Steinbrenner is about 98% responsible for this media hype because he called his general manager and his manager idiots for not having Joba start and demanded that the poor bastard be yanked out of the bullpen. But that is besides the point. The crux of it is that the last place team in the AL East made a desperate, brain-dead personnel move and took an irreplaceable, lights-out reliever and are going to turn him into a run-of-the-mill #3 or #4 starter. Would that story make SportsCenter if it was the NL East instead of the AL East?

The Yankees are far from out of striking distance with a paltry 104 games left, so why the move now? Granted: this Yankee team is not like the Yankee teams of old that could roll out Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte, Mike Mussina and David Wells in their primes and turn a 2-game losing streak into a 10-game winning streak. But Joba Chamberlain is also not Roger Clemens. What is his mediocre start every five days going to gain them? A lot less than his presence in the pen every day would have! Don't the Yankees have some Minor Leaguer somewhere that could get the same 5-5 record and 5.30 ERA that Joba will wind up with?

Until yesterday, you knew you had to get to the Yankees' starter because if the game went to the 8th (or sometimes the 7th) and you were behind, it was over. Now, you know you have until the 9th, but the starters are all still pretty average, so Mariano Rivera won't likely matter too often anyway. But at least we will see Joba's ERA and belly get fatter and fatter as he ages. His starter-ERA may dip down under 4.00 someday, but for this season, it should hover in the 5.00-5.50 region.

But hey, I am sure those 6 2/3 innings he made the five guys in the depleted bullpen work yesterday after he got yanked in the third were worth the loss they took and the subsequent losses it will cost them since those relievers are now that much more used up.

Speaking of important pitching roster moves. The Mets won the NL East yesterday with Pedro Martinez' return. Mark this date: Pedro's return was June 3 and the Mets were at .500 in 4th place and 4.5 back.

And the bittersweet pitcher-related story of the day is of course that John Smoltz season has come to an end after it was announced he needs shoulder surgery. This could be the end one of the most unusual and amazing pitching careers of all time. I say it is bittersweet because Smoltz is a Brave, so I am more than happy to see him go, but he is also a really good guy by all accounts and it is too bad to see him go.

Wouldn't it be great if Smoltz, Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine all retired this season and went into the Hall together? Of course, I'd like Glavine to stick around because he's on the Braves and sucks now.