It's a start....

Great comeback, blah, blah, blah.  Showed some fight, yadda, yadda, yadda.

L.

It's getting there, but there's still a way to go.  Pulling even after the big deficit was great, but much like no runs followed in the bottom half of the inning after Endy Chavez's Catch, the Phillies were able to just take the lead right back tonight and the whole thing went for naught.  It seems no matter how much fight these Mets can muster, these Phillies always find just a bit more.  Maybe that can change starting with a rubber game tomorrow.

"Wow."

I'm watching a DVR recording of the game as I type this, having been at work earlier when the game was live and relying on the gametracker on my phone with the occasional listen-in on XM.  Initial excitement when the Mets got 2 on with none out in the 1st was tempered by Hamels getting out of the inning without giving up a run, but more baserunners in the 2nd was encouraging and tided me over until they broke loose in the 3rd--all the while, Chris Young hanging zeros on the board.  I actually heard Emaus' hit that plated the 5th run on the radio, and hearing Larry Andersen disbelievingly utter, "Wow" in in his gravelly voice has already provided a season highlight.

Sure, it's only one game--the 4th of the season--but come on, these guys opened a can Campbell's Whoop-Ass tonight.  Regardless of whether or how long it stands, the Mets finally took the fight to the Phillies (no play on words intended) for once.  I'm sure by the time I get to the post-game show, there will be a parade of Mets denying that tonight sent a message, but whether they think that or not, we're certainly free as fans to feel it.  I've lamented for the past few disastrous seasons that this was quite frankly a hard team to like.  After whimpering through The Collapse, there was plenty of discussion as to what kind of stones this group had--or lacked, as the case may be.  Stepping into Citizens' Bank Park mere days into the season and not only not rolling over but outright planting a boot up the Phillies' collective behinds is a definite sight for tired eyes and a big step in the right direction.

Will it last?  Who knows.  But it's gonna be fun while it does.

Be Like Ike

Schedule quirk starts Mets 1/2 game out, media frenzy ensues

With the Nationals and Braves playing their opening tilt 24 hours prior to the Mets taking on the Marlins, it was a foregone conclusion that the Amazin's would roll out of bed on Opening Day 1/2 game behind one or the other.

Unfortunately, that hasn't stopped the baseball writers and talking heads from using this morning's standings to pile on with their continued doomsday assault on the Mets.

"That the Mets could actually manage to fall behind before even playing a game is just more evidence of how pathetic this 4th-rate franchise has become," wrote former Newsday and current ESPN New York columnist Wally Matthews. "MLB would do everyone a favor if they'd just dissolve the team and send Jose Reyes and David Wright to sit on the 27-time World Champion Yankees(tm)' bench where they might learn a thing or two from real baseball stars."

Added George Vecsey of the Times, "Is anybody really surprised?  How can they be?  In fact, I fully expect the Phillies will beat the Astros Friday afternoon, putting the Mets in 3rd place by the time they start their night game.  No fan should have to subject themselves to this.  For the Mets, each day, if not each hour of the season will be a new circle of hell."

The most unique perspective, though, was voiced by Jay Jaffe of the Baseball Prospectus.  "We saw this coming a mile away.  Heck, we had the Mets finishing 1/2 game below .500 on the season.  How prescient is that?"

When Devotions Collide, or "What Sandy Koufax and I Kinda-Sorta Have in Common Today If I Really Stretch It"

The oddity of Friday Opening Day presents me with something of a dilemma. Every Opening Day since 1996—the first Spring of my first real career-type job—I have come home from work, plopped down with a couple of chili dogs, and enjoyed what remained of the first afternoon and night of major league baseball. It started almost accidentally, but the moment just stuck. Over the years, the dogs evolved from Sonic pick-up to home-grilled brats, the celebration time changed from an an early-evening arrival from work to an extended lunch break and/or just calling it a day early (I still refuse to acknowledge that ESPN night-before abomination as a legitimate starting point of the season), and the source of my viewing pleasure has evolved from the mercy of ESPN's national schedule to whichever stadium I wish to peek into via DirecTV's Extra Innings (worth every penny). Once, when the Mets had the honor of opening the 2000 MLB season in Japan, there was even a sausage-dog breakfast at 5 a.m. prior to heading off to teach 9^th grade Physical Science (looking back, I'm not sure which part of that equation was more indicative of a significant psychological imbalance). Nonetheless, my little personal tradition has remained for going on 15 seasons now.

This year, however, I face a triple-whammy. First, the Mets open at the Marlins with a night game for some reason Bart Giamatti would surely frown upon. As it happens, I also have a work commitment Friday night, so right off the top, I'll be missing the first pitch of the Mets season. That's disappointing, but easy enough to work around, as there will still be plenty of other baseball on come lunch time, and the very least, even a certified Cubs Curmudgeon such as myself can appreciate at least the sentiment of Opening Day at Wrigley Field as well as elsewhere.

The larger problem is that not only do the Mets open the season on a work night, not only is it on a Friday, but Opening Day falls on a Friday during Lent. Gentlemen and ladies who may be reading this (according to the counter, I had negative-two page views today [*snicker*]), let me set the stage for this one. I'm a lifelong Catholic, largely descended from Sicilians and Acadians. I grew up an altar boy. My senior year of college, I was president the Catholic Student Association. I'm the godfather of my oldest brother's first child and three more adorable children in Jacksonville. How in the world do I in good conscience merge Opening Day chili cheese dogs and a Lenten Friday?

Sure, it's not Sandy Koufax refusing to pitch the opening game of the World Series on Yom Kippur, but it still sucks (and really, anyone who thinks eating seafood as opposed to meat of a land-based origin is a sacrifice never lived in the former Republic of West Florida, anyway). Nonetheless, the effect is still that of someone shaking up the snow globe world I live in for a couple of hours every April. I honestly haven't decided how I'm going to handle this one. Do I hold off on the dogs until game 2 on Saturday? Do I rationalize that any God who doesn't appreciate baseball and hot dogs probably isn't one with whom I want to spend eternity anyway? Maybe I can refrain from peeking at the score and crank up the DVR after midnight or just consider whatever time I get home as no longer being Friday (hey, don't the Jewish folks run things from sundown-to-sundown?). I really don't know.

Anyway, all that said, if you negative-two people out there have any long-standing Opening Day traditions of your own and/or stories of how they started and/or they were or nearly were disrupted somewhere along the way, I'd love to hear them.