Meaningless Lessons

The Mets won in 11 innings in San Francisco. Steven Matz struck out 11 in seven innings, which is a career high. Jerry Blevins, however, got the win. Welcome to completely meaningless September baseball with the New York Mets.

Todd Frazier drove in the winning run in the 11th with a sac fly, which is good because he was involved in a sequence that totally encapsulated this season in New York. Frazier stole second base, but stayed on second as he was deked by Alan Hanson to believe that Nick Hundley’s throw didn’t land somewhere near McCovey Cove (which it did.) Then with two outs, Michael Conforto grounded one weakly to Hanson for an infield hit with two outs. But Hanson, the smartest man on the field at that time, threw behind Frazier who had rounded third base. Frazier was a dead duck and the inning was over. Our leader.

Todd Frazier represents what’s wrong with this organization … and it’s not Todd Frazier’s fault. I coudl easily replace Frazier’s name with Jay Bruce, or Jeff Francoeur, or even Jose Reyes. Players that are anywhere from halfway decent to horrible that come cheap, but have clubhouse intangibles and marketable smiles that make up for any deficiencies in the boxscore. It’s tiring how much this seems to matter to the owners, and it’s tiring how much money gets paid for it, especially when they don’t want to pay a penny more.

Remember Salt and Pepper? No, right? Because nobody has done that since June. Is that $35 you spent on that Salt and Pepper t-shirt the worst decision you’ve ever made with your money? Probably. Remember when Jeff Francoeur proclaimed that he wouldn’t shave his beard until the Mets reached .500? No right? Because the Mets were horrible and never reached .500 before he finally said screw it and shaved. Yes, this was all very useful and money well spent.

At some point, we’ll all put together our “how to fix the Mets” manifestos. Here’s a hint as to what mine will entail:

• I don’t want ambassadors.
• I don’t want leaders
• I don’t want den mothers.
• I don’t want cutesy base hit hand signals.
• I want ballplayers.
• Baseball players.

I’ve attached a simple flowchart for reference.

Am I asking too much?

Today’s Hate List

1. Conor Gillaspie
2. Alan Hanson
3. The Hanson Brothers
4. The Jonas Brothers
5. Doc Kerr