June 28, 2007

Someday a Real Rain Will Come and Wash All This Scum Off The Streets

You'd think after all these years I would have learned not to trust weather.com. But no. It lies to me time after time, and yet I always forgive it and come back for more. This is not healthy. Last night they told me "isolated thunderstorms" and I believed them, and then Shea turned into Waterworld -- which, wouldn't that movie have been so much better if it featured Mr. Met? I think it would -- and I had to paddle to the 7 train on a raft of lashed-together Paul Lo Duca bobbleheads. (Update:I was not the only one, though at least I didn't wait out the full hour and half. Ouch.).

Yesterday was notable because, as others have... well, noted, seven pitchers over 40 were set to start, which would have been a record. As it happened, though, the Tigers game was rained out -- and so, as usual, Kenny Rogers ruins everything.

Jamie Moyer, Woody Williams, Greg Maddux, John Smoltz, and New York's own Tom Glavine and Roger Clemens still took the mound as planned. (Old Braves never die: Smoltz, Maddux, and Glavine all won). In Baltimore, the Rocket pitched successfully up 'til the sixth despite not striking even one batter out -- the first time he hasn't had a K since before the fall of the Berlin Wall -- then tired and allowed four runs, three on an Aubrey Huff homer. Not that it mattered, because the Yankees didn't score at all.

I can't wait to see how they lose tonight. They just keep finding a way to surprise me, which is how you keep the spark in a relationship.

Meanwhile, before the rains came, Tom Glavine looked as good as new; he only allowed one hit, and that on a grounder that David Wright might've had a shot at. Wright atoned with a two-run homer in the first, which reminded me of how much I hope the Mets move the Home Run Apple with them to CitiField. It looks like it was made out of papier-mache by a class of fourth graders in the '70s, but therein lies its charm. I've talked before about the difference between annoying-tacky (the fake-rock fountains in Angel Stadium) and has-character tacky (the Twins' garbage-bag outfield walls), and the Home Run Apple has character.

The Mets still aren't hitting consistently, but if El Duque pitches like he did last time out, they might get by for another night.

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