As Mondays go, this past one was quite busy around Major League Baseball. Half the schedule pulsed with all the excitement of a collegiate return from summer break as American Leaguers looked to show off their new tans and fattened won-lost records. The other half stirred with the nervous commotion of a support group reuniting to discuss the failures of a fortnight in the real world.
Those would be the National Leaguers.
Among the 14-game slate marking the resumption of intraleague play, one seemed endemic of the National League plight these days. The Pittsburgh Pirates had just shelled the New York Mets, 11-1. It was the Mets' sixth loss in seven games.
On second thought, it shouldn't be surprising that the NL's best team was easily manhandled by its worst. Considering their league's efforts over the past two weeks, it is hard to tell one from the other. The Mets were once the clipper ship of baseball, but a demoralizing 4-8 run against the American League East has left them adrift in the horse latitudes stripped of their wind.
Two weeks ago, Mets fans were primarily concerned with their team's playoff rotation and who among them would be voted MVP. They embraced interleague play as validation of their aspirations for another 1986. National League competition had already told them they were better this year after adding the bat of Carlos Delgado and the arm of Billy Wagner. Now, the American League would tell them that they had improved enough to pose a threat in October. And what better testimony than that of the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees.
Instead, the American League had a different message for the Mets, the same one it has been sending the National League for two and one-half years: sail now in your safe harbors of summer, because the seas are rough beyond the breakwaters of September.
The Amazin's got a little surprise when interleague play reconvened back on June 16th. After a 9-1 cross-country road trip, they came home to host the perennially underachieving Baltimore Orioles. The Orioles promptly took the first two.
No matter. The Mets ultimately salvaged, then took a series in Toronto against the AL's newest darlings. Manager Willie Randolph's wetted index finger found wind.
With sails full, they made for Fenway Park and Yankee Stadium, only to have the wind knocked right back out of them. Before long, there weren't any more horses to jettison. Willie's crew reached shore in lifeboats, just in time for their aforementioned drubbing at the hands of the Pirates. It was a search for validation gone horribly wrong. But how?
On Wednesday, the world learned of one cause: Pedro Martinez's undershirt.
When you are aware that your team's ace is 2-3 with a 4.76 ERA after changing undershirts, you are no longer in position to debate playoff rotations and MVPs. And when you hold umpires accountable for a grown man's failure to remain upright while walking into a clubhouse to change clothes, it may be too early to start speed-dialing 1-800-OUR-METS for World Series tickets.
Met fans, you know the tape on Martinez. He's competitive, he's masterful, but he's frail and there is nothing $53 million can do to change that. In between seemingly frivolous toe and t-shirt injuries, you will get your money's worth. You can revel in the larceny that brought Pedro to Shea, but you may not decry the gods on those days he breaks down.
Console yourselves in the misery of your league-mates as you go forth into the second half. Twelve others had losing records against the AL, and nine faired worse than the Mets at 6-9. Only two clubs — Colorado and San Francisco — had winning records, while Florida split its schedule.
But there are realizations of the fortnight passed that are not consoling. For instance, the National League finished 98-154 in interleague play, a .389 winning percentage. That's down from last year's .460, which in turn was down from 2004's .496. Monday's schedule featured three AL eight- and nine-hitters that had as many or more home runs than the top power hitters of seven NL clubs. And, worst yet, the last National League pitcher to win a World Series game was Josh Beckett back in 2003. The American League has gone 8-0 since and Beckett has moved over to Boston.
For now, October is as distant to anticipate as it is to fear. The second half offers a steady diet of National Leaguers that will make Flushing forget about the American League for a while. Sometimes, it's nice to know that an ebbing tide sinks all boats.
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