Another Lost Weekend

LET'S DELVE RIGHT IN, shall we ... Joe Torre sure seems to be going out of his way this year to make it easy for all the armchair critics who insist he just doesn't know how to handle a pitching staff. Despite all the ammunition we could detonate on behalf of that argument, we (sometimes) like to take the high road here on Warden's World, so let's just say Torre suddenly seems to have lost his once-infallible touch. But how to explain why on Saturday, in a game against the Giants that agonizingly stretched to 10 ... 11 ... 12 ... 13 innings, Joe somehow used six pitchers in relief, none of whom was named Mariano Rivera, who sat idly by in the visitors bullpen at San Francisco's AT&T Park. After the game, Joe calmly explained that he wasn't gonna bring in Mariano without the lead, and that Roger asked to come in the game. To which we respond, no longer going down that high road, one, what the hell and, two, what the fuck.

The next day, with the Yanks trailing 3-1, Torre brings in Roger Clemens to pitch the 7th inning, his first relief appearance in 23 years. Okay, it was cool to see him face off against Barry Bonds, but it would've probably been a lot cooler 10 years ago when both of them were nearer their primes.

C'mon, Joe, the only time you should use a starter out of the pen is either against the Red Sox late in the year or of course an elimination game in the playoffs. But this is the third time Torre's pulled this (he used Andy Pettitte twice already), and it's probably not the last. Either Joe truly doesn't care what other people think or he's taken so much heat already that in his mind he's gonna do it his way from here on in, maybe they're one and the same... But maybe it's just that Joe no longer has Don Zimmer riding shotgun talking him out of his more boneheaded moves. Guess we'll have to wait for the inevitable Lifetime Original Movie to get the lowdown...

In any case, this long lost 1-5 West Coast weekend took the life out of Yankees fans and, in all likelihood, may have expunged the last sign of playoff life, without trying to sound too maudlin or too defeatist, or maybe they're also one and the same...

You just knew the Yankees weren't gonna pull out that extra inning game vs. the hapless Giants on Saturday. It wasn't so much that they gave back a 4-1 lead, wasted a very good effort by Chin Miang-Wang, or that the shaky bullpen would stay true to form. It was Derek Jeter leaving the game with a tweaked hip; it seemed like a bad omen, pure and simple...

Now it's just a matter of rooting against the Mets from here on in, to the point where you pull for two teams every night, your Yanks and whoever's playing the Flushing Less-Than-Amazins. Speaking of which, it was wrong for me to assert last week that the Mets would struggle against the Twins and A's. I think I said that these were "complete, well rounded teams, not feeble NL teams with two or three legit hitters scattered throughout the lineup." How wrong I proved to be, because neither team is exactly stocked with fearsome sluggers. Sure, the Twins have three good ones in Joe "By The Hour" Mauer (.319), Justin "Case" Morneau (20 HRs, 57 RBI) and Torii "Big Game" Hunter (.306, 57 RBIs), but the rest of the lineup is virtually bereft of real threats, such that you can "pitch around" the rest of the supporting cast, more so in an NL park where the pitcher is forced to hit. And the A's ... This team makes the present day punchless Atlanta Braves seem like the old Yankees Murderers' Row and Pittsburgh Lumber Company combined and maybe even squared in comparison. The A's best hitter is Nick Swisher, who's a solid player with a perfect name for the Bay Area, nudge nudge wink wink, but he's hitting a less than robust .284 with 41 RBIs to lead the club in both categories. Their big bopper is 3B Eric Chavez with 12 HRs, but he's hitting a mere .243. And the A's scored 3 fucking runs in 3 games against the Mets, while displaying a lifelessness to match the meager numbers.

Somehow Tuesday seems like a month ago, because I remember settling down to watch the Yankees take on the Rockies and noting that the Mets, fresh off their loss in the Subway Series, were down 9-0 to the Twinkies as the first pitch was being thrown in Colorado. Of course the Yankees went on to lose that night's game 3-1 and then drop the next two for an ignominious sweep at the hands of the Rockheads, scoring an A's-like 5 runs in 3 games at the best hitters' ballpark in MLB, then off to San Fran to drop another 2 of 3, wasting all the momentum they had built in the first weeks of June... That's the kind of season it's been already, with enough unlikely twists and turns to make soap opera buffs shake their heads in disbelief...

Historic season in terms of sluggers hitting landmark homers ... Sammy Sosa just hit #600 ... Ken Griffey is on pace to reach the same mark shortly after the All-Star Game, after jacking his 583rd and 584th in a return trip to Seattle. All those lost games due to injury or he'd be the one passing Ruth and Aaron... At 499 career bombs, Frank Thomas stands at the precipice of guaranteed baseball immortality, looking 500 in the eye as his Blue Jays begin a 3-game set in Minny ... A-Rod stands at 492 A-bombs, 8 blasts short of a Half-Thousand HRs ... As much as it pains me to point it out, Manny Ramirez is gonna get there too, with 482 HRs, he's a lock to get hot in the second half and will undoubtedly hit number 500 against the Yankees, probably in Yankee Stadium to win a game for the Sox ... that's the kinda year it's been. Ya think Boston would've lost that extra-inning game to the Giants like the Yankees did? To a team mired in the midst of an 8-game losing streak? Getouttahere ... Jim Thome's inclusion on this list probably comes as a surprise to many with his 481 lifetime dingers; a big second half would also give him a good chance to reach 500 HRs this season ... and of course everybody's favorite role model Barry Bonds is likewise a lock to get to 756 any week now, passing Hammerin' Hank and embarrassing baseball in the process...

Ironically, Bonds may have been considered the greatest player of all time if he had not come close to the all-time HR mark. Let me 'splain myself. Without the Aaron record, his career would have been discussed in terms of his 7 MVP awards, 11 Gold Glove awards, his base stealing, all the walks he took ... The record complicated things and magnified all the negatives, to the point where the accomplishments are obscured by a haze of emotion and controversy.

Speaking of amazing numbers, during the Mets-Twins game won by young Johann Santana last week, Dwight Gooden's name came up, and someone related the fact that before he was 25 years old, he had 100 wins against only 37 losses, while 28-year-old Santana, who everyone rightly considers one of the two or three best pitchers in baseball the last five or so years, had a stellar record of 85-37 -- that's how absolutely dominant Gooden was. He might have had the best stuff of any right hander when you consider his blazing fastball and sick, nasty hook ... His 194-112 record, with 3.51 ERA and 2,293 K's falls short of Hall of Fame consideration, but the wasted years and missed seasons cost him a legit shot at 300 wins and a lock Hall of Fame enshrinement. Unfortunately, even the feel-good story of his resurrected career with the '90s Yanks is marred with the stain of a recent incarceration (Gooden was released from a Florida prison at the end of 2006 after serving a 7-month sentence in violating parole).

Going to Shea Stadium in the '80s with my Met fan friends to see Dwight pitch was exciting even for this Yankees fanatic, who will admit to getting swept up in the emotion of the crowd and maybe even rooting for a strikeout or two ... the K banners being hung on the railing ... the electrifying anticipation when the count reached 2 strikes ... Gooden's contribution went beyond the personal stats, the gaudy numbers he was putting up in those first five years, even beyond the economic numbers represented by an extra 10 or 15,000 fannies in the seats when he was pitching ... the very definition of a hot New York sports ticket, like Jordan coming to the Garden, only Gooden took the mound every five days.

Disconcerting to hear Mike "Buzz Kill" Mussina's postgame comments about how he didn't know the pitcher was on deck when he gave up a home run to the Rockies 8th place batter ... Again, what the fuck ... he said he would've pitched differently if he remembered or thought to look over to the on deck circle ... said he is so focused in on the batter, blah blah blah ... is there any Yankees fan not tired of this guy's whining this year? That was the last straw, not knowing who's coming up next. Jeez, the fucking fans know who's on deck, but Mr. Crossword can't process such esoteric data because he's so locked in to the moment!

The NL All-Star voting is a disgrace and a joke. I have no problem with Jose Reyes starting at SS over a very good J.J. Hardy (18 HRs, 50 RBIs) of the Brew Crew, but David Wright is having a down year and it looks like he's gonna start at 3B over the Marlins' Miguel Cabrera. Wright is hitting a pedestrian .286 with 12 HRs and 40 RBIs, numbers that are dwarfed by Cabrera's .330, 17 & 54. Unfair, as is Carlos Beltran starting at CF with a .272 average, 10 HRs & 43 RBIs, stats that are even less than pedestrian, bordering on downright lousy, while C Paul Lo Duca has over a million total votes and is in second place behind the Dodgers young Russell Martin; for the record, Lo Duca is batting .282, with 3 HRs & just 20 RBIs, while Martin is hitting .293, with strong power numbers of 8 & 49. Thankfully, it looks like Martin's current 200,000-vote lead is safe from the craven ballot-stuffing efforts of Mets fans and the embarrassing machinations of the Mets' PR staff, at least for now.

Now, you can make a case for Lo Duca being the second or third best catcher in the NL, but what makes it offensive is the all-out and apparently shameless promotional assault the Mets front office is waging on his behalf, as if it would constitute a major injustice if this guy doesn't start the All-Star game behind the plate. Let it happen naturally, for crissakes, without the Shea Stadium PA announcer reminding the home crowd every half-inning to cast a vote for Lo Duca. And how the hell does Beltran not only lead all outfielders in votes, but have the most votes period in the NL, albeit barely over Junior Griffey. It shows the so-called sophisticated big-city Mets and their fans can be as bush-league as any remote minor league outpost, although I'm sure this whole All-Star game scenario is a big turnoff to baseball purists who happen to be Mets fans. Then again, the Braves' Andruw Jones inexplicably is currently polling 5th among outfielders, which proves that either Atlanta fans are equally provincial when it comes to their own or that Karl Rove himself is counting the votes, because the once-formidable Jones brother is hitting a scant .197 without the usual power numbers needed to offset residing below the dreaded Mendoza line.

The Braves' other Jones brother, Chipper, is embroiled in an unseemly war of words with one of Atlanta's pitchers, the reliably voluble John Smoltz. Chipper, in his own words, rushed himself back to the lineup because he felt Smoltz called him out in front of teammates, questioning the severity of his injury while the rest of the team was "on the field busting it." Larry took this as a diss and fired back, saying, "Somebody I know better not miss a start." Even before this public dustup, I didn't like the Braves' chances to challenge the Mets for the division, seeing as they can't hit a fucking lick and their pitching really ain't all that good either. Little things like that. They were shut out in four out of five games last week, and in the other game, which they also lost, they exploded for a single run. That has to be some sort of all-time record for futility on the major league level.

During the Mets' recent delightful downturn, the Braves failed to take advantage, gaining no ground while losing 14 of their first 23 games in June. So it looks like a Met-hater's best bet this year is the Philadelphia Phillies, currently in second place at 39-36, 3 games behind the Mets. I know the Phillies just lost starter Jon Lieber for the year, but he was only 3-6 with an ERA near 5.00. Led by Chase Utley and Jimmy Rollins, this is a team that does have some big-time punch in the lineup, with four Phillies hitting at least 10 HRs. We'll know a lot more about their chances of challenging for the division lead beginning this weekend with a 4-game set vs. the Mets at the Vet or wherever the Phils now play their home games. My Phils, your Phils, our Phils, indeed the whole nation's beloved Phils...