Personally, I needed an emphatic win against St. Louis to begin my healing process.   Letting go of the heartache of ’06 will not happen overnight, but knocking around the hated Cardinals was a good way to start.  

 

The Mets did a few things they needed to do to take the opening game.  Glavine looked very strong scattering 6 hits over 6 innings, the bats were alive early and often, and the defense was airtight, allowing some slack to a bullpen that looked a bit rusty tonight.

 

The other thing that enabled the Mets to win this one was that they completely "owned the big moment" tonight.  There are several points in any given ballgame when the game can turn and he who executes wins.  The Mets went 3-0 in the big-moments tonight:

       

        Critical moment 1: 

                3-2, bases loaded, 2 outs in the top of the 4th    Result: Clean single by LoDuca, 2

runs scored.  Glavine is quickly staked to a 4-run lead

 

Critical Moment 2:

Bases loaded, 2-outs and Glavine Tiring in the 6th .  Result: Glavine gets Yadier Molina to weakly pop out to Reyes.  This comes just minutes after Carlos Beltran gunned David Eckstein down at the plate chalking up a beautiful outfield assist.

 

Critical Moment 3:

Bases loaded again against the Mets in the 8th .  Result:  Rolen belts one up the middle but in the blink of an eye, Valentin dives, spears the ball, gets it over to Reyes who somehow  completes an acrobatic pivot for the DP

 

 

Having outlined the big-picture view of why I think we took tonight’s game, the blog-formula now calls for a witty segue, seamlessly transitioning me to some of the random thoughts that came to me over the course of the game.  Unfortunately for me, Its 1am on Sunday night and as segues go, I got nothing.  Like a weak stand-up comic I launch, out-of-nowhere, into a series of complete non-sequitors:

 

Don’t you just hate airline food…..see…totally out of nowhere…no point of reference whatsoever…Anyway:

·          Jose Valentin - A lot of contributors on Metsblog seem to want to replace Jose Valentin.  Valentin looked smooth in the pivot on each of the 4 Double Plays the Mets turned tonight and also made the dazzling diving play….he was “diving and thriving” as Clyde might put it.  My take is to let Valentin play until he shows he can’t.   

 

As an aside, when running off the filed after starting the DP with his big diving catch, he showed off some new-found Steve Garvey-like guns, other wise known as “Popeye forearms”.  The moustache has been working out.

 

·          Carlos Delgado is gonna hit 40 homers this year. 

 

·          Shawn Green is seems to be pretty universally regarded as a non-factor this year.  What if Omar and Wille know something we don’t (See Endy Chavez, Jose Valentin and Darren Oliver in 2006)?  It would be a huge addition to the arsenal if Green got his stroke back and gave them 30 homers and a .280 average out of the  7 slot in the order.  He is a lifetime 282 hitter so its not an outlandish thought.

 

 

·          Moises Alou appears to have shaken off the Spring Training cobwebs.  After a spring where he looked old and creaky to me, he cam out strong and hit the ball hard.  He also made a nice diving catch in LF. 

 

Indulging in some armchair-broadcast producing, I think it would be a nice touch to play a little “Alou Homage” before a Moises Alou at bat.  I’m not sure how many young fans know that the 40 year old Moises is Felipe Alou’s Son or Manny and Jesus’ nephew.  As Moises approaches the plate, I’d show a Montage of the three Alou Brothers together in the San Francisco Outfield in 1963, transition into shots of Felipe, the 3-time batting champ,  then show Matty swatting a double in one of his 6-time .300+ seasons and then close with Jesus doing his elaborate pre-at bat ritual on the 75 Mets.

 

 

·          The bullpen looked a little dodgy – Feliciano was off the plate more than usual, Smith threw good pitches bit  wasn’t getting the outs, and Wagner was unspectacular.  It was a good night to have a 5 run lead

 

 

·          Joe Morgan and Jon Miller did a nice job during the broadcast handling LaRussa’s off-season DUI.  I wasn’t sure if they were going to dodge it. They had the good judgment not to ask LaRussa about it during their live, mid-game interview, but were quick to point it out shortly after that was over.  It was refreshing to see them choose an appropriate moment, address it with the proper emphasis, and then move on.

 

 

·          In another broadcast point, it came up that the movie “The Natural” was going to be covered in a special after the game on ESPN.  Joe Morgan made the point that while he liked the Movie, he didn’t think that Robert Redford’s Roy Hobbes had a good-looking swing.  I want to use this borderline-public forum to respectfully disagree.  Redford’s cut was smooth, sweeping and it completely befit the character.   It was clear that Redford had held a bat in his hand as a kid.  For Morgan to bust on Redford, it implies to me that he didn’t see Gary Cooper’s cut in “Pride of the Yankees” or William Bendix’ almost unwatchable action sequences in “The Babe Ruth Story”.  As far as appearing Ruthian, Bendix swung more like Ruth Buzzi then Babe Ruth. 

 

 

·          Seeing Dave Duncan, my mind always goes back to his prowess as a slugger on my 1972 

Strat-o-Matic squad.  I played a complete half-season of Strat-o-Matic - 81 games - with that 1972 Oakland A’s team.  Duncan was a monster.  It makes me hate him a little bit less than the other Cardinals.

 

 

After a long winter of licking my wounds and wondering what if, I happily welcome Mets baseball back into my daily routine.  1-0 Mets.  F-U Cardinals and the horse you rode in on.  God Bless you Bob Murphy wherever you are.