New York Mets story for the Los Angeles Daily News
Step right up and beat the Mets
By Denis Gorman
Special to the Daily News
NEW YORK - If you closed your eyes, for a brief moment you were back in ancient Rome, and a Colosseum crowd was giving a collective thumbs-down to a beaten gladiator. In fact, it was Monday night at Shea Stadium and these fans were rendering their verdict on the New York Mets.
Mets shortstop Jose Reyes had just misplayed a routine ground ball by the Florida Marlins' Jorge Cantu, and the error's impact had been compounded by consecutive broken bat doubles by Mike Jacobs and Dan Uggla.
Two hours after learning manager Willie Randolph was still employed, five minutes after starting one of the most important homestands in recent franchise history, fans serenaded a lifeless team with boos.
Meet the Mets, indeed.
In the Mets' 7-3 loss to the National League East-leading Marlins on Monday, the first inning was symbolic of everything that has gone wrong for a team that had been expected to be a pennant contender.
"I need to be the guy to pick them up there. I wasn't a good teammate. I didn't pick them up," starting pitcher Mike Pelfrey said after Monday's loss, in which the right-hander gave up six runs in four innings and fell to 2-6. "I didn't go out there and set the tone. I wasn't very good today. It reflects on me. I needed to be better and I wasn't."
While it might be honorable for Pelfrey to fall on his sword, the whole team has been in a malaise all season, failing to bounce back from its embarrassment last fall, when it blew a seven-game lead over the Philadelphia Phillies with 17 games to go and missed the playoffs.
More than one-quarter of the way into this season, New York is fourth in the National League East with a 25-26 record.
The only regular who has met or exceeded expectations is right fielder Ryan Church (.309, with nine home runs and 32 RBIs).
New York has the second highest payroll in baseball at $138 million but is down in the pack in batting average (13th), ERA (eight), bullpen ERA (eighth) and fielding (fifth).
"I think it's a little of everything. There's times where we don't pitch well. There are times where we don't play good defense, (and) there are times we don't hit," Pelfrey said following Monday's night's loss, the 13th in the Mets' past 22 games. "It seems if we're hitting, we're not pitching."
They are, however, making headlines off the field.
Closer Billy Wagner has twice questioned his teammates' professionalism, in one case pointing at the lockers of several prominent position players and sarcastically asking why they did not talk to reporters following a 1-0 loss to the Washington Nationals.
Prior to a nationally televised game against the New York Yankees, Randolph suggested fan racism might play a role in the criticism he has received. The Mets then promptly lost six of seven to the Atlanta Braves and Colorado Rockies.
Late last week, general manager Omar Minaya flew to Denver to observe the team, fueling speculation Randolph was going to be fired once the team returned to New York. Early Monday afternoon, Minaya and Randolph met with Mets owners Fred and Jeff Wilpon for two hours to discuss the manager's comments and the team's poor play.
Ex-Mets catcher Gary Carter recently went on sports-talk radio shows to declare his candidacy for his former team's managerial job and then to defend himself against charges he was stumping for Randolph's post.
"When you're not winning in this town, and (forecasters) have us as the best team in the National League (before the season), there's a lot of tension. That's because we have a good team," a defensive Minaya said in the news conference that followed the Randolph meeting meeting. "You guys see that we have a good team. All the predictions of the year had the Mets as the best team in the division. We have championship talent."
While that might be true, it is also true the Mets' biggest flaws is its collective age. At an average age of 30.4, the Mets are the third oldest team in baseball, trailing only Boston (30.6) and Houston (30.7). Reyes and third baseman David Wright are the Mets' only home grown stars younger than 30. And having cashed in most of their minor league chips in to acquire Johan Santana, Minaya will find it difficult to add youth to the roster.
"There's a lot of parity in baseball," Minaya said. "A lot of teams are still in this. Trades, per se, are not usually done this early in the year. It's not like teams have a lot of guys on the marketplace."
So what can the Mets point to as a reason for hope? Time. Starting with four games against the Dodgers beginning tonight at Shea, the Mets have 111 games remaining and trail Florida by 5 games. The Mets say they trust that when the playoffs begin, they will be part of it.
"Winning cures a lot of illnesses and problems," Wagner said following the Mets' 5-3 win over Florida on Tuesday night.
Added Pelfrey: "We need to stick together if we're going to turn this thing around, which I believe we will."
posted by Denis P. Gorman at 2:30 PM
