Mediocre Mets Get to Church On Time

Three days, four games, and the New York Mets are right back where they started.

The recently-completed Subway Series ended with a 3-1 Mets’ victory that pushed the Amazins’ record to a less-than amazin’ 40-41.

For over a year now, the Shea Stadium Faithful has been teased more than the patrons of your local gentlemen’s club and this past weekend was a prime example of the false sense of hope Mets fans have endured.

The Mets won one, lost two, and then salvaged a split by winning the finale. Carlos Delgado turns in an incredible, nine-RBI performance in the series opener, and then closes the series with a 1-for-10 clip at the plate. Oliver Perez can be even more maddening, flashing brilliance one day and looking more dismal than the economy five days later.

Baseball is a game of streaks and slumps, but don’t confuse that with inconsistency.

The Mets are a .494 baseball club with exactly half of their regular season schedule complete.
Their manager can talk all he wants about how the team will come around, and the players can keep telling themselves that they have championship-caliber talent. Just as they did this past weekend, they have shown how good they can be, and have been as equally nauseating at times.

Right now, Omar Minaya’s hand-crafted specialty is a .500 baseball team that encounters just as many ups as downs.

As disappointing and maddening as that assessment may be, it is not time to stop believing, yet. Teams have muddled in mediocrity before eventually proving their merit.

The Rockies were a .500 team for much of last year before an unbelievable late-season surge put them in the World Series. The 2006 St. Louis Cardinals (remember them?) finished the regular season at 83-79 before somehow capturing the world championship.

The Mets could wind up being the 2008 version of the aforementioned clubs, but for every day they remain mired in their current mediocre state, that outcome becomes less and less likely.

----------

Church on Sunday: The Mets couldn’t have picked a better day for Church. On Sunday, fittingly enough, the Shea Faithful welcomed back Ryan Church into the lineup after the right fielder missed nearly a month of action due to lingering effects of his second concussion this season. With the fifth through eighth slots in the Mets’ lineup rivaling that of the Long Island Ducks, Church’s return was nothing short of a blessing. The left-handed hitting outfielder promptly produced two well-struck singles during his first MLB action since June 5. Instantaneously increasing the legitimacy of the Mets’ offense upon his return, Church is batting .304 with 10 homers and 35 RBI over 184 at-bats as a Met. Damion Easley, Fernando Tatis, Marlon Anderson, and Trot Nixon, who were all fill-in options for Church, have combined to hit five round trippers and drive in 32 runs over 247 at-bats. Welcome back Ryan!

----------

Lynch Loses License: As noted earlier, there may have been a bit of uncertainty surrounding the fantasy draft prospects of Buffalo Bills second-year running back Marshawn Lynch after the former Cal standout was flagged for clipping an Ontario woman with his SUV. Thankfully for those hoping to acquire Lynch once draft season rolls around later this summer, the 22-year-old will be wearing a uniform that is blue, not orange, come September. Lynch won’t be driving to training camp this year though, and it has nothing to do with astronomical gas prices. As a result of his hit-and-run incident that left the Canadian victim with minor injuries, a traffic court judge revoked Lynch’s New York State Driver’s License. While pleading guilty to “failure to exercise due care toward a pedestrian,” the Bills’ starting running back said of the incident, “It was raining real hard, there was a dancing pedestrian in the middle of the street. I slowed down to let her go and continued on my way home. I didn’t know my car had hit anyone or anything.”