Two and a half weeks away ...

I was on vacation. In America. I should have been getting a full diet of baseball and loads of Met games, but somehow I didn't see as much of the Mets this time as I usually do. And because the scores are everywhere I couldn't do as I do here and listen to the full broadcast the next morning in ignorance of the result. Too many family commitments on this trip to get my full allocation of Met games.

I did get to two games - Aug 7 against the Padres and Aug 19 against the Braves. Both exciting wins. I saw the ends of quite a few games, but missed too many innings during the Mets' good streak of 9 wins out of 10 games. (I also went to see the Pawtucket Red Sox, which was a great night out while visiting SE Massachusetts.)

I was listening to the game from Philly on Wednesday night and after Delgado hit the second home-run I thought to myself, "Is Delgado the Mets' MVP? Could he be the League MVP? Yes, if this keeps up." Funny to read that Keith H mentioned it during the broadcast and then it was all over the papers the next morning.

Talk about enjoyable? I listened to last night's Phillies and Cubs game on WPHT and the Phillies blew the game in the 8th. Again. Two tough losses in a row. This one really hurt because Hamels pitched a great game for 7 innings.

Off to Shea

An annual pilgrimage ever since I relocated to the far side of the Atlantic. I love getting to Shea every year, but I can't believe this will be my last trip. I wonder if I'll be less interested in the result than in just absorbing as much as I can of my Flushing home. I'll try to keep my sentimentality to a minimum here.

What of the team on the field? Uggh. After all that July excitement it takes a week for them to return to third, 3 games back. I hope they start getting it back on track tonight. It's pretty clear that the Mets are still too light in the bullpen and that the line-up is no where near what it might have been (with Alou & Church).

I'm also disappointed in Santana, who needs to start going more than 7 regularly for me to believe he's not just way over-hyped. I'm almost wondering if he's better than Aaron Cook, who makes pitching deep in games a habit.

It's time for Beltran to take a leaf out of Delgado's book and figure out what the heck is wrong. Time for him step it up. Maybe hitting 2nd is the key.