Your intrepid columnist made his second appearance of the year at Citi Field on Friday, August 23. The night was rife with portents. The Detroit Tigers and the animal known as Miguel Cabrera rode into town for the first time since June, 2010. Detroit arrived red hot, having won 17 of their previous 26 contests, including an 11-game winning streak from July 27 through August 8. On the other side, the Mets were a semi-respectable – for them – 12-13 in the same span, having just surprisingly split two games in Atlanta. They had also bolstered their pitching staff with the addition of Daisuke Matsuzaka, former Wunderkind, most recently toiling in the Cleveland Indians’ farm system. It promised to be a fun night. Matsuzaka gave up a home run to Torii Hunter on his ninth pitch of the night, and that was basically that. The weekend series ended up a sweep for the Tigers, who outscored the Mets 20-4 and highlighted the yawning talent gap between the Mets and the elite teams in MLB. Interest over here waned immediately.
But that’s when things started getting interesting.
Over the next 14 games since that series, the Mets:
— have gone 5-9
— won 2-of-3 in Washington, unheard of the past 4 years
— signed veteran Aaron Harang as a free agent, a move championed in these parts…five years ago
— denigrated Ruben Tejada as a goldbricking malcontent
— lost Ike Davis for the rest of the season to an oblique injury. Terry Collins was anything but oblique in declaring Davis done for the year
— lost Scott Rice for the rest of the season to hernia surgery. There are too many easy jokes about Rice doing the heavy lifting for the bullpen
— were totally baffled by Scott Kazmir in a game in Cleveland. Now Jeff Wilpon can get what all the fuss was about back in ’04
— brought back Frank Francisco. ‘Nuff ced
— learned that Bobby Parnell will need neck surgery
— were 1-hit by Gio Gonzalez
— ended their 26-year relationship with WFAN radio, to be replaced on that broadcasting behemoth by the Yankees. Of course.
The Met fan is greeted by this dog’s breakfast of news on a daily basis. It’s enough to make the average guy’s head spin. When polled if the Mets were going in the right or wrong direction, I couldn’t give an honest answer. It’s to the point where the end of the year can’t come soon enough, just so things stabilize.
Oh, and Sandy Alderson went on WFAN last week and reiterated the pledge to “spend money” this offseason.
Fans can be forgiven if they take this statement with several billion grains of salt.
Follow me on Twitter @CharlieHangley
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With Mike Francessa it already was a Yankee network.
Hopefully Steve the Schmoozer will find a new home for Met fans to move to.
Good news:The Mets will be broadcast over ham radio!
Do Howie and Josh move along too?
They’re hired by the team, not the station.
Thanks…whew
Wow, I hadn’t heard about the end of the FAN relationship. I haven’t lived in NY for almost 10 years, but the thought of FAN as the home of the Yankees sickens me…
The WFAN thing is a bummer. I don’t want the Yankees to be on there. Its bad enough they have Francesa and his biased commentary. That’s a real shame
Francesa’s gotta be stoked about this. He gets a set daily block from now on and doesn’t have to worry about the Mets playing day games and interrupting his show. And he’ll probably get less Met callers too.
NO!!!!! Not the loss of WFAN! I’m bummed out.