Mets and fans find mercy in the rain

I actually went to bed feeling better about the Mets than I had in a week. A win will get that for you, however it comes about. And when I woke up, it got even better.

The Mets scored a run in the top of the first, then immediately gave four of them back, then scored five of their own in the second, all built around singles and doubles – a rare thing at Wrigley Field’s “friendly confines.” The tacked one on in the fifth and had two on and none out in the seventh when the umpires decided to roll out the tarps – much to the consternation of Cubs’ manager Mike Quade. I checked in the requisite hour-and-a-half later to discover the 7-4 score had gone final, amid a classic Lake Michigan monsoon. I was moved to warble a few bars of the Gordon Lightfoot classic “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” myself. Although, maybe not the best choice for Fleet Week.

And I think it’s apropos that last night’s victory involved a tarp, because apparently, Fred Wilpon received a bit of a bailout of his own. According to The New York Times, no less, the Mets have settled on a buyer The Times didn’t name names, but it’s come out in baseball circle Twitters that the new moneyman is hotshot hedge fund manager David Einhorn, the man who helped take down Allied Capital and Lehman Brothers, when their respective operations took on a slightly shady hue.

Once again, I’m getting a feeling of violent vertigo. On Monday, Fred Wilpon destroys hope. On Tuesday, the Mets look distracted and disinterested in an 11-1 loss. On Wednesday, the cleansing rains arrive in Chicago. On Thursday, Einhorn brings hope, along with a couple o’ bucks.

Ain’t baseball grand?