It’s Good to Be ALIVE!!!

…and the Mets ARE still ALIVE on this night before the final game of the regular season!

Who’da thunk, twenty-four hours ago that we Mets fans would be as happy and as optimistic, with as much to be thankful for, as we are at this moment??!!

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, Mets, for playing like it still matters!  For not giving up!  For showing some signs of life!

THANK YOU, Mets fans, for cheering, yelling, screaming, standing, chanting.  It was also nice to feel that there were signs of life from the stands.  I think the players heard us.  I think we helped today.

And there were PLENTY of signs of life in the game itself today.  There were signs of crisp defense.  There were runners not left on base.  There were numerous hits with runners on base and two outs.  And, when our players were confronted with ugliness from the opposition, immediate and obvious support–particularly in the form of the usually reserved Rick Peterson–came to life!

Yes, the Mets definitely showed signs of LIFE today!

My daughter Melanie, never having witnessed a brawl involving both benches and bullpens emptying onto the field, stared incredulously during the proceedings in the fifth inning.  She came home and promptly made this drawing and also insisted on watching that portion of the game which we had recorded from SNY.

Perhaps the brawls satisfied some of those players and fans who had become increasingly fed-up with Willie Randolph’s "no worries" , quiet exterior in the face of the Mets’ dwindling lead.  If those two confrontations proved therapeutic in some small way for some of our players and coaches (and, vicariously, some of our fans, too) and no one was hurt, thrown out of the game, fined or suspended, then I suppose it was harmless enough…except that it might’ve distracted John from his task at hand.

*****

BRAVO!  BRAVO!  And Grazie, Maestro Maine, your performance was molto splendissimo!! 

With each strike-out that was recorded, the afternoon’s game–already heavily imbued with excitement and expectation–took another level of energy and rush of adrenaline.  You came SO CLOSE to getting the no-hitter.  What a bummer to have it broken up by that stupid swinging bunt.  Sigh…

THANK YOU, Lastings Milledge and Ramon Castro, for being in the line-up today and making the contributions you did, particularly those three home runs!!

THANK YOU, Sandy Alomar, for so quickly and bravely thrusting yourself between Jose Reyes and the forward-propelled, out-of-control Miguel Olivo prompting the second of the two ugly bench-clearing brawls.  THANK YOU, too, Miguel Cabrera for putting a Reyes’ safety first and jumping into the situation to separate Jose from Olivo, thus keeping him from retaliating and possibly hurting himself.  That would’ve been JUST what we need when we have been given new life and another chance here!

THANK YOU, Manny Acta, and your nasty Nats!  Returning from Shea to watch your game on Fox, I must admit it was amusing to watch Charlie Manuel nervously bring in pitcher after pitcher while your man Chico did a fine job through six innings and then your bullpen finished off the the afternoon.  Any way you could polish those pheisty Phillies off for us for the season tomorrow afternoon as well, old friend?

THANK YOU, Milwaukee, for the win against the Padres.  With the Wild Card in the mix, the closer we can move ourselves to San Diego, the better our options in that department.  Nice RBI triple to tie it up in the ninth, by the way, Tony Gwynn, Jr.!!

I’m NOT crying myself to sleep tonight.  I’m going to bed with a smile on my face and optimism about tomorrow. 

I hope my team is doing the same.