Sixth Grade Science

Port St. Lucie, FL–February 27, 2009

Perhaps it was the realization that Ms. Scilieri’s sixth grade science class was convening as we sat in the stands at Tradition Field, fifty feet away from Carlos Delgado.  Whatever it was that prompted it, my daughter–absent from school but very present in yesterday’s Mets Home Opener at Tradition Field–perked up her ears at my husband and I mentioning how intrigued we were with Jerry Manuel’s “experiment”.

Following the lessons learned back home at Leonia Middle School, my daughter asked us what Jerry’s “hypothesis” was.

“Would the Mets score more runs with Luis Castillo leading off in the Number One spot and with Jose Reyes moved down to third in the batting order?” was our response.

Jerry’s–and our–“scientific observations” seemed to happily support the hypothesis.  Although he only played the first couple of innings, the noticeably slimmer Castillo get on base several times and looked like he was moving well.

And, as far as Reyes getting runs in, a grand slam batting left and a home run later in the game batting right-handed were equally positive results supporting the hypothesis.

That’s all for now.  The family is departing for Tradition Field to collect more observations…