It's May 19, and all is well in my baseball universe

On Monday, May 21, the Empire State Building will be blue and orange, to honor the Mets for winning the first Subway Series of the season. My guess is that if the Mets sweep tomorrow, someone big will pay, probably Joe Torre, and maybe Brian Cashman, too. I wouldn't be surprised to see Joe Girardi, currently a broadcaster for the Yankees, and last year's Manager of the Year of the Florida Marlins, named to replace Joe. The owner is fuming down in Tampa, and I don't know how much longer he can wait before doing something drastic.

As for the Mets, as great as they look right now, it will be a long and challenging season to stay ahead of the Braves. As I write this, the Braves are demonstrating one of the signs of a winning team: after getting blasted 13-3 in the first game of a day-night double-header by the Red Sox today, they are now leading 8-0 in game 2 behind their ace and future Hall-of-Famer John Smoltz. A good team will follow up a terrible game with a great game. A bad team will get beat again, and start to doubt themselves more and more.

On the other hand, people seem to forget that the Mets have more injuries right now than the Yankees, and are missing more key people, and that they should get stronger as guys like El Duque, Pedro Martinez, Jose Valentin, and Moises Alou return. They are even getting Guillermo Mota back in a few days, after his steroid suspension. I never liked the guy, but I have to admire someone who actually admitted to cheating and apologizing right away.

It sure looks like 1986 again, Mets-Red Sox in the World Series. Trivia for the day: Roger Clemens and Tom Seaver both pitched for the 1986 Red Sox! Maybe the Mets should sign Seaver for an inning once old Clemens is back on the mound for the Yankees. The only way Clemens will pitch in the World Series this year is if he gets traded from the Yankees at the trading deadline to a contender.

Short Hops:

I was wrong about Mike Pelfrey figuring things out. He was rightly sent down to get it together in New Orleans. He'll be back, but he needs to develop some killer instinct. Jorge Sosa has been so good in his first three starts that the Mets may not even need Pelfrey this year.

© Judy Kamilhor 2007