Astros 16 – Mets 3
IMAGINE wearing the polished shoes of Steve Phillips. Imagine using those shoes to walk up to the office of Fred Wilpon.
Knock, knock.
“Who’s there?” Wilpon asks.
“Uh, Steve,” Phillips answers.
“Don’t whisper; I can’t hear you,” Wilpon answers.
“Steve, uh, Steve Phillips,” he says, louder.
“Yes?”
“I’d like to trade for another player today and it’s going to expand our payroll.”
“That’s a good one, Steve,” Wilpon answers with a chuckle. “Heard any other good ones lately? Have any other knock-knock jokes up your sleeve?”
Phillips received authorization to acquire Roberto Alomar, Jeromy Burnitz, Roger Cedeno, Jeff D’Amico, Shawn Estes and Mo Vaughn during a winter spending spree that all of Johnny Carson’s wives combined couldn’t match.
If those high-priced veterans collectively couldn’t make the Mets a better team, how could Wilpon be talked into believing a Livan Hernandez or a Paul Byrd would lead this team to an October of meaningful baseball, a genuine, unassailable excuse not to rake leaves?
The winter millionaires must drive what would be an improbable comeback to the playoffs. They have more talent than any passable starting pitcher who could replace D’Amico in the rotation, thereby giving his ears a break from the filthy words that come tumbling down from the stands.
Such a pitcher would have given the Mets a chance to win last night, though Mo Vaughn, who rifled another mammoth shot off the scoreboard, supplied the only offense for this all-or-nothing offense until Vance Wilson homered when the Mets were a couple of touchdowns behind.
And such a pitcher wouldn’t have had much of a chance to win a game the Mets lost 16-3 with Roberto Alomar committing one error in the boxscore and another of the mental variety. Would Alomar have caught the throw back into the infield from Timo Perez and would Alomar have broken more quickly to cover first on a bunt fielded by third baseman Edgardo Alfonzo if a better pitcher than D’Amico had started the game?
No, the answer does not lie outside the organization. It lies inside the guts of the players and decision-makers already inside the organization.
If a loss such as this one does not embarrass the accomplished veterans to get mad as hell to the point they aren’t going to take this anymore, then anything short of a three-team deal that delivers Pedro Martinez and Alex Rodriguez to Queens in time for tonight’s game will accomplish that.
It’s not Hernandez or Byrd this team needs as much as it is pride, and we don’t mean Curtis.
It’s time for the Mets to have enough pride as an organization to prohibit themselves from sending D’Amico to the mound for another start anytime soon. If that means rushing Aaron Heilman to the big leagues not even 14 months after he was drafted in the first round out of Notre Dame, then so be it. Hype the start, get a sellout, and if he shows he’s capable of getting major-league hitters out with raw talent, give him another start and hype that one too.
Since when do super talents rushed to the bigs completely fall apart anyway? That claim on the part of cautious general managers is so overdone. If he weren’t a tough, poised kid, the Mets wouldn’t have burned a first-round pick on him. Younger pitchers by the names of Mark Prior and Brett Myers are drawing big crowds and raves from big-league hitters. If Heilman proves too raw, send him back down, which the Mets would have to do before a work stoppage anyway, so that he could continue to pitch in the minors.
Don’t bother tuning into the scrawl at the bottom of your TV all day today hoping for breaking news from the Mets. In this case, the best news would be no news.
Come winter, with Cliff Floyd on the free-agent market, the Mets will need every penny they can save to sign him. This is no time and no team on which to waste a nickel. Make them right themselves.