Saturday, September 02, 2006
welcome back cornelius
“You can watch the game,” TBF said. “Guess who’s back?”
“CLIFF?! Cliff is BACK?”
Yes, Mr. Floyd is back, and before I talk about his on-field performance, I just have to say: WTF was that on his FACE? Cliff, what are you DOING, ruining that magnificent visage with facial hair. I’m sure Zoe will have more than a few things to say about this issue of vital importance to *all* Mets fans.
At some point during the game, TBF initated a heated discussion about the post-season pitching rotation—with ME. Yes, me. Not his best friend, not his friend who works at ESPN, yours truly, MG. We were debating the merits of Darren Oliver over John Maine - my concern about Maine is how he will hold up in a playoff situation - and it wasn’t until we reached some kind of agreement that I pointed out the fact that we had been having this discussion and he didn’t blink once the entire time. He just got kind of quiet.
We were watching on a slight delay since at another point during the game, TBF started discussing when the Mets were going to Pittsburgh - probably during yet another recitation on the theme of “God, the Houston ballpark is so gorgeous but there is no way in hell I can ever see myself voluntarily going to Houston for any reason whatsoever” - when I said, “It’s the weekend of the 16th. You are going with [best friend].”
“But the Mets are going to clinch before that weekend. He only wanted to go if we were going to clinch.”
“Maybe we should go.” MG just got a paycheck that includes massive overtime hours.
So we put the game on pause while we looked at airfare, hotels, schedules, ticket prices, gas mileage and consider what we would have to do to the car before driving it any distance.
In short: we’re going to PNC Park in two weeks. It will be our first roadtrip game no matter what TBF says (he insists that Yankee Stadium was a roadtrip game, “They were wearing the grey uniforms.” I hit him with a pillow.)
Back to the game:
Cliff was wonderful.
Jose Valentin continues to amaze: “I wish he was more loveable,” I lamented. “I’m starting to love him,” insists TBF.
Mr. Delgado gets honorable mention for his assist with the Valentin play.
Walking D. Wright to get to Cliff has ALWAYS been a mistake, people. Did you not get that memo?
It’s the 9th inning and I’ve already messed things up for me because the post-game alert came into my mailbox (and I was still researching Pittsburgh options at the time) so I finally shut the laptop. It really doesn’t matter to me if I know the score most of the time; I still like watching the game. TBF hates if he knows what’s going to happen but if he knows I know it will drive him nuts.
“Do we win?”
“You just got done with shielding your eyes so you could avoid the MLB.com homepage while I was looking for Pirates tickets. You don’t want to know.”
“No, bad things could happen here, I want to know.”
In the 9th inning, though, it does bother me that I know, I discovered tonight. And that bothered me until #15, Carlos “MF” Beltran, engaged in a play so outstanding it will overshadow that David Wright barehanded catch in San Diego.
“CARLOS BELTRAN, YOU ARE MY HERO!” I yelled, and we were about to do the victory dance until he collapsed onto the field.
“NOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooooooooo!” yelled TBF. “Don’t get HURT! NO! Willie! Put him on the DL until after September 15th!”
But we watched that catch again, and again, and again, and again, and I can’t wait for Baseball Tonight so I can see it again.
Yes, I just said “I can’t wait for Baseball Tonight.” It still amazes me, somehow.
In the meantime, fingers crossed for Carlos. (No, the other Carlos.)
Tomorrow, MG tries to understand the whole Magic Number thing.
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Anybody got any tips for a PNC Park trip? Send them along to metsgrrl at gmail dot com. I know about Primati’s already. :)
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