As a New York Mets fan, I was conflicted beyond belief last night. Even when sucking monkey butt, to cheer against the Mets would be a sin punishable by being forced to swim in the East River, I think. Last night not only did I cheer against the Mets, I cheered for the Philadelphia Phillies. Mets fans are supposed to HATE the Phillies. I do hate them... generally... except when Pedro Martinez is pitching. And last night against the Mets he pitched a doozy! (Hmm, I don't think I've ever typed that word before. Cool.)
ANYWAY... at this point in September, just three weeks before the end of the season, it's a game that should have had importance or ideally no importance as hopefully the Mets would have been so far ahead in the division by now that they'd have 1st Place locked up. Not quite in '09... again. So an unimportant game it was, for the most part, but as a Mets fan not living in the NY-NJ area, I've got to watch when they're on national TV.
Dilemma, though, as my favorite football team -- Da Bearz -- was also on. Season opener and not only were they on Sunday Night Football, they were playin' the Packers. No Favre for the Pack anymore but still an important game. Too bad there was barely any offense and the game sucked. No worries 'cause Da Bearz'll get 'em at Soldier Field later in da season. And if they had Ditka, the score, easily, would be like 190 to negative 10.
Anyway... after baseball I got to see the end of that disappointment but for awhile there it was all Pedro dominating the Mets. He kicked the Mets' collective asses and how sweet it was -- seven strong innings, 6 strike outs, 0 runs. He was in command. That's pitchin', man! No one expected him to come out to pitch the 8th, especially after going beyond 100 pitches for his second outing in a row. Looked like he put in a great 7 and that was that. But since the Phils' bullpen can't be trusted with less than a ten run lead, they went with Pedro for another 3 outs. First batter for the Mets: hero David Wright. When he struck out, holy moly, that was the moment when I cheered the loudest. And that was the moment I realized what a traitor-for-a-night I was. Uhhhh... I hate the Phillies, remember?! Yes, I knew that. Total conflict of interest and it'll never happen again.
But when ya love baseball, last night was a dandy!
