"Julio needs a ring!"
Carlos Delgado already has a ring, of course, and has had one for a long time - he was a member of the 1993 Blue Jays. It's odd that he looks set to finally make his post-season debut thirteen years later. Last night, of course, he made his first Toronto appearance as a visiting player. This completely overshadowed the return of Chris Woodward, who was also back in the Rogers Centre for the first time as an opposing player. And no one cares at all about the Return of Steve Trachsel...
The Mets pre-game notes pointed out that the three players were returning, and also pointed out that Toronto manager John Gibbons was one of the three players drafted by the Mets in the first round way back in 1980. Three first round picks? How did that happen? And who were they? Why, Darrel Strawberry, John Gibbons, and Billy Beane.
Lots of stuff about Delgado in the Mets' notes, of course - there's a sidebar on ExtraBases, his charitable foundation. He is the fourth Met ever to hit 20 homers in the first 72 games of a season. And, most painfully, they're tracking his pursuit of career milestones. His next homer, # 390 will tie him with Graig Nettles for 46th on the all-time list. He'll then set his sights on... Joe Carter. That was depressing - that's the sort of thing I'd like to be following first hand. Oh well.
The Mets notes did not mention (and why would they?) that Delgado holds the Toronto franchise record for career home runs, doubles, walks, runs batted in, runs, total bases, slugging percentage, etc etc.
The crowd was fairly eager to get the obligatory ovation over with - every time the camera passed over Delgado and his image appeared on the scoreboard, you would hear a quick ripple of applause, which would then instantly dissipate as the camera moved on. Eventually, he came to bat in the top of the first. He was promptly accorded the ovation - which I would describe as warm and affectionate - he so richly deserved, and we got on with the game.
Items of note:
Star of the Game - Tom Glavine, obviously, and let us pause for a moment and remind ourselves what a great, great pitcher Tom Glavine has been and continues to be. He is obviously a no-doubt-whatsoever Hall of Famer, even if he never throws another pitch in the major leagues. He's obviously nowhere as impressive as Nolan Ryan, say, but just as obviously he's been a much better pitcher. He's 40 years old now, and he has won more games this season than any other pitcher in baseball. Did anyone predict that before the season started? Anyone?
Glavine has actually pitched quite well these past couple of years - his first year in New York was a pretty rocky Period of Adjustment, but he's been the same old Glavine ever since. He didn't get a whole lot of help from his team until this year, however. His modus operandi has changed a little these past few years, and he blames it all on Questec. As everyone knows, Glavine used to start off games by throwing a pitch on the outside corner. If the umpire called it a strike, he'd try throwing the same pitch an inch off the outside corner. If the umpire called that a strike, he'd try two inches off the corner... and so on. Glavine says Questec has changed all that, although the prospect of John Hirschbeck calling balls and strikes must have had Glavine thinking that this would be just like old times.
Now Glavine works in and out, up and down, and changes speeds. Man, does he change speeds. He hardly even bothers with a true breaking ball. He throws fastballs and changeups, and he changes speeds on both. That's right - he changes speeds on his change of speed. The two pitches almost overlap - his changeup last night ranged from the low 70s to 80 mph - his fastball from 83 to 88. It's almost like he's throwing just one pitch, but he's throwing that thing at an utterly unpredictable velocity, and he locates it pretty much anywhere he wants.
And it works. There are lots and lots of guys who can throw 95 mph. There's throwing, however, and there's pitching. As Warren Spahn, the first LH pitcher to win 300 games, once explained: "Hitting is timing. Pitching is upsetting timing."
And throwing doesn't really enter into it. I think major league teams should give their young pitchers videotapes of this guy working. "See? This is how it's done. This is how a pitcher does it."
Unsung Hero - Paul LoDuca rapped out three hits, two of them doubles, and held up the glove for Glavine to hit all night long.
Defensive Play - Lyle Overbay led off the seventh with a double to the wall in left-center - well, it was a double until Lastings Milledge got on his horse and outran the damn ball. He arrived at the wall with just enough time to turn and make a leaping catch against the scoreboard. The impact jarred his cap loose, and revealed a rather disturbing do-rag beneath. (Two words: "reservoir tip." Let us not speak of it.). We have one honourable mention - in the fourth inning, Xavier Nady hit a slow roller just past the pitcher. Russ Adams, who had been shading Nady up the middle, came scooting in a long long way to barehand the ball and nip the runner at first.
Defensive Misplay - Not so much a misplay as a missed opportunity. In the third inning, Delgado came to the plate with one out and runners on first and second. He stroked a ground ball to Overbay at first base. Overbay threw to second to retire Beltran, but the relay from Hill wasn't in time to retire Delgado. I'm not sure what went wrong there. The ball wasn't hit very hard, but it wasn't a slow roller or anything like that. Delgado was hustling down the line, but he's still Carlos Delgado - i.e. not exactly fleet of foot. I thought they were going to turn two. Instead, David Wright stepped up to the plate...
DP Watch - The Jays were already down 5-0 when first Molina (in the fourth) and Hill (in the fifth) contributed the night's Rally Killers.
The Strange Evening of Alex Rios - Never a dull moment. He singled in the bottom of the first, and after Wells followed with a single, he was perched on second with Troy Glaus batting. At which point Rios lit out in an attempt to steal third. Tom Glavine, alas, was not yet into his motion and Glavine hasn't been caught napping in about fifteen years. Rios was easily erased in the ensuing rundown. In the top of the second, Nady ripped a low line drive up the middle past a diving Adams - the ball scooted into right center, and somehow eluded Rios, who seemed to take a peculiar route on the play and ended up either diving or falling down as it went past him to the wall. No harm done, as Milledge flied out to Rios two pitches later, and Alex alertly came up throwing, prepared to nail Nady if he tried to score - which Nady may well have done if there hadn't been three outs, and everyone hadn't been jogging off the field.
The rest of his night was much better - he rapped out two more hits and a sac fly in his three other plate appearances. In the field, he made a nice running catch on Beltran in deep right-centre, and recorded another BaseRunner Kill when LoDuca kept digging for third on his RBI double in the seventh. But it sure looked like Rios' mind was elsewhere when the game started.
The Mets, the Mets, the Amazin' Mets. Besides being really good, the Mets are an interesting and appealing team in a number of ways. I think so, anyway. What's odd is that they have almost no one playing a key role who could be described as in their prime - Carlos Beltran, and maybe Billy Wagner. Instead, the Mets feature some famous old guys who are doubtless on the downside of their careers, but still have some serious game. Tom Glavine has five 20 win seasons, a couple of Cy Youngs, 286 career wins - he's 40 years old, and he's the ace of the staff. Or maybe he's not, because the Mets also feature that skinny-right hander who used to pitch for Boston. The Jays will miss Pedro Martinez this weekend, which is always kind of a good news bad news thing. The good news is that you miss Pedro Martinez, because that whole trying to hit against him really sucks. The bad news is that you miss Pedro Martinez, because a great pitcher is always worth watching, and Pedro is even more worth watching than most.
Pedro is 34 years old, and Sunday is Carlos Delgado's 34th birthday. Delgado's actually having an off-year by his own standards. He's batting just .258 - that's 25 points below his career record and it would be the lowest mark he has ever posted since becoming a full-time player. On the other hand, he's on pace to hit 46 HRs and drive in 120 runs, so it's not like he's gone completely off the cliff. Another significant way he clearly helps the Mets is... well, by being Carlos Delgado. He's the Big Dog, and they badly needed that. Their best hitter is a 23 year old in just his second full season. David Wright is this team's best player. But Delgado's been The Man on almost every team he's ever played for, and he's the right guy and the right personality for the job. He knows what's involved, he's not intimidated by it, he can deal with it. He's comfortable in the role, and Delgado's arrival has liberated Carlos Beltran. Beltran, who is intense, quiet, and somewhat withdrawn was very ill-suited to be the centrepiece of a New York team, and it very clearly got to him last season.
Besides Glavine and Delgado, though, the Mets also feature Orlando Hernandez and Julio Franco. Anybody who doesn't like these guys just doesn't like baseball. El Duque goes up against Doc Halladay tomorrow, and while I don't like his chances a whole lot, I have no doubt that it'll be lots of fun to watch those 56 mph curveballs go floating up to the plate, and immensely entertaining to see major league hitters flailing away at them.
As for Julio... Mike Green mentioned the other day that what Julio is doing at age 47 is far more impressive than the celebrated exploits of George Blanda, who was mainly just kicking extra points by this stage of his life. A better comparison is Gordie Howe. When Howe finally packed it in, at age 50, he wasn't quite what Franco is now - but he was still able to contribute. Still good enough to play. And when he was Franco's age, he was quite a bit better than that. So we'll see what Franco has left when he turns 50. Meanwhile, at age 47, he's hitting better than .320 and leads the major league in pinch hits. He is already the oldest man ever to hit a home run, and the second oldest to steal a base.
But here's the thing - neither Franco nor Howe, at this stage of their career, was anything near what they had been before. Of course not. But Howe started at the very top of the mountain - at his peak in the early 1950, he was as good a hockey player as anyone who ever lived. (We can argue about this forever - I know the greatest ever was either Howe, Gretzky, or Orr but I don't know which. The argument has nothing to do with career length - it's all about domination at their peak.)
When you start at the top of the mountain, you can come down a long, long way. It took almost 30 years, but Howe eventually declined to where the average NHL player was. But Julio Franco was nowhere near the top of the mountain. He was a Very Good player - an all-star, a batting champion - but not one of the Immortals. Time should have dealt with him long ago. He shouldn't be a better hitter than Shea Hillenbrand, not anymore.
Anyway - there are indeed some fascinating old guys on the Mets. They even have Jose Valentin, whom some of us were proposing as someone the Blue Jays should take a flier on a couple of years back. But we're all pretty familiar with Carlos and El Duque and Glavine and Franco. And we remember Carlos Beltran from His KC days, and we certainly remember his incredible post-season with Houston in 2004. But the Mets have some young guns, too.
So the player I really wanted to see was David Wright, the sensational young third baseman. They're chanting "MVP" at Shea Stadium these days when Wright comes up to the plate. Now it seems unlikely that Wright can wrest the award away from Albert Pujols... but on the other hand, this is a very good third baseman who's hitting .337 and on pace to hit 40 homers and drive in 140 runs. Pujols might want to start looking over his shoulder. Wright had a very quiet evening for the most part, except for that one at bat where he busted the whole damn ball game open. He's 23 years old.
And Lastings Milledge! Drafted in the first round in 2003 (12th overall), he hit .318 in A and AA ball last season and was supposed to be in AAA this year - but Cliff Floyd got hurt. I've already noted his excellent catch on Overbay's drive - at the plate, he crushed a homer to dead centre in his second time at bat. He's 21 years old.
And Jose Reyes! All I knew about him was that he was supposed to have amazing range, but he might not have enough plate discipline to hit at the top of the lineup. Oh yeah... supposed to be pretty fast, too. Well, he showed us the speed in the seventh inning, scoring from first with ridiculous ease on LoDuca's double. As for the plate discipline - it's coming along quite nicely. He's drawn 29 walks so far, which is already a career high, and has a decent enough OBP of .348. He didn't have much opportunity to show off his range last night, but that's OK. What no one had warned me about was his arm. Holy Jumping Jehosophat! Great Gosh Almighty! No shortstop in the American League has an arm like this, no one. No one comes close. Reyes has the best shortstop arm I've seen since... oh, Ripken probably. He only made three throws across the diamond, and each one took my breath away. Each was an absolute blur, right on a clothesline into Delgado's glove. He's 23 years old.
Willie Randolph is the man who manages this crew. Willie was an easy player to admire, a class act in the circus that was the Bronx Zoo. As a player, of course, Randolph was a charter member of the Hall of the Very Good. Happily, he still looks exactly the same as when he played - until he takes off his cap for the anthem. Willie Randolph has shaved his head! I was shocked and astonished!
I think they're an easy team to cheer for. If you have any doubts, just remember this - do you really want to see the Braves rise from their grave and stop them? (The losing streak is over.)
And anyway...
Julio needs a ring!