Mets vs. D'Backs, August 25

I traveled up to Phoenix with my daughter to watch the Mets play the Diamondbacks in the 4th and final game of their series that started on Monday. After a couple blowouts by the Mets, this game was a refreshing pitchers duel that the Mets won 3-1. Pedro Martinez pitched against Javier Vasquez - the two aces for their teams. Before the D'Backs came into being, I was a diehard Mets fan with the years 1969 and 1986 prominantly held in my hall of baseball memories (to which I added 2001 thanks to my D'Backs). Today, I normally root for the Mets - that is, unless they are playing my D'Backs. In the first few innings, Pedro couldn't find the plate if he was standing on it - he walked 4 players and hit Luis Gonzales with a pitch. But he did manage to keep the D'Backs from scoring and kept a no hitter alive until the 6th inning. I doubted he would have pitched a complete game even if he had the no-no going still since he had racked up a lot of pitches in those first few innings before setting down. Vasquez pitched well too, but gave up a couple runs in the 2nd. We had great seats and I took lots of pictures with my Canon 20D (See here and here for a couple examples).

Despite being at the BOB in Phoenix, there were a lot of Mets fans in attendance (and a few Yankees and Red Sox fans too). A few were loud and obnoxious (brought back "fond" memories of visits to Shea in the mid-1970s when we lived in NY), but most were quite friendly. A family of 5 sat next to us (we were in section 131, row 21, seats 18 & 19), 4 of them Mets fans and one anomalous young man, a Yankees fan. The father and I struck up a gamelong conversation. It was their first visit to the BOB having flown into Phoenix that afternoon from NY (they were from New Jersey) on a family vacation to the Grand Canyon and other nearby attractions. He surprised his family with a ballgame. It made the game that much more fun, bringing back memories of my early years as a diehard Mets fan and the many visits to Shea. If you were there during the early to mid 1970s, you'll remember Willie Mays' pink Cadillac with "Say Hey" on the license plate, or the guy with the thousand placards, or the Mr. Met electric cart that brought relievers in from the bullpens, or banner day, or the thrill of watching Tom Seaver's fastball making that distinctive sound as it popped into Jerry Grote's glove, or a Dave Kingman homerun (usually balanced by a couple strikeouts in his other at bats), or a typical Jerry Koosman solid outing, or scrappy Bud Harrelson turning a double play at 2nd, or Tug McGraw's cries of "You Gotta Believe" in the stretch run into the 1973 World Series. No wonder I became such a baseball fan....

Of course, as luck would have it last night, the Timing Belt on our Amigo broke about halfway home, near Eloy (can you say "the middle of nowhere?"), but we finally made it home and hopefully the repairman at the garage at Picacho Peak is finding nothing else wrong with the car as I type this.

A hero crashes and burns....

What a waste. Remember what you may have thought back in 1985 about Dwight Gooden? I certainly thought he was a lock after only 2 years for the baseball Hall of Fame! He went 24-4, posted an incredible 1.53 ERA and won what I figured would be the first of about 8 or 10 Cy Young awards. Gooden was virtually unhitable most of the year - it was amazing to see. Being a Mets fan, all was looking up, despite their finishing 2nd to the Cardinals in the NL East that season. We had Gooden (Rookie of the Year in 1984) and Strawberry (ROY in 1983). And for a time, it seemed quite good - in 1986, the Mets put it all together and won the World Series and Gooden still looked good going 17-6 with a 2.84 ERA - not bad. But he never again had one of those years like 1985. At the time, I blamed Mel Stottlemyer, his pitching coach with the Mets for tweaking Doc's delivery. Little did we know that there was something more sinister going on in Doc's life. This lock for the Hall of Fame and his good friend Darryl Strawberry (another lock for the Hall of Fame, it seemed back in 1985) both suffered from using cocaine. They were both caught eventually and both careers suffered badly, spiraling into mediocrity and even disgrace.

Worse, today there is a report about Dwight Gooden fleeing after a traffic stop for DUI. This guy should have been one of the all time greats. Now, he is a fugitive from the law and a disgrace. His nephew, Gary Sheffield who plays for the "evil empire", the NY Yankees, was quoted as saying:

I've done pretty much everything you could possibly do, it just comes to a point where you have to let him go through what he's got to go through. Sometimes, it is God's plan for us to back off and let him do it, because the family has tried everything.

While I don't agree with his claim about it being "God's plan", it is clear that Goodens problems have gone beyond simply affecting only himself. I hope he somehow is able to wrangle in his demons and straighten out his life, but at this point, I will not be surprised if the story continues to have a sad plot with a tragic ending.

A sad, sad story. Doc, I hope you surprise me and get your life in order.