Saturday, June 16, 2012

Dunce Cap Award: New York Mets

I'm a Mets fan as much as the next guy, but I'm also a realist, so I had a problem with the lack of logic of this latest piece of Met ignominy.

On Wednesday, knuckleballer R. A. Dickey, the Mets' top winner, checked Tampa Bay on 1 hit, the lone run scoring unearned thanks to an error by David Wright in the 9th inning of a 9-1 Mets victory, raising Dickey's record to 10-1, tops in the National League (St. Louis' Lance Lynn also won his 10th, but he has more losses, so in terms of winning percentage, Dickey is ahead of Lynn). What the Mets were hoping for, in vain, of course, was to have a 1st inning infield single by B. J. Upton reversed into an error charged to Wright, hoping against hope that Dickey could be credited with a no-hitter, the team's 2nd this month.

On Friday, Major League Baseball, predictably, denied the Mets their lame request. Even Dickey admitted there was no point in this exercise, and after watching a replay of Upton's hit, well, even if Wright fields it cleanly, there's no guarantee he could've thrown Upton out. Later on Friday, the Mets' modest 3-game winning streak ended, losing to Cincinnati, and the loss dropped the Mets back to 3rd place in the NL East.

Was the loss karmic justice? Can't say for sure, but even the most die-hard Mets fans would feel slighted by the fact that the team wanted a cheap way of getting another no-hitter. They've had a zillion 1-hitters by comparison, and Dickey is almost certainly a lock for the All-Star team. All they did was make the misguided effort to try to cheapen his latest gem. Manager Terry Collins knew what MLB's ruling would be, but felt that it wouldn't hurt to try. Oh, really?

All this exercise in futility did was get some headlines for the Mets, to remind people they still have a pulse, as they swept Tampa Bay to wipe the stench out of getting swept themselves by the Yankees last weekend. A box of dunce caps are headed to Citi Field, and I'm sure they'll figure out who deserves them more. I think.

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