So summer ticks down

And the fall season will soon be upon us. Translation: For me that means starting next week my work week escalates from 37 hours a week to roughly 57 hours a week. Somehow I find more time to blog then probably because at my night job I'm just waiting for sports scores to come into the office and I don't have much to do except check e-mail and blog.

I went to Carol Bugh's visitation on Tuesday. I've only been to one funeral, a burial, and a wake in my 25 years of life. This was something else. I remember when Papa (my dad's dad died) last January, he had 2 days of visitation. Carol's visit was one day from 3-9 pm. I got there at 4 and I saw a line of people stretched through the whole church building. I didn't get to the casket until 5:30. By comparison, if I had 30 people at my funeral who genuinely liked me, that would be okay with me.

My Mets are fading faster than Milli Vanilli's career. Pedro on the DL, Cliff Floyd in a walking cast, Ricky Ledee is 1-for-12 with 5 strikeouts since coming, In 3 games only 1 run was not scored by or driven in by our leadoff hitter Jose Reyes. Our big imported slugger Carlos Delgado looks more like Wilson Delgado, the career minor league utility player. David Wright has disappeared, Carlos Beltran has done nothing in August after a torrid July. Julio Franco finally looks 50 years old. And last and certainly least, Lastings Milledge. This is a guy we wouldn't trade to get Manny Ramirez? I know he's 20, but he looks lost out there. Not too many positives. Aaron Heilman is pitching well. Paul Lo Duca is hitting great in spite of the gambling and divorce allegations that are swirling around him right now.

We're up by 12 games on Philly, but the way this team is playing, they are not winning a playoff series. They're not beating LA and they would struggle against St. Louis, Cincinnati, San Diego, Philly, or Arizona. I've said I will take winning the NL pennant if we lose to the Tigers or an AL West team. A loss to the Red Sox, Yankees, or White Sox would be worse than losing the NLCS.
Right now, I don't know if we can win one round. Slumps happen, but being outscored 27-4 by Philly in 3 games? Now today, they face Scott Mathieson, who they lit up last time. And our young super pitcher John Maine goes for us. This is a must win game, plain and simple. The Mets must send a message to Philadelphia.

As I've said, I'll be in Baltimore with my father this weekend. 6:30 flight so I'll likely be awake by 3 am. Hopefully, I'll have some photos to post from the trip within a week from now. As always, thanks for reading.