Divine Providence

"Well, at least I can say I gave it my all. I gave it every ounce of strength I had left in my body. Unfortunately, it just didn't work out for me in the end."

Who, you may ask, is responsible for the above quote? Is it D-Backs starter Claudio Vargas discussing his unspectacular 6 innings of work last night? Or is it Aaron Heilman talking about his inexcusable decision to groove an 0-2 meatball change-up to Chad Tracy with 2 runners on base? Or perhaps it's Arizona closer Jose Velverde addressing his second blown save in as many days. In fact, the above quote is from yours truly, Toasty Joe, describing his epic struggle to make it through last night's game without falling asleep. In the end, a 3-hour trek from Providence to Manhattan, followed by 3 more hours of moving Flitgirl's books and miscellaneous knick-knacks down a 5th-story walk-up in 90-degree heat, and then loading them back up in my place, followed by another trip up to Westchester to return my mom's car, then a 40-minute train ride back to the city, proved far too taxing for my delicate psyche. Throw in two separate rain delays, and I was gassed by the 4th inning.

My last memory of the game is Heilman putting two guys on base with nobody out in 7th with the Mets leading by 2. (Nice job). So, I applied my west-coast night game corollary, and decided to call it a night (If they blow the lead, at least I didn't have to watch it - if they don't, then I can't be too mad because they won). This means, of course, I missed yet another comeback in the 9th and yet another walk-off from Mr. Wright. The guy's just unreal. As are the Mets, who are now 10-0 in the first games of series this year.

Now let me back up a second for a quickie recap of the Florida series. Due to my busy schedule, guess which was the only game I watched pretty much in its entirety? You guessed it, Friday night's SUCK ME Special! 2 hits, people. 2 lousy, stinking hits off the worst team in the National Leauge. This was majorly aggravating. I was also a little disturbed by some of the comments from Pedro after the game - "I didn't lose today. I went out to win and finished the game a winner," Martinez said. "I did what I was supposed to do for our team to win." Uh oh.

Saturday's game I listened to in the car on the way up to Providence until the signal was lost (right around the same time Glavine gave up his first hit - how convenient). Then, miraculously, I caught the last 2 innings in the hotel in Seekonk, MA, as the game was showing on Fox. Nice!

Sunday's contest I missed in its entirety, as I was watching Theresa become a real-live doctor of medicine (not a bogus phony "juris doctor" like me). Here's a pic I took of Flitgirl (well, the back of Flitgirl's head) trying to get her attention (and succeeding) from the upper deck of the chapel where the graduation took place.

Overall, an excellent holiday weekend for the Mets, marred only by a classic SUCK ME performance and some Pedro bitching. But hey, I'll take 3 out of 4 any day. Viva Soler tonight! Vamanos!