"Call in the National Guard! Send as many men as you can spare! Because we are KILLING the Phillies!"

As much as it pains me to quote that loud-mouth jack-ass Shannon Sharpe, I had to do it today. Looking at these standings makes me feel like I owe someone money. How much better can things get? Hopefully we'll know the answer to that one in October.

(1) To me, this was maybe the most impressive win of the whole road-trip. I know that might sound crazy in light of some of the utter bombardments the Mets have administered on this trip. But consider the fact that Mets won yesterday afternoon despite (a) the Mets' offense almost completely drying up after Sugar Pants' first inning blast; (b) Lidle settling in and pitching quite well after the first; (c) the Burrell demon rising from the grave (I guess I slayed him a bit too soon); and (d) the fact that this was an absolute, 100%, must-have-to-have-it-do-or-die game for the Phillies. Still, the Mets perservered thanks to positively SURGICAL innings by Heilman-Duaner-Wags and terrific defense once again (only 6 errors this whole roadtrip). Put it all together, and that's as amazing a win as they come.

(2) Schwizz - still waiting for that DL announcement on Burrell. Too bad it didn't come before yesterday's game.

(3) Alex is still pressing. Poor guy. I must confess, I flipped on 880 yesterday when he came up with the tying runs on base and only 1 out, just so I could hear the booing for myself when he popped up/struck out (it was the latter). The fans did not disappoint. Amazingly, neither Sterling nor Suzyn Waldman said a word about it. Of course, I had to snap off the radio pretty quickly because my ears were starting to bleed, so I may have missed it.

(4) Great to see Heilman right himself. His great inning shouldn't be lost in yesterday's barrage of good news.

Finally, this has nothing to do whatsoever with baseball, but it's hilarious and I had to share it. They're shooting some movie/TV show down here by my office this week, and those movie trucks and trailers are everywhere. As I was leaving my office yesterday, there was a teamster stretched out on a lounge chair taking a nap in the early evening sunshine. I had to take a picture of him with my cellphone. "Ohhh, I always wanted to be a teamster...so lazy and surly!"
I was looking for the Latvian midget who plays Milhouse when he gets hurt, but unfortunately he was nowhere to be found.

Have a great weekend, and may the beat go on at Shea!