In 1983, George Brett went berserk when an umpire's controversial call cost him a homer and appeared to cost the Royals a victory over the Yankees. Last night, Jose Reyes went berserk when an umpire's controversial call cost him a triple and appeared to doom the Mets to defeat. But the Royals would eventually win that game, and last night, the Mets ended up winning as well.
See video of Reyes' reaction after getting called out at third.
See video from the Pine Tar Game (Squawker Lisa was at this game!)
Unlike the Royals, the Mets did not have the call overturned, but they also did not have to wait 25 days to finish the game and get the win after the American League ruled that Brett's homer should be allowed and the game would have to resume at that point. Instead, the Mets rallied, not once, but twice, in the late innings to beat the Nationals and win their sixth straight.
If this turns out to be a magical year for the Mets (not that I think it will, but that's the nature of magical years - you can't predict them) the magic began last night. How else do you explain Daniel Murphy homering to tie the game right after Reyes was called out, making a bad play at second in the bottom of the eighth to help the Nationals score the go-ahead run, then doubling in two runs in the ninth to seal the win?
The most magical thing I will hope for this season is that the Mets find a way to keep Reyes. He's the catalyst who hit a clutch extra-base hit in the eighth inning of a 2-1 game and legged it out for what should have been a triple. Then, when he was called out, he displayed fire you wouldn't see from most Mets.
The reality check is that, even after winning six straight, the Mets are still 11-13, but at least they are out of last place and look headed in the right direction.
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One final note on last night's game - Rick Ankiel had to give up pitching because he couldn't control his pitches from the mound to the plate, yet he was able to make an unbelievable dead-on throw from the outfield wall to third base on the Reyes hit.
Jon, just to put Jose Reyes in a perspective that helps his cause, let me tell you about Jose Antonio Reyes. A soccer star in his native Spain, born 3 months after the Met shortstop, he starred for Sevilla ("Seville" in English) before coming to the London club Arsenal. He made a big splash as they won the 2004 League title and the 2005 FA Cup (think "March Madness") and then lost in the final of the European Champions League (think "World Series").
ReplyDeleteBut throughout the 2004-05 and 2005-06 seasons, stuck behind better players at his position, he started to whine, and wanted to go to the leading team in Spain, Real Madrid. He continued to whine there, until he was "exiled" to Atletico Madrid -- calling "Atleti" the Mets to Real's Yankees would be an insult to the Mets. He's still there, and not especially mourned by his former teams.
At the "New York Football Challenge" at Red Bull Arena last July, I saw someone wearing a Reyes Arsenal Number 9 shirt, and someone obviously unfamiliar with the European game wondered if the guy had bought it by mistake, thinking it was the Mets' Jose Reyes. Nope. The Mets' Jose Reyes is more reliable. If not, as yet, more successful.