Don't Jump

How a championship should be celebrated (left).

I've been away, sleeping under the cover of a Big Agnes tent in the Smoky Mountains, watching elk (yes, there are elk on the east coast), building campfires, hiking the Boogerman Trail, and drinking cans of sweet tasting Modelo. Not all at once.

It seems I picked a good time to go too, since the Mets put together an Amazin' string of losses that must have been just gut-wrenching. Three straight 2-1 games, multiple walkoff losses, all told it was five straight going into last night. Even last night's game feels like a loss. Wagner blows Pelfrey's shutout and the Shea Stadium fans were finished. Beltran eventually won the game with a homerun, and the Mets celebrated around homeplate as if they won the pennant. Unfortunately all he did was break a five game losing streak. What the team should have done was give a short round of high fives and get back in the clubhouse. You don't deserve to celebrate like that after first blowing the game to set up that homerun.

And what's the deal with that 'team jumping together around home plate' thing anyway? I hate that thing, whatever it is. In '04, when the Red Sox won the World Series, first time in 357 years or whatever it was, the on-field celebration consisted of a 'team jumping together around Doug Mirabelli' thing. Then some hugs and champagne. Horrible. When you win a championship, there needs to be a '86 Mets style pileup on the mound. If the pitcher doesn't get tackled, you've basically blown the celebration. And when you haven't won a championship since the 14th century, the celebration needs to consist of more than the standard 'team jumping together like a bunch of schoolgirls' thing.

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I will go down as a second-guesser here, but only because I failed to post my opinion on Church's injury, not because I didn't have the opinion. Basically, the Mets did just about everything they could do exacerbate Church's concussion symptoms, and nothing to help. He needed to go on the DL immediately. It was quite obvious, and I don't know why anyone would fuck around with a severe blow to the head like he took. It's not a very difficult decision really, the Blue Jays know what to do with a concussion injury. This was reported on MLB.com about Aaron Hill....

Second baseman Aaron Hill, who has been sidelined with a concussion since May 29, could potentially begin a Minor League rehab assignment sometime next week. J.P.Ricciardi (Blue Jays GM) said Hill has experienced no symptoms for the past two days. Ricciardi noted that Toronto's medical staff wants Hill -- eligible to be activated from the DL on Saturday -- to have gone at least a week sans symptoms before shipping him out to play some rehab games.

What do you know, "at least a week sans symptoms" before playing baseball again. I just hope the Mets didn't ruin Church's entire season, or worse, his career.