After a 5 and 2 start, the Mets have gone 5 and 13 since. It kinda feels like the season is slipping away already. The April schedule was considered soft. To finish the first month under break-even shouldn\u2019t prompt panic with two wildcards in the deck but the team\u2019s weaknesses are glaring and seem likely to fester.<\/p>\n
Perhaps the most frustrating development of the young season is how brutal Met cleanup batter Ike Davis has looked at the plate. In 85 at-bats, Ike has struck out 29 times. He no longer gets written into the four slot in the order. On Tuesday night, he batted in the six spot.<\/p>\n
Met fans are used to seeing Ike whiff. He\u2019s good for 150 strikeouts a season. But this year, his swing is almost always late.<\/p>\n
Appearing on Francesa\u2019s radio show Tuesday afternoon, Bobby Valentine seemed to blame Mets hitting coach Dave Hudgens for allowing Ike to rack up so many plate appearances without altering an obvious flaw in his mechanics.<\/p>\n
Said Bobby V: \u201cI don\u2019t think (Ike\u2019s) swing is a functional swing. People in the Met organization don\u2019t like to talk mechanics and I don\u2019t know why. He\u2019s missing a whole beat in his swing. I don\u2019t know why (the Mets) think he can go out there and be functional with that at the major league level. When he takes his practice swing, he takes a swing that\u2019s functional. Then when he gets in the box, he doesn\u2019t use the same little swing that he has when he\u2019s outside the box. Hitting is timing. Hitting a ball properly deals with a biomechanical link that you need to have to time the ball. I think it\u2019s fixable.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the game telecasts, Keith Hernandez has suggested moving Ike closer to the plate, given the opposition\u2018s strategy of working the lefty slugger on the outer edges of the plate. Bobby V said that wouldn\u2019t help. \u201cWith the swing he has right now, if you make him more vulnerable to pitches inside, he\u2019ll have no chance – and he\u2019ll cost the team a lot of money because he\u2019ll break his bat every time he swings. Getting him closer to the plate with the same mechanics is not a functional fix.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking of the Mets, the indie rock and roll band here most closely associated with the team got an unexpected invite to the Letterman show last week and played a song that directly refers to their fandom. The So So Glos (Brooklyn) made their network television debut on Late Night Friday and performed \u201cSon of an American.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n Bassist and singer Alex Levine was in fine form as he recited the following verse from the band\u2019s first track on the latest record:<\/p>\n Take me out to the ball game <\/em><\/strong> I’m a Son of an American<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n After singing the refrain, Levine took off his bass and handed it to a bandmate wearing a custom-made Mets hat. Levine went on to sing the balance of the song while flashing his typically frantic stage moves. It was a rare and memorable appearance by a quality indie band likely made possible by someone on Letterman\u2019s staff who had to stick their neck out to make the booking go down.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" After a 5 and 2 start, the Mets have gone 5 and 13 since. It kinda feels like the season is slipping away already. The April schedule was considered soft. To finish the first month under break-even shouldn\u2019t prompt panic … Continue reading
\nI want to sit in the stands and scream <\/em><\/strong>
\nI wanna root for the losing team <\/em><\/strong>
\nLike that day <\/em><\/strong>
\nThe stadium was Shea <\/em><\/strong>
\nAnd I lived in a rally cap <\/em><\/strong>
\nAnd the underdog would say<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n