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Marty Noble finds a new angle for the final game of the season.
Niese's season had ended days earlier, and now the Mets' season has closing punctuation as well; no exclamation point, of course. Appropriately, euthanasia took the form of a one-run defeat against a last-place team, requiring four hours, 14 minutes, 14 innings and one Oliver Perez to complete.
Before the top of the 14th added a sealer coat of ugly to a grotesque season, the Mets had enjoyed the last day of school. Giddy and all but liberated they were. Then with one foot out the door, they were called back for five innings of detention. If only Perez had been summoned in the ninth. ... Well, that would have been just cause for an investigation, and the Mets have enough folks looking at them funny these days.
The last day of school; we all know the feeling. The anticipation was palpable. And baseball, like grades K through 12, is heavy on routine. But beginning Monday, routine is not in effect. No suitcase, no hotel, no game, no batting practice. No regimen. Nothing uniform about these days, you might say.
Niese said: "I love it. School is out. Freedom and, unlike last year, I'm not hurt." |
and
R.A Dickey learned to embrace school and education.
"In elementary school," Dickey said, "I was like everyone else. The last day I was throwing papers, happy to be free. As I went on, the last day became less liberating and almost sad. Right in the precipice of sad."
Dickey isn't 21 either. He doesn't want to be liberated. Time at home with his family will be great. And then there's that triathlon he intends to complete. But he wants to know, "When does school start?" |
A dozen beat writers tweeting a hundred times a day doesn't add up to one fresh, unexpected take by a talented, curious writer whose love of the game shines through in his copy.
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