Keyboard Quarterbacks

By Mark La Monica

Jets fans are bumming today. Mets fans are really bumming today.

Those who are fans of both the Mets and Jets, well, today is quite uncomfortable. If there's a company in the New York area that can measure productivity in the workplace on a daily basis, someone please contact them. Today could set an all-time record.

Perhaps no one captures the essence of being a Mets and Jets fan than Joe Benigno of WFAN Radio. Those who have been listening to Benigno on the air for the past 10-plus years understand. Those who haven't been listening, turn on your radio and set it to 660 AM. Or log on to wfan.com for live streaming of his weekday show from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Within the first three minutes, you'll understand the Benigno phenomenon.

After the Mets engineered the worst regular-season collapse in baseball history and the Jets lost to the worst-ranked-in-everything Bills, there's a good chance Benigno will lose his mind on the air Monday. Provided he even makes it into work. It's 50/50 that Benigno has already turned into the distressed and disheveled Ron Burgundy after he got fired in "Anchorman."

Either way, we're channeling our inner Benigno for this Monday morning. So, turn on your best Benigno voice and read along.

YOU JUST KNEW that when the first inning of the Mets-Marlins game took nearly as long as the entire first half of the Jets-Bills game, it wasn't going to be a good day.

YOU JUST KNEW that when the Jets didn't go for it on fourth-and-less-than-a-yard from the Buffalo 45 on the opening drive, they weren't going to win.

YOU JUST KNEW that when Eric Mangini and the Jets spent most of the last week praising the worst-ranked defense in the NFL, that worst-ranked defense in the league was going to play like the 2000 Baltimore Ravens.

YOU JUST KNEW that when the Bills decided to start rookie Trent Edwards, a guy who never started an NFL game and only had 20 pass attempts in his young NFL career, the Jets' defense would make him look like the next Tom Brady. (Edwards was 22-for-28 for 234 yards and the decisive touchdown pass.)

YOU JUST KNEW that when Tom Glavine said late in the week that he'd rather not have to pitch on Sunday because that would mean the Mets had clinched the NL East, he would have the worst start of his entire career (seven runs in 0.1 innings) when the Mets needed him the most.

YOU JUST KNEW the Phillies were going to win on Sunday.

YOU JUST KNEW that the Padres were going to lose and the Rockies were going to win, thereby rubbing it in more after the Mets lost.

YOU JUST KNEW that after the last two weeks, the Mets weren't going to win the one game all season they really needed to win.

YOU JUST KNEW Lee Evans, the Bills receiver who hadn't done anything all season coming into Sunday's game, would catch six passes and have a big game.

YOU JUST KNEW when Mike Nugent missed that field goal after Chad Pennington's fake-spike completion to Laveraneus Coles, it would be the difference in the game.

YOU JUST KNEW that Sunday was going to be the worst day ever.

By Mark La Monica

In the interest of full disclosure, we begin by stating that I am a Yankees fan.

But before you spit at the picture of me in the top right corner of this blog's main page, let me state that I am not here to bash the Mets. Not in the least. They had a terrific season.

And I know what it's like to watch your favorite team lose a Game 7 in the playoffs. Does the 2004 ALCS ring any bells, aside from Javier Vazquez's?

Rather, I'm curious to know how Mets fans feel today. Was being so close to the World Series utterly heartbreaking? Or, can you take some comfort in the fact that the Mets had a much better season than anyone expected?

As a Yankees fan, I'm rather immune to the postseason these days, and to early postseason exits. Secretly, I hope the Yankees miss the playoffs one of these years so it can restore the excitement of the playoff race and maybe clear out a little room on the bandwagon for those true fans.

There is little consoling on this day for Mets fans. At least not yet. I realize that. Especially since the game was lost in the ninth inning. By the second inning of Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS, every Yankee fan knew the season was over, so there was seven more innings to soothe the pain.

As that pain wears off for Mets fans this weekend -- or will it last longer? -- how will they look at this season? Successful? Another year without a World Series? Complete failure?

Use the comments link below and let us know what's going in your mind. (Please, no cursing. And no pro-Yankee propaganda. At least not for this blog post.)

Ponderings from behind the keyboard. . .

What's the over/under on Aaron Heilman taking a job in the Mets' starting rotation? My optimistic side hopes it's sooner rather than later, but my realistic side tells me the more time passes, the deeper he digs himself into the long reliever pigeon-hole. Every winning team needs a strong long-man, and Heilman certainly has looked the part, but his early-season success as a stopgap starter earned him the right to a few more starts.

Victor Zambrano and Kaz Ishii, no doubt, will continue their off-again, on-again adventures. Willie Randolph has already made it clear he's going to stick with those guys (and he sort of has to, based on whom they were traded for), so it may depend a lot more on injuries than it will on the performances of Ishii, Zambrano, or even Heliman himself. Over/under: July 15, two weeks before the trade deadline.

* * *

It's been a strange couple of months for the Mets' lineup, which seems to get hot and cold on an almost daily basis. First, Cliff Floyd was hot. So was Doug Mientkiewicz, for about a week. Then Mike Piazza had a couple of "Piazza-like" games. Then Mike Cameron came back, and he got hot. Now David Wright is hot, although he's starting to cool slightly. Jose Reyes has had some terrific games, both almost as many clunkers.

Carlos Beltran is even harder to figure. As bizarre as this sounds, the one player to whom I can best compare him is Alex Rodriguez. He's got tremendous talent -- a transcendent five-tool player -- and has put up great (or, at least, very good) numbers, but for some reason hasn't found his place with the fans yet.

Fans always expect more from free agents who breeze into town with big hoopla (see: Giambi, Jason; Glavine, Tom). We are never as forgiving to hired guns as we are to homegrown stars like Derek Jeter or Reyes. However, I would be remiss not to go to bat for Beltran, who was booed after going 0-for-4 and leaving four runners in scoring position Tuesday night.

Beltran's defense has been the one key aspect that has gone, it seems, almost completely unnoticed. He's gotten a few ovations for strong throws from the outfield, but it's his intimidation factor that makes him an almost nightly force for baserunners to cope with.

Example: In Wednesday night's game, the Mets led 2-1 with two outs in the ninth inning. Pinch hitter Tony Clark singles, then Alex Cintron follows with a shot to center. Beltran fields the ball quickly and fires it in. Clark, the potential tying run, does not even try to advance to third. In that situation in any of the past, oh, 43 years, Clark is probably on third base.

I don't need to tell any knowledgeable fan the significance of keeping a tying run off third. It's good, fundamental, winning baseball. That's what Beltran brings to the Mets, and that's why he'll be a great influence to players like Reyes and Wright, who certainly have a lot to learn before they can ascend to the his stratospheric level.

* * *

Did a quick check of the All-Star voting yesterday and discovered the Mike Piazza was the leading vote-getter for NL catchers. Mike's a good man, but this only strengthens every argument against allowing fans to vote for All-Star selections. I suppose I shouldn't get so bent out of shape about it, since the MLB All-Star game is about the fans, after all, right?

But than anything else, it's a popularity contest. Piazza, batting .249 with 6 home runs and 26 RBIs, is having, by anyone's valuation, the worst season of his career. I've never had problem with aging stars playing in All-Star Games, but at what point do you have to try to be fair to others who have earned the right to start the game?

I'm probably overreacting. But one last note before I move on: Two of the other top vote-getters at their positions -- Cubs shortstop Nomar Garciaparra and Cardinals third baseman Scott Rolen -- are currently injured and probably won't even play in the game. And Tino Martinez leads all AL first baseman by nearly 100,000 votes... *shrug*

* * *

Dae-Sung Koo is on his last legs with the Mets. There's no denying that now. Koo's struggles have brought about Omar Minaya's first real challenge of the 2005 season. He's got a surplus of starting pitching and outfielders, and no reliable lefty reliever anywhere in the system. How he molds and reshapes that group could have a significant impact on the rest of the season.

Check back on Newsday.com tomorrow afternoon, when I'll talk to Newsday's Dave Lennon about Minaya's plans for the team this summer, as well as some possible trade candidates at relief pitcher. Perhaps he can shed some light on the critical moves the Mets are bound to make over the next two months.

* * *

Speaking of lefty relievers, it seems that John Rocker has finally corrected the control problems that plagued him early in the season with the Long Island Ducks. But the Mets would never sign him, would they? Well, you'd be surprised. Stay tuned...

E-mail Mike Casey at michael.casey@newsday.com