It was another bad night at Citi Field on Wednesday.
Angel Pagan and Jose Reyes made baserunning blunders late in the game that made you scratch your head in disbelief and Hunter Pence broke a 3-3 tie with a home run in the eighth inning to send the Mets to another defeat. That makes them 1-8 in home games so far, good enough for the worst home start in the history of the franchise.
That would leave you to think the only reason to keep watching the Mets this season is to find out just how creative they can get when it comes to ways to blow games. Not a bad thought, but there was actually reason to be hopeful if you looked for it.
After the game, R.A. Dickey, who pitched much better while picking up the loss, spoke to reporters and tried something very unusual for a man in a Mets uniform. He told the truth.
"We have to find a way to be honest with ourselves about what kind of team we are. We can't just keep telling ourselves, 'Oh, we're a better team than this.' We may not be. And we've got to be honest about that, and identify what we're doing wrong, and do it better. That's the only way you have any real growth."
He walked it back a little bit, saying he still thinks this is a good team, but it is still a major improvement over the usual jive spouted from those who go to work in Queens. All of this nonsense about being close needs to go away because the Mets haven't been close and they need to realize they aren't a good team before they are going to make a different impression on the field.
Of course, there are going to be fundamental problems with the team even if they start being more honest with themselves. There's hope on that front too, however.
Sports
Major League Baseball seized control of the Dodgers on Wednesday because the team's ownership has been paralyzed by divorce proceedings between Frank and Jamie McCourt. The move was triggered by Frank McCourt's decision to get a $30 million loan from FOX in order to keep the lights on at Dodger Stadium.
Could MLB save the Mets in the same way? We know the Mets went to the league for a loan and we know that they are as badly leveraged and poorly run as the Dodgers.
It probably isn't going to happen anytime soon. Selig and the Wilpons are chummy and the team still is going through the motions of finding someone to give them $200 million in charity for the right to say that they own a minority portion of a money losing team.
If that effort proves unsuccessful, though, maybe there can be an angel in the name of the best interests of baseball clause. Until then, we'll just have to hope Dickey's honesty becomes contagious at Citi Field.
Josh Alper is a writer living in New York City. You can follow him on Twitter and he is also a contributor to Pro Football Talk.
