Call me crazy. But you know what I miss most about the “Mike and the Mad Dog” radio show on WFAN, even now, 15 years after they went their separate ways (and called it another lonely day)? This is what I miss:
Your play-by-play breakdown of the NFL schedule. Remember:
DOG: Week 1 … Giants home game against the Cardinals …
MIKE: That’s a win.
DOG: One and oh! Week 2. Giants, home of the Lions…
MIKE: That’s a win.
DOG: Two and oh! Week 3, Giants at 49ers!
MIKE: Dog, that’s a loss…
It’s a perfect football drill, and one of the reasons it was so much fun when Mike Francesa and Chris Russo did it was because everyone does it. Well, maybe not allbut certainly everyone who has a favorite team in the NFL.
And the NFL knows it. They release the schedule, and it’s the dominant topic of conversation at millions of water coolers, in thousands of bars, in countless text message threads. And it never stops. Fans update the schedule week after week as the season progresses. It’s perfect.
This is – or should be – less the case with baseball seasons. No one in their right mind would ever dare to go through all 162 games play by play, and no one but St. Francis of Assisi would even think of smiling and listening to it all without running for the door. And frankly, St. Francis himself would probably be begging you to stop by April 15th at the latest.
Still, in small amounts it’s hard to resist.
And so the loyal fans at all those water coolers, in all those bars, in all those text messages, at least the ones with Mets fans, were looking forward to the first six games of this nine-game home series, watching the A’s and the Marlins just sit there waiting to get crushed, and the optimists among them said, “Five to one, worst case scenario,” and the pessimists said, “That feels like 1 to 6 to me,” and as often happens with these things, neither the greatest hopes nor the worst fears were realized. It was 3 to 3. Step forward, step back. Two steps forward, two steps back.
And now?
And now.
Starting Monday, the Mets began a streak of 10 games in 10 days that will almost certainly define their season. Think of it this way:
On Memorial Day morning, the Mets were dead, 22-30.
On the morning of July 4th they woke up again at sea level: 42-42.
On Labor Day …
Well, we’ll certainly have a more complete picture of things on Labor Day, a week from Monday. On Monday, the Mets began a three-game series with the Orioles, tying them for the top spot in the American League with the Yankees. They then head to San Diego for four games against the Padres. After that, they’ll head to Phoenix for three games against the Diamondbacks.
And now there’s a very different tone at the water coolers, in the bars, in the threads. Maybe the Orioles aren’t playing nearly as well as they were about two months ago, but they’re still impressive. And a year ago, when the teams played around this time, the games had the feel of a varsity/JV scrimmage.
The Diamondbacks were swept in Tampa Bay this weekend and the Padres lost two of three games in Denver, but they are still the two strongest teams in the National League over the last 3 ½ weeks. These 10 games will be tough, and although they still have three games against the White Sox on the other side of the Labor Day weekend, things could feel very different by then.
“I’ll sign up for 3-7 right away!” crow the pessimists, fearing worse, much worse.
“We play better against better teams!” scream the optimists, not caring whether there is any real anecdotal evidence for this other than a 4-0 record against the Yankees.
It’s the Mets who actually have to play the games.
“It doesn’t matter who we play against,” says coach Carlos Mendoza. “Our job is to win, and we will do that no matter what happens. We don’t look too far into the future.”
It’s no fun playing the Mike and the Crazy Dog game with him. That’s for sure.
