Armando The Awful

Wow, was this the pennant race already? I must have overslept. This sounds like a September, or maybe an October story: Mets have a 5-4 lead, three outs away from victory. Armando Benitez comes waddling in from the bullpen to seal the victory and instead, we get a loss and enough drama to fill a few Greek plays.

The farcical meltdown began well into the third batter of the inning, Vladimir Guerrero. Benitez had already started the inning off by ceding a single to a Mets castoff, Endy Chavez. Jose Vidro is miraculously retired and then came Guerrero. On the second pitch, Guerrero took a savage swing and missed but the savage swing itself was some sort of derailing challenge of manhood to Armando who then proceeded to walk Guerrero to put men on first and second as the boos began to filter through Shea with Jeff Liefer, a lifetime .250 hitter coming to the plate.

Armando quickly falls behind in the count, 2 balls and no strikes. His command was not sharp. He bounced several splitters and sliders and was up and in a bit with the fastball but finally, he manages to get the count full. By now, everyone on planet Earth knows what is coming next, even Liefer, facing Benitez for the first time:

"It was a fastball," Liefer said. "I was looking for a fastball the whole at-bat. That's his best pitch that he can throw for a strike. I was just trying to layoff his other stuff that's tough to lay off a lot of times. Once I got to 3-2, I knew he was coming with a fast ball and I put good wood on it."

"He hit my best pitch," Benitez said of the 97-mph fastball, to Liefer. "I'm behind in the count, I have to come and throw a strike."

We could flash back to the blown Game 6 of the 1999 NLCS against the Braves. Or perhaps the 2000 Subway Series, his walk of Paul O'Neill that blew Game One. J.T. Snow's home run in the first game of the NLDS in 2000. Pat Burrell, on three different occasions. The horrific blown leads against the Braves, twice down the stretch in 2001 that cost the Mets a playoff spot. The list goes on and on and while Armando has compiled the best save percentage (90.7) of anyone in baseball during the previous three years, there is a hideous disclaimer and that is Armando can't get them out when it counts.

That's why I thought I'd fallen asleep and woken up in the middle of the pennant race because this is evidence of the vintage Armando choke hold on himself that he can't seem to break when the games really count.

And frankly, it isn't such an unforgiveable deed so early in the season. After all, he'd saved the two games prior to this one. But then in true Armando style, he made matters worse by whining like Joy Behar on a bad hair day:

"What bothers me is I save two days in a row and I sit down by my locker and nobody comes to me, nobody talks to me," Benitez sniffles. "Sometimes we have to be fair and see that what I'm doing is sometimes good. It's not fair."

Listening to Armando whimper: the unloved Armando, the underappreciated Armando, the menstruating and irritated Armando, one begins to understand the root of his problems, the cause of his frequent bouts of choking, his inability to do the job when it counts. He simply doesn't understand the nature of his job as a closer.

John Franco, the Met vet who has saved 422 games in his career and knows a thing or two about what it's like to be a closer, likened being a closer to "being like a field goal kicker. You
make 12, 13 in a row, then you miss one and that is the one people want to know about."

And he's right. Some people can handle the pressure, understand the reality of being ignored except when you fail. It isn't fair. But the position calls for the ability to let that patent unfairness roll off your back. Armando can't because he doesn't have the emotional stoicism to handle it. And that's why when the game is on the line and the game actually counts, Armando has a well documented history of failing. He tightens up, he gets wild, and then he tries to overcompensate with his fastball that all the world knows is coming.

I said it all winter and I said it over and over again this spring: Armando should be traded before it begins to finally sink in throughout the rest of the league that he is damaged goods, a man who can't handle the pressure of a high-stakes game and come out the winner more times than not.

*****

The Detroit Tigers became the first team in 40 years to start 0-6 in consecutive seasons, finally relieving the NY Mets of '62 and '63 of that humiliation. After last season's embarassing 0-11 start, the Tigers have begun this sesaon by getting outscored 36-6 so far. It begs the question as to whether or not they should switch places with their Triple A Toledo Mudhens farm club who are 2-2 so far this season.

One week into the season, which is more surprising:

1. The disasterous start of Greg Maddux, who is already 0-2 with a 11.00 ERA.
2. The unforeseen 5-0 start of the Kansas City Royals out of the gate, the first ever to do so after a 100 loss sesaon.
3. Shea Hillenbrand going from the trading block to knocking in 15 runs in the first 7 games of the season.
4. The 5-1 start of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
5. Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling winless after both having pitched two games.

One week into the season, which is least surprising:

1. Junior going down to injury.
2. The Detroit Tigers 0-5 start and already 5 1/2 games out of first place.
3. Jose Hernandez has struck out 9 times in his first 22 at-bats putting him on pace for a record-shattering 243 strikeouts for the season.
4. Opening week attendance down nearly 10% following a week of inclimate weather.
5. Jeter going down to injury only to replaced by a guy who is hitting .412 in his absence.

*****

There's an interesting game on the Major League Baseball website called Beat The Streak wherein you pick one guy each day to get a hit and if he gets a hit, your streak continues. The first person to break DiMaggio's 56 game hitting streak gets seasons tickets for the team of his choice. If somehow you get a 100 game hitting streak, you get four tickets to EVERY game of the World Series.

*****

NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL FINAL:

The main thing I want to say about the NCAA Men's Basketball Final is why the hell is it starting so early? 9:00 at night? Why don't they just start it at midnight so the 8 people in Hawaii who want to watch it will be home from work in time?

Finally, The Prediction, since I'm soooo close to the top of my SI.com hoops bracket challenge in 88,306th place:

In five games during the NCAA Tournament, Syracuse has beaten Texas, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State, the teams that finished second, third and fourth, respectively, in the Big 12. In January, the Orangemen beat Missouri, the fifth-place team in the conference. Only Kansas remains for the Orange to become Big 12 Champions.

Since I don't want to have to root against the team I like better, the pick is

Syracuse 86 Kansas 79