2.721

Derek Jeter, as you no doubt know, has 2,721 hits. At that, he's tied with Lou Gehrig for 53rd on the all-time hits list. He's also tied with said Lou Gehrig for first on the Yankees hit list.

Now, this is not a particularly big deal. * First of all, it's a team record. Is anybody going to make a big deal in a couple of years if/when David Wright or Jose Reyes breaks Ed Kranepool's franchise record of 1,418 hits? I hope not. It's not that big a deal. Remember, with his next hit, Derek Jeter will get sole possession of 53rd place on the all-time hits list.

*Obviously it's a big deal. Approximately 1 in 5,000,000 people on this planet are in the Major Leagues in any given year. To excel in a talent group of that caliber is amazing. To lead the Rays franchise in hits (as ---------- [guess who - answer at the end] does with 1,274) is an amazing thing. John Maine, who has 1 home run and a .107 batting average is practically an athletic freak of nature. The difference between his accomplishments and those of Derek Jeter's are as huge as the distance to right in Citi Field.

But as baseball "records" go, it's not a big deal.

Well, you might be thinking, maybe people are making a big deal about this because he's about to break Lou Gehrig's record. I mean, we're talking Lou Gehrig - The Iron Horse, the sidekick of the great Babe Ruth, the guy that baseball-reference.com says was nicknamed "Biscuit Pants." That was some special dude - of COURSE they're making a big deal about Derek Jeter. Except for the itsy-bitsy fact that Lou Gehrig's game was not base hits. Lou Gehrig hit more than twice as many home runs as Derek Jeter hit. When Derek hits his 493rd home run, you can start to argue about who was greater. (Fine, 393rd)

I have a good one. Let's make a big deal because Derek Jeter has more stolen bases than Babe Ruth. BABE FREAKING RUTH - the guy who practically invented baseball. The problem with that is that stolen bases were not Babe Ruth. Singles were not Lou Gehrig. Did you know that from 1926-1934, Lou Gehrig had over 80 extra-base hits in every single year. He had over 80 again in 1936 and 1937. Derek Jeter's never done it.

Which is not, once again, to say that Derek Jeter's not a good ballplayer. He's a really good ballplayer. But making a big deal because he is about to break a team stat from a ballplayer whose expertise was in a different field is just ridiculous.

By the way, did you know that Derek Jeter's 52nd on the all-time strikeouts list? Just saying...

Poll Results: Our poll question asked "How Many Games will the Mets Win this Year?" The winning answer was 70-74. That's optimism.

Trivia Answer: Carl Crawford. You should've known that.

New Poll: Our new poll asks you, "Who is the Mets MVP this year?"

Poll Results

Okay. The results of our poll are in. The poll asked about your reaction to the Ryan Church for Jeff Francoeur trade. And let's put it bluntly: The trade was not up to scratch - at least for our voter(s).

The new poll is up. The question is "Which injured Met will return to MLB playing action soonest?"
The choices are Carlos Beltran, Carlos Delgado, JJ Putz and Jose Reyes.

Vote early, vote often.

Poll Results

Ironically enough, considering his terrible start on Friday, our readership (or whoever voted) chose Mike Pelfrey as the second-best starting pitcher on the staff.

Our new poll asks about what your reaction to the Ryan Church for Jeff Francoeur was.

Vote early and vote often.

Closing In...

Carlos Beltran is now hurt. He joins the ever-growing list of wounded Mets that includes such ballplayers as Carlos Delgado, Jose Reyes, J.J. Putz, Oliver Perez and John Maine. Oh, and don't forget Gary Sheffield. Yet, believe it or not, the Mets are closing in on first place.

Under almost any circumstances, winning three games in a four-game series is impressive. With all those All-Stars on the shelf, it's nearly unfathomable.

So how did the New York Mets, in their current crippled state achieve the unachievable? How did they face off against a first-place (and darn good) St. Louis Cardinals team for a threee-game set and emerge victorious?

A lot of it had to do with starting pitching. Over the four games, Mets starters pitched 27 innings, in which they allowed nine runs (only seven earned) on only 23 hits. Their strikeout to walk ration was a pedestrian 1.36, but the walks didn't hurt all too much and the defense did pretty good work. Was there a luck aspect involved? Probably, but what do you want - this is baseball.

But it was more than that. In the nine innings that the bullpen worked they gave up nothing. 3 hits and no runs. And remember, J.J. Putz, the setup man, is disabled, and Bobby Parnell, his replacement, has been so overworked that they vowed to rest him for the first few games. No runs in four games! It's an impressive achievement, to say the least.

But there's some more credit to pass around. David Wright had 6 hits and 4 runs, Fernando Tatis, who is hopefully out of his seemingly interminable batting slump, had 5 RBIs over the four games. Ryan Church contributed runs and RBIs at the rate of 3 apiece, and the middle of the order, while it may not have scared the Cardinals too much, certainly hurt them.

Tomorrow the Mets take on the Yankees at Citi Field with Mike Pelfrey taking on Yankee ace C.C. Sabathia.



Poll Update: In our last poll, we asked you "Who should play right and left field for the Mets?" with the choices being Gary Sheffield, Ryan Church, Fernando Tatis, and Fernando Martinez. Coming in first was Ryan Church, with Gary Sheffield and Fernando Tatis tied for second.