Which team will have the better '09 season: the Mets or the Phillies?

Phillies

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by Charles Ray

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The 2009 baseball season has been a real yawner so far, lacking the excitement and panache of earlier seasons. There've been a few blips of interest; a couple of new doping scandals, an apparent Washington Nationals comeback starting in late July; but for the most part, the season has been kind of ho-hum.

Comparing the New York Mets and the Philadelphia Phillies is also a kind of ho-hum exercise. Neither team has given fans any real reason to celebrate this season. The Mets, with a 51-56 season at the time of this writing, have stumbled, bumbled, and fumbled their way through 2009 so far, losing in a shutout to Washington on July 21, for instance, on a play that will absolutely have to be included in any future sports' bloopers show. In the July 3-game series against the Nationals, the Mets were only able to take one game; and that one just barely. If you're a Mets' fan, all I can say is that you have my sympathies.

The Phillies, on the other hand, have a better season record so far with 60 wins and 45 losses, so they are firmly ensconced in the middle of the pack rank wise. But, this is nothing to write home about. I think you might call that kind of performance, so-so. The phrase that comes to my mind is, "Oh, my God, when will this dreadful season ever end?" The Phillies have not really excited me very much this season.

Ranking these two teams is not like ranking the Tortoise and the Hare - neither of them has shown the speed of a rabbit so far in 2009 - but is more like ranking two aged turtles, with one a nose or so in front of the other, both moving at turtle speed over a course of molasses. At times, it's like watching a slow motion film, and a dull one at that. You just kind of want it to be over and hope that they will wake up in 2010 with a renewed commitment to play the game of baseball the way it was meant to be played, and look less like a bunch of Little League rejects.

I suppose, though, you have to give due credit to the record of wins and losses. After all, stats are of interest to most fans. And, it's not as if we're comparing either team to anyone who is playing particularly well - we're rating them against each other. So, in the numbers game, the win goes to the Philadelphia Phillies, and may heaven help them.

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