Should he stay or should he go?

I generally don't see the point in firing a manager when his team's just playing out the string to get to the end of the season. I see no reason for the Phillies to go ahead and send Larry Bowa to the curb just to name someone "interim" manager for the rest of the season. I said "generally." If the Phillies were considering bench coach Gary Varsho as their next manager and wanted to give him a four-week trial run from here to the end of the season, that would certainly be worth the hassle.

Chances are Bowa's done in Philly, and I doubt Ed Wade will be turning to someone in the organization as his first choice to take the reins in 2005. Otherwise, he might very well have already changed the locks on the manager's office in Citizens Bank Park. The team will probably wait until the offseason to see who's available -- and which coaches on other teams they can get permission to talk to -- and hire someone just before Christmas. The division was the Phillies' to lose this year, and they sure did it with flair. During Bowa's tenure, Philadelphia has a winning record before the all-star break, but can't crack .500 down the stretch. They have a history of blowing their wad too soon.

But there is one case in which I'd like to see a change made today: the Mets'. Clearly, Art Howe is not the man for New York. (I think the main problem is the Wilpon family and their idiotic decisions over the past four or five years, but they're not about to fire themselves or sell the team.) He's too soft, too quiet, and he's clearly lost control of the team. The losing streak is currently at nine games and the Mets have won once in their last 14 attempts. There's no heart, no pride, no sense of any desire to win from the team as a whole.

It's hard to overlook all that the Wilpons have done to get them to this point since the end of the 2000 season:

• They didn't even give Steve Phillips a chance to sign Alex Rodriguez and had the GM come up with some ridiculously lame excuse that he was asking for too much (a luxury box for his family, a private jet, etc.).

• They wouldn't give the Mariners Aaron Heilman for Lou Pinella. As a Notre Dame grad and a Mets fan, I would love nothing more than to see Heilman have a decent career in New York. So far, he hasn't shown he can stay at the big-league level, and certainly hindsight shows this as a stupid mistake on the Mets' part. But at the time, as much as I wanted to see Aaron make his major-league debut in blue and orange (and I went to Shea last summer for the game, against Dontrelle Willis and the Marlins), I thought it might be worth it to send an unproven minor-league pitcher to Seattle for a sure-thing to manage the club.

• They wouldn't trade Scott Kazmir for Alfonso Soriano. Who knows how seriously the Mets pursued Soriano, but some talks during spring training got far enough for one of the Wilpons -- father/owner Fred, I believe -- to go on the record in the New York Times and say that Kazmir was one of the few untouchable prospects in the Mets' organization (David Wright was another). The Rangers rumors probably were Jose Reyes and Kazmir for Soriano, but even with Soriano's less-than-Yankee-like season in Texas, giving up an injury-prone Reyes with little power and Kazmir for Soriano doesn't look like such a bad move for the Mets now. That they could then decide that Victor Zambrano was worth letting go of Kazmir is unfathomable to me. I could take not getting Soriano for Kazmir had they kept Kazmir. But this? God.

The Wilpons are clearly falling into the abyss that George Steinbrenner dragged the Yankees into in the 80s. During his height as "The Boss," George couldn't resist meddling in the day-to-day operations of the team and guided the Yanks into their worst stretch in their history. When he was suspended, then backed off, the farm system signed, drafted and developed the likes of Mariano Rivera, Jorge Posada, Derek Jeter and Andy Pettitte. Then they went out and won four of five World Series and have made it to two more since then.

The Wilpons aren't letting their baseball people do their jobs. They've got pitching coach Rick Peterson advising Jeff Wilpon on trades, they're sending Jim Duquette out there to clean up the mess of the Zambrano trade and injury and they're making bad moves at the wrong time. If the Kris Benson and Zambrano trades were made for the future (figuring they could sign Benson quite easily and knowing they have Zambrano locked up for three more years), that's one thing. But you get the sense that the trades were made also as a fading hope at making a postseason run this year, which is ridiculous. If that's the case, the moves should've been made in early July, when the Mets were in the thick of an NL East race that had the Mets, Braves and Phillies all within two games of one another. But July 30, it was way too late.

Art Howe isn't going to get the team anywhere. These players -- when they're healthy -- might be enough, but clearly the pitching staff lost its magic since having the best ERA in the majors when the Subway Series started at Yankee Stadium in late June. Wilpon criticized the Mets for not continuing to win despite injuries, saying good teams overcome them, but the Mets aren't equipped to overcome injuries to Mike Piazza, Mike Cameron, Jose Reyes and Kaz Matsui with the likes of Jason Phillips, Gerald Williams, Joe McEwing and Wilson Delgado. Those players are OK as bench players, pinch hitters, late-inning defensive replacements, pinch runners and day-game-after-a-night-game spot starters, but in no way can you send two, three or four of them out there day after day and expect to beat the likes of the Padres, Phillies or Braves.

A report in the New York Daily News said that should Bowa get fired, the Mets would consider him as a bench coach. Good God, no. Not unless that means Howe is gone and Don Baylor is promoted to manager. What could the Mets get out of having Howe as the manager and Bowa as the bench coach (with Baylor either gone to manage some other team, or sticking around as the Mets' hitting coach)? Howe and Bowa on the bench would be a good cop-bad cop routine every night, every inning. And Baylor -- perhaps the best manager of the bunch -- would be doing the least managing.

It's taken me a while to admit this, but the Mets, clearly, are a mess.

There's little hope for the near future in Flushing.

It's amazing they still call it 'hardball'

Other than when I posted the All-Star stuff, I suspect this is my first double-entry day since starting this site. I'll admit I haven't updated this nearly as much as I would've liked, but I hope things change once I learn to organize my time more. And when I get my new computer and Casey and I are no longer sharing one in a house with wireless high-speed internet, her iPod and The Sims on her Mac.

---------------

I wonder what Bob Gibson would say today. Or Don Drysdale. Or any other tough pitcher from baseball's heyday who knew how to pitch inside, to intimidate and, when necessary, back up his teammates.

There was an incident in last night's Mets-Rockies game that started with a hard slide at second base and ended with Braden Looper's ejection. On a ball hit to the right of shortstop Wilson Delgado, Rockies rookie catcher J.D. Closser slid hard into second baseman Joe McEwing, taking out his legs, requiring McEwing to be helped off the field and taken to a hospital for X-rays. There was little chance McEwing would've even attempted a double play, but that's not Closser's concern. He has to go into second hard and make sure that he does what he can to help his team by turning a potential two-out grounder into a fielder's choice forceout.

But the Mets, too, have a right to their view of the play, and they felt Closser went a little too far -- too far past second base, for one thing. As Mets manager Art Howe said, "I don't think it was a clean play. He [Closser] was airborne and Joe was on the shortstop side of the bag. I don't know if he touched the ground till he touched Joe." The photo seems to back up that claim. Taken from the third-base photo box, it clearly shows Closser in mid-slide, already even with the bag. I watched several replays last night, and I don't remember seeing Closser even touch second base. At that, the umpires are allowed to use their discretion and call the batter-runner out at first, though they rarely do. It wouldn't have applied in this case, anyway, since McEwing didn't even attempt to get off a throw.

When Closser came to bat again in the eighth, Looper threw one behind him. It was low, and had Closser not hopped backwards into the pitch, it would have gone behind him. I don't think he was trying to get hit, but that's beside the point. Closser had barely turned to first base -- he hardly looked at Looper, showing no anger, as if to show he understood it was part of the game -- when home plate umpire Lance Barksdale ejected Looper from the game. Howe argued -- "He threw it behind him!" he yelled, sprinting from the dugout -- but, obviously, it didn't do anything. Barksdale, who maybe at this point understood, or realized something, didn't eject Howe. Whether or not Howe went far enough to warrant an ejection, I have no idea.

Looper's ejection was unwarranted. In today's soft game, a warning would've been appropriate, but who cares if the umpire felt Looper was throwing at Closser? Why does he need to eject him right there? The Mets should have the right to answer what they see as a dirty play that injures one of their players. If you have to issue a warning after that, fine, but at least let the Mets send their message, even the score. In my mind, Barksdale showed no awareness of the game situation. If he did it in an effort to "get control" of the game, that's ridiculous too. He hadn't lost control of it. But in the second game of a day-night doubleheader, when the pitching staffs of both teams are clearly going to be stretched (and the Mets had already lost Mike DeJean in the first game on a ball hit off his shin), Barksdale has to show more understanding of the situation.

What pissed me off from Closser's standpoint is his lame excuse and clear lie. "I know the guy got hurt," he said. "But I don't feel like I slid past the bag or anything like that. I just slid into second. I don't know if he's going to be able to turn a double play right there. I'm just trying to slide in and break up a double play. He's standing on the bag like he's going to take it, so I don't know."

What he should have said was, "I was just sliding hard into the bag. It's too bad he got hurt, but I'm just playing the game hard." If he didn't realize he slid way past the bag, it's amazing he can even find the base if his sense of direction is that messed up. Even the photo shows him, butt still an inch or so off the ground, already even with the bag, well on his way past it.

I think baseball's gotten too soft. Barry Bonds dresses up like a 12th Century knight every time he goes to bat, and then he complains when pitchers throw at him or a strike is called inside. Hey Barry, if your elbows are over the plate when you stand in the box, a pitch beneath your arms can still be a strike.

For the most part, umpires wait until a clear retalitory beanball before doling out warnings to either side. But why? Why is there a need for warnings? Ejections should clearly come if there are fights, but if the Red Sox plunk Jeter and the Yankees respond by hitting Manny Ramirez, the Red Sox should make the next decision on their own. If they throw a ball at A-Rod's head, they know they'll have to deal with the Yankees going after David Ortiz or someone. I don't think teams will go much farther than one intentional beanball each for fear of losing players to ejections or injuries.

Clearly, all this policing is the result of Bud Selig's Disney-fying baseball and the politically correct, anti-violence, baseball-as-a-product television era we're in. It's bullshit. There are inherent risks in any job, and one of the risks of being a professional athlete is the chance that you could get hurt playing the game. Roger Clemens may be an asshole for throwing at Mike Piazza's head, but the Mets were pansies for whining about it for two years and waiting for Clemens to come to bat in a regular season game at Shea Stadium and leaving it up to Shawn Estes to do the dirty work. The next inning, or whenever his next at bat was, Jeter should've been on his back and it all would've been over and done with. Maybe the gods would've been happy too, and maybe the Mets' karma would've changed. Maybe Piazza's bat never would have broken in Game 2 of the World Series, he would've homered, Clemens would've lost, and the Mets would've won the series in six games.

What?? It could've happened.

---------------

After watching the replays during tonight's Mets pregame (which disclosed that McEwing was placed on the DL with a fractured fibula), Closser did indeed touch the base. In fact, his slide consisted of a jump in the air (to block any throw or view of first) in which he came down directly on top of the bag and McEwing's legs. So his comments are even more bullshit. McEwing, too, may have indeed gotten a throw off toward first, but I don't remember exactly because I was focusing on Closser's positioning on the slide. I will correct myself, however, and say that the possibility that McEwing could've been making or prepared to make a throw to first was greater than I first thought. But still, it was a bad slide, a terrible slide, if not dirty.