The New York Met(ronome)s

SPORTING GOODS

I knew the Mets were little more than an average team, but today's story in the Times has some stats that are almost hard to believe.

At one point last week, according to Elias, the Mets were .500 in day games, night games, one-run games and extra-inning games. They were also .500 in games against right-handed starters and against left-handed starters. They were parity personified, the major league median and mean.

For instance, going into yesterday's games, the Mets ranked eighth out of 16 National League teams in home runs. They were sixth in earned run average and sixth from the bottom in batting average.

When Pedro pitches, they are way above average. When he's sitting on the bench, they are below. Now if they get their act together and drop Ishii for anyone, they may have a real chance to make a run at the wild card.