With loss to Phils, Mets on edge of a Cliff

COME, CHILDREN, and gather round. Log off your Twitter and put down your iPad and lend us what's left of your attention span. We have a story to tell about this sport you now love, a story that is as amazing as it also is true.

That team you saw on the field last night? The one dressed in black caps and gray pants? The one that played like it was passing through on its way home from Williamsport?

Yes, that's the one. You call them the Mets, and technically you are correct. But talk to your fathers, your uncles, your outgoing school superintendent. Once upon a time, there was a different team, a proud team, a team that inspired more angst than a Taylor Swift song. Those, my friends, were the Mets.

You hated them like you hated Monday mornings and January rains. They were flash mobs and debt ceilings and $900,000 buyouts all rolled into one. Except they were good. Damn good. So good it made you hate them even more.

That team you saw last night? The one on the wrong end of a 10-0 rout? They were something different, something unrecognizable, something that almost made you feel bad. You see, not long ago, a guy named Jose Reyes would round the bases with his fist in the air, his home-run trot prompt the visiting dugout to fume. Sluggers like Carlos Delgado and Carlos Beltran would eat Phillies pitching like a Labor Day barbecue. Johan Santana would be the lefty tossing seven scoreless innings, a lot like you saw last night from Cliff Lee.

"They had very good talent when I first came here to manage," manager Charlie Manuel said. "And if you look, they still have a pretty good offense. They made some moves in their bullpen that didn't work out, and Santana was hurt, and some of their big pieces have been hurt. They've had injury problems with Reyes, they've had injury problems with Beltran, and even Delgado when he was there. It just seemed like they couldn't put it together."

Bullpen moves, you say? What about the Phillies? Of the five veterans they brought into the season, two have been released, and three have spent at least a month on the DL. Injuries, you say? What about the Phillies? They played the first 2 months of this season and 6 weeks of last season without Chase Utley. They saw Ryan Howard go down last August with a severely sprained ankle. Placido Polanco, who returned to the lineup last night, is battling a bulging disc in his back and a sports hernia in his abdomen.