Mr. Met Is a Gooner: Mets: The Good & The Bad, Arsenal: Who's In & Who's Out?

Who's got it?

The Mets surprised everyone during the first two and a half months of the season and turned a lot of naysayers (including myself) in to believers. While the aura has not yet officially worn off, it's getting close to that time. In the past couple of weeks, the Mets have played like what was predicted for the 2012 New York Mets...they have been both pretty good and then pretty lousy.

Duda watches strike three sail past

The Mets were involved in 4 series sweeps this month. The good: a crushing three game sweep of the Rays in Tampa and three in a row over Baltimore in Queens. The bad: The Yankees beat up the Mets over three games in the Bronx and the Mets kicked off a homestsand losing three in a row to the Reds.

Then, after losing 2 of the 3 remaining "Subway Series" games to the Yankees, the Mets went on the road to begin a series with the Chicago Cubs. The Cubs currently have the worst record in baseball and it looked as if things would begin to get easier for the Mets with the end of inter league play and a visit to the home of the woeful Cubs.

Jon Rauch gets the loss but this time it wasn't his fault

Instead, after the first two games in Chicago, it's the Mets that are looking like the worst team in baseball. The Mets have produced enough material for a full length blooper reel. Errors, passed balls, bad throws, terrible base running and a lack of clutch hitting have made the Mets look a mess. In one inning, the Mets made three errors including two simple pop ups that resulted in three bases each.

Hopefully the rot will stop soon and the surprising Mets will return to the form that made this lovable bunch of underdogs exciting and inspiring.

One final baseball note...it was sad to see Kevin Youkilis traded from the Red Sox after all he had given to the franchise. However, it seems that the trade has made some residents of Chicago very happy. All the Jewish grandmothers in Chicago are ready to invite "that nice boy Youk" over for some matzoh ball soup. Plus one former resident currently living in the White House seems pretty happy as well.

As for Arsenal, the silly season is here and the gossip concerns who's in...who's out and will he or won't he? Until there's concrete information on whether captain Robin van Persie is staying or moving on, it's just speculation from sports journalists based on "sources" that have no real information.