THE MOOKIE SITUATION

All right, this isn't easy to talk about, but I keep all sorts of stats. My wife is in Europe for five weeks, so I've got some time on my hands. Some of it I spend in the hallway of the Marriott Marquis, some of it I spend poring over our statistics, looking for answers.

George, I'm sorry. Mookie is 1-6 this season. This week, no Mookie, two wins. Coincidence, or something more? You decide.

Now, I like Mookie, you like Mookie, we all like Mookie. But the Mookster's record sucks. I don't want to say he's not welcome. Who doesn't enjoy seeing him get after that darn frisbee? But 1-6 is 1-6. Next week, when we can clinch or be clinched, please make the proper decision on his attendance. Licking one's nose is a fine talent -- always popular when meeting people in bars -- but this is the team we're talking about here.

Now, we win, we win, we win again, beating the Fighting Griffins of the Art Museum, 17-10, to even our record at 6-6. We trailed heading into the bottom of the fifth, 8-7, but rallied to score eight runs and never looked back. Well, maybe a little.

Mike Galan had another three hits, as did Tom Hickey and Mookie's dad. Kate Fagan smacked her way aboard in all three at-bats and scored three runs. Two hits, two runs for Chris Yasiejko and two trips around the bases for Ellen Kenney, who pulled off the rare make-them-think-you're-falling-at-third-then-get-up-when-they-look-somewhere-else-and-score ploy. Eddie Cascarella got one at-bat and cracked the ball solidly into left for a hit. Jon Snyder, two hits, two scores in two at-bats. John Hall, another hit in his farewell performance for the season. He's off to Hong Kong for the next month and, even by our rain-delay schedule, the league will be finished by then. Great season, John. Two hits for Tom DiNardo. I'm leaving out some details, probably, but here's the short version: we doinked around for a couple of innings, got behind, got annoyed with that, took control, finished well.

The big news, naturally, was the return of Brian Donlen (above), from Panama or whereever he went on his honeymoon. In fact, this blog was going to be titled, "The Newlywed Game," after he had two big hits in his first two at-bats. (And you wonder what I'm thinking about standing there staring at the clipboard.) Great return, though, even if his body clock hasn't fully adjusted to this lack of daytime beer. Mix in a 6-3 now and then.

So we even our record at 6-6, with games Monday (NCC) and Tuesday (Art) left on the schedule. The playoffs are in our future and Mookie might be in our past.