Bill Reynolds can do arithmetic.

He also has several ways of expressing the word, "over":

"Because this race is already over.

Finis.

Kaput.

Done.

Over."

I'm not a thesaurus salesman, but you just used "over" twice.


"Use any expression you want."

The quick red fox jumped over the lazy brown dog.

You can't have your cake and eat it, too.

I Like Ike.


"And I know stranger things have happened. And I know that it’s never over till it’s over, as Yogi used to say.

But this isn’t 1978.

This is now.

And this is over.

And the Yankees?

Welcome to the wild-card chase."

Every intelligent Yankee fan I know set their sights exclusively on the wild-card race about three weeks ago.

Personally, I was thinking third place as soon as Kenny Rogers mowed them down in Game Three of the '06 ALDS. That was before they traded away Unit and Sheffield.

No crying in baseball.

First, the Boston Dirt Dogs whine when a player slides hard into second base to break up a double play.

Now, this:

"The thing about the Yankees, one of the reasons they're so respected, is they do things right. Always have," manager John Gibbons said. "They've got a lot of pride and a lot of class. They play the game hard.

"That's not Yankee pride right there," he said. "That's not the way they play. I thought it was bush league."

Forget about pride, class, and respect. The thing about the Yankees is winning. If anybody respects a 22-29 team, they're fools.

Nice guys finish last and the spirits of Thurman Munson and Billy Martin were smiling when they saw that play. Only difference is, Munson was looking down and Martin was looking up.

Fielding practice?

"For the first time this season, the Yankees took a round of infield practice before last night's game"

Yes, I think it must be true.

Joe Torre reads my blog and takes my advice.

They hate you and won't listen to you.

"Sensing an attitude problem on his struggling team, Torre held a lengthy meeting before Monday night's game in Toronto. The session ran so long the Yankees were nearly a half-hour late taking the field for stretching and batting practice."

Speaking of which, when is the last time Robinson Cano had fielding practice?

He's a modern-day William Wallace.

"But I don't know what you do about it," Torre said. "You still have to go out there, prepare and play. It's not that now it's time to panic. Now, what do you do once you do that?"

Ooh, ooh, ooh!

I know what to do about it!

I know what to do about it!

Blowing the lid off the steroid scandal!

You know you're in trouble when Darryl Strawberry is your character witness:

"He was a good kid," Strawberry said. "He was just like any other kid doing his job ... very hard worker, real nice kid. He always did above and beyond for the players. He was a go-getter type guy. He did a lot of errands for me, Doc [Gooden], Coney [David Cone]. He did a lot of stuff for a lot of us. I don't know what happened later. But for us, he was good."

Red Marker.

Sitting in the bleachers last night with some good pals and one of the Bleacher Creatures attempted to make fun of Curt Schilling. Who was getting bombed, so the criticism was appropriate.

(The same genius repeatedly said "I told you so!" when Farnsworth pitched poorly. As if predicting a poor performance from "Farnsworthless" was some kind of bold, contrary stance.)

Anyway, guy calls Schilling "Red Marker," obviously referring to the bloody sock of the 2004 ALCS.

Which the Red Sox won.

By winning four games in a row against the Yankees after they fell behind three games to zero.

On their way to winning the World Series.

Which the Yankees haven't won since 2000.

E-8.

No offense intended for David Wright, but when a ball hits a player in the glove, is it not an error?

If that fly ball to centerfield had dropped back into the field of play, do you think it would have been ruled a double?

Okay, I admit it: Offense intended for David Wright.

The under/over is still July 15th.

But the under is getting all the action lately.

Joe Torre is the last person to realize that his team is mailing it in:

“I’ve been very proud of this ballclub, the fact they’re coming to play,” he said. “We’re just not firing on all burners right now. I really don’t have any issue with anything other than the final score.”

His predictable Torre-like reaction is almost impossible to believe at this point.

The Yankees are 10 games out of first place in the AL East and 1/2 game out of last place in the AL East.

The Yankee are in sixth place in the wild card race, 6 1/2 games out.

The Yankees have the 22nd best record in baseball.


Of course most of the blame lies with the players. Of course they should be self-motivated. But the manager of this team is paid $7 million and his tired shtick clearly isn't working anymore. It hasn't been working in years. What you saw in the 2006 ALCS should have been the final straw. This team may not turn it around with a new manager, but they're never going to turn it around with Torre as their manager

Of course you go!

A baseball player is about to hit career homerun #756 and the commissioner of baseball is downplaying it.

Yadier Molina? Seriously?

"Last October, after the Mets succumbed to the three-week wonder that was the 2006 St. Louis Cardinals, I engaged a gaggle of Mets fans in dialogue about the pecking order of New York baseball. The debate quickly got prickly, as Yankee devotees played the 'Yadier Molina? Seriously?' card and Mets boosters went the '$190 million can buy you Botswana, but not a World Series title' route."

Yes, indeed.

The famous prickly debate ender. The "Yadier Molina? Seriously?" card.

I'm guessing Yadier Molina is the Cardinal who hit the game-winning homerun against the Mets in Game Seven of the NLCS.

I'm also guessing that Larry Dobrow never actually met a person who ever played the "Yadier Molina? Seriously?" card.

Yankee fans were probably unconcerned with the Mets. Yankee fans were debating whether or not their manager should be re-hired.

If I remember correctly, I think that I argued that the Yankee manager should not be re-hired at that time.


There are no prickly debates regarding the Yankees vs. the Mets. Nobody cares.

All the people who show up at Shea to watch the Yankees but couldn't be bothered to watch the Brewers are pathetic excuses for fans. Same goes for their counterparts in the Bronx.

Even if the Yankees sweep the Mets, the Yankees will be a mere.500 and purt near 10 games out. The Mets will possibly still be in first place.

What I learned today.

The joy of rainouts and the accompanying Yankeeographies.

This time, it's Graig Nettles.

I learned two important things about Graig Nettles:

1. He is the third baseman who hit .248 who belongs in the Hall of Fame.
2. He got his RBIs in close games.

Getaway Day.

One run and seven hits.

Two hours and 35 minutes.

130 pitches thrown by the Mariners.

Mets Intern Writes Popular Baseball Column.

The Yankees are worth $1.2 billion and now draw 4 million every season to decrepit Yankee Stadium.

Bear this in mind as you read another of Mike Lupica's endless attempts to shove the Mets down your throat:

"This is not breaking news inside Shea Stadium, or even on the inside with the Mets. But the way they measure how they are doing each day is by checking the standings in the NL East, not whether they are on one of the back pages of the New York City tabloids, and not by checking their record against the one belonging to the darlings of the tabloids, the Yankees."

The Mets are better than the Yankees in 2007. This is not breaking news anywhere. The Yankees are the most underachieving team in baseball.

In fact, to say the Yankees are the second-best team in New York is an insult to the Brooklyn Cyclones.


"Boy, oh boy, the Yankees do win when it comes to big headlines. You can call that one the way Russ Hodges called Bobby Thompson's home run: The Yankees win the back page! The Yankees win the back page! The Yankees win the back page!"

The fans don't care about the back page.

The business owners care because it's free advertising.

But the Yankees are so much more popular than the Mets (2 to 1, I'd guess), and baseball is so big in the metro NYC area, that the Yankees are going to get covered endlessly no matter what.


"The Mets were a better baseball team last season than the Yankees and are a better team so far this season, even with a payroll that is $80 million smaller. The gap was even wider last year. The Mets were a more interesting team last season, got a better managing job out of their manager and got a much better job out of their general manager, whose solution to all pitching problems isn't throwing the equivalent of $28 million at Roger Clemens."

• Last season, the Yankees were better than the Mets. Both won 97 games and the Yankees played in a much more difficult league and much more difficult division.
• As for the payroll argument, please stop comparing the Mets to the Yankees. The Mets just lost 12-3 to the Brewers. The Brewers have a better record than the Mets despite spending $50 million less than the Mets. The Mets have the highest payroll in the NL and Lupica still insists that they're gritty underdogs.
• Randolph is better than Torre? Check.
• Minaya is better than Cashman? Eh. Minaya just throws money around, too. What is Minaya's solution to all his pitching problems? He lucked out with John Maine, bless his heart. Everybody other problem was solved by throwing money at it.
• One more thing: The "equivalent of $28 million" is $28 million. Which the Yankees are not spending on Roger Clemens.

"They did not get the back page with their third baseman talking about their shortstop. They did not do it Yankee style, which is often Paris Hilton style. The Mets did not do it because the manager was in trouble or with Clemens or Carl Pavano or the owner's son-in-law getting picked up by the cops or questions about the line of succession or by firing a trainer."

No, they get the back page by shaving their heads.

They get the back page when their catcher got a divorce.

They get the back page when their overrated third baseman finally hits a homerun.

You know, I watched the first four or five innings of Saturday's Mets game. The boxscore says 50,000 people were there. I saw a sea of empty orange seats on a Saturday afternoon, perfect weather, playoff preview.

The Yankees are not going away. The Yankees are getting a new Stadium, which will be sold out for ten years. The players will come and go, but the solid marketing campaigns will remain. An entire generation of new Yankee fans have seen Jeter play ss for ten years and have never seen their team miss the playoffs. They're not becoming Mets fans overnight because the Mets beat Jeff Suppan or even if the Mets win the World Series.

The best thing for the Mets and Lupica to do is stop comparing the Mets to the Yankees. The only people you're going to convert are a smattering of disloyal fans who don't know the difference between John Franco and Julio Franco.

Quality Time.

All of the Clemens Mercenary outrage seems a bit dated since he had the same contract perks with Houston.

In any case, I'm pretty sure the term "great mercenary" is meant as an insult:

"When the time comes for the folks in Cooperstown to detail the career of Roger Clemens on his Hall of Fame plaque, one can only hope they don't forget this tribute:

'One of the game's great mercenaries.' "

Actually, I don't think Clemens will be worth it. I think he will be a better-than-average mercenary, for sure, but not great. Also, if the Yankees miss the playoffs, Cashman will have to answer why he spent so much money on one player and why he took development time away from DeSalvo and Rasner.


"For that paltry sum, you certainly can't ask a player to hang around between starts, so the Yankees also gave Clemens permission to leave the team on days he's not scheduled to pitch. Manager Joe Torre supposedly ran that little item past veterans such as Derek Jeter, with no complaints."

We'll see how Clemens reacts. I'm guessing he'll show up every day. I don't really think it matters too much.

Javier Vazquez showed up every day. Tony Womack showed up every day. Juan Acevedo showed up every day. Alberto Castillo showed up every day. Luis Vizcaino shows up every day. Jeff Weaver showed up every day.

In fact, when the opponents heard that Jeff Weaver was pitching, they'd send a limousine and a police escort to make sure he got to the Stadium on time.

With great teammates like that, you don't need prostatitis.

One team takes it personally.

"With two on and one out in the second, the fast-working lefty struck out Robinson Cano on a slow curveball and Melky Cabrera on a fastball. Washburn slapped his glove and shouted to punctuate that escape.

...

And after Phelps reached second base after a fielder's choice in the fourth, Washburn got Cabrera to ground out. Washburn yelled and pumped his fist at that, too."

The similarities to last year's ALDS are disconcerting. When the opponent shows up to play, the Yankees simply don't know how to counter. If the Yankees play with emotion, they're instantly rebuked for their lack of professionalism and class.


If anybody else said what Joe Torre said, I'd dismiss it as a colloquialism:

"Torre said that the team's lack of deep at-bats in the contest was a concern. As Torre noted, every time he looked up from the bench, it seemed that Washburn had worked his way ahead in the count."

"I'm not sleeping, I'm strategizing."

All the naive writers live in one city.

"Roger Clemens is everything the Yankees don't need and everything they claim not to want."

Roger Clemens is a good pitcher and the Yankees need good pitching.


"On a team that thrived a decade ago on role players, timely hitting and controlled egos, he is a diva in a clubhouse already bulging with them."

You know who is a good example of a "role player"? Randy Velarde.

You know who Wallace Matthews just describes as "role players"? Try Bernie, Jeter, Tino, Posada, Knoblauch, O'Neill, Rivera, Pettitte, Key, Cone, Wells, El Duque, etc.

The $150 million teams filled with role players.

Oh, and don't forget "role player" Roger Clemens. The diva who earned two rings with the Yankees.

Does two rings in a row not qualify as "thriving"?


"Then came Clemens, and before long, Giambi and A-Rod and Mussina and Javier Vazquez and Randy Johnson and Bobby Abreu."

Then came Clemens, and before long, two more Championships.


"The nucleus had enough left in it to pull off two more titles but soon, the magic of the mid-1990s was gone, replaced by the decided stench of mercenaries in the clubhouse and apathy on the field."

Absolutely pathetic and disgraceful.

As if the Yankees won despite free agents and mercenaries.

The stench of mercenaries like David Cone, Wade Boggs, Charlie Hayes, Jimmy Key, Roger Clemens, Mike Stanton, Jeff Nelson, Joe Girardi, Tino Martinez, Chuck Knoblauch, Paul O'Neill, David Wells, and Scott Brosius?

Oh, and you'd better believe that True Yankees like Jeter are loyal to the Yankees because the Yankees pay them well. They're all mercenaries.

Without the stench of mercenaries, the Yankees wouldn't have any rings ... ever.


"Now, Clemens is back, and he is supposed to be some sort of throwback to the Yankees teams that brought a lot of fans back to the Stadium in 1996, when baseball in the Bronx became fun again."

Seriously? Wallace Matthews didn't have fun in 1995? Mattingly in the playoffs vs. Seattle? Didn't they hit three dingers in a row in a playoff game? The Pat Kelly homerun down the stretch in Toronto, I believe? Winning the last ten games just to win the wild card, or something like that?

When did baseball in the Bronx become not fun for Wallace Matthews? Then, it only became fun again when a bunch of mercenaries bought the World Series title in 1996?

I always enjoyed baseball in the Bronx. I enjoyed the Mel Hall Era. I enjoyed the Jack Clark Strikeout Watch. I enjoyed the Yankee Toyota car. I enjoyed Andy Hawkins losing a no-hitter. I enjoyed Joel Skinner occasionally hitting a ball into fair territory. I enjoyed Don Baylor getting hit by pitches and Steve Kemp mentally and physically disintegrate into the worst player in baseball history.

Why not have fun? It's baseball in the Bronx! It's always fun!

Maybe it's because I'm a fan of baseball.

Maybe Wallace Matthews just doesn't like baseball.

Maybe he should write newspaper columns about knitting instead.


"If Clemens really cared about any team other than Team Rocket, he would have reported to spring training in February, with everyone else rather than starting his spring on May 9. If he really gave a damn about any of the three teams interested in him, he would have let them know his intentions three months ago, so they could plan accordingly. If remaining close to home was really so important to him, he would have returned to the Astros, or at worst, gone to the Texas Rangers."

Wallace Matthews has the mind of an infant.

Yes, we know, we know. Roger Clemens is greedy and self-centered. Everybody knows it.

We also know if he really wanted a ring so badly, he'd go to the Red Sox or the Tigers or, heck, why not the Brewers?

When Clemens says "the Yankees know how to win," he's lying. Just look at the list of World Series winners at baseball-reference.com. The Four Rings are ancient history.

But what's bizarre is that Wallace Matthews actually seems to believe that Clemens surprised the Yankees. As if the Yankees didn't have time to plan accordingly. As if this wasn't decided before Pettitte signed and before Randy Johnson was traded. As if Pettitte and Jeter haven't been practicing their "surprise" face for six months.

No matter how much you hate Clemens and no matter how much you hate the Yankees, your brain can't possibly be that dysfunctional.

Somebody explain to the grown up that Santa Claus doesn't exist.

"THERE is some good that can emerge from the bluster and the ballyhoo of Roger Clemens' return to duty. From this point forward, on into forever, we can finally, officially dismiss the nonsensical notion that the Yankees exist on a separate plane from the rest of baseball, and the rest of sports."

Nonsensical notions are nonsensical notions. Not sure why the signing of Roger Clemens would render a notion any more or less nonsensical.


"Those pinstripes, which Yankees and Yankees fans alike have viewed as some kind of moral shield for decades?

They're just stripes now."

Moral shield?


"The Yankees have officially surrendered the right to act self-righteous and superior now. They're just like everyone else. When the pressure hits a certain level, they'll squander their stack like Tony Soprano on a gambling jag."

I'm still not sure what you're getting at.

The Yankees are not just like everyone else because the Yankees have more money to spend than everyone else. They've always squandered their stack like Tony Soprano on a gambling jab. As far back as Babe Ruth.

The self-righteousness and even the commitment to winning? That's a marketing campaign.


"Let it ride, and to hell with the Yankee Way."

What's the Yankee Way?

I always thought the Yankee Way was to utilize their financial advantages as best as they possibly could.

That's the Yankee Way.

That's how you win 26 World Championships.


"Gone are the days when the Yankees can even pretend their dirty socks don't smell the way everyone else's do. Gone are the days when they can harrumph and say they don't adjust to the times, the times - and the players - adjust to them. The moment they coaxed Clemens' signature onto the bottom of this perks-heavy contract, they did more than sell their soul.

They sold their collective history - and all the moral authority that allegedly went with it - down the Harlem River. Here's hoping ol' No. 22 will be worth it."

Wow. Have the Yankees ever harrumphed and said they don't adjust to the times? I know that Steinbrenner insists on clean-shaven beards. Other than that, I think the Yankees have made an effort to adjust to the times.

The Yankees sold their collective history, did they? I hope the wife beaters, alcoholics, junkies, greedy free agents, crybabies, spoiled brats, and cheaters who fill Monument Park can deal with it.

The Yankees can't sell their soul. The Yankees never had one. They're a professional baseball team.

Clemens is neither morally superior nor morally inferior to any of the other 749 mercenaries who play major league baseball. He's just better than most of them.

I take it all back.

I always thought Joe Torre gave interminable, boring, charmless postgame interviews.

Then, I saw Don Mattingly after last night's game, seemingly intimidated by the likes of Kim Jones and Sweeny Murti.

Sweeny probably grew up with posters of Mattingly on his wall. He's rooting for the guy to give a good answer. But Mattingly answered questions like he had just been caught in that beach house on "Dateline."

Duh Logic.

Thanks to my friend and legit Brewer fan Scuba for directing my attention to this monstrosity.

"In concept, the Ultimate Fantasy Draft is pretty simple: If you were starting a team from scratch, which players would you build around?"

In concept, it's pretty simple. In practice, it's pretty dopey.

Check out the top ten.

Alex Rodriguez is 10th and David Wright is 8th.

The 9th-best player on the Mets is the 8th-best player in baseball.


Yes, I know, I know. The argument is framed so it is rigged towards younger, cheaper players. It's not really asking who's the "best" player, per se, in 2007.

But, still: Wright should simply not be ahead of ARod on any list of good baseball players.


I'm quite perplexed by the lowered expectations for Wright. Last year at this time, he was supposedly an MVP candidate on a fast route to Cooperstown.

Now, the general sentiment seems to be that Met fans shouldn't worry because he will rebound and hit .295 with 25 homeruns and 90 rbis.

Gee, whiz. Even I think he'll do better than that throughout his career. Ty Wiggington could have done 90% of that for 1/10th the pricetag.

Why are you here?

"I'm here and I'm not going anywhere and I don't apologize for who I am," [Waldman] said. "I never said I was Vin Scully or Bob Costas. That's not why I'm here."

Bob Costas?

You voluntarily name two people who represent the pinnacle of baseball broadcasting and one of them is Bob Costas?


Am I the only person who isn't buying any of this shock and amazement?

Andy Pettitte didn't know? Nobody knew?

I guess it was a nice show for a Sunday afternoon. But I tend to agree with Lance Berkman's assessment:

"With this Rocket situation, there's two kinds of people: people that are not surprised and morons."

The concept of "both."

The Yankee pitching is bad. Their first baseman is also bad. Their first baseman should not be compared to their pitching staff. He should be compared to other first basemen:

"Reading your e-mail, I think back to Friday night when the Yankees put up 11 runs and 16 hits against the Mariners -- both season highs -- and still lost.

Did the Yankees lose because they didn't have enough offense, and thus Mientkiewicz should be singled out? I don't believe so. Competent pitching solves a lot of the Yankees' woes, but when a team is losing, suddenly you're looking for scapegoats and the guy hitting under .200 is the easiest target of all."

Yes, they lost because they didn't have enough offense. When the opponent scores 15, your offense has to score 16. Because you lose when you score less runs than your opponent.

Last Friday night is not a good example. Ball Thief was 1-for-2 with a walk and a run scored.

But, in general, the argument does not hold water. A bad player is a bad player. It does not matter if his teammates are good.

The Yankees have a pitching staff with Mussina, Wang, Pettitte, Proctor, Farnsworth, Myers, and Rivera. I never heard anybody say, "It doesn't matter if Kei Igawa's ERA is 75.00. They should have enough pitching without Kei Igawa."

Stop defending Ball Thief because the other players on his team are good.

He is a bad baseball player. It doesn't matter which team he is playing for. Bad baseball players make the team worse.

Lupica finally mentions Alex Rodriguez in a positive manner.

After negatively comparing ARod to Troy Glaus, David Wright, Mike Lowell, and dozens of other inferior players, Lupica can not directly praise ARod:

"Even when A-Rod was having the kind of all-time April he was having, you want to know something?

Reyes was still the best baseball show going."

You want to know something? You are wrong. We all saw it with our own eyes.

The best baseball show going was ARod.

ARod, by the way, still leads his league in homeruns, runs scored, and runs batted in. While batting .370. While playing dazzling defense.

ARod will go down in history as one of the top five baseball players of all time and you missed the whole thing, even though he played right under your nose.


But it's also a question nobody was asking. The appreciation of baseball in its totality expands beyond two morons in a bar arguing Mets vs. Yankees.

I remember Lupica and others pushing the left side of the infield thing. A renaissance of Willie, Mickey, and the Duke. I don't hear too much about it since the third baseman of the Mets is hitting under .250.

Every Yankees fan should be able to appreciate the talents of Jose Reyes. He is much better than I thought he'd be and his career arc seems to be on the rise.

(Of course, so did David Wright's six months ago. So did Edgardo Alfonzo's in 1999. So did Adrian Beltre's three years ago. So, I'll still take the guy who has done it for twelve seasons.)

Every Mets fan and every Red Sox fan should be able to appreciate the talents of Alex Rodriguez. Especially a Red Sox fan who's writing columns for the newspaper which covers the daily events of the city in which Alex Rodriguez plays baseball.


Plus, just when you think Mike Lupica couldn't possibly be more hypocritical, couldn't possibly be more of a Mets fan, Mr. Tough Guy New York Writer throws this pathetic bouquet of flowers to the Mets third baseman:

"Sports fans can boo anybody they want to in sports, booing is one of the last rights they have left.

And they sure do buy the right when they buy the ticket.

I just don't think that right should include David Wright."

So sad.

.248 with 2 homeruns and the grizzled New York newspaper man defends him.

Lupica leads the parade when ARod was gets booed, when Sheffield got hurt, when Randy Johnson was losing playoff games. Lupica said Clemens didn't deserve the Cy Young when Clemens was 20-3.

Fair enough. The Daily News is birdcage liner and nobody has to read it.

But you should be consistent if you want to be able to look at yourself in the mirror.

Instead of defending the Mets' awful third baseman, go get Bill Gallo to draw a cartoon of David Wright in his $10 million diapers.

Get ready for six more weeks of winter.

In the fourth inning of tonight's game, Alex Rodriguez was on second base with two outs. Robinson Cano struck out and the ball rolled away from the catcher. Cano ran to first base and Rodriguez scored all the way from second base.

Turns out, the ball hit Cano in the foot after he'd swung, so the play was over and Cano was out.

Joe Torre put down his green tea, pried himself off the bench, and emerged from the dugout to argue the play.

He scurried back into the dugout so quickly, that I'm pretty sure he saw his shadow.

One of these things is not like the other.

The life of Mariano Rivera must be odd because he is consistently disrespected every time his ERA rises above 0.00.

But at least I get a chance to see Joe Borowski and Mariano Rivera mentioned in the same breath:


"On the way down


Armando Benitez, Giants

Joe Borowski, Indians

Ryan Dempster, Cubs

Tom Gordon, Phillies

Trevor Hoffman, Padres

Jason Isringhausen, Cardinals

Todd Jones, Tigers

Brad Lidge, Astros

Mariano Rivera, Yankees

B.J. Ryan, Blue Jays

Bob Wickman, Braves"

The oddest entry on this list is B.J. Ryan.

Thirty-one years old, 74 saves in the past two seasons, and a 1.37 ERA last year.

Ryan gets hurt early in the 2007 season and, guess what? It's safe to say that his best days are behind him.

Gloggers are even more useless than bloggers.

Funny thing is, the premise is correct. Jose Reyes and other players with similar abilities should focus on on-base percentage instead of slugging percentage.

So, I guess this is a case of a wrong arguments leading to a correct conclusion:

" Marco Lockett

Set the table. Lead off base hit for Reyes. He is doing what a lead off man is suppose [sic] to. Instead of dreaming about the long ball set the table for the big boppers. Especially when your [sic] down by a few runs. Solo shots do no damage. Three run mashes demoralize the opposition."

Solo shots don't do as much damage as three run homeruns, but they still do some damage. One run's worth of damage, to be precise.

I am also confused by the clause, "Especially when you're down by a few runs."

If the Mets were down by one run, or if the game was tied, should Reyes then dream about the long ball?

Reyes did not even score. He was thrown out at home on the back end of a double steal. Where's your demoralizing three run homerun now? Would you take the harmless solo homerun instead?