Baseball

The Race Is On
Can Bobby Valentine's Mets finally dethrone the Braves and give him his first division title?

In more serene moments, when he isn't ranting about the lack of credit he and his Mets receive from the New York media, Bobby Valentine has been known to admit that he has accomplished little as a manager. After all, in eight years with the Rangers, Valentine never wound up higher than second; in two minor league seasons his team placed fourth and second; in one season in Japan he finished second; and in the past two seasons with the Mets he has come in third and second. "The truth is, you can't talk until you have results," says Valentine, loquacious leader of baseball's winningest club (36-15) from June 6 through Sunday. "Not as a team, not as a manager."

Valentine, who has been characterized by detractors inside and outside the Mets' organization as an egoistical (true), trash-talking (true), overrated (debatable) hype machine, now is in position to get results. New York, which briefly took a half-game lead over the Braves atop the National League East last Friday before falling a half-game off the pace again, has proved itself capable of taking a run at ending Atlanta's domination of the division in the last four years.

The Mets' .987 fielding percentage was the best in baseball (THE STANDINGS, page 64) at week's end. Their .277 average (fourth in the league), 531 RBIs (fifth), 473 walks (first), .362 on-base percentage (first) and 105 stolen bases (third) make their attack diverse and dangerous. New York has both power, from Ventura (22 homers and 84 RBIs) and catcher Mike Piazza (21 and 68) and speed, from outfielders Roger Cedeño (a major-league-leading 52 stolen bases) and Rickey Henderson (28 steals).

But for the Mets to knock off the Braves or at least reach the postseason as the National League wild card, Valentine must successfully deploy a pitching staff that has seven starters (including injured former All-Star Bobby Jones, who's due back by the end of the month), most of whom are rather undistinguished. New York's present six-man rotation has lefthanders Al Leiter, the staff ace, and Kenny Rogers, and righthanders Octavio Dotel, Orel Hershiser, Rick Reed and Masato Yoshii. Valentine used six starters for much of the stretch run last season, when the Mets fell out of the wild-card race by losing their last five games and he doesn't relish the idea of doing so again.

Valentine says one fixture in the rotation will be Dotel, a quiet 23-year-old rookie who evokes comparisons to a young Pedro Martinez. On most teams a phenom of Dotel's ability would have been on the Opening Day roster. But Valentine uncharacteristically urged patience. When Dotel finally got his first start in New York on June 26, he was ready to pitch in the majors. Despite having been rocked for nine runs in two innings against the Cubs last Saturday, Dotel was 3-1 after six starts. "He's got a chance to be something special," says Valentine. "He's competitive, he's fearless, and he's got a 95-mile-per-hour fastball."

Despite all his starters, Valentine's bullpen was exhausted as Saturday's trading deadline approached, largely because the Mets had gone a league-record 106 games without a complete game. Weary relievers Turk Wendell, Armando Benitez and Dennis Cook ranked first, second and third, respectively, in the league in appearances. The acquisition on Saturday of lefthander Chuck McElroy from the Rockies and righthander Billy Taylor from the A's should reinvigorate the bullpen for the stretch run. That was evident on Sunday as McElroy and Taylor gave the Mets two scoreless innings of relief in a dramatic 13-inning, 5-4 win in Chicago.

None of this is likely to mellow Valentine, though. On Saturday, surrounded by a throng of reporters, he celebrated his first day as a first-place New York manager by again blasting his critics. "No matter what I do, I can't get respect," he said. "Everyone was calling for my head a month ago. Where are they now that we're winning?"

Of course, Valentine knows that should his team miss the playoffs yet again, they'll be back.

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