'Who asked YOU?'

An article in the May 14 Sunday Times by Pat Borzi caught my eye.
Entitled "Mets' Lima Has Searched For Excuses, Not in Mirror, " it was a fairly caustic piece about the shortcomings of Jose Lima, a pitcher brought up to help fill the gap caused by injuries to two of the Mets regular starting rotation. (Actually his name is pronounced lee-ma, not ly-ma). Borzi chastised Lima for not accepting responsiblity for his mistakes, blaming the umpires instead.

Borzi wrote: "Lima claimed the plate umpire, Rick Reed, did not give him a called third strike on a borderline 2-2 pitch to Rickie Weeks in the fifth with a man on second and two out. In his first start last Sunday [May 7], against Atlanta, Lima accused the umpire Angel Hernandez of not giving him the corners because he was not John Smoltz, his opponent."

Now, I'm not a great fan of Lima's, but even I thought the tone of the piece seemed unusually harsh for a news story. Also self-contradictory when the writer concluded with the following:

"They needed me so bad today, because it was so tough last night," said Lima, referring to the rain-shortened 2-0 loss in Philadelphia on Thursday. "I got the lead. I didn't hold it. It's not the guys' fault. It's my fault." (emphasis added).

Sounds like a mea culpa to me, like someone who's not looking for excuses. Make up your mind, Pat.

What made it even harder to discern was a small filler following the story which stated, "Other points of view on the Op-Ed page seven days a week. The New York Times."

So was this a "point of view" then? If so a) there should have been something to state it as such; and b) it doesn't belong in the sports news section. You can't have it both ways.