Nothing Says “2010 Mets” Like Oliver Perez Walking In The Winning Run To End The Season

Better than 2006, better than 2007 . . . it’s Oliver Perez losing the last game of the season for the Mets:

In the top of the 14th, with no other relievers left except those who had been overworked, Manuel went to Perez, who had not pitched since Sept. 6. With one out, he hit Adam Kennedy with a pitch and walked the next three batters as Washington took the lead. That brought Manuel out to remove Perez, who earlier in the season had refused to go to the minor leagues and had been used only five other times after the All-Star break.

As Perez walked off the mound and descended into the dugout, where he pounded the bench with his glove, the few thousand fans who remained assaulted him with jeers. Then the fans turned their venom on Manuel, who has a 204-213 record in his two-and-a-half-year tenure with the team.

Then that was that.

“Francisco Rodriguez’s Domestic Violence Charge” Is An Anagram For “Convenient Way To Jettison Millions From A Bloated And Underperforming Payroll”

Actually, it’s not. But there was once a time when J.J. Putz and K-Rod seemed like a pretty solid 1-2, er, punch. Now Putz is blowing saves for the White Sox and K-Rod is headed to the DL:

But the deteriorating 2010 season is now attached to the Mets like a tin can and will apparently follow them everywhere. No sooner did the Mets gather in their locker room to play the Houston Astros on Monday night than the team announced that Francisco Rodriguez, their highly paid closer, had torn a ligament in his right thumb, apparently during a violent altercation with the father of his common-law wife last Wednesday night.

The incident led to misdemeanor assault charges against Rodriguez, a ton of bad publicity for the Mets and an agreement by Rodriguez to participate in anger-management counseling.

As it turns out, it has also led to the near certainty that Rodriguez will have surgery for the torn ligament — which is on his pitching hand — and that he will be out for the remainder of the season. The Mets, in turn, will now determine whether they have any chance of voiding the remainder of Rodriguez’s contract, which runs through 2011, with an option for 2012.

Take Me Out To The Bra Game

But I don’t get why Lady Gaga would want to watch a stinky old Mets-Padres day game when there’s a fantastic Yankees-Astros interleague series starting tonight:

The beer-swilling diva — who has professed her love for the Yankees — proceeded to repeatedly salute the crowd with her middle finger.

When fans rose for the seventh-inning stretch, she did, too — dancing and giving onlookers the double-bird salute.

She watched the rest of the game in just her undergarments without incident.

“She was psyched to go the game,” a source close to Gaga told The Post.

Location Scout: Citi Field.

Daily News Sends Reporter Down To Philadelphia To Root For Mets Team That No One In New York Cares About

Although the Mets are now in first place, attendance at Citi Field is down — the Mets averaging somewhere above Colorado but below Milwaukee for the season so far — so the Daily News, eschewing “objectivity,” takes the extraordinary step of having its own sports reporter go down to Philadelphia to stir up trouble. Predictably, he looks like an ass:

When I started a chant of “Phillies suck” just feet from the famous LOVE sculpture, I got anything but love from the Phillies faithful. The locals surrounding me looked like they might choke on their cheese steaks.

. . .

At the fountain in Logan Circle, another less-than-exciting Philly landmark, a few boisterous fans said they wouldn’t mind throwing me in the water.

“You’re going down, son,” said Troy Decker, 26, who took a long lunch break from his hotel desk job just to harass me. “You all will just collapse like you do every year.”

Moral Of The Story . . .

Don’t underestimate Eli Manning’s ability to come back late in the game and definitely don’t overlook David Tyree’s incredible athletic prowess in case the two connect for a game-saving pass play during the Super Bowl:

Michael Terry, 40, said he invited three neighborhood drug dealers to his Belmont Ave. apartment to smoke pot, drink beer and watch the Giants beat the Patriots on Feb. 3, 2008.

The Giants won, the four toasted the victory, and his guests refused to leave. They stayed for three days and began selling drugs out of his living room, Terry told a Bronx Supreme Court jury.