About Joel

He's just a kid playing a kid's game, right?

The lasting impression will not be an exuberant 21-year-old reacting – perhaps overreacting – in a moment of exuberance. Lastings Milledge is going to do far more than that here.

Milledge has five tools, but not a sixth sense yet of how to avoid controversy. And here in talk-radio/24-hour cable America, Milledge committed the most unpardonable sin: He allowed the world to see his real side; which again was an exuberant 21-year-old kid.

Let’s for a moment assume the worst about Milledge’s slap-happy moment on Sunday afternoon at Shea Stadium. Let’s assume that his romp down the right-field line exchanging high-fiving with Met fans between the bottom of the 10th and the top of the 11th was self-indulgent, a purposeful disrespecting of the Giants and/or both. If that were indeed the case, Willie Randolph addressed it afterward, both to the player and the media. He said that it would not occur again and so did Milledge.

Lastings Milledge is already a fan-favorite at Shea. (AP)

And here’s the thing, I actually think Milledge did not have the worst intentions. My sense was this was not about him or the Giants as much as the moment. He had just hit a two-out, two-strike, bottom-of-the-10th homer off of Armando Benitez’s best fastball. He was geeked and so was the stadium. The Met faithful had been hearing for a while now about all the wonderful skills residing within Milledge and here was his first gigantic moment as a major leaguer. If this is not a time for elation at the ballpark, what is?

Again, this was not thirty-something vets such as Carlos Delgado or Cliff Floyd. This was the youngest position player in the major leagues behaving like the youngest position player in the major leagues.

How dare him?

This was a player born the year before the Mets last won a World Series caught up in a moment, and that it was shared with an exhilarated group at Shea should have made it more indelible than infuriating.

We can’t complain that this generation of players never connects with the fans or never shows their real emotions, and then take down a player who does both -- especially when no one is truly hurt by this, except a group of curmudgeons protecting some unwritten code.

Milledge did not wiggle in front of the Giant dugout or do an endzone dance. He celebrated with the folks who paid to get in. Again, let’s keep perspective, for in the end, he slapped a few hands as he went back to work in right field and made the game experience all the better for many at Shea.

There is a feeling that this showed a window into Milledge’s soul, that there are enough warning signs of danger in this past that this kind of act is an omen. I don’t buy it. If Milledge is going to cause problems here – and he just might – it is going to be with behavior far more aberrant that slapping a few hands. And, again, old-school Willie Randolph addressed this immediately. There was no enabling here, if that were indeed the concern.

Lastings Milledge behaved like a 21-year-old kid. Can we forgive him for that?

LINE DRIVES

Melky Cabrera's bat has made up for his not-quite nimble glove. (AP)

If you had Melky Cabrera and Andy Phillips in your Yankee savior pool, you will find applications to be a major league GM at the door.

And while Endy Chavez and Jose Valentin have not exactly been Met saviors, they have been far more than anybody could have anticipated in April.

The best part of Phillips’ strong play is that it makes Jason Giambi just about a full-time DH, which is really his best position.

The Mets have retained this comfy lead in the NL East with Carlos Delgado in an extreme slump. That is what is known in the business as a really, really good sign.

Robinson Cano has mostly kept his average near or over .300 this year. But this was a guy who has 52 extra-base hits, including 14 homers, in 522 at-bats last year. This season he had just 15 extra-base hits, including two homers, in his first 210 at-bats. He has hit the ball more like Wade Boggs, slapping it the other way, than with authority. He has lightning in his hands and, especially with Hideki Matsui and Gary Sheffield on the DL, the Yanks can use some of that lightning.

What happens one of these days when Derek Jeter dives over the plate and suffers a break rather than a bruise?

It was a lovely dream, but it sure does look as if Aaron Small has woken up.