By Zach Dean

Copyright outkick

For those of you not paying attention to late-September baseball, the New York Mets and Chicago Cubs have just been in a freefall lately. It’s really the Mets, though, who are perilously close to pissing away their giant payroll in Cancun instead of the playoffs. Anyway, both clubs are facing off this week in the penultimate series of the regular season, and it comes with a ton of drama. It ain’t exactly what you’d expect, though. During Tuesday night’s Game 1, Mets announcer Gary Cohen decided to do the thing where people say, “I don’t want to get political,” and then … immediately get political. Have a listen! Can we all act like adults here? “I don’t want to talk about any of the politics of it, but the thought of leaving your team in the middle of a race for any reason other than a family emergency, really strikes me as weird.” Here’s the thing … I actually somewhat agree with Gary Cohen on this one. It’s kind of weird. I’m just gonna be honest. Maybe it’s the former player in me, but if I was in that clubhouse, I’d think it was odd. “Wait, where’s Matt?” “Oh, he’s at Charlie Kirk’s funeral.” What? Imagine showing up to the ballpark and hearing that? I’d think I was being punked. Now, I’m not sure that anyone was asking where Matt Shaw and his .220 batting average was over the weekend, but I digress. Anyway, here’s where I have to push back on Gary a bit, because he IS taking some heat today for the comments. Gary, himself, missed a ballgame earlier this year. Do you know why? Because his dog died. Seriously: I mean, what are we doing here? Come on. This is silly. You’re missing a game because your 13-year-old dog died? Really? And you’re an adult? That’s right up there with people who take the day off from work because it’s their birthday. Truly mind-boggling stuff. Hey, Gary Cohen – how about you piss right the hell off with the Matt Shaw hate. You no longer have any room to talk here. None. Zero. The absolute NUTS on you to badmouth Shaw for skipping a game for a funeral, knowing that you skipped a game in April because your DOG died, is insane. Truly insane. I’m sure Lily was a great dog. I’m sure it was a … tough … day for the Cohen family. But can we act like adults for one second here? My God. It’s a dog. Not a human. “But dogs are like family!” No, they’re not. Shut up. Dogs are not comparable to family. They are not your kids. They are not your parents. They are not your brothers or sisters. They are an animal. Guess what? When I was 8, I walked into my bathroom one morning and found my 13-year-old dog dead. True story. You know what I did next? I walked my ass to the bus stop and went to third grade. The end. Why are we skipping work because a 91-year-old dog died? Better yet, why are we shitting on players for skipping work for a funeral after you did THAT? Nope. Not on my watch. I think the Shaw stuff was kinda weird. I think Gary Cohen missing time because his dog died is ever weirder. Quick, someone get Herbstreit’s thoughts!