Luis Castillo, released by the Mets, has been picked up by the Phillies. Will he go from catcalls at Citi Field to cheers at Citizens Bank Park? This certainly provides another chance to test the "curse of the ex-Met" theory.
Update: The other shoe drops, as Oliver Perez gets his walking papers, this after walking too many batters and tossing too many gopher balls (two in his last outing with the Mets on Sunday). This means that the cash-strapped Mets have eaten $18 million ($6 million to Castillo and $12 million to Perez) in contractual obligations so far this season.
Is there really such a thing as the curse of the ex-Met? I dunno. I think I heard someone use that phrase years ago at the Lion's Head, and it's stuck with me. I certainly don't have any statistical evidence to back it up. Still, somewhere in the back alleys of my brain, probably in the vicinity of the amygdala, resides the notion that, whenever a Mets player is traded, released, or lost to free agency, his performance, especially against his old team, improves dramatically (and conversely, whenever a veteran player is acquired by the Mets, his stats go south). These are falsifiable propositions, and I'm sure there is someone out there who can produce counterexamples. Of course, I will then argue that you've found an exception that proves the rule.
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