There was some giddiness in the air on Thursday when news broke about David Einhorn's decision to become the Mets' minority partner.
Whether it was the infusion of cash and the background of its provider that made you feel better about the future, Einhorn's arrival created a bubble of joy around the Mets. Said bubble existed just as long as it took for the Mets to get back on the field.
They lost 9-3 to the Cubs, their fourth loss in five games, and, once again, they saw the invisible gunmen tasked with injuring their players pop up to claim another victim. R.A. Dickey went down like he was shot while running to cover first base in the third inning and needed to be helped off the field a short time later.
There's no diagnosis for Dickey's immediate future, although shots of him laboring to make it to the clubhouse with help from a couple of people made for some long odds on him making his next start. Those odds got even longer after the game when Dickey said it felt like he stepped on a railroad spike before hitting the dirt.
Perhaps Fred Wilpon was wrong when he called this team snakebitten. One might actually prefer getting bitten by a snake to stepping on a railroad spike.
The Mets were up 1-0 at that point, but things quickly came apart on a windy, nasty day at Wrigley Field. Carlos Zambrano pitched six strong innings and had three hits against an overtaxed Mets bullpen that couldn't get many people out.
All of that would be bad enough to spoil Einhorn's dramatic entry onto the scene earlier in the day. This being the Mets, things were just getting warmed up.
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After the game, Terry Collins admitted that Ike Davis's rehab has not moved as quickly as the team hoped and that there's no date for his return at this point. He is eligible to come off the disabled list on Friday, but he hasn't even started working out on a field yet.
David Wright has started taking the first steps toward a return from the stress fracture in his back, but Collins said there's still no timetable for his return. Just what you want to hear when your team failed to score more than three runs for the eighth time in the last nine games with the Phillies coming to town for a Memorial Day dance party.
Let's close with an optimistic twist. If Einhorn was willing to invest in this team before Thursday, nothing that happened should give him cause for second thoughts about how he's spending his money.
Josh Alper is a writer living in New York City. You can follow him on Twitter and he is also a contributor to Pro Football Talk.
