So, yesterday, my least favorite NY writer, Mike Lupica, wrote an interesting article about the perception that the Latin players don’t get along with the other players in the Mets clubhouse, and that they end-run Willie by going to Omar Minaya, who shot the theory down as ridiculous.  The fact that the article was written shows, I think, that my dinner companion of the other night was sharing a theory more widespread than I had anticipated.  Minaya is right though about how being below .500 does change the glasses you are viewing the team from.  I think one of the most important things that was said earlier in the week was Minaya saying that the Mets have championship caliber talent, but not a championship caliber team.  That right there is the difference between paper and reality and why you play the games.  Its the difference between the Cubs in 2007 and what seem to be the Cubs in 2008.  Last night though, at Shea, against the first place Marlins, the Mets looked a little like they could figure that team thing out.  Peter Botte has the game story, but the key for me is in the bottom of the 12th, Wright walked, and Beltran got a single.  Damion Easley– playing for the finally benched Delgado– struck out.  Fernando Tatis came to the plate.  Now I have been watching Tatis play in the minors for a couple of years.  I saw him when he was with the Orioles AAA team two years ago when he came into the game as a pinch runner, and went first to home. He was so fast for a guy who has been around forever.  The problem, so big even the Orioles who had nothing going on in 2006 couldn’t over look it for his speed, was that he was hitting below the Mendoza line at AAA.  As one Orioles Asst. GM at the time said– “you can’t steal first base.”  Last year, Tatis was not much better. So when he comes to the plate, I cringe.  Especially, in a game clinching situation.  I now have been wrong twice. Tatis got a hit, which not only allowed Wright to score from third, but allowed a running Beltran to score from first to win the game.  The reaction at home plate by players in the dugout was, by all reports, over-the-top.  Maybe the Mets will catch lightening in a bottle with Tatis, and maybe, a player like Tatis who has been out of baseball, and is lucky to be collecting a big league paycheck might show the others how to play hard again.  Tatis certainly disproves the blanket theory that those who had to play their way out of poverty only see this as a game.