See Also Joe Ross Jersey equal time Forgive this self-indulgence, but after 20 years of trying to figure out what the heck is happening and happened to big league baseball, I arrived at a conclusion. Happened Tuesday. The Mets Jeff McNeil singled in the automatic runner a pinch runner for the automatic runner, no le s who was automatically placed on second to based on artificial additives, another reality-deprived, Rob Manfred Era innovation to create artificial excitement. As Gary Cohen, calling the game on SNY, became unglued as if hed just been nailed by a cattle prod, the Mets rushed from the dugout to mob McNeil as if theyd just won the World Series, the Peloponnesian War and the Yankee Stadium 50-50 raffle. Such exce s has become so obligatory, forced, fleeting and insincere just a cheap imitation of previous cheap imitations that generations of high-achievement profe sional ballplayers and triple-IQ fans would view as preposterous. Eric Haase Jersey