Uncomfortably Numb

"No games today"

That's what it read on my Yahoo! Sports page under MLB.

Boy, is that an understatement.

For there will be no games today, or any other day in October, for the New York Mets.

As you can imagine, I've made myself scarce. The phone rang numerous times, but I couldn't bring myself to answer. Partly because it was hard for me to sleep last night...Partly because my walks outside have been extra long today.

I'll never forget the moments following Game 7 against the Dodgers in 1988, tuning into WFAN and hearing Howie Rose conduct a pseudo psychiatric session to counsel Met fans who have been ready to jump off a tall building after Orel Hershiser shut them out. It was depressing and cathartic at the same time. In this age of blogs, there are a lot more people in a position to play counsel to Met fans who are looking for guidance.

But my general rule of thumb is this: the people who need the most psychiatric help make the lousiest psychiatrists. So that's another reason I didn't answer the phone. I don't have the brainpower to play psychiatrist. So don't expect any great counsel from me...since I can use some of it myself.

Although I'm nowhere near ready to put Game 7 of 2006 into historical perspective (I prefer to wait until enough history has passed). I can certainly say this without a shadow of a doubt:

Thursday night was worse than 1988.

Scioscia, Gibson and Hershiser hereby move aside and stand in awe of Molina, Suppan, and Wainwright in the pantheon of wrenched guts...at least my wrenched gut.

There have been a whole lot of comments on the previous post, easily a record for this blog. Many things have been said, including a defacto hate list, and a plan for next season.

It's way too soon to get into that for me. I can't even think about turning the page and thinking about 2007 quite yet. Heck, I can't even put two and two together long enough to provide an organized look back on last season (yikes...it really is last season now, isn't it), except to delete the August 23rd walk off victory vs. the Cardinals from my DVR. There was a time where I would use the Carlos Beltran walk-off home run rather than coffee to jump start my day. But now, there's no way that I can watch that without being more bummed out thinking about the Wainwright curveball that turned Beltran's knees into custard.

If you would, please allow me some random unorganized thoughts:

Where did it go wrong: If you put a gun to my head, and asked me to place blame on one player, and no more, as to why the Mets season ended so soon, then the one I would choose would have to be Guillermo Mota. Blame the lack of hitting if you want, but that's more than one player. And I don't want to hear about Billy Wagner, because the pitches he made were the ones he had to make. But I'll go to the top of the mountain and shout this out for the world to hear, repercussions be damned: If Mota doesn't throw the exact same pitch to Scott Spiezio that he had just lined hard foul on the previous pitch, hereby resulting in a game tying triple in Game 2, then instead of writing this, I'm writing about how the Mets can defeat the Tigers and photoshopping a picture of Tom Glavine and Shawn Green as Sigfried and Roy taming baby Tiger cubs. (Trust me, I had it ready. You would have enjoyed it immensely...guaranteed.)

I can't even blame Steve Trachsel. I can't blame him because Jeff Suppan pitched a tight Game 7 the same way he pitched Game 3 with a big lead. Even though Trachsel stunk, I can't say for sure that if Darren Oliver had started that game the result would have changed. (Nevertheless, I still would tie Trachsel up with frayed ropes and push him to Taiwan to pitch in a slow pitch softball league because Game 3 was the most gutless performance that I have ever seen by a Mets starter...and remember, I've seen Mike Scott pitch as a Met so I know gutless.)

Speaking of gutless, let's discuss Braden Looper: One of the reasons I hate Mike Stanton so much, outside of the fact that he was a former Yankee stalwart that pitched horribly as a Met, was that in the midst of celebrating the 2000 World Series victory at Shea Stadium, Stanton noticed Bobby Valentine on the clubhouse television and made it a point to spray the television with champagne. For a player that had no history with Valentine, and for a player that had just won a World freakin' Series, it was a bush league move.

What Looper pulled during the Cardinal celebration, mocking the "Jose Jose Jose" chant (a former teammate of his no less) during the Cardinals celebration, tops Stanton's move. Real gutsy for a player who basically cost his team Game 6 in the most important game he's pitched as a Cardinal. I can't think of how many times I've defended Looper last year through thick and mostly thin...and if you don't believe me you can look it up. And if you can believe this, I even thought about writing, on this space, a piece imploring the Shea faithful to take it relatively easy on Looper here at Shea during the NLCS. I apologize to you...the reader...that the thought ever crossed my mind. I promise that the next time you see the name "Braden Looper" on this site will be as a nomination for the Hall of Hate.

Uncle Cliffy: You've probably seen the last of Cliff Floyd in a Met uniform. I hope it's not the case, but I can't realistically see a scenario where the Mets will pay Cliff the money that he will feel he's worth for what will most likely be part time production. What has impressed me about Cliff Floyd throughout his time here is that time after time after time, Floyd has attempted to play in severe pain when most players would shut it down. He did it throughout his first season here, and he did it throughout these playoffs. I know a pitcher that could learn a little something about guts from Floyd.

Combine that with Floyd's lockerroom presence and you have someone who should be indispensable...but the Mets already have a lockerroom presence named Julio Franco, who at this point I fear would make a much better coach than a player (don't get me wrong, to be good enough to play major league baseball at the age of 48 is incredible...but when the phrase "waste of an at-bat" keeps coming to my mind when he strides to the plate, it's enough food for thought for me). The Mets cannot have two players reduced simply to pinch hitting duty (you're really not going to count the times that Franco has played third base, are you) on their roster next season.

I will put Cliff Floyd up on a list with anybody you mention to me in terms of being the classiest players this franchise has ever known. Anybody. If he does leave, Floyd has left an indelible mark on this franchise for seasons to come. I will continue to be hopeful of Floyd returning to the Mets in 2007, but realistically...

My Two Front Teeth: Add Tom Glavine to the list of players I want to see return in '07. I hope for the Mets' sake that it's not as their ace, even though he performed admirably in that role during the postseason, but I hope that there is a pitcher (or two) on the way that will take the pressure off of Tommy G. When it comes down to a choice between baseball and family, it's never easy. But since 2007 will probably be Glavine's final shot at 300 victories, I hope it's as a New York Met. I hope that Glavine will take into account the fact that the Mets are much closer to the promised land at this point than the Atlanta Braves are...and if I have to personally make the case to Glavine's family then I'm available to do that.

I'll even pay for a lovely floral bouquet.

High definition television?

Private jet?

The experience that Glavine would provide to a progressively younger pitching staff (which may include another young lefthander...perhaps) would be invaluable.

Speaking of Experience: We hope that 2006 is just another stepping stone to the ultimate goal. Outside of the White Sox and the Angels, most teams that capture the largest flag experience playoff heartbreak in seasons past. The Yankees experienced Edgar Martinez in 1995. The Diamondbacks experienced Todd Pratt in 1999 and the Cardinals in 2000. The Red Sox had Aaron Boone in 2003. There's a part of me that thinks that this is exactly what a player like David Wright (who completed his second half slump with a gargantuan tank job in the NLCS), and to a lesser extent, a player like Jose Reyes need in order to teach them just how hard it is to reach the promised land.

We hope that 2006 is the stepping stone of experience that this team needs. But truly, we don't know for sure. We look back and see how the Seattle Mariners put together some excellent seasons yet never reach the World Series. We see the window of opportunity closing for the Houston Astros. We see the Oakland Athletics, who struggled for years and years and years just to finally win the third game of the first round...only to get spanked by the Tigers in the ALCS. As we know all too well, anything can happen.

But what we can bank on is that the Mets don't have a general manager who has extra agendas, or who tears down a team just to prove he can. The Mets have someone who has seemingly turned everything he touched in 2006 to gold. I bet Omar Minaya probably never realized that the Mets would need Oliver Perez to pitch in games 4 and 7 of the 2006 NLCS...but he knew we'd need him someday. And he took a risk that nobody in their right mind would take...certainly not me (although when am I in my right mind anyway?) Omar has struck gold numerous times since he's taken the job, and barring an attempted shotgun lobotomy performed by his N.L. east rivals, I fully expect Minaya to make some more magic happen in the next few months.

Of course that isn't going to stop me from throwing in a few suggestions of my own, but that's for another day and another time.

In the meantime, rest assured that I'll still be here to provide some sporadic musings and prophecies here over the next few weeks, so there'll always be a reason to check back. Also, if you're the kind to quickly turn the page and change the season, visit us at Brooklyn Jet Fan for some thoughts on another team destined to break my heart.