Thursday, July 02, 2009

Come On Get Happy

So it's everyone on the bus ... team unity and such. But hey, it worked. So who am I to argue? At last check, the Mets bus made a stop along I-90 so that winning pitcher Mike Pelfrey could solve a groovy mystery on the way to Pittsburgh. Here's hoping nobody gets thrown under it before the all-star break. Kumbaya!

5 comments:

James Allen said...

Strange that the Mets would choose to stop at that old abandoned amusement park while meeting up with Don Knotts. Good thing they packed a lot of extremely large sandwiches for the trip.

Wait, who's that ghost walking around the park? No, it's not a real ghost, let's ake off that mask and see who you really are.

Oh my! It's you!!

Metstradamus said...

And I would have gotten away with it too ... if it weren't for you meddling overweight first basemen!

Dan said...

Metstradamus,

The great thing about the web is it allows super-talented people like you to have a platform for showcasing your superior gifts. I think I speak for all of your readers when I say, “thank you” and “please, keep up the good work.” I truly am grateful to be able to contribute to the conversation happening on your exceptional blog every once and a while.

Now, onto the Mets.

I don’t doubt that you want to be wrong. And, obviously, I understand where you are coming from in declaring this season broken, unfixable, and nightmarish. The Mets recent play suggests they aren’t making the playoffs. June wasn’t easy. But, guess what? It’s over.

And the boys in blue and orange are undefeated in July! Will the wins pile up now? I dunno--I doubt it, but I don't know. Will the losing continue? Well, sure, it might, but ultimately we don't know. And that's just the point: neither do you.

I marvel at how pervasive among Mets fans this sense is that the season is over. It’s as if somehow, because of all of the torment they put us through in 07 and 08, what happens in the first 77 games defines the Mets for the 2009 season. That’s not how it works, you and your readers know that.

Why do Mets fans want to push this team out the window? Ok, so they haven't played "well" since Reyes' injury (I take that comment back), but they have exhibited signs of being a resilient baseball team. And so long as the Phillies are less than 5 games in front, well, then I think as Mets fans we owe it to the team we spend half the day thinking about (and arguing about) to send our support, not our suspicions.

Let’s get one thing clear: the last two years' late season collapses aren’t going away. They happened. They were real. They hurt. A lot. So did Luis Castillo’s dropped pop-up and Ryan Church missing third base. But those recent and far-off mishaps don’t impact what happens from here on out.

Sure, they’ve had their fair share of embarrassing losses. But when was the last time the Mets lost a game that wasn’t gut wrenching anyway? All the losses suck.

I don’t get it. Why can’t this season be different? They can come back. Don’t we love these guys, like family? Don’t you want to see them succeed? There are 84 games remaining. That’s a lot of ballgames, as Carlos Beltran might say.

Where were the Phillies in 2007 77 games into the season? Does it even matter?

They can come back. They’re going to get healthier and make a run, and even if they don’t, it’s not as if this team hasn’t been in contention since the GM took over. They might not deserve the benefit of the doubt, but they certainly don’t deserve us abandoning them less than halfway through the season.

Let’s go Mets!

kjs said...

Why are there no crutches holding the bus up?

Schneck said...

It is great that there is still optimism. However, it is hard for me not to compare the optimism to the wife that keeps going back to her husband when he promises that this is the last time he will beat her. He has finally learned his lesson. Every day is a new day with new possibilities but we still need to look to the past to keep our expectations on a realistic level. Sure, there might be a guy out there that changes his ways after beating his wife for years, but it not unreasonable to expect that it will be more of the same. I've suffered as a Met fan for 40 years and expect that I will suffer many, many more years of Met fandom, but giving up on this team is a sign of seeing the reality of this situation. Without some big changes, or miraculous recoveries/successful comebacks from everyone on the DL roster, the Mets will not see the post season.