This Can't Be Life
It was a ton of salt on so many levels. I mean, what’s with the guys on this show? They’re four local boys from
There are so many incredible things about Entourage that a little detail like that shouldn’t bother me so much, but it does, and seeing Turtle in a t-shirt welcoming Johnny the Traitor to New York almost made me sick.
Luckily, all I had to do was turn on some Mets baseball to make me feel a hell of a lot better about myself.
I mean, what a week. It seemed like every day was better than the last. I can say with complete confidence that I can’t remember another week quite like this in all my many years of being a Mets fan.
Yes, we had some spectacular runs with the playoff teams in 1999 and 2000, and then again with the 9/11 Mets of 2001 when they won like 22 of 27 games or whatever it was.
But it was different then. The Mets weren’t in first place. No matter how well we did, we were always playing second fiddle. To the Yankees on the back pages, but to the Braves, always to the Braves, in the one place where it really counted.
But it’s different now. The Mets win games now and there’s almost no need to check the scoreboard (though of course I do) to worry about how someone else is doing (with the definite exception of the Detroit Tigers, of all teams, with whom we're competing for the best record in baseball).
So it's a special time. With the Mets 19 games over .500 and the owners of a 9.5 game lead in the division, fans like us are experiencing something for the very first time (at least those of us who can’t remember 1986 beyond the memories superimposed by the ‘86 Mets tape).
I can honestly say that nothing in an entire lifetime spent devoted to the Mets has prepared me for the kind of ball we’re playing right now.
It’s the kind of dominating, inspiring baseball that you can only dream about during the hot stove season.
The thrill of wearing a Mets t-shirt around town at a time like this and being serenaded with cheers of “let’s got Mets” every other block is the stuff I used to dream about, but now it’s actually happening.
I probably checked ESPN just to look at the MLB standings page 20 times yesterday. I’ll probably check the ESPN Power Rankings another 20 times today.
It’s true I’ve also done some things I’m not proud of. I’ve made the rounds at various Phillies blogs to see the kind of hysteria that’s seeping into their discussions.
(So far, the best post I’ve seen is the following, posted at Beerleaguer by “Book” at 2.56 p.m. yesterday:
“I don't care about being tactful...the Phillies suck!!! Now 33-33...but that looks better then they actually are, because they suck! Did you get my drift...SUCK!!!”)
And to top it all off, it's Friday. Enjoy your weekends everyone. There will almost definitely be an update or two this weekend, so be sure to keep checking in with Y2K over the weekend.
posted by A Friend of Mr. Glass' at 7:57 AM
11 Comments:
Not to be too salty and I know that you're not doing this intentionally, but the tone of "I can't believe this is happening" is slightly annoying.
This is no mirage. When an objective person looked at this roster before the season started and wasn't irrationally afraid of Pedro's toe which surprise, surprise is totally ok, you would have looked at the roster and said, that's one of the 5 best teams in baseball.
Sure they're playing well and sure they've come up short time and again in the past, but It's not like being a Mets fan is some particular curse. After what happened with the Red Sox and the aftermath, I've realized that nothing is worse than when a team's fans act like what they've been through is worse than anyone else. I mean, would you rather have been a Mets fan in the last 30 years or a Padres, Royals, Indians, Giants, Reds, Pirates or Tiger fan. Obviously a Met fan.
I personally think we should just enjoy it and stop acting like this something that "doesn't happen to the Mets." It doesn't happen to most teams--not just the Mets--but that's no reason to act like this is so mind blowingly odd. We root for the best team in baseball, no more and certainly no less.
With all respect to Happy Will's admirably high regard for the Mets franchise, I thought this post was right on the money, AFOMG.
The only relevant comparator to the Mets is the team in the Bronx. The fortunes of the Padres, Royals, Indians, Giants, Reds, Pirates or Tigers are of passing interest and you need other teams to make a league just like you need other cities in the country (I guess), but they don't deeply affect the gut of a NY fan (w/possible exception of Giants, see below). Baseball in this town is defined by Mets vs. Yankees. It was always thus, except is used to be Yankees vs. Giants vs. Dodgers. Even for those of us too young to remember those days (which is pretty much everyone by now) it's still in the city's DNA. Being asked if you'd rather be a Mets fan or a Padres fan is like being asked if you'd prefer to be a citizen of some miserable hellhole of a country when you criticize the US govt. I see the point, but it doesn't speak to the issue.
Nice counter post, but if that's the case, then there are only two reasonable conclusions:
1) if all we care about is the comparing ourselves to the Yankees, then when we ultimately dethrone them and since we're in their version of 1995, that means we're headed towards becoming the most villanous franchise in sports. And that's a fate worse than winning.
2) One of the biggest knocks I have with most Mets fans is their constant negative energy. Looking a roster that is extremely talented with only peripheral players like Darren Oliver and Endy Chavez playing better than could be expected and still acting like this is too good to be true because we're used to so much worse is just dishonest. Whatever happened to the days of Ya Gotta Believe...
They don't call him Happy Will for nothing.
At the same time Willie, how many seasons as a kid did you look at a Mets roster before a season and say, "This team is goign to be great," only for them then be the Old Mets.
After so many years of hopeless childhood optimism, I eventually grew into the Sip that I am today, a doubter.
That is why I truly can't believe what is going on here. If you were to tell me before the season that we would be in first place in June, I, like most objective Mets fans would have given you a big fat maybe.
But to be up 9.5. Even the happiest of the happy men couldn't have seen that coming. To sweep the dbags and the phils in two consecutive series'. Not even you're that happy.
To be 13 on the Momo jinxed Braves. Happiness like that only comes in Hillary Duff movies.
I'm with AFOMG and father of the year nominee Hound.
Too bad for Hound, the upper west side legend in so many ways, that young sip will be writing this year's superlatives article and there's a good shot that the F.O.Y goes to an inspired lawyer from the other side of 82nd street.
As for you Happy Will. I'm surprised you're not trying to fight for a name change to Sad Will. Can't we all just agree to enjoy this one while its still going on.
We should all feel like Rod Tidwell when he returns to consciousness after scoring the td in Jerry Maguire.
Let me enjoy this one, HW.
VCD,
SM
You guys are right. As KFC pointed out to me, I'm not understanding the nuance between cautious and negative. You guys are being cautious, and rightfully so, not negative.
While I am not quite as cautious as you are, I should not be faulting you for doing so.
Either way, I'm proud to be a Met fan right now and look forward to donning my throwback 1988 Darryl Strawberry jersey at the Mets game.
(You'd never know it from looking at him, but Happy Will has some inner-thug).
It's nice to see SM flip-flopping like John Kerry, first he's telling us to all calm down, then he's manically happy. We're not going to consistently be as good as we are right now, that is true, but we're a damn fine team. You look at how it's shaking out, and we are capable of playing 500 ball anywhere against anyone when we are NOT clicking, and when we are indeed clicking (click click click right now) then we can rip off a month's worth of victories in half the time. The only team in baseball (if we can't presage injuries etc) that is as good as us or better are those ChiSox. I doubt that will be the World Series matchup bc reality tends to unravel well-laid predictions, but you got to like our shot against anyone at any time anywhere. This team is a blessing, many of its components well-documented blessings (Wright, Reyes, Delgado, Pedro, etc) and as many unforeseen beauties (Endy, Sanchez, Endy, Feliciano, and Endy). It's all love in Queens right now, and I don't want to do anything right now except LOVE THE PRESENT as it slips away between our fingers.
Happy Will:
If you find my tone annoying that's your business. You and I clearly have different experiences with this team. For you, this team isn't the one that has always, every single year you've been a fan, fallen short, the one that no matter how good it looked on paper just couldn't find a way to either realize its potential or play dominating baseball.
Good for you. I'm glad the glass was always half full for you those years when we lost to the Braves. Or lost to the Yankees.
But for me, this is something new. I've never seen us completely dismantle teams like this and play such completely better baseball than any of the teams I compare the Mets with. Never in my life.
So no matter how good these Mets are on paper, and they are very good on paper (as I said countless times before the season), it's still new to me because there have been other teams that have been good on paper. Hell, on paper you could convince me that the 1999 team was better, but even they fell short.
But here we are today and things are just completely different, and I'm not quite sure what to make of it yet. It's not that Mets fans are cursed or that our situation is worse than anyone else's. Our situation for the past 15 years (the ones I can remember with any clarity) has been a lot like a lot of other teams. But I don't care about any of them. The only team I care about is the Mets. And for a Mets fan to say that this isn't something new, well, again, that guy's been drinking from the glass that's half full the past decade and a half.
It doesn't mean I don't enjoy it. Believe me, this has been one of the best weeks of my life. But if it's something that seems a little alien to me, you're just gonna have to deal with that. Maybe next time there's a Red Sox bandwagon to jump on I'll be there with you and this will all seem a little less foreign. But for now, this is a first. And I'm enjoying it in my own way, which, yes, requires pinching myself every now and then. Just the way I am. If it bugs you... sorry?
One tiny piece of advice that nobody asked for: please guys do not fall in love with winning. Love your Mutts, love that they are a throwing-swinging-running Matisse masterpiece, BUT DO NOT FALL IN LOVE WITH THE 'W' COLUMN. Loving a winning side does not make you a Yankee fan, but loving the wins alone does. Love your MUTTS.
Meanwhile, I wrote my comment before your little olive branch was posted there. If that's the way you see it, much love.
i recently uncovered a 1987 away mcreynolds joint... with the hideous new york script on the front... can't wait to wear it to marquee and tao (my top two fave places!!!)
(sushi samba is 3rd)
ps hotfoot.metsblog.com has an incredible array of mets music now on the left panel
u guys are nutz. i think u should knuckle up and fight on riverside @4 am. ECW style complete with bums and tables. winner gets the cocaine that comes with the Darryl Strawberry jersey or the roidz that Dykstra got when he packed his bags out of Shea.
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