Everything's Not Lost Part IV
Momentum looks shot, the pitching isn't going to hold up, the batters are out of synch. They've been rested too much. Name your complaint and in the last week, you've probably heard it.
Now, who knows who we're going to play. It could be the Dodgers and their back-to-back-to-back-to-back magic or the extremely scary and resurgent Houston Astros.
Suddenly, what seemed like smooth sailing to the ticker-tape parade seems in jeopardy and a dream season might get cut short in round 1.
There's going to be a lot of talk in the upcoming week about pitching matchups and lineups and momentum and choking, but before that happens, I just wanted to get one last call from the bullpen and remember what kind of special season we just experienced and sprinkle a little bit of context and hope back into the world wide web or the intranet as I like to call it.
From almost the first day, it has been as pure a joy as you can feel stepping out to Shea or watching the Mets play this year.
In the choreographed handshakes, Beltran's mole, the Pedro hysteria, Reyes delivering the most undercover MVP season since Rickey Henderson or Jeff Wilpon emerging as the sleeper candidate for best baseball owner of all-time, this season has been all the justification for why we spend so much time following, discussing and talking about the Mets.
Sure the Mets won a lot more than they lost -- but for the true Mets fans, while that feels great, this season was about something more subtly discernible.
Most importantly, something changed this year. Shea no longer became the place where drunken idiots took out their frustrations on the Armando Benitez, Mel Rojas, Roger Cedeno and Kaz Matsui's of the world.
It was a place where we set an attendance record smiling along with Reyes and Pedro. The future now looks bright. The Mets and their fans remembered that baseball should be fun and once and for all, made this season simply about the Mets and baseball.
Not competing with the Yankees, not living up to expectations, simply having fun playing a great game.
Granted, I want the Mets to win the World Series as much as the next guy, but since we're all either Sippy Momo groupies or huge Mets fans, if we're reading this site, we care.
And before the white knuckles of the playoffs get underway and we get lost in wondering how the Mets are going to hit lefty relievers or whether Pedro will hold up (and as the future father of the first Pedro who will ever have a bris, trust me, he will), let's take a moment to exhale and realize how fun this season was.
I also have a sneaking suspicion that this joy and faith is going to be the reason why this October is different too. We love this team and they love the game... and call me crazy, but there's some magic brewing in Flushing that no lineup analysis will ever reveal, so just enjoy it.The Mets' slogan isn't ya gotta believe nor do they call me Happy Will for nothing.
Believe,
Happy Will
posted by Sippy Momo at 2:37 AM
6 Comments:
The Mets are DRIPPING!!
Right now, it's so damn easy to be negative about the Mets' postseason chances, about Pedro's performances past and future, about the expected choke lurking around the corner - to brush them off with a dismissive 'salt' as it were here below; as far as I can tell, nearly everyone feels the tugging invitation to participate in this purging cynicism particular to the boom on the cusp of its own bust, but I am making a decision to not be a part of that for the first time ever in my personal Mets-related history. The reasons for shunning negativity and defeatist sarcasm in these moments of frustration have been outlined excellently here at Y2K by Happy Will, by SM and AFOMG repeatedly, by the Mets Geeks, by the many fans with whom I am choosing to align myself. As far as I can tell, these Mets are no more likely to write the pathetic story of collapse as they are to the heroic, outrageous, hard-to-believe victorious story they have tended to write in postseasons past. For what I assume to be self-evident reasons, we might as well all pull for the second choice. If the Mets do indeed crash and burn next week, we will have been no more or less right in our decision to assume that the best was yet to come as we would have been naysaying and predicting embarassment. We will only have been unlucky.
I choose to believe that the Mets will win the NLDS in 4 or less, the NLCS in 6 or less, and the World Series in 7. Would you have it any other way? By the end of November, people are going to see Jose Reyes and Paul Lo Duca in completely different lights than they do now. Those two are going to go OFF this postseason. Delgado is going to hit a game-tying or game-winning homerun late. Billy Wagner and Willie Randolph will cry like graduating seniors at Brearley when the Mets get that 27th out in Game 7 to win the Series.
GREAT THINGS ARE FINALLY HAPPENING! GET ON BOARD THE HAPPY WILL HAPPY TRAIN, YOU HAVE NO REASON NOT TO.
and for those who enjoy information cherry-picked for them, i quote the following from a comment on metsgeek:
".225 / .314 /.371
That was Carlos Betran’s line over the last 4 weeks of the season in 2004. You all remember what happened next right? RIGHT?
.435 / .536 / 1.022"
giddyup
Pedro is done. Even before that, however, Gary Del'Abatte (sp) was "officially worried."
If it's any consolation, Kazmir is still on the DL.
Here's the silver lining: no smug Yankee fans chanting "WHO'S YOUR DADDY" as sweat pours from Pete's jheri curl.
Open letter to those who worry they are losing their faith:
Pedro is done. Let the bandwagoneers jump off and sing the praises of mediocre NL West clubs. If you don't like adversity, then why are you a Mets fan?
We WILL win this thing.
Sincerely,
Lister
Lister is the only person I want to watch games with.
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