Competition Like There Oughta Be

The ninth inning was tense. The closer retired the first batter to face him, but then, with one crack of the bat, the tying run was coming to the plate. The heat was on, and watching from his room at home, A.F.O.M.G. was at the edge of his seat.

"Bear down now," I prayer-thoughted to the pitcher on the hill, "you can't blow this one!"

He made me sweat it out, but after a pair of walks loaded the bases, Nationals closer Chad Cordero got Scott Thorman swinging to ice Washington's 2-0 victory over the Braves. I pumped my fist and switched back to SNY.

This scene -- me, us, Mets fans, desperately begging an opposing team's closer to hang on and beat the Braves -- a scene so familiar in past seasons, was largely non-existent in 2006.

Sure, it was there at the beginning of the year. I remember that early-season series with the Braves at Shea when Atlanta took two of three.

That afternoon when the Braves won the rubber game I wrote a piece telling Happy Will -- the Happy Man for god's sake -- to step back from the ledge. The next day, Sip wrote a piece calling our team "the same old Mets", writing "We as fans can't buy our playoff tickets yet and we certainly can't cast the Braves aside."

What did we know then? The Mets were off to a 10-4 start but there was little reason to expect the domination that followed. As far as we were concerned, a dog fight lay ahead.

With the benefit of hindsight it's easy to see why that didn't happen. The Braves had no bullpen. The Phillies had no soul, I guess. The Mets were simply that good.

Six months from now it's possible we'll look back to these early season series with the Phillies and Braves and wonder what on earth we were so worked up about? Didn't we know it would be as easy as it had been in 2006? Didn't we realize that once more the Mets were simply that good?

It's all possible, but right now it doesn't seem likely. It looks like we're in for a dog fight here, and this year, with the Braves, Phillies and Marlins all improved, it seems all the more certain that the season-long anxiety, agony and ecstasy that is scoreboard watching will return from its one-year reprieve.

Initially I was disappointed by that. Last year was the first time I'd ever seen a Mets team dominate the league. I don't remember 1986 or 1988, and good as those clubs in 1999 and 2000 were, neither was good enough to win the N.L. East, let alone dominate the entire senior circuit.

Watching your team win every night, watching your team provide thrilling comeback victory after thrilling comeback victory like the Mets did last year was the kind of thing a fan could get used to. Remember all those last at-bat wins at the beginning of last year? It doesn't get much better than that.

As awesome as last year was, there was a little something missing from the regular season. After May there was virtually no anxiety involved in watching the Mets. They'd win, they'd stretch their division lead to 15 games, and when it was over you'd be pumped but the desperation wasn't there.

Last night as I followed the lowly Nationals and begged Cordero to record that final out, the desperation was back. The Mets had a win, and that win coupled with a Braves lost would mean the Mets were one game out of first. Last night's Braves-Nationals game, game 9 of the season for both teams, was a big game.

And for the Glass Man it was thrilling. Thrilling National League baseball that didn't involve the Mets. Last year there was none of that going around before the last week of the season, when it looked like the Cardinals might completely collapse and the Astros would eek in ahead of them.

(Remember how desperately we hoped that wouldn't happen? How scary the Clemens-Oswalt-Pettitte rotation looked and how weak the Cardinals appeared? Not saying we were wrong, but it's funny (not ha-ha funny, more like I-want-to-kill-myself funny) how that worked out.)

As much as I expect the Mets to repeat as top dog in the East, I don't expect it will come as easily as it did last year. There's a little part of me that's wistful for 2006, but there's another part of me that knows how much excitement comes when every night you're following not only the Mets, but the Braves, the Phillies, the Marlins, and not just them, but the teams they're facing that night, too. You soak it all in; who's starting for the team X tonight? Who's injured? Who's swinging a hot bat?

And so it is that tonight, yes, I'll be fixated on my man Mike Pelfrey -- I'll watch every pitch if I can. But I'm also counting on Roy Oswalt as he takes on the Phillies, and I'll be pulling for Dontrelle against Atlanta because, at this point in time, I believe the Braves are a bigger threat than the Marlins.

It's competition like there oughta be. Let's have at it.

- A.F.O.M.G.

(Images courtesy of mlb.com and finewhyfine.typepad.com)