It's Not Their Fault

So, yesterday, Sip takes the Mets fan base to task for being concerned about the current state of the team.

According to this website's founder, Mets fans have become "irrational dickheads" because they "boo irrationally."

Is booing out of hand at Shea right now? Sure. When a fan base gets deeply concerned, it manifests itself in ways that are unfortunate. If that means booing a player for taking a 2-0 strike then that is obviously uncalled for. But it is not irrational because Mets fans have plenty of reasons to be deeply concerned right now.

I know I am.

If we're having a discussion about irrational fans, perhaps it would be useful to begin with Einstein's definition of insanity: "Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result."

For a long time now, I have had disagreements with Sip and others about my tendency to observe a phenomenon that happens over and over again and then draw conclusions by this behavior. Sticking your head in the ground because you don't want to examine a team's warts is not rational behavior.

Back when Lastings Milledge had trade value, I was a big supporter of trading him because I didn't think he had the drive to achieve his full potential.

I came to this conclusion because it occurred to me that somebody who wanted to be the best that he could be might not a) show up late to his fifth game in the majors, b) refuse to take fly-balls in the Fenway Park outfield after botching an important fly ball, which if he had done so might have resulted in him not misplaying a flyball in the very next game, or c) ostracize his teammates by failing to "know his place, rook."

Apparently, my analysis was silly. I was taking isolated anecdotes and pretending they were data. It was all the media's fault. Etc.

Well, lo and behold, last week Manny Acta benches Milledge for showing up late, again. Would Nats fans have been justified in booing Milledge during the next game? I certainly don't think that would be dickish.

So, I guess, the question is whether there is enough of a pattern here for intelligent and passionate Mets fans to say, "holy shit, the 2008 Mets have problems."

The argument against is that we're only 26 games into the season. I think this is observing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. The reality is this year's team has the same core as last year's team: Beltran, Wright, Reyes, Delgado, Castillo, Maine, Perez, Wagner, Heilman, Sosa, Feliciano, and Schoeneweis.

How would you describe the 2007 Mets? They played the game joylessly. The fire that made them so dominant, and such a pleasure to watch in 2006, was gone. They played as if October was their due, as if there was nothing to be proven across 162 games. And it was only when the end came that they appeared humbled. As a result, for many Mets fans, the end was devastating but, somehow, acceptable. Me, I washed my hands of them. They don't want it? Fine, neither do I.

I didn't write that last paragraph. With some minor edits, it is what A.F.O.M.G. wrote.

He then said he never wants to feel that way again. Well, it's certainly how I feel about the 2008 Mets 26 games in. Here we are, a new baseball season but with the same core and playing the same way.

Does that mean they won't make the playoffs? No. Baseball's a game of inches and an inch here or there is the difference between the teams that we'll remember for the rest of our lives. As a buddy of mine recently pointed out, if the 1999 Mets lose one of their final four games then none of us ever remember them.

15% of the way through the 2008 season, we are watching the same cast of characters exhibiting the same lack of fire which made us wash our hands of them at the end of last season. Is that cause for concern? Yes. Am I shocked that fans are booing the Mets? No. Am I embarrassed to be a Mets fan right now? No.

Tomorrow night we play the Arizona Diamondbacks. It is the most important game of the season because it is the only game that we will be playing that night.

- Nails

P.S. Unless Sip would like to provide some analysis or evidence as to why he thinks most Mets fans would rather their team lose and we be proven correct than win and be proven incorrect, it is nothing more than an offensive slander.