'This Ain't 2007'

I'll be honest, I don't really get into the signs fans bring to the game. They tend to be derivative and unimaginative, and I regard the people who wield them, generally, to be a little desperate for attention.

In my memory there is one sign that I remember finding very clever. It was Game 1 of the NLDS; the Mets had lost Pedro Martinez to a season-ending injury a week or two earlier, El Duque had come up lame 24 hours before the first pitch of the playoffs. The sky was falling at exactly the wrong time.

Amid all the ominous uncertainty, one bold fan hoisted a sign that said simply: Pitching Smitching. It was all that needed to be said. Nothing ever came easy with this team, so fuck it, I thought, and I laughed. Somehow it seemed a perfect response to the abiding tension; it was a line I came back to throughout those playoffs.

Tonight I saw another smartly-conceived and well-executed sign, this one three lines long. It read:

"This isn't Tommy ---> (picture of Johan)
(Picture of Jerry Manuel) <--- And this isn't Willie
This ain't 2007"

The words, the pictures, the tension... genius.

* * * * *

Johan Santana was everything we needed him to be tonight. This was a team win, through and through, but the team benefited from Johan's presence in a way that was impossible last year. Last year we didn't have that starting pitcher that could make the team believe in itself again.

Tonight the Mets played like they believed in themselves, even after Johan faltered in that first inning. With another pitcher on the mound it would have been a sinking "... here we go again" kind of feeling, but not with Santana out there. With Santana out there, well, this ain't 2007.

* * * * *

It's 12:43am as I write this, time for bed before what promises to be a long week at work. There's 19 games left; the Phils move on to play the Marlins, while the Mets' next two are against the Nats.

It would be very "ain't 2007" of us to win tomorrow and then win again on Wednesday. Here's hoping.

- A.F.O.M.G.