The Phillies: Everything We Wish the Mets Were

When I went to bed last night it was 4-3 Dodgers at the end of the 8th. I wanted to stay up to watch the finish but it was late; though I wouldn't watch it live, as I closed my eyes I had a sinking feeling that the Dodgers were teetering on the edge of disaster.

And so, when I woke in the middle of the night and checked the final score on my iPhone, nothing was surprising about the fact that the Phillies had found a way to steal victory from defeat, winning 5-4 on a walk-off 2-run double by Jimmy Rollins.

As Mets fans know all too well, that's what this Phillies team does. They never count themselves out; they're never out of a game or series or season until it's over. To a partial observer it's infuriating; to an impartial observer...

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As much as it pains me to say it, the truth is that my vision of a dream Mets team looks a lot like the 2007-2009 Phillies.

Young, home grown, pricey but not ridiculously oversalaried, imbued with a never say die attitude, the Phillies have both the construction and attitude of a very likeable, endlessly exciting team.

They're like the 2001 Mets, if the 2001 Mets had completed that comeback against the Braves. They're like the 2006 Mets, if the 2006 Mets had found a way to come back in the 9th against the Cardinals.

Ever since '86 (when, in fairness, we pulled off the miracle to end all miracles) we've been waiting for this team to make us believers again.

We've been waiting for the Mets to finish that comeback or overcome that opponent for 23 years now. But whether it was the Braves, the Yankees, the Cardinals, or the Phillies, the Mets could never do it; they always fell short.

This Phillies team never seems to fall short.

Now sure, they fell flat in the playoffs in 2007 and they're not out of the NLCS in 2009 just yet. But somehow I suspect all of you know exactly what I mean.

We hate the Phillies, sure; we don't have a choice.

But when we dare to look at them objectively, what do we see? Do we see a team that stands for everything we oppose, like the Yankees? Do we see a team that's been so successful that it's blurred into entitlement, like the Braves?

For me, unfortunately, I see the elephant in the room in the Mets-Phillies dynamic: I see a team that looks like everything I wish the Mets could be. And it's been that way for far too long.

Maybe some day it will be our turn.

Twenty-three years and counting.

- A.F.O.M.G.