Ghosts of Septembers Past, Present & Future

All season long this series loomed on the schedule like the Ghost of Septembers Past, a bleak, discouraging reminder of all that came undone last fall.

There was no telling where we or the Phillies would be in the standings come September 5, no guaranteeing it would even be relevant to a pennant chase. But as we looked at the schedule, I think we all hoped it would come to this, Mets-Phillies, 1-2 in a tight race in the NL East.

I think we all hoped for a chance at a redemption.

* * * * *

To Mets fans of a certain vintage, the series starting tonight is the one we've been waiting for our whole baseball-loving lives.

For the last 22 years, the Mets have knocked on the door without ever bursting through. In all those years and through all the rivalries, not once have we managed to best our adversaries in a truly meaningful way.

We never beat the Braves.

We lost to the Yankees in 5.

And last year, we let it slip away against the upstart "team to beat".

For much of this season it appeared we wouldn't have the chance to make a statement in September, but ever since Jerry Manuel took over, the Mets have been on a collision course with Philly that's brought us to this point.

This is the moment we've been waiting for since last September, the chance to stick it to the Phillies and exorcise the demons.

How do we do that? Well, not to succumb to the tyranny of low expectations or anything, but I don't need the Mets to sweep this series to be satisfied. We just need to win it. We can't lose it. And we certainly can't get swept.

* * * * *

Baseball's a funny game. Anybody who's followed the game has seen how teams and fanbases can, over time, make certain outcomes almost self-fulfilling prophecies.

For ages it was understood on both sides of the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry that the Red Sox would eventually fail and the Yankees would come out on top.

We saw a similar dynamic for years whenever the Mets played the Braves. Mets fans, and players too it seemed, expect to lose when we played the Braves, especially down at Turner Field.

My big worry this September is that if we fail, that dynamic will establish itself for the Mets with the Philies.

It's already taken hold to some extent. After the "7 up with 17 to play" fiasco last year, each late-inning come-from-behind triumph for the Phillies serves as a reminder of missed opportunities past and present.

* * * * *

And so it is that starting tonight we battle not only the Ghosts of Septembers past and present, but also the Ghost of Septembers yet to come.

Sweeping the Brewers was great. Going 6-2 on the road trip was great. But September starts tonight.

Starting tonight we face the tyranny of last year head on. Starting tonight we have the chance to script a better present in 2008. Starting tonight, we can strike a blow for Septembers still to come by rewriting the dynamics of our rivalry with the Phillies.

All of it's on the line starting tonight, and we'll see if the Mets can rise to the challenge.

- A.F.O.M.G.

August and Everything After

So... what do you expect to happen this month?

* * * * *

Expectations are funny things. They can be reassuring and they can be devastating. We saw both sides last September, when we all expected the Mets to close out the division. As things collapsed all around us we clung to those expectations, and for a long time, too long, they buoyed our spirits.

In retrospect, those expectations not only added to the devastation of our collapse, to some people's minds they caused it.

Who knows what happened really. Expectations, smoke and mirrors, an evil spell... something. And then nothing. Not again until March.

* * * * *

And so this September we expect only the unexpected. We learned last year that nothing is given, and our season this year has had enough ups and downs to know that the script this team is reading from is illegible.

As the Hound is fond of saying, it seems this team suffers a Most devastating. Defeat. Ever. every other week, but somehow it keeps on going.

More than anything, the ability to pick themselves up is the hallmark of this year's team. I remember wondering throughout the last season what the identity of the 2007 team was. In 2006 an identity was forged through comeback victories and their general wont to "run roughshod over the National League".

In 2007 we were left searching until the identity of last year's team revealed itself in that final horrible month, and that identity was so horrifyingly negative that frankly I don't care to talk about it now.

This year though there's something to latch on to. The ability to pick themselves up off the mat has given this team an identity, an edge, and for the fans, a reason to believe in them again.

Cynical ones among us might seize on their almost implausible ability to squander big leads, but that's not their identity, it's their flaw. Their trademark is in not succumbing to that flaw; it's even made them endearing again.

As fans of the 1998 Mets know, they'll have to be a lot more than endearing if they're going to pull this thing off.

Luckily, in the past week they've shown they have the pop, the starting pitching, and, sometimes, the bullpen to make the playoffs.

Beyond all that, they've shown they've got the backbone. And if they're going to pull this thing off, I think we all expect that particular quality to be infinitely more important than anything else.

- A.F.O.M.G.

Instant Replay: Change We Shouldn't Believe In

Memories can certainly be strange things. In my mind, I not only know that Tom Glavine struck out Lenny Harris with a ball 2 feet off home plate to end the 1998 season, I can see the pitch. I know this happened as much as I know that Carlos Delgado hit two home runs the other night. And I was gonna use this fact as the lede to this little posting I got my arm twisted into making.

So then I head over to baseball-reference.com just to find out what the count was when that pitch was made and I find out that Mike Piazza popped out too second (boooooo!!!!!!) off of Rudy Seanez to end the 1998 season. Guess this makes sense… no reason the 106 win Braves would have let Glavine pitch a complete game heading into the playoffs.

So, anyway, every memory I have before, like, yesterday is now suspect. Fortunately, I can still see clearly into the future.

October 1, 2028

ATLANTA – With the bases loaded, Tom Glavine, Jr. struck out Julio Franco, 70, to send the Braves to the playoffs by one game over the New York Mets. Unfortunately, for the Braves, home plate umpire Bob Davidson broke up the victory celebration to award a game winning base-on-balls to the Mets. Instant replay demonstrated the pitch did not, in fact, just catch the black.

* * * * *

Let there be no doubt that this is where baseball is headed. Sometime in our lives, the same ball tracking graphics that bring "certainty" to tennis line calls will be introduced to fix the errors of home plate umpires.

Instant replay started yesterday only for home run calls. Apparently, it is simply unacceptable that umpires get some miniscule percentage of home run calls wrong. Especially if one of them is on a nationally televised Mets-Yankees game.

Major League Baseball will eventually extend replay to fair-foul line calls (it's only the natural extension of home run calls and the Brewers would've made the playoffs in 2009 if we had this rule in place). From there, plays at the bases, hit-by-pitches, foul tips, and eventually strikes-balls.

Unless MLB can control its Al Gorian inclination to control anything and everything we are heading in this direction. The game will slow down. More importantly, the green grass, wood bat, and beautiful infield that takes your breath away when you get to your seats every Opening Day will be joined by a television/phone system that resembles a microwave.

All to "fix" something that is not, in fact, a problem. Major League umpires do a tremendous job. Over the course of a season – and certainly over the course of a lifetime – the mistakes equal themselves out.

* * * * *

Even if replay does not become an integral part of the game, it still sucks. Sports is entertainment, it's not life or death. Part of the entertainment of sports – even if it's occasionally a kick in the gut – is having the umps blow a call. Life's unfair and, sometimes, so are home runs calls.

Think of the most famous blown home run call of our lifetimes – Jeffrey Maier's catch in right field at Yankee Stadium.

It is possible that if that ball gets overruled and called an out. The Yankees probably don't come back and tie the game and, therefore, don't win it in extra innings. Maybe the O's go on and still win Game 2 and then, up 2-0, they win the series. Seems likely the Yankees still would've won the series, considering they won the series 4-1, but there's no doubt that would dramatically change the way the series played out.

If that happened, not one person would remember Jeffrey Maier today. Nobody would've cared that he played centerfield for the Wesleyan Cardinals. None of us at Williams would have had a blast heckling him at Williams-Wesleyan baseball games. All a pretty good time.

There's nothing wrong with a blown call. It creates a villain. It adds to the drama (read: entertainment value) of sports. And, crucially, they are extremely few and far between.

No doubt I'm standing athwart history yelling "Stop!" here, but for me instant replay is schoolmarmish.

- Nails

Finding Solace

Having watched the Mets bullpen puke up yet another a lead, I find myself too tired/sick to complain. Instead, I pound theraflu and think of how much beauty there is in the world:

Cousin Dan's baby boy being born today.

The blue skies that have charmed the end of August.

And the New York Yankees.

My brain is slightly fried right now, incapable of doing math. But today, the Yankees have a tragic number. And that is an exciting thing for an anti-yankees website.

For those who may have forgotten, Y2k was started out of anger and boredom. A depressed paralegal who was looking to physically destroy his computer screen, instead choosing to take out his aggression on his keyboard and the blogosphere.

The subject then was the Yankees. I described how the Yankees were ruining the game that I loved with with their greed, money and holier than thou mentality. I argued that they were, in fact, cursed.

Three years later and the Yankees ring total has not grown. While my disdain may have eased with maturity and loss of energy, I still understand and respect my vision from three years back.



Which makes 2008 so close.

I never thought this day could potentially come. Might the Yankees actually be watching the playoffs from their couches?

While it is obviously too soon to tell- we all remember 2007- with every day that passes my vision grows more and more clear.

A post-season without the Yankees.

The only thing that would make me happier than the Yankees missing the playoffs would be for the Yankees to make the playoffs solely because of Carl Pavano.

That would be poetic to me.

But with about 40 games to go and the Yankees six games back of the wild card, it remains possible that the Yankees season lies in the results of this week.

Its a great week for baseball.

Every week is a great week for blogging.

Vaya,
Sip

Tea Leaves Falling Down

All Mets early, all Phillies late. Where have we seen that one before?

* * * * *

Last night I went to the US Open; the seats were as good as you could hope for; on the celebrity scale, they were between John Lithgow (two rows behind) and Richard Williams (one row in front).

Better than the seats was the talent on the court. Venus Williams in the opener and Roger Federer in the nightcap; both cruised their opening rounds in straight sets, and I gaped at how fast the ball moves at the professional level. I honestly have no idea how these guys ever return a serve.

Now needless to say the Mets were in the back of my mind, but I made a pact with myself. DVR the game and cut off communication. "A.F.O.M.G.," I told myself, "If you get text messages from Met fan friends, ignore them. If you get e-mails from Met fan friends, ignore those too."

These steps having been taken, and in lieu of a scoreboard at Arthur Ashe Stadium, there was no way for me to know the score of last night's ballgame.

Ahh but you see, it was an imperfect system. The Mets fans in my circle are a generally pessimistic lot, a group that tends to harp on the negative. Whenever something bad happens I can expect a flood of angry texts or e-mails decrying the Mets' ineptitude.

Tonight I didn't get one text or e-mail of the sort. I got a call from one friend, kind of a half way there Mets fan, who reported that my friend from college could be seen in the front row behind home plate in virtually every shot (which was true). From his tone I tried to detect any hint of anger, but none could be found.

Reading the tea leaves, I was as confident as I could be on my way home on the 7 train.

* * * * *

What I learned tonight is that tea leaves don't mean shit with this team.

The concept of things "trending positively" in any particular game has basically been rendered moot. I mean, how many times do we have to watch this team lose this exact same game over and over again?

There was a time when I used to think crushing defeats like this could only be served up by the Phillies. The Phillies have shown a knack for it, but so have countless others (the Pittsburgh Pirates for one, for chrissakes).

When I think about it, I find myself wondering what could possibly go so right for this team in the first half of a ball game that I'd ever be convinced they couldn't find a way to let it all fall apart?

Am I the only one out there who immediately started worrying as soon as the Phillies scraped together that first run in the 4th inning? Somehow I know I'm not.

* * * * *

Tonight Johan goes for the Mets. If the team guts out a win we'll talk tomorrow about how much character they showed in bouncing back, but at a point that won't be enough.

At a point you have to stop believing your own bullshit.

If the Mets are going to make the playoffs they have start beating teams, not just hoping to outlast them. This point always comes up when we play the Phillies, who seem to have no inkling that they are ever out of things when the Mets are involved (my god, why should they), but increasingly it comes up no matter who we play.

This team has a fundamental flaw, and more and more, they play like they're scared of it. They come out on fire then fade at the end.

It's all so tiresome and it's become all too predictable.

I missed it in the tea leaves tonight, but no mas. I won't get fooled again.

- A.F.O.M.G.

You Suck, Newhan

Get bent.

Either way, great job by the Pelf Man tonight; he passed the test. Just what we needed heading into Philadelphia.

And Carlos Delgado... what more can you say? Mets brass is going to have a really tough decision to make this offseason; do you try to go big and get Teixeira, or do you save your bullets for pitching help (starting and relief) and stick with Delgado?

But that's a question, hopefully, for November. For now, well, August continues full throttle tomorrow.

- A.F.O.M.G.

Can't Slow Down

It was a tale of three bullpens for the Glass Man on Sunday. In the afternoon I watched Aaron Heilman falter and Pedro Feliciano implode in the Mets' second straight loss to our official 2008 bedevilers, the Houston Astros.

In the evening it Jonathan Broxton's turn to muck things up, looking horrible from the start en route to blowing the save against the never-say-die Phillies, who won it in the 11th on a 3-run home run. Philly scored all 5 of its runs with 2 outs.

I've written about my fear of the Phillies before. It's not that they have Chase Utley or Ryan Howard or Cole Hamels, it's that no matter the circumstances, they never quit. They keep coming at you and coming at you.

If the Mets are going to outlast the Phillies this September, they can't slow down. This weekend brought the first signs of a slowdown in about a month, but I don't want to blow it out of proportion. They've lost 2 straight; shit happens.

That said, I would be very disappointed if we went in to Philly tomorrow in second place, riding a 3-game losing streak. The "are the Mets collapsing" storyline is at everyone's fingertips, and there'd be nothing like riding a skid into a late-season series at Philadelphia to open the floodgates.

So tonight we turn it over to Mike Pelfrey. In this breakout season for the Pelf Man, I've been interested in watching him pass three tests. One was how he would respond to adversity after enjoying his first run of sustained success in the big leagues. Test passed; he's had bad outings and come out looking dominant again.

The other two remain to be seen. One is whether he's ready to take the ball and pitch the Mets to big wins when they need them. He hasn't really had that chance yet, but tonight he does. A strong outing tonight would be a big boost for the team.

The last test is just to see how he'll hold up in the heat of a September pennant race. No choice there but to stay tuned.

As for me, it's the last day of my late summer vacation so I'm off to enjoy it until 7:10, when, you know, it's time to get back down to business.

- A.F.O.M.G.