Last year at this time, the Mets sat atop the National League East. They had won 4 more games than they have up to the same point this year, and cruised into the break 12 games up on the rest of the NL East pack. It was already a special season in Queens; after a tone-setting April defined by multiple last at-bat victories and a never-say-die Mets attitude, in early June the orange and blue marched into LA, Arizona, and Philadelphia, won 10 straight, and ran away with the National League right then and there. The Mets just had to go through the motions in the second half of the year, saving themselves for one more special run with the leaves turning brown and the New York temperature dropping. The all-star game was on the radar of Mets fans for the sole reason that it looked essentially to be "let's see if the Mets can lock up home field in the World Series" game.
To this point, it looks like last year's all-star game counted a little bit more for the MetsThen Duaner Sanchez got into the wrong cab, Pedro hurt his entire body, El Duque broke his hip, the Mets' offense turned cold with the October weather, Adam Wainwright dropped the Uncle Charlie on Carlos Beltran, and the hopes of Mets fans around the world were crushed. The elegantly-patterned Oriental rug pulled out from under our dreams. Even while this blogger was forced to follow his team on a weird schedule surrounded by a bunch of apathetic-to-baseball-and-sports-in-general Southern Californians, from his dejected position in a dormitory armchair he could hear the sound of little kids across the New York Tri-State area crying when Beltran's knees buckled. Heck, he himself might have shed a tear.
From the moment, though, that he blew off a 5-page essay that night, drowned his sorrows in, um, orange juice, and ran in his birthday suit through the quad and up to the University of Redlands gymnasium, this blogger also knew that as much as he wouldn't have minded if freak, out-of-season flodding along the banks of the Mississippi River destroyed New Busch Stadium and rendered the World Series unplayable, he would feel comfortable eventually closing the book on the 2006 Mets season because 2007 would be even more special.
It was stupid and immature, all right? I was just acting out my grief.Even last July before the deadline, gotnysports? blogger Martin Burns and I discussed how 2006 might not even be the Mets' year. We were certain that '07 was the year that held all the promise, months before Wainwright's aforementioned string-pulling. It's not that '06 wasn't special; we just thought that as much fun as it was, our season would come this year. And this was months before we even sold the catchy slogan we'd thought of to the Mets marketing department in exchange for 2 David Wright-autographed baseballs.
It all started out well enough. Despite no Barry Zito and a baseball punditocracy that wouldn't stop hating on our starting ro, we still came out firing in St. Louis, giving the Cardinals and their fans a big (inappropriate) you as they enacted a three-day World Series championship celebration, banner-raising, and rings ceremony that was more lavish and drawn out than three Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parades. A three-game sweep, followed by a blowout victory in Atlanta, put us at 4-0 and in good position to pull off a perfect season. Throughout those first four games, we outscored our two opponents 31-3.
Just as I was beginning to fear that the Mets might actually become boringly good, 2 subsequent losses in Atlanta ruined the undefeated season. As miffed as I was, though, I came around when the Metsies went on to lose just 3 of their next 16 series, shearing themselves and building a comfortable 4 1/2 game lead on the hated Bravos by the end of May.
Carlos Delgado wasn't hitting? No matter. We wet the bed three times against the Braves? Scoreboaaaaaard. I didn't want to hear anything about how this year's team lacked fire, or maybe didn't look quite right. Clutch hitting? Psh. First place is first place! 15 games over .500 and counting, baby! Without Pedro!
We miss this guy14-21 since June 1, though, and I'm worried. Legitimately. Not because I think we'll play at this clip for the rest of the year, or because I suddenly have any doubts about our credibility as a playoff team, but because we really don't look quite right. The issues that were negligible in May have become actual problems in July. We really can't get a clutch hit. And we haven't won a game where our starters have given up more than 3 runs since the May 16 6-5 thriller against the Cubbies.
You can sense a championship team. You look in the faces of the players (...through your TV screen) and you just feel it. Sometimes you're wrong. Sometimes your team isn't as special as you think they are. But no team can ever win without that collective feeling. They can lose with it. But they can't win without it.
I don't have that sense right now, and neither, it seems, do the Mets. They're good, and they know they're good, but watch out Jose Reyes - you haven't won Prom King just yet. The Mets are indeed acting like champions when they haven't won a darned thing. A division title really isn't that big of a deal anymore, boys.
There's no fire. No guts. Nothing convincing. As I mentioned on Sunday, the Mets are a winning team, but a winning team that simply goes through the motions has playoff exit at the hands of a team that cares written all over it. Didn't Willie Randolph learn anything from the '04 ALCS?
People all over the Mets fan base, from WFAN to the blogosphere, are clamoring for Omar Minaya to make a deal. We need a starting pitcher! Bench help! How about uh, Ricky Ledee for uh, Vladimir Guerrero? But as nice as it would be to have a more reliable bullpen, a pinch hitter who can pull the ball, or even a solid no. 6 hitter who can stay in the lineup, the Mets are lacking something much more fundamental. We still have Carlos Delgado, David Wright, and Carlos Beltran in the middle of our batting order. Jose Reyes still has 46 steals and is getting on base at a .387 clip.
We just have no heart. We can't come back. Unless we're cruising to a rosy multiple-run victory, we hang it up - Saturday night's game notwithstanding. Great catch once again by Beltran.
What we need is to start not acting, but playing like champions. Confidence is key. Cockiness kills. Would it be good to have some personnel reinforcements on this team? Yes. In particular, would a better set-up man be nice? Of course. But I'm confident that more than anything else, if the Mets would only play like they can, while in the process maybe finding that "we're going to find a way to beat you and there's nothing you can do about it" attitude that permeated the team in 2006 and seems to currently be hidden somewhere beneath Shea Stadium, the complaints and the concerns will go away faster than Jose Reyes can get down the first base line.
I know it's a tired refrain but the Mets just need to get it together. In the meantime, I'll keep waiting for that championship feeling. Who knows? '07 still could be our year.
(Photos courtesy of hardcoretees.net, 10000takes.com, youthlarge.com, newamericamedia.org)
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