That said, it's been a crazy week. I left New Orleans on Tuesday, turned 20 last Sunday, and attended the 25th annual New Orleans French Quarter Music Festival (high marks - all for free, sponsored by locally brewed Abita beer...more high marks) pretty much all weekend, so basically, I'm making excuses. But it has been difficult. I took the internet access-less Amtrak from New Orleans all the way to Washington, DC, where I sit now, feeling the spring breeze blow through a Foggy Bottom dorm room at the George Washington University.
The other thing about baseball season is that, beyond the day-to-day flow, there's really a marvelously complex feel to it when the games on those individual days stretch out into series, and homestands, and roadtrips, over the course of the weeks and months. Baseball is the only sport that's played nearly every day for six full months, and in that sense I've always seen it as the game that in its professional season most honestly mimics the true pace of life, with the concept of the daily grind continuously developing into something broader and greater.
If I had written in this space every day for the past week, you would have seen me project a positive message in response to last Friday night's win, something along the lines of:
It sure is great that the Mets turned in a solid performance tonight and seem to be ready to build off of their dramatic walk-off win against the Phillies. That's three in a row!
Saturday, I would have lamented Johan Santana's less-than-impressive debut, while probably resorting to some tired version of "can't win 'em all."
On Sunday, I would have likely pulled my hair out before getting a chance to write about the Mets' 9-7 loss, the one where Oliver Perez had one of those meltdowns and helped give back a 6-2 lead. The Met offense also hit into 5 double plays.
Monday, I was all set to write a post called "Willie Watch," or "The Fire Willie Formula," or "Firing Willie," or something of that nature. After Friday night's victory the Mets were lackluster the rest of the weekend, pathetic, punchless, so 2007. The Mets need to turn the page on 2007 and what better way than to...I almost wrote this same post after the home opener, and it continues to be in the reserves. I hope that it's like oil in Alaska and I never need to bust it out.
These roller-coaster emotions, though, are all part of that daily beauty of baseball I was trying to refer to in those first few paragraphs. With the benefit of hindsight, I recognize that the Mets ended this six game stretch where I didn't get to the computer pretty well (4-2 after the sweep tonight of the Nationals). But one does get lost in the game-to-game whirlwind, for good reason sometimes.
So yes, I can put things in perspective a little bit better, having withheld judgment and not taken the time to organize my thoughts until things played out a little bit more. And while I hope my writing more often speaks to the raw daily emotions of being a Mets fan than the detached weekly analyst's perspective, once in a while, maybe the contrast is useful. Just for it to be there, if nothing else.
Mets fans - and by extension, the Mets - are going to need to maintain an attitude this year that continually serves to balance that contrast, between day-to-day and broader perspective. Last year was all about broader view, to the point where we took the regular season for granted and paid for it in the end. This year, we're all about holding the boys accountable, and it's great that everyone is just balls to the wall, every game, to the point that we're willing to let the boo birds fly for ridiculous offenses that under any normal circumstances are generally forgivable, certainly non-booable (like when Carlos Beltran got his for a 3rd inning double-play grounder on Tuesday night). But we fans will have all have died horrible, stomach ulcer-related deaths by late September if we can't ever also chill out and think about the bigger picture. And then we won't even be around to see how any potential pennant races pan out.
As for the Mets, they played great this week. Mike Pelfrey pitches 7 innings for the first time in his adult life? Beautiful. Jose Reyes (after a pep talk from Carlos Beltran) starts to look like he's having fun again (going 8 for 15, over three games, in the process)? Even more beautiful. The aforementioned Beltran hits a clutch homer last night, D Wright carries the offense on Jackie Robinson night, Duaner Sanchez comes back, Nelson Figueroa pitches awesome, again, Joe Smith looks like the baller we all know he is, Carlos Delgado gets a clutch hit...oh mah GOD it all sounds so good! But it's also only three games, and it also happened against the lowly Nationals (no offense, Lastings Milledge). So I'm happy, but once again - dare I say - I have to withhold judgment, at least to a certain degree. The key is consistency, folks. The Mets still have recorded only one 5 game winning streak since September, 2006. And it's the Nationals.
I've got more to say, but I'm not wasting any material right now.
But you know what I didn't realize? We're going back to the Bank this weekend! Citizen's Bank, that is, to play the Phillies. Tomorrow night Johan Santana will face Cole Hamels at 7:05. Oh boy. We'll see how Johan fares in the old bandbox.
But this is exactly what I'm talking about, with the consistency and the still figuring out what to think business. Did the Mets study for this coming test? We shall see.
(Image courtesy www.lightrailnow.org)
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