There is nothing more frustrating than rooting for the Mets, regardless of which era you live in or remember. I've been rooting for this team since I cared to remember about professional sports.
Granted, that was about the same time they won their last World Championship - 1986 - but I was an impressionable nine-year-old and when my mom was willing to take me out of Lowell (which, by the way, was a great school. Just look at the school's fight song) so I could go to the ticker tape parade, I was locked in.
I wasn't as invested as I am now, so memories of Marva K taking me to Shea for a Mother's Day game aren't clear. Nevertheless, thanks to the power of the Internet (It's on computers now?) I've deduced that it was May 14, 1989 and I snuck past player's wife to watch Lenny Dykstra score on an error in the ninth for a 2-1 win over the San Diego Padres. But the only memory I have is finally being able to see the green grass of Shea up close and my heart was set in stone, prepared to bleed Giants orange and Dodger blue for the rest of my days...
We'll skip past watching the 2000 Subway Series with a certain Yankee fan, quietly
forecasting the impending doom that was obvious to all involved. In fact, let's fast forward to 2006 and watching that yak of a curve ball by Adam Wainwright freeze Carlos Beltran like a deer in front of a Hummer. There was a feeling of absolute shock and awe. I mean, it was just two innings ago that Endy Chavez made a catch that would go down in lore as large as The Unnamed Pass & Catch between Elisha and David Tyree.
Nevertheless, there was also a feeling that the team was built for more than a one-year run. There was youth in Reyes and Wright. We had just stuck two young pitchers (John Maine and Oliver Perez) into situations made for last names like Clemens, Shilling and Beckett and they had performed adrimably.
Next year was now and they ran out of the gates in 2007, but then something happened.
Call it yet another injury to Moises Alou, a reality check for John Maine, the continued demise of Carlos Delgado, the continued implosion of a bullpen that relied too heavily on two guys (Joe Smith, Pedro Feliciano) because the others couldn't get out the Bad News Bears or a combination of all of the above.
The rest of the season became history and regardless what the history books will write, the Mets gave the Phillies the division title, not the other way around. Yes, the Philties won eight straight late, but they still only won by a game and needed Tom Glavine to deliever his worst performance in this Hall of Fame career on the season's final day to avoid a one-game playoff.
And now here we are. It's 2008 and Met fans, the flicklest of all in the Tri-State area which is saying a lot, were ready with boo birds from Opening Day, with boo birds for the high-priced No. 1 starter that everyone on this side of the world said the Mets needed. I say they because while I expected this team to compete, I didn't think they would run away with anything AND NEITHER DID PUNDITS, BOTH LOCALLY AND NATIONALLY.
Yes, the team management and front office expected to win the division (which, by the way, still has over 100 games left to be decided), but how many people said the Mets were the clear cut favorites? Let's see by a show of hands...
Keep them up if you thought they would do it due to a starting pitching staff with Pedro and El Duque rounding it out and taking pressure off Maine and Perez.
Keep them up if you said they would do it if Jose Reyes continued to struggle like he needed a lesson from Indians manager Lou Brown, Delgado still refused to take pitches the other way, Beltran continued to cater to rumors that he really wanted to be a Yankee so he could be a quiet star ala Bobby Abreu and the same bullpen that could hardly get anyone out last year was asked to do more with Mike Pelfrey and Nelson Figueroa lucky to get through the fourth inning.
Does anyone still have thier hand up? If so, please point them out to the attendents from Arkham Asylum can take them away. I believe a cell between the Joker and Poison Ivy just opened up.
Nevertheless, all this has happened and we're not world beaters without two veteran starters and an oft injured outfielder, an injury to the man who did a servicable job replacing him before injury befell him as well (Where are you, Angel Pagan?) and now, now is the still to fire Willie Randolph because he's clearly to blame.
He didn't help himself with the quotes he gave Ian O'Connell of The Record, a column I read and took nothing more than the same frustration that every Met fan with any reason has with a team that could and should be better.
Will they be? Who knows. Will they be better off with Willie gone? Maybe, but here's the $64,000 question that no one, and I mean NO ONE, has yet to answer for me.
I'll admit that Willie hasn't taken Reyes aside and been a mentor since he got the big contract (just a thought). He hasn't bridged the gap between the mix of Latin and American players (No Pedro and the lackluster play of Delgado hasn't helped that situation any) and you can question his bullpen use but it's not his fault he has to turn to them every night for three-plus innings. Nevertheless, who's taking over this team if Willie is fired that will lead them from the cellar to the penthouse? George Jefferson isn't walking through that door. Bobby Valentine isn't walking through that door. Davey Johnson, Gil Hodges or Ozzie Guillen aren't walking through that door.
And since the latter, who I think would be perfect for the job, is currently under contract with a first-place team, I'll wait for an answer. Until then, I'll ride out this season and hope that as the team gets healthy, they have a strong second half like Santana tends to do and like any true fan has to hope for with their team.
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