A Million Ways to Win
I am beginning to develop a hopeful suspicion that this is a great team, not merely the very good team I thought it was when the season began. I may eat my words of course, but I will stick my neck out here. I am normally pretty cautious about using the word “great,” but the Mets are making me bold. I had a sense that Reyes would continue to get better. I had a sense that Beltran would remain as good as he was last year. I did not expect the starting pitching to be anywhere near this good. I am beginning to feel very good about the bullpen. But the main thing that gives me a sense that this team is great is seeing that it has so many ways to win a ballgame. If something is not working, something else will. If the middle of the order is dead, the bottom of the order will hit like champions. If Reyes and Beltran, carrying the team, have an off-night, if the first four men in the lineup are 1 for 14, Damion Easley will hit a pinch home run and Endy Chavez will lay down a dramatic drag bunt to win the game. Green and Alou cannot possibly hit as well as they’ve hit so far. But by the time they come down to earth, Delgado and Wright will have returned to form. The Mets look good and feel good. You saw how they mobbed each other when they won tonight. There are no petty resentments and conflicts as there are on the Yankees. There is calm and cool and enthusiasm and generous talent spread all around.
April 25th, 2007 at 5:20 am
I too felt great about this win. They show that they are a team of 25 men, and you expressed it perfectly that they can find many ways to win. If this is indicative of what this team can do, I am starting to feel more confident. Let’s Go Mets!
May 4th, 2007 at 10:16 pm
“There are no petty resentments and conflicts as there are on the Yankees. ”
Well, none that we know of. However, if I learned that a number of Mets team members wanted to smack Heilman, or that they are pissed off that Sanchez showed up to camp out of shape, or are resentful that Wright became the team poster boy notwithstanding a big fall-off post all-star-game last season, I’m not going to be shocked.
meanwhile, other than a media-manufactured “fight” between A-Rod and Jeter, and the fact that any sensible ballplayer is irritated at Pavano, what resentments/conflicts? Those summoned up by the media? Their rotation has been bad and the bullpen has been shaky. Its not a soap opera.
Lemme tell you, Jeter or A-Rod could play for my team any day of the week.
I always hate it when I agree with Mike and the Mad Dog, but comments like the above make me concede a point they made. For many Mets fans, its equally, indeed possibly more important, for the Yankees to suck (and have all kinds of internal problems and dissension) than it is for the Mets to win.
It seems to have nothing to do with the team, and everything to do with some sort of odd insecurity about rooting (or not rooting) for a given team, with all due respect. If the Mets are good, can’t that stand on its own terms, rather than some sort of compare and contrast? It sure ain’t gonna win the tabloid battles…all it does is suggest the Yankees matter more than the Mets because Mets fans are so concerned with them.
Why? I have absolutely no idea. None. I would assume the ultimate thrill for Mets fans is to beat the Yankees in the World Series.
May 5th, 2007 at 1:24 pm
JD, It doesn’t matter as much to Mets fans that the Yankees do poorly as that the Mets do well. It matters, oh, roughly, 50% as much.
May 7th, 2007 at 8:54 pm
I think it depends on the year. I agree with you that if the Mets do well that is the case. But if the Mets aren’t doing well, I’ll bet even money that more Mets fans tune into to Yankee games in the hopes of seeing them lose than they tune into Braves games, or even Mets games down the stretch if they are out of it.