And so, anyway, when you’re in the middle of the slump and you see that 41-year old Glavine got off to a great start but then has a couple of bad starts in a row, so he’s probably over for the season and how can we replace him, and Carlos Beltran also got off to a great start but then just lost it and maybe he’s hurt and maybe he’s not worth $119 million dollars and we need another big bat in our line-up that can hit left-handed pitching, and Shawn Green is not the answer to anything because that great start is not really what he is now and maybe Jose Reyes, as good as he is, is not the greatest player of all time, so we do need other guys on the team.
And then you get this game where you see that Glavine isn’t over for the season, Beltran and Green may have just been in slumps they could get over, and Jose Reyes is ready now to resume being the greatest baseball player of all time. And Atlanta and Philadelphia don’t seem to be able to capitalize on our bad fortune and you begin you “realize” that the Mets may win the NL East after all. You see that even though yesterday you couldn’t imagine the Mets ever playing decent baseball again as long as you lived, it turns out that they are really very very good and all set to go back to their winning ways. And so, like Emily Litella, you think to yourself: “Never mind!”
This is how stupid we are. Stupid on both ends. We are stupid when we give up on our team and we are stupid when the evidence of one game makes us feel (whether or not we really believe) that we are coming out of the slump.
It does no good to think that we should be more patient in the future. We won’t be. We won’t relax. We will lose hope easily. And we will be suckered back into hope just as easily. If we lived our real lives like this, what would happen to us? Uh.
You mean — your REAL LIFE isn’t like that? Uh-oh….. maybe I really AM doing something wrong. LOL I kind of tend to get really wrapped up in whatever I’m doing, to the max, I kind of like to feel my pain, and feel my highs………. not THOSE kind of highs, you know, the great things in life…. but I digress. As usual, some would say, lol.
Anyway, I think what you are describing is, for the most part, akin to simple blowing off of steam. I know myself when the team isn’t playing well for a considerable period of time, I start to talk to myself, gripe and grouse, piss and moan, bitch and complain, to just about anyone both within and outside of listening distance. LOL Let’s just say there have been a lot of people within listening distance over the past few weeks, lol.
And even though in some deep subconscious area of the mind, you kind of know that the team will eventually return to its usual level of play, you’re never really sure, and besides, it’s only normal to try to think of something, anything, that will explain a particularly odious malaise, or think of something that nobody else has thought of that will somehow be a “magic wand” for the team.
I mean, it’s just the daily life of a baseball fan — you’re only as happy as your last win……… or as miserable as your last loss. Or losses. Or many losses. Or ………….. uh, never mind. We’re not jumping off any buildings or hanging from any rafters, hee hee hee.
Dana,
Both you and Deb said it so well. We can never be completely happy when they Mets are on a winning streak because we are always afraid that it will end, and it did. Now we are on a little upswing, but this team is going to have to claw and fight the whole season. It won’t be a piece of cake like last year. Like Deb, I talk to myself and rant and rave to fellow fans about the Mets. Sometimes I wish I wasn’t such a die hard fan so I wouldn’t have these highs and lows, but then I think about how much I would have missed if I was only a casual fan, and realize I wouldn’t trade any of my memories of the past 44 years. Thank you Dana, for the blog because it really is nice to see others feel the same as I do.
Yes, Deb and Vicki, and now that we’ve won two in a row there’s a spring in our step, a smile on our face, and all’s right with the world! You have to admit that this is a very strange thing that has gotten ahold of our ability to feel happiness, sadness, and fear.
And now it’s three!
Was tracking the game at the Nats-Indians game in DC today…when I finally saw the 10-2 posting, I burst into laughter!
Listened to the 1-0 game last night on the deck, in an eerie, charming evocation of my youth. We had but 1 TV in our house in the 60s, and my mom wasn’t going to dedicate it to Channel 9 every night, so I’d often be on the patio, with an 8 transistor radio, listening to the local broadcast of the Mets game.
Fast forward a few decades, and last night, I’m on the deck, just south of Washington, DC, listening to the local broadcast of the Mets game, pumping my fist as I hear “Put it in the books!”
I really think the 1-0 win is a corner turner…
I have to say, that I could not agree with you in 100% regarding The Psychology of the Slump, Part II, but it’s just my opinion, which could be wrong