Going Into the 2008 Season
Right now, in blogs and in columns, people are analyzing the upcoming season in the way that cable news analysts cover a political election. Baseball is being treated as if it were a horse race, a game, a mere competition between entities whose real and potential strengths and weaknesses can be analyzed 24 hours a day for the entertainment of everyone who is addicted to following its swings and reversals and triumphs and collapses and blunders and all the rest of it.
But just as politics is more than a game, we all know that baseball is more than a game. Every once in a while something like Senator Obama’s recent speech on race reminds us that we’re not watching a game, we’re watching history. Baseball is history too. Like “real” history, it is a personal and communal narrative that involves our deepest emotions, our senses of ourselves and our world, our loyalties, prejudices, fears, and dreams. I want to try to step back for a moment and see if I can talk about the upcoming season with this in mind, without giving you my sense of the strength of our lineup or our starting rotation. Anything I said about that would just come from reading what other people have written anyway.
I am worried. I am fearful. Not about the Mets themselves. As far as I can tell, they’re the best team in the National League. I’m worried about whether or not we are actually going to be able to enjoy this season.
In baseball as in history, context is everything. All baseball fans can really ask of a season is a “good rooting situation” and whether a situation is good or not depends entirely on context. 1984, 1997, and 2005 were not the most successful Mets seasons, but they were great rooting situations. After years of misery, an exciting and sympathetic team was performing above our expectations. The Mets won more games in 1987 than they did in 1984, but which season was more fun? The Mets won more games in 2007 than they did in 2005, but which season was more fun? It’s all context, it’s all in what you expect. Every new season is expected to complete the story of the previous couple of seasons. In a good way. Think about this. After 2006 and after 2007, what could possibly make you happy?
We all have different answers to this question, but here is a big part of the problem. Will you be happy to just make it to the postseason? How will you react if it looks, at ANY POINT in the coming season, that we may not? Will you cheer on this great bunch of guys to show that you have faith that they will make it, with our support? Or has your faith been so abused by what happened last season that you will boo or just stay home? I won’t boo. I think that making it to the postseason is enough of an accomplishment in any season and can be expected to be difficult in all seasons. But as others are booing around me, I am going to be terribly torn. I will want to leap out of my seat and strangle my fellow fans. Yet I will know exactly where they are coming from. The same bile will churn in my stomach and the same screech of pain will rise from my gut, only to be stopped by the clenching of my teeth.
Well, let’s say we win the division. Will you be satisfied with any postseason that does not at least take us further than we got in 2006? Hell, will you be satisfied with any postseason that does not take us further than we got in 2000? I’ve already said that I’ll be satisfied with any postseason. But if you’re not, and if I understand perfectly well why you’re not, am I going to have to deal with the moral dilemma of wanting to strangle you again? As a way of wanting to strangle myself?
Brothers and sisters, this is not good. I wish I could say, on the verge of what I hope will be a happy and redemptive season that I am pumped and psyched and all that. I am. But I want to get it out on the table that I fear that 2006 and 2007 have done a real number on our heads. I’m not even talking about 2000 and everything that followed it, and well, maybe even 1973 and everything that followed it, or 1962 and everything – oh, forget it. I think that the Mets have a real good chance to have a really successful season this year. But I don’t know what the chances are that we are going to have fun.
March 22nd, 2008 at 5:41 am
Hi Dana,
This is the first season I have not been caught up in the hype that is spring training. When every article was focusing on how almost every Met was injured and it looked like they were not going to be able to field a team with any major leaguers, I did not panic. I figured that it would all get sorted out, and now it is a little more than a week to the start of the season, and the Mets are not in bad shape. Yes, I am upset about Moises Alou, but it is not panic time. I am trying to follow the creed of one day at a time. I am cautiously optimistic like I am every year.
After last year, my hope for the season is that the Mets are competitive, that they are in the race all the way, and that they make it to post season. Of course, a World Series win is the ultimate goal, but if they even make it there, or deeper into the playoffs, I will be satisfied. My other wishes are that the injuries are minimal, that the team plays up to it’s potential, they have fun and there is no last minute collapse. Do you think I am being unreasonable? No, I am just being a Mets fan. LOL!
March 24th, 2008 at 11:39 am
I’m looking forward to watching this great pitching staff (5th starter aside). I don’t think we will have a repeat of last year because we have 4 bona fide starting pitchers any one of whom could be a stopper. I was at that game Maine pitched at the end of the season and really thought that was going to do it. Turned out to be too late, but usually performances like that put an end to a losing streak. I think we are going to have a lot of performances like that this year and i can’t wait to watch them.
March 24th, 2008 at 11:45 pm
You make good points, Dana; points that - as Mets fans - we can all relate to. It’s true that in a season like 1984 or 2005, where expectations are low and potential is high, being a fan is less stressful. (BTW - I have to disagree with you that 2005 was fun. Watching the team get that close to the wild-card and then going on that slide down the stretch was not fun.) But I welcome the potential stress of this season of high expectations with open arms. Really, I do. As far as what exactly will leave me satisfied, I’m unsure. If the post-season wasn’t such a crap-shoot with the best of 5 first round, I think I’d say I wouldn’t be satisfied unless we got to the World Series. Things being the way they are, however, I may be inclined to side with you and say that getting to the post-season is enough. But as long as this team stays relatively healthy and is healthy come play-off time (knock on wood), this is a team that should advance.
March 25th, 2008 at 1:46 am
Fun will equal a team that plays hard start to finish.
What was most troubling about last season was that this team seemed to play with a sense of entitlement that resulted in a team that looked as though they would rather be anywhere but on that field. That was no fun.
If Willie keeps them on task from opening day and through the season i feel that the potential is very high for great success. Last year I went into the season expecting World Series. This year, I am expecting to reach the playoffs and avoid embarrassment. How is that for measured expectation.
March 25th, 2008 at 7:30 pm
Yes the Mets need to have some fun but can’t let their heads get as big as they did last year. Mets need to play hard for every game. I think last shook up the guys just enough so they can make that next step. I can see the mets getting back to the NLCS possibly winning and making the world series. My expectations haven’t fallen off one bit from last season.
Good Luck Mets
James
March 27th, 2008 at 8:37 pm
Well put. Failure to reach the postseason will be a disappointment, but unless they’re tanking in late september, I think we have to treat any slump as merely a slump and continue to cheer and root.
As for the postseason, We don’t necessarily have to do better than ‘06, but we have to play better. If we lose to a team playing better, but we played well, than fine, it happens. I think it’ll be an exciting year, but the pressure is on, and it won’t have that innocent jubilation of years like 2005.
March 28th, 2008 at 12:09 am
You know, if all Mets fans were like the thoughtful, articulate, hopeful, generous people who leave comments on my blog, I would be a very happy fan. In my experience, most Mets fans are like this. This tone of hopeful kindness is part of the reason many of us love to be Mets fans. But then I read some of the comments on some of the forums or listen to some of the call-in shows and I don’t know what to think. You folks have made me feel better. Maybe Mets fans will rise to whatever occasion this season provides. And maybe the Mets will too.
March 28th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
I may bring you down a little bit (but maybe not). My initial thought is, anything shy of getting to the World Series, is unacceptable. As far as I am concerned, the team has underachieved in each of the past two years, so much so that an Western New York sports columnist is actually picking the Mets for third, behind the Phillies AND the Braves.
I do agree that it is about having things for which to cheer, for which to root. In that sense, 1984 was a fun year as the Mets came out of no where to contend for the NL East title. While 1987 may have produced more wins but been a less exciting year (and I agree with that), both years failed in comparison (in my estimation) to 1986 when they won it all. Lets be honest, winning is fun.
I expect that when Santana takes the mound it will equal the excitement that used to be in the air when Doc Gooden was on the mound (Do we want to go back to Tom Seaver?) I expect that Jose Reyes will return to form and give the fans something to cheer about and a high level of excitement. I could go on but I do see this as an exciting year.
Still, as indicated before, having spent the money on Johan, and over the past previous years on Beltran and Pedro, not getting to the World Series (despite the fact that there are a lot of unknowns in short series) is, in my mind, failure. I will not boo this team, however, or any of the players on it (I don’t even believe in booing the opposing team) and I will always remain a faithful fan.