We Were Not Going to Lose That Game
It’s late. I’m tired. My writing light is not really on.
But I have to say something. How many nights this season have I been sitting on this couch, looking out this window into the darkness, wondering what the hell I could say about what I just saw?
Too many nights. A third of a season in a darkness not dark enough to feel like doom, but not bright enough in which to see anything.
I stake my soul on this being the game we remember. I’ve staked my soul before and lost it. But I keep growing new souls and I put the latest one down on the green table.
I believe. This is it. Why do I feel this way? Am I going to go nuts over a two-game winning streak after a horrendous week? I guess I am.
Here’s why. It reminded me. You know what it reminded me of. Something you’ve seen before in another lifetime. 16 strikeouts. Bench players at the very heart of things. Coming back, even if you’ve lost the lead for the third or fourth time. This is the Mets way. Players with just enough talent who simply won’t be denied.
And most important. Most important. Listen. This is important. A crowd that is completely into it. A crowd that cheers even when the team’s behind. A crowd that believes and loves and wants and pushes the Mets over the line. We’ve seen this before. We’re seeing it again.
David Wright, on the little square screen under the mounds of videos and DVDs just said that “We were not going to lose that game.” That’s it. That’s right. And now Pedro says, “It’s been hard for me to see what’s going on and to not be able to do anything.” Yes, Pedro, we feel that way too.
I’m going to the game tomorrow. It’s going to be one of the most important games in a very long time.
May 29th, 2008 at 4:18 am
And for a while tonite, I really liked this team. I haven’t felt that way for a long time. That’s what has been so sad about this season so far. I could handle it if they were losing, but the way they have been losing has been so painful. I hate to watch bad baseball. But I love to watch good baseball - players playing their hearts out. Duaner’s bunt, for example, and the way he busted it down the line. Now if only the rest of them would take notice of that! Let’s hope they’ve turned the corner. I have kept on rooting for this team (especially Heilman, who is the nicest kid and looks like he might have turned the corner) and I really want to like them again. I hate it that they make it so difficult sometimes!!!
May 29th, 2008 at 4:44 am
I agree with MetsMom. This was a must win game and reminded me of the way the Mets played in 2006. No matter how far behind they were, you always felt like they could come back and win. I can only hope this is the start of good things for the Mets. If they can play every game with the intensity of this one, they will have as good a chance as any team to get into the playoffs.
May 29th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
And I agree with the other two ladies. And I loved this post, Dana, because it really tugged at the heartstrings of my Mets fandom.
Although I do think that the crowd fed off the team, and not vice versa, but hey, who really knows, right?
I have noticed lately that the crowds SEEM to want to be more supportive and cheery than they want to be negative, and it’s the chicken-egg thing at work here a bit, I suspect.
But boy, Dana, you sure did make me relive my Mets fandom in this post, and thanks!
May 29th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
Deb, There was a chicken and the egg thing going on last night between the crowd and the team, but what really surprised and gratified me was the fact that the crowd was really into it, EVEN after the Mets had given back leads. The crowd was encouraging the Mets to get ahead in the eighth and twelfth. They weren’t acting like “oh, they’ve blown it again,” which is why I’m interested in what the crowd will feel like tonight.
May 29th, 2008 at 8:01 pm
Dare we . . . hope? And hope for what?
It was a great game. I loved it.
May 29th, 2008 at 8:42 pm
Exactly! I kept thinking all night that this team was going to win this game. I knew it. I can’t say that about any other game this season. In fact, once the lead was squandered I would have given up. But, for some reason last night was different. And the crowd…THE CROWD…was positive for once! I found myself chanting Lets Go Mets right along with the crowd. It seemed that rather than anticipating failure, the crowd, the team, me…all expected SUCCESS! Unbelievable. It is a great day to be a Met fan again. LETS GO METSIES!
May 30th, 2008 at 4:43 am
The fans were into it because the Mets have been playing so poorly all the bandwagon fans have left, leaving only the true Mets fans @ Shea - thus the change in the atmosphere. As I’ve told my son, it’s easy to be a fan when they’re winning, but only a real fan cheers them on when they stink.
Perhaps Mets fans are more literate than we give them credit for and have been reading the papers and blogs and have decided that they’re doing more harm than good by booing. Whatever the reason, I hope it stays positive. We’re the 10th man, after all.
May 30th, 2008 at 2:37 pm
I think Mom is right. I think real Mets fans, even when some of us whine and moan and complain and criticize, do so out of LOVE, not out of a desire to whine and moan and complain. It pains some of us to the core to see some of the things we’ve seen with the Mets over the past year or so.
Which is why it’s so easy to win us over again with a couple of measley wins, lol.
But what is really giving me a true sense of the tide turning is the manner in which the team is playing under “Bill R.,” and if you don’t know who he is, click on my name, and go a post or two down, lol.
Bill R. and Chucky D. - perfect together
.
Let’s GO, Mets!
May 30th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
Deb, Your Bill R. idea raises an eternal philosophical question. If something that has remained the same looks different to us, is it because it has changed or is it because we are perceiving it in a different way? The Mets seem to me to have changed in the past few days not so much because we are perceiving them differently but because they are perceiving themselves differently. I really don’t have a read on whether Willie has changed. I suspect he hasn’t. I suspect that he will always be an excellent stabilizing manager for a team that has a lot of its own energy and confidence. I suspect that he will not be as good a manager for a team that has little energy and doubts itself.
May 30th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
Very good points, all. The “Bill R.” thingy is more about attitude than it is about change, Dana. And of course, one has to wonder about the catalyst of the attitude change, and I suspect your final point about Willie is exactly true.
But it isn’t fair to say Willie hasn’t “changed,” either. I think he HAS changed. I believe he’s changing the way he handles his veterans, he is placing the focus on winning rather than simply playing, and is exhibiting a much more loose and devil-may-care attitude and showing aggressiveness on the field on off unlike we’ve seen before from Willie Randolph, now known as “Bill R,” lol.
He seems to have a newfound air of confidence and air of leadership and has seemed to decide to take the bull by the horns. Which is what this team sorely needed. Lots of us, including myself, tend to forget that Willie is still a young relatively unseasoned manager, and I hope that what we are now seeing is his growth in the position. I’m all for it, and it’s the only way Willie/Bill R. will ever make his mark as a manager. I think he’s realizing now that he does not have to be Joe Torre, or anyone else, he can be Willie/Bill R. and still succeed by finding his own way.
We are witnessing the metamorphosis of Willie into Bill R.; at least, I HOPE we are, lol!
May 30th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
You people are all awesome! The Mets are awesome! Carlos Delgado is a star! Aaron Heilman and Scott Schoeneweiss- wheee!! Fernando Tatis!!! Mama mia!!!
I actually feel this way. I enjoyed those last three games in a way that I almost hardly remembered.
Did any of you see Adam Rubin this morning (Daily News)? He found that the Dodger’s young Mr. Kershaw was all agog to see his boyhood baseball heroes, David Wright and Jose Reyes.
Rubin was only too tickled to go and break it to David, that at least to someone out there, he is an OLD GUY. 
June 1st, 2008 at 12:28 am
Hey Dana, just saw Zoe Rice’s post about your adventure with the Lovely Lynn™ Cohen. Sounded (”read”?) like a blast. I am going right now to GaryKeithandRon.com to regale all my male relatives with T-shirts for Father’s Day.
June 1st, 2008 at 3:52 am
Ack, I thought for sure you were on my blogroll (which I admittedly tend to neglect), but I just rectified the situation. Another come from behind win on a day when it was supposed to pour buckets? I don’t want to say anything good about it for superstition’s sake!