They had lost two games that they could have won, because they were beaten by a team that played better.
They could hold their heads high. I had no trouble with the way the Mets were playing.
They had come back three times against the Yankees. They had beaten Rivera. They had beaten A-Rod. I loved the way he hit the ground with his bat as the ball went up into the air. I felt so happy. But looking at Castillo, I could see something was wrong. He put his glove up with a kind of fear on his face. He was in the right place. But he was not going to catch that ball. It was as if something was compelling him to not make the simplest of plays. He didn’t make it and he didn’t even put his right hand up to his glove to keep the ball from spilling onto the field.
I would rather they had clobbered us. I would rather that A-Rod had hit a home run. I would rather not have to remember that pop up forever and I hope and pray that I won’t have to. But this is the way I think things will be this year. If we lose it, if we don’t get where we want to go, it won’t be because we have been clobbered. It won’t be because someone else has hit a home run. If we lose, it will be because we have dropped a pop up.
I’m sick to my stomach. I can’t go to sleep but I don’t want to be awake. I feel like I can’t continue to let them do this to me. Why do I spend so much time watching and rooting for them when they can’t do a simple thing for me like catch a pop fly?
Oh, but Subie, ya gotta believe. Ya also gotta catch pop flies and touch third base.
I watched the game tonight with my best friend Jay – a die hard Red Sox fan. We were switching back and forth between the two games. The Sox had just taken the lead against the Phils in the 13th (or 14th?). Switch back – as A-Rod popped up, I was so elated. I immediately rose from my seat and I yelled, “Catch that ball, Castillo! Catch that ball!”
…
I fear this is a loss that will linger. I have very little confidence in this team going forward.
Nothing but bad feelings all around. Only wins can make this better.
Anthony, you sum up the great paradox of baseball fandom. The loss will linger, bad feelings all around, only wins will make this feel better. Exactly. And then the team wins a few games and you forget about the losses. Then they lose a few games and you forget about the games they won. Your faith in the team depends on what happened in the last game and every game is different. You’re a puppet on a string and the puppeteer is drunk.
Dana, well said with the puppet analogy. But like Anthony, I fear this loss will linger. The last two before it have – that’s part of how this one happened. The franchise has a very fragile psyche. It’s been like that since that last curveball on that cold rainy night in October 2006. I don’t have much confidence in the franchise to turn it around right now. Even on a winning week, I don’t get the feeling that it’s the turning point. And it all goes back to how the last three seasons ended. They’ve fooled me too many times and now I won’t fall for it. But I’ll still be there to root them on, 3 times on the next homestand.
Dyhrd, I know what you’re saying and I feel the same way, but I also know that I will not feel this way if they win the next five games. They probably won’t win the next five games, but you know that you could. Last year, after the June Yankees Series, could you have ever imagined that they would go on a tear and win 40 of their next 59 games? Could you ever have imagined that Carlos Delgado would have finished the season with the numbers that he did? This hurts, and the Mets are decimated by injuries to a terrifying degree (which is why they have to catch pop ups). But I don’t think the famous curveball called all this, and I don’t think the losses of the last two years will mean that they won’t be able to climb over the wall. I think that baseball is more random than that.
I, like Subie, was sick to my stomach. Like you Dana, I would have rather had A-Rod hit a homer. I felt horrible for Frankie Rodriguez. What a shame to suffer your first blown save and it wasn’t your fault. I think he owes Frankie Rodriguez a big apology for his lapse. This was not a hard hit ball, there was no sun and no wind. No excuses.Just when I was starting to feel better about Castillo too. All I could think of was Bill Buckner letting the ground ball go through his legs. That was the type of bone headed play it was. Although it wasn’t the World Series, the way the Yankees celebrated you would have thought it was. They probably are erecting a statue to Luis Castillo as I am writing this. LOL!
Seriously, Jerry should make Castillo practice pop ups at second base every day for the next week during practice sessions. The only way to forget this is to get a nice winning streak together. Thank goodness they won Saturday.
Dana wrote:
“I would rather they have clobbered us.”
Well, guess we got our wish on Sunday. I grant you that loss was less horrifically shocking than Castillo’s Marvelous Marv impression. Nevertheless, a 15-0 drubbing with the ace on the mound is not my idea of a good time. (In the big picture, as a history buff, I suppose I should be glad that I can say that I was alive to see Castillo’s blackly comedic screw-up).
I am just glad that I did not purchase tix on StubHub for Sunday’s game (which I came close to doing), thus avoiding the additional humiliation of $10.00 Budweisers and jeering Spankee fans in the Bronx. (Instead I went to the track in Monmouth, where watching the Mets getting their butts kicked on TV was mitigated by winning a race on a horse with 25-1 odds at post-time – only wish I’d made a bigger bet.)