Have nine Mets ever been on the disabled list? Have we ever had, on the disabled list, three of our four most important offensive players, two of our starting pitchers, and our second most important reliever? I think that this may be the most “injured” Mets team ever.
Should we despair? Should we demand a move that, given our situation, we can probably not get away with making?
Well, let me first admit that I am afraid. This has become an absurd situation. But let me also be frank. If games like this one can happen (the 6-4 win over the Cardinals in the first game of the series), I could really start enjoying this. Enjoying? Actually enjoying? Yeah.
I enjoy this because if gives me a glimpse of something for which I have a guilty, secret attraction. I love to watch a Mets team with solid pitching and a dubious lineup, a team that can only win when it summons reserves of grit, when it finds pockets of surprise. What is actually more fun than watching a washed up mediocre pitcher throw a fine game, as a former third catcher no one had heard of on opening day goes 4 for 4, as a young player who was not making the grade as a regular suddenly starts to earn his keep, as a veteran replacement shortshop emerges as a team leader, as the last major offensive player in the lineup continues to lead the league in hitting? What is more fun than being reminded of what the Mets used to be?
Oh, of course, I don’t want to see them go on like this. I want the real team back. But what would be cooler than watching the tough second team holding their own through the hardest part of the schedule, until the real team comes back and sails through August and September as if it were 1969.
I know a lot of fans want to talk about what could have been done better as this team was constituted. They have a lot of good, valid points to make. And I know that I’m probably just dreaming if I think that this is just going to be a fun interlude in a dramatic, brilliant season. But let me tell you something. A trade is not going to save them. The only trades Omar is likely to be able to make are the kind of trades that we are likely to regret later. All that can save them is the dream coming true. All that can save them is the unlikely. We will only have a good season if some players do more than we would have any right to expect of them. This is what baseball fandom used to be. I liked it. I still like it. A game like tonight was so much fun. Lets enjoy our decimated team. Let’s have something a little different.
I’m going to the game tonight (6/23). I want to see it happen again. I’m checking out the Pepsi Porch because it looks like fun and I’m looking for my home in the stadium I’m still not yet at home in. A team like the one I saw tonight could make me feel at home. I’ve seen guys like this before. I’m getting into this. You see, it will not be entirely satisfying if the Mets just do with this particular core what they should have done these past two seasons. They have to do something a little different. They have to be the 2009 Mets. They can’t just be what should have happened. They have to be their own miracle, if they are going to carve out their own space in our memory.
Dana,
After hearing Francessa telling Met fans that they should feel “cheated” by this season, I absolutely love your optimism . I agree, this is the most I’ve had watching this team since ‘06. I would love to see the “B” team hold the fort until our guys get healthy again. Have a great time in the porch tonight!
Good stuff, Dana. This sort of season could only happen to the New York Mets.
If we’re within 5 by the time we get to the all-star break, it should be considered a big victory. And who knows, we could be better than that. Hell, we could be in first at the all-star break. It’s baseball, after all.
Let’s Go Mets!
You know, Anthony, surely this sort of season could happen to any team. But why does it seem as if it could only happen to the Mets? Being within 5 by the All-Star break would be absolutely fine, considering the guys we’re going to get back, considering the easiness of the schedule and the lack of a dominant team in the division. I’m glad others can see the fun in this. I like it. Because it is its own story. It is not just getting what we didn’t get in 2007 and 2008.
Howie Rose commented during last evening’s broadcast that in 1973 the Mets suffered devastating injuries, but nevertheless scrapped their way into the post season and eventually a 7 game World Series because they had Seaver, Koosman, and Matlack in the rotation, and Tug had a good end of the season.
However, Rose also commented that at present, after Johan, Mets ain’t got anyone who can properly compare with Koosman and Matlack. In addition, once the reserve clause ended, its very difficult to make comparisons with the pre Curt Flood era. The economics of the game are massively different now.
I agree with you that its fun to see the reserves scrap it out and keep the ship afloat. But big picture that is not likely to play out well – there is a reason why Alex Cora hasn”t been an everyday player most of his career. He’s a terrific bench addition. Baseball is a long season, and water usually settles to its level.
I don’t agree with Francessa or his ilk’s claim that Mets’ fans should feel cheated, because baseball should be a zen-like experience. If you catch a great game you always have it regardless of what happens tomorrow. Case in point was game 161 last year, which remains magnificent notwithstanding the fart that was game 162.
However, I think it is reasonable to express disappointment and disatisfaction with how the FO has handled things during the off season and now. Some of these injuries were not forseeable, some were. Baseball has some parallels to trial work – there will always be shocking developments and things you can’t predict, but you still prepare and plan to the max and always remain focused on doing what it takes to win. It may not go your way, but you can have confidence that you did as much as you could do to control and hedge things. Sometimes cutting corners works in the short term, but long term the chickens are gonna come home to roost (especially in sports with long seasons that usually expose reality pretty robustly).
My last comment is that there are times I think the FO rides on the “Miracle Mets” legacy to excuse poor decision making. Abraham Lincoln became President with no national experience. He was a good President, but one should not draw from that the conclusion that every candidate who lacks national experience will be a terrific President. (*cough cough Jimmy Carter cough cough**). I do prefer rooting for an underdog team, but (like I’ve written before) I prefer underdogs patterned after the Brooklyn Dodgers of the 1950s more so than the Atlanta Braves of the 1980s….
JD, I think it’s absolutely reasonable to criticize the front office in the way that you have, and I think it is foolish to say, as Francesa does, that Mets fans should feel cheated. And I agree, alas, that the Mets’ FO have often exploited us by invoking the underdog myth. I cannot defend, in any intellectual way, my fierce loyalty to the underdog Mets team of the late ’70s. I enjoyed rooting for them, but the way that team came about was simply wrong, and I would have plenty of reasons to claim that I was being cheated.
Yes, there is no Koosman or Matlack after Santana. But I believe that Pelfrey is capable of getting to that level. And Maine and Perez, who have still not reached their potential in terms of consistency, can be superb pitchers. And when you consider how mysteriously good Hernandez, Nieve, and Redding have been, and how much of a better lineup the 2009 Mets have than the 1973 Mets if everyone or even almost everyone is healthy, I do think that the 2009 Mets can pull off something comparable to what the 1973 Mets did. Once again, we will also have to depend on the kindness of strangers.
I too have all kinds of questions about how things ended up this way. But what I am thinking right now is that in a strange way, this season is promising to be even more interesting than anything I ever expected.
if you’re going, keep an eye on Albert Pujols during BP. last night, he put several in the 2nd deck and one into the 3rd (reached the concourse) in LF.
I’ve been there 4 times, and I’m not at home yet. Haven’t sat in a seat that I liked and I lost the last good part of going early for BP (i mean touching the dugout, the interactivity with players went away a few years ago).
Dyhrd,
I’m going alone with my daughter for the first time and I’m purposely stalling so that we get down there a little later than we normally do so that I don’t have to deal with her anguish when we get there and they don’t let us into the area behind the dugout because our ticket isn’t expensive enough. Going to batting practice and seeing David Wright and Daniel Murphy, etc. close up was always one of her favorite parts about going to a game. I can’t believe how they callously and thoughtlessly took that away from nearly all of us, as if it was a simple policy decision they had a right to make. I still seethe when I think about it. When my book is out in August and I do the interview circuit and they ask me about Citi Field, I’m going to mention this every chance I get.
for various reasons (this being one of them), I’m actually considering NOT pushing myself to be around to see the Mets take BP at EVERY game I go to. that’s not such a bad idea to protect your daughter from the sights of the “new” BP experience. maybe the new experience (for some) is to hang out in the OF and try to catch HR balls.
my general response when asked about Citi Field (if you can picture a TV camera interviewing someone) is “my mother always told me that if you don’t have anything nice to say (about someone/something), don’t curse about it on TV”.
I have to say that I have very much found my home at citifield. It’s in the far upper reaches of the promenade, almost behind homeplate. These seats may not be available because they are mostly season ticket holders, but we have a really nice group up there and everyone is starting to get to know each other. I don’t bother much with the other stuff – I’ll go to right field and get some blue smoke and good beer if there’s time, but then I go up to my seats and hang with what’s left of the old mezzanine saturday plan holders. My ticket for last night’s game was $20. We all had a chuckle watching the people in the $150 seats scramble when the rain came. I could do with a few less ads, but otherwise, although I do miss Shea, I like it there.
Luckily, when my son and I were @ Citifield for bp, he found the low wall up the third baseline where one can practically touch the field (it seems like it’s only a few feet high). He loves sitting there w/ his glove, I think he is convinced that one day he is going to snag a line drive or something.
I really hope that if enough people complain about the bp policy, they will eventually change it. At least we still have Spring Training to get to see the players up close. We go down to Port St. Lucie every year for spring training, and I recommend it to everyone. My kids and I have such great memories from all of these trips, especially the time I planted myself in front of the golf cart that was taking Piazza back to the clubhouse after workouts b/c I had promised my son, then 5 and a die-hard Piazza fan, that I would somehow make sure he met Piazza and got his autograph (and he did!).
As for this team, I also keep wondering who cursed them. Yet I do find it so exciting when they do pull it together and manage to win. I love watching the kids (Evans, Murphy, FMart, etc) come up and play well. In a lot of ways, it’s almost as if they’re playing w/ house money. No one expects them to be able to hang on, so if they don’t, who could blame them under the circumstances, and if they do, it would just be incredible. As Tug would say, Ya Gotta Believe….