Thursday, October 19, 2006By Mike Steffanos
I started reading some of the local and national takes on last night's game this morning, but had my fill of it really quickly. Other than a well spent half hour checking out some of my fellow Mets bloggers, that's it for my reading for the day. I get the fact that Oliver Perez isn't the comfortable choice for a game 7 starter, and don't need to read the same thing 100 times. I don't need Ken Rosenthal telling me yet again that Omar Minaya could have had Barry Zito for Lastings Milledge, a bag of balls and some old back issues of Playboy. I only hope that some team hires Ken soon, since he so obviously has a better grasp on the game than the man who built this Mets team. Finally, I don't need to be told any more how ugly this series has looked to those pundits whose opinions matter so little to me now. If the Mets pull this thing out tonight, this NLCS will look like a Victoria's Secret model to me. In the long run, the only thing that really gets remembered is who won, and that's as it should be. Let those with no rooting interest in tonight's game concern themselves with aesthetics.
I've written previously about the exhausting marathon that baseball seasons are, especially when they include a post-season run of any consequence. Yet when we're sitting there in seasons such as 2003 and 2004, wondering why we have done this to ourselves again, the answer is simple. This is why. This is why we care -- just a chance to take part in a game where everything is at stake, in the hopes of living what will become a cherished sports memory with gems of post-seasons gone by. What makes it more poignant is the very real chance that it could end badly. Don't allow yourself to dwell in that fear, but rather find the pleasure in taking part in something that really matters. It may only be a game, but for those of us who invest a part of ourselves in the outcome of something we really have no control over, games like this one are rare and special.
Enough of talking and trying to read those elusive tea leaves. Just believe. Let's Go Mets.
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Comments (8)
This ends badly every season for 29 teams.
There must be some payoff if we keep doing it every year.
Having rooted for the Mets through the barren late '70's, the hopeful optimism of the early '80's, the unfulfilled promise of the early '90's, and lots of seasons like '03 and '04, I can attest to the fact that it's so worth it.
Let's go, Mets!
Posted by NostraDennis | October 19, 2006 2:37 PM
Mike, great post. You hit the nail on the head as to why we do this to ourselves. I've had butterflies for two straight days, and am fully expecting to completely pass out at Shea tonight in the moments leading up to the first pitch.
I wouldn't have it any other way.
LET'S GO METS!!!
Posted by C Dubb | October 19, 2006 3:18 PM
You know something, we face some pretty low odds coming into this game. Jeff Suppan, the master of the Game 7, takes the hill for St. Louis. Oliver Perez, a man who the so-called experts at the Extreme Self-Promotion Network have called "the worst pitcher ever to start a Game 7," will be the hurler for YOUR New York Mets. Our team is injured, our bullpen is tired, and our players are very postseason-inexperienced.
However, the so-called experts also overwhelmingly chose us to lose our division, lose in the first round of the playoffs, and fall short of a World Series berth (let alone a victory). Pedro, El Duque, Sanchez, Floyd, and Bannister are nursing untimely and serious injuries.
But screw that. We have been coming from behind and playing inspired baseball all year long. Willie hasn't been the savviest in-game manager known to mankind, but he has done a brilliant job in bringing this team together. We cruised to a division title with every single one of our starting pitchers with the exception of Trachsel incurring some kind of injury during the season. The team chemistry and energy are evident every time they take the field, especially at an absolutely RAUCOUS Shea Stadium (which, contrary to popular belief, is the true home of baseball's greatest fans). And something tells me that, in a winner-take-all, the energy of Jose Reyes, the hunger of Carlos Delgado, the poise of Carlos Beltran, the precocity of David Wright, the heart of Endy Chavez, the intelligence of Paul Lo Duca, and the mettle of our entire bullpen will combine and REFUSE to let our season end like this. Not for how long and hard we've fought to get here.
Mike believes. I believe.
Do you?
LET'S GO METS
Posted by Matt | October 19, 2006 3:30 PM
I believe Wright has been "waiting" all series to become a hero tonight, like he's been all year. Or maybe its Valentin. Or Green. Or LoDuca. Or PErez. That's the great part of the 2006 Mets. It can be and has been everyone.
Let's Go Mets GO!
Posted by Anonymous | October 19, 2006 4:03 PM
Here, here!
Posted by Mike S. | October 19, 2006 4:10 PM
In a little while I will stand before my TV and cheer our Mets as they take the field for game 7. That alone would be a holywood ending for a team that just would not quit. Overcoming so many major set backs, against all the experts, they made it to the 7th game of the play offs and the screen fads to black with the crowd cheering. But this is the 2006 N.Y.Mets and they are not satisfied with just making the 7th game they are on the field to WIN THE 7th GAME. I am getting ready to stand and cheer them on. LETS GO METS.
Posted by REV AL | October 19, 2006 7:25 PM
I am so proud of our Mets.
Sad, deflated, exhausted, unfulfilled, but overall, so proud.
Like the Black Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, our arms kept getting lopped off, one by one, but we kept fighting until the end.
(I can use "we" because Billy Wagner used it on MLB.com today to describe the Shea crowd.)
I never believed they couldn't win that game. Never once, until the final strike.
A season well done, men.
Posted by NostraDennis | October 19, 2006 11:53 PM
Rev - We gave it a ride, didn't we?
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NostraDennis - I couldn't have said it better. Thanks.
Posted by Mike S. | October 20, 2006 12:33 AM