Wednesday, August 29, 2007By Mike Steffanos
I have a friend of a sort you might find familiar. He's got brains and some talent, but he never quite seems to put it all together. Things will be going fine for a while, but then he runs into some "bad luck" and his life becomes a mess again. The funny thing is that he seems to endure more than his share of bad luck -- so much so that I finally realized that there was more than luck operating in his life.
My 2007 New York Mets remind me a lot of my friend. While it's fair to say they've been quite unlucky at times, and have managed to look quite good for short stretches, they are starting to take on that ne'er-do-well personality. I've been alternately teased and frustrated. Frankly, there is a part of me that's just plain worn out by their antics.
I've been under the gun this week with a really huge project for the paying job, to the point where I've had to neglect this blog. For an obsessive-compulsive type like me, that takes a lot. In a way, though, the timing couldn't be better. I haven't had the time to obsess over my stumbling baseball team, and instead have had to settle for allowing my feelings to percolate in the back of my mind.
What I've come to realize is that I'm just plain done with being frustrated and disappointed with them. I mentioned a while back that I've come to the realization that they are what they are. I take a break from my work every night to turn the game on and watch. I root hard for them to win, but when they lose I get back to my own business. It makes it all a little easier to take.
They will go through the rest of this season with the bullpen they have. No one will be riding into town on a white horse to save them. As up and down as they've been, they're capable of getting the job done -- particularly if the Mets could actually wake up on offense and earn an occasional easy win.
As a Mets fan, every year is a new story. To at least some extent, this year's story is a disappointment. What I loved most about last year's club isn't completely non-existent, but rather somewhat diluted -- kind of like a drink with ice in it that has been set down too long. I can't worry about that, they're still the Mets and I am a Mets fan. Tonight I'll root for this watered-down bunch again. I just won't let them make me crazy.
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Comments (6)
Mike...appreciate your lyrical style of describing what most of us are sensing, but cant quite express ina word..for Me,the uncertainty principle intensifies ad nauseum...every excrutiating moment of this swoon feels like I've known its coming,... as if I dreamed it last night...Questionoing against my usaul upbeat nature as to how will we snatch proverbial defeat from the hands of victory tonight....why am I not suprised? I ask myself,, feeling somehow fraudulent that I have fallen in faithfulness so simply, so utterly... without the requisite protests and thrown shoes...it all seems so inevitable ...and I, of such typical faith..I not apathetic mind you, just professionally detached like yourself...I need a win soon or else....
Posted by n8genius | August 29, 2007 11:45 PM
Mike - I wish I could share your sanguine attitude. I can't. When they win, I feel good. When they lose, I feel bad. When they lose four in a row, I feel like crap.
I find myself grasping at whatever tiny silver lining I can find each game - "Hey, Endy's back!"; "I hear Pedro's pitching well in Florida!"; "Well, at least Reyes didn't get picked off THREE times...". Silver linings don't keep me warm at night. Big fat W's are the only thing that does.
I try not to let the Mets make me crazy. The reassembly of my company co-ed softball team is helping; I get to obsess about THEM instead for the next ten Tuesdays. Takes the edge off the panic.
Posted by NostraDiscombobulated | August 30, 2007 7:21 AM
Trying to hang in there! We win today and we are back to a 4 game lead over Philly and at least a 6 game lead over Atl.... Not good , but not bad( jump off the roof bad) I order a bench clearing brawl to fire this team up, a good old fashion brawl with torn shirts and a bloody nose here and there.
Posted by REV AL | August 30, 2007 9:42 AM
Rev - Sounds like a job for Crazy Paulie. Maybe he'll slide in hard going into second base like the Padres did to the Phils last Friday night. It did wonders for them, at least in that game.
Posted by NostraDukeitout | August 30, 2007 11:39 AM
I'm bummed, but I always have hope, maybe this is a late season wake-up call that they can be answered (should have answered it the first game of this series). It looks grim, but there's always that light at the end of the tunnel. I just hope it's not light of the A Train ready to steamroll them in Atlanta. Today's game is still going on, and the Mets are still losing, it's the bottom of the 7th in Philly. I'm just not ready for the season to end like this, but 4 games and 8 runs is pathetic for this team. Someone has to shake this thing up!
Posted by L. J. Phipps | August 30, 2007 4:13 PM
LJ - And now it's a final, and the Mets are 0-for-Philly. You wanted runs, you got 'em. Just not enough of 'em.
I said in the middle of the eighth today that Wags needed to come in right then. I don't fault Willie for going to him so early. Who else? Heilman? Sosa? I think not.
That said, though, we now go to Atlanta with virtually no chance to see Wagner close a game until Saturday at the very earliest. Wake-up call? They've hit the snooze button more than a college sophomore on Monday morning this year. What are the odds they'll answer the bell this time?
Posted by NostraDowner | August 30, 2007 5:43 PM