NOT the Worst Collapse
I stand corrected … the Mets’ September was NOT the worst collapse in the history of Major League Baseball (it only felt like it).
Astute and loyal MetsToday reader “sincekindergarten” gave me this tidbit:
I just figured out that the ’07 Mets lost a game in the standings every 2.428571 games played (17 total games, 7 games up), yet the ’64 Phillthies lost a game in the standings every 2.153846 games played (14 total games, 6.5 games up). So, they still lead MLB in totality of collapse.
Grasping at straws here for positives, I know, but we’ll take whatever we can get.
Summer 2007 at Shea was defined for me — very early on:
My mind drifts back to May…just before we headed into a dreadful month of interleague scheduling.
I believe it was the Carlos Delgado walk-off vs. the Giants — where Reyes and Gotay (maybe?) jumped, stomped their feet, and danced like morons at home plate — waiting for him to circle the basepaths.
The entire bench waits for him at home plate, but right there front and center is Jose Reyes, flanked by a couple of the young kids that were on the team at the time, stomping their feet in quick-time, wiggling their fingers, laughing and grinning and waiting for the party to begin at home plate, all orchestrated by Reyes…..
Right then and there….sitting in your seats, Joe….I knew this team was overconfident. And really, it continued this way throughout the summer at Shea. Sense of urgency, Killer Instinct — 2 phrases over-used by any fan following the team this year….but the 2007 Mets had none of either.
And between Reyes and Milledge acting the way they have on-the-field vs. the Giants the past 2 years, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if both of them become targets in the box next season. The precedent has been set around the league that the Mets are an over-confident bunch, especially for a team that’s done nothing to warrant the behavior.
(It was either that homerun, or the Green walk-off vs. the Cards….I was at both games, so I forget.)
And this is the exact kind of stuff we’ve talked about for well over a year now, with other opposing fans who come onto the board. Other teams hate it, and our players put themselves at risk at the plate, for no reason whatsoever — by acting bush-league.
Milledge and Reyes could one day be thrown at, possibly suffering the same fate as Delgado did yesterday — only earlier on in the season. They don’t need to be walking targets, especially when their team is going to need them to be successful; it’s just uncalled for childish antics.
This season was the real-life version of “The Tortoise and the Hare”. The Mets, acting cocky, “sometime bored”, and arrogant — shot ahead and ran at a quick pace ahead of the rest of the NL East.
Somewhere along the summer, they decided that they were far enough ahead of the Tortoises of the division…..and sat themselves under a shady tree.
(*Picture Willie and Friends sitting around, sipping little champagne glasses — from the comfort of an Orange and Blue hammock*)
Pretty soon, all of them had too much champagne on the brain and fell asleep.
They never woke up, and let the Tortoise (Phillies) overtake them.
Well, today’s the aftermath…..The Phillies are the undisputed champs of the NL East — and the fleet-of-foot Hare wakes up realizing he lost the race.
Slow and Steady wins the race……..don’t blow your wad early, and sleep it off the rest of the night. Chances are, whoever’s in bed next to you ain’t gonna be happy.
I know I’m not happy, or satisfied as a fan who’s been to well over 25 home games in 2007.
This is easily the most disappointing season I’ve ever endured as a Met fan. I’m rooting for some shakeups over the winter — this team got too big for their own britches this year, and I’m not quite sure why it was allowed, from top to bottom.
Something was rotten in the state of Denmark, dating way back to June (while some posters here actually called it from Spring Training)…and it was never fixed. There were summer nights at Shea, where this team just took the night off…..and taking a nap was actually possible in your seat. They played that casually.
I’m not surprised at all, that we’ve now found ourselves on the outside looking in…….this team acted like it was entitled to the Division Crown, when in actuality, it deserved nothing within their own Division.
Our Offseason Has Come, without any of the grandiose plans laid out for us by seemingly everyone in the Met ogranization. And realistically, I wonder if any of them are really all that surprised by the outcome.
These Mets remind me a lot of the 1987 and 1988 versions — overconfident and cocky and underachievers.