For some reason, people labeled last night’s Mets-Braves game a “must-win” for the Flushing Nine. I’m not sure why. Over the course of a 162-game season, there is seldom a true must-win. Must-win games are ones like the Mets’ losses on the final days of the 2007 and 2008 seasons. A victory in last night’s affair would have earned the Mets a series win over the first-place Braves, but ultimately would have meant only one more notch in the season’s win column.
It didn’t, of course. It was a miserable loss, a brutal gut-punch. If last night’s game was any man in the whole damn town, it would have been Leroy Brown. The baddest. And not bad in the hip jazzman sense. Bad like Jeff Francoeur’s approach at the plate and Luis Castillo’s range and Jerry Manuel’s bullpen management. Godawful.
But one game is one game. Last night’s game won’t cost the Mets their shot at contention. Their roster probably will. And that shouldn’t be too big a surprise.
The Mets sit at .500, 54-54. If he hadn’t thrown himself off a cliff when he couldn’t find a rational square root of 2*, Pythagoras would say the Mets have been a tiny bit unlucky and should be something more like 56-52 since they’ve outscored their opponents by 18 runs. Whatever.
They are who we thought they were, like the fella said. Like many Mets fans, I fell victim to the inherent whims of a .500 ballclub, got excited and hopeful about the way the team teased us a couple months ago, started thinking they were better than I thought at the season’s outset. Turns out they’re not.
Some players have been better than we hoped, some have been worse. These things happen. Optimists never would have guessed that Jason Bay would struggle for so long or that Francoeur would revert to being Francoeur. Pessimists would have expected David Wright to repeat his weak 2009 and Angel Pagan to turn back into a fourth outfielder.
Whatever. I’m struggling to muster too much emotion one way or the other. Like the Mets, I am middling.
There’s hope on the horizon, for sure — the Mets seem to have a crop of decent young players, guys who can develop into the complementary and cost-controlled contributors for whom we’ve pined. But then they’re still stubbornly clinging to sunk costs, still being operated by the same crew that gave Gary Matthews Jr. starts over Pagan, and gave Alex Cora a vesting option and all that.
Maybe something will happen. Maybe last night’s sloppy play and team’s recent struggles will spell the end Jerry Manuel — rightfully or otherwise — and the Mets will flourish under a new skipper. Probably not. My suspicion is that these are your 2010 Mets.
Tedquarters 
I think last night was considered a must win because it was a two game swing. Instead of being 5.5 games out we sit at 7.5 games out. One seems much more daunting than the other. Sure they still have 7 games left vs the Braves and crazier things have happened in baseball….but do we think the 2010 Braves will be the 2007 Mets and blow it? I considered the 3-error inning the end of the season. I will still watch/listen to the games but they just moved a bit lower on my priority list.
Love the picture. Is that my boyfriend Hank, who just can’t bear to watch anymore? I feel him.
Ted,
You know what I like best about reading your write ups and opinions as opposed to most other bloggers and even radio personalities, is that there is a very, IDK, mature way about your writting and thinking. I guess I’m trying to find a nice way of saying your don’t whine like a little girl about the Mets.
You are critical of them whe needed, and you praise them when its warranted, but I have a hard time sensing the emotion in your writting, which IMO is a good thing when it comes to sportwritting and blogging.
I love to discuss sports and read and hear opinions of others, but I just cant take whining and over the top irrational ranting and raving, which is far to often all you can find on the radio and the internet. Case in point, Cerrone’s “Im tired” rant on Metsblog this morning. I love baseball, but I have no desire to read or listen to a grown man whine about anything, let alone a baseball game.
Keep up the good work.
Agreed on all counts, Chris M.
And that’s the same reason I think Francesa, though mostly hated by Mets fans it seems, is the best Mets radio analyst in NY. Objective, dispassionate, analytical.
New point: Ted, if you’re Omar Minaya today, do you replace Manuel?
That’s not to say I don’t appreciate the personal touch, but just that it’s kept in perspective.
I agree, and I also agree on Francessa as well, I dont like that hes a yankees homer, but I think he is one of the best at analyzing the Mets. I dont agree with him on everything of course, his way of going about it, and the way he comes across is spot on.
Its like that with any fans that we are supposed to believe are objective. You get beningo and roberts on and its a whine fest. Like Adam the Bull and Marc Melusis were on the morning last week and they were killing the Mets, but it was warranted and it was just that normal discussion. They were saying the exact same things as Beningo and Roberts, but it wasnt full of ranting and whining.
.500 teams are the worst kind to root for precisely because they never win one/lose one. They are horrible then brilliant–sometimes even in the same game.
Mike Puma is reporting that Daddy Wilpon says that Omar is safe heading into 2011. That one, considering that it was offered as he was getting into a car, is difficult to believe.
But Ted, isn’t there something incredibly sad about this team living up to our already extremely low expectations? I mean, how can a team be so hot and look so comfortable just fall apart and look so lackluster as the season goes on?