Obviously, I retract every remotely positive thing I ever said about Tom Glavine. Fucking Brave can go fuck himself straight back to Fucklanta.
Obviously, I retract every remotely positive thing I ever said about Jose Reyes. When you go to winter ball, work on hitting the ball on a line and don’t be chummy with Miguel Olivo. AND RUN!
Obviously, I retract every remotely positive thing I ever said about Willie Randolph. Your lifetime streak of winning is over. Check for a pulse while you’re at it.
Obviously, I retract every remotely positive thing I ever said about Omar Minaya. Jason Vargas? Ben Johnson? Ambiorix Burgos? Way to stockpile.
Obviously, I retract every remotely positive thing I ever said about the 2007 New York Mets. Believe in the tooth fairy before you ever believe in a bunch of stiffs that can’t beat its closest competition, can’t beat dreadful competition, can’t beat itself in a race to nowhere.
Obviously, I am disgusted. I was certain I was going to sit down and give you eloquent and reflective, but in fact I am angry and pissed. Eloquent and reflective is still simmering inside me but angry and pissed is boiling over.
What a fucking bunch of losers. With a handful of exceptions, they either did not play to their capability or they were not capable. In some realm I am able to look past that and say “well, I’m sure they were trying.” What evidence there would be to back up that assertion, however, is beyond me. There was a handful of exceptions, but this entire team and this entire organization is at fault for this collapse of historic, immense and confounding proportions. The broad brush of failure doesn’t ask questions, so I apologize to the handful of New York Mets who pushed themselves and generated the performance necessary to win the requisite number of baseball games required to ensure a continuation of their 2007. I would single you out as the exceptions, but this has to be a blanket indictment.
You all sucked.
It is not crucial that your team win championships or earn playoff berths every year. That’s not what being a fan is about. If it were, there would eventually be no fans. But at some point, you have to be able to trust your team to follow through on its position in the game, in the standings, in your hopes. You have to be able to count on a team that has led its division consistently for virtually an entire season to finish the job. Yes, it’s a job. The Mets’ job was to win a division which was in their firm control as late as the second week of September.
They did not do their job. They did not go down to the wire with the heart of a champion or guts of a contender. They went down to last-place teams and next-to-last-place teams. They went down, on-field hijinks Saturday notwithstanding, without a fight. They went down like a doormat. Gallingest among the much that was galling was how the Florida Marlins made it their business to destroy the Mets on Sunday and they were not stopped in pursuit of their goal. Just because some bitchy last-place team wants to beat you doesn’t mean they should or they can. Unless that bitchy last-place team is playing the 2007 Mets. Then the doormat’s right here, go ahead, wipe your feet on us.
What’s remarkable about these Mets’ losing these past two weeks is how uniform and universal it was. Even in the contests in which they blew leads, there was never any great feeling that, oh, they came so close, if only this or that had gone their way they would have pulled it out. They were on a collision course with failure and they smacked head on into it, baby. Full fucking force into a full fucking farce.
In the aftermath of the 27th out of the 162nd and absolutely final game for the 2007 Mets, some jagoff in the upper deck put a paper bag over his head and said “I’m ashamed to be a Mets fan,” to which I said, “I’m ashamed that you’re a Mets fan, too.” But even without the prop comedy shtick, I get it. The Mets are shameful. But I’m not ashamed that I’m a Mets fan.
I’m ashamed of the Mets, but I did fine. I did all I could. I supported my team the way I’m supposed to, by sticking with them and exhorting others to do so and paying my good money (not incidentally) for the privilege to do so. If you’re reading this, I know you did what you were supposed to do, too. We collectively came through. Mets fans have nothing to be ashamed of. We are not our team, after all. We are better than them.
I hope they regroup and meet the standard we have set for them. We’ll be waiting. At least I know I will.
You know how to put somebody in their place? Bench 'em. For as long as it takes. Omar can't do that. Willie can.
But he won't. Listen, I think Willie has a lot of virtues as a manager, but he doesn't have an aggressive bone in his body. Willie expects everything to go smoothly. Nice little rhythm. Look at how he manages the game — don't double switch, don't hit and run, don't squeeze. Let's just see how it turns out.
You need real aggression to be a great leader, and Willie just doesn't have it. The players essentially decide how good a team is… but it's the manager's duty to wring the best possible performance from them. This was a team with a huge bullpen problem, but we could have been so much better than we were. A manager who wasn't afraid to lay down the law could have made us that way.
“in the frickin' third inning”
uh, see charline manuel, manager of the 2007 national league east champion phillies yanking adam eaton after 2 1/3 innings on saturday
they lost, but manuel was intolerant of early trouble. not a good time to let guys work the kinks out. eaton put guys on, manuel marched out there and took the ball.
you gonna defend randolph for letting glavine stay in today after the inside-the-park double? for more baserunners followed
HATE 'debating' people like you on the internet.
you are wrong; you are just plain wrong
may 10? let oliver work it out
game 161? sorry ollie…and glavine…we have action in the bullpen WITH YOU BEFORE THE GAME STARTS
nothing personal – you get in early trouble and you're out
Sorry… with our bullpen this is just terrible strategy. We have to hope to get something out of our starter. Can't call Willie out on either of those moves.
Yeah, Charlie pulled Eaton in the third inning–and the Phillies LOST the game. So I really don't get your point–Randolph left his guy in, Manuel took his starter out, and BOTH TEAMS LOST.
Agreed. Totally. 100%. I was at Shea on Thursday when we lost to the Cardinals, and people were booing David Wright. WTF is up with that? Tonight, people were booing Reyes like he was Mota in a Richard Nixon jersey. Come on.
Man, I love this blog, but I have to say, as much as I hated this loss, I hated it even more for watching Glavine go down that way. I've been a fan of his since I was a kid living down in Atlanta. And yeah, he totally blew it tonight, and it's probably the last game he'll ever play. And man, for a 19 year career, that's a sad way to go out. Getting booed by the hometeam. But was this death spiral of Cooperstown proportions really, solely his fault? Was it any particular player's fault?
Man, as much as I love the Mets, that's one thing I really can't stand about New York sports in general–all the goddamn booing your own team.
my point is that by taking eaton out, manuel kept philly in the game
yes, they eventually lost, but they lost 4-2. they were in it
we lost 7-4. perez gave up 6 of those runs.
ahhh….this is futile explaining this. we'll never know what happened if randolph yanked perez. the point is, he didn't. manuel took action and kept his team in a position to win – which they did not. the fact that they lost is 20-20 HINDSIGHT.
randolph let perez give up six runs and we were dead. would you agree that randolph should have yanked him after he hit his second batter of the inning?
(tossing you a bone here – giving you a chance to give a smart answer. you up to it?)
don't know why i waste my time on the internet. it's one thing to disagree, but 'debating' someone who thinks staying with Dr Jekyl / Mr Hyde on what was clearly a Mr Hyde evening was WRONG. so frustrating having to pretend to respect your foolish and wrong point of view
nyc is a high-beta market
the highs are high and the lows are low
wright forgot the situation on friday; in florida last week, he threw away a ball he made a nice stop on when mike jacobs was running. if he had his head in the game, he takes his time and makes the play
i think ppl booed DW because we love him and are disappointed by his mental lapses down the stretch. he will fix that and he will be loved again.
reyes is a different story – his lack of hustle in a crucial game, never mind the score, and his .250 BA post all-star game was a bit too much. if he goes the rickey henderson malcontent route, the booing is just beginning.
if he gets back to the progression he showed in the breakout 2006 season, with hustle all the time, he will be loved.
Again, the other option was the bullpen, AKA the Mr. Hyde club. It's a moot point, anyway. We're all in this misery together, there's no reason to start attacking one another.
I can't sleep, and I'm running out of vodka.
It took me about a week to get over Game 7 last year. This is the kind of shit you never get over. As a fan, and as a player and as a team. We have months to talk about how to fix this, but I don't know how you can. These players will have this utter failure in their heads for the rest of their career. It's not going to help them.
just root for the Yankeeees and all will heal.
Sorry, they just don't do it for me.
The Yankees are a trophy wife who is , the Mets are the love of your life that keeps breaking your heart, but you can never imagine being with anyone else.
I want to thank Greg and Jason for pouring their hearts and souls into this day after day.
It really hit me like a ton of bricks today how much more I think the fans care than the actual players do. Sure they're disappointed, but that will fade. Like Sonny in Bronx Tale said “You think Mickey Mantle cares about you kid? Nobody cares.”
In the end, its just us. They may be Mets for a few years, we will be Mets for a lifetime.
So here's to us, who never gave up, who always gave 100%
Faith and Fear forever.
First time reader. The only slight feeling of sympathy for all the sorry ass Mets fans out there is based on the memory of the Giants collapse against the Niners a few years ago. But that was one game. This was the Stockholm – Andrea Doria in broad daylight and in slow motion. However, that's the price you pay for your misguided allegiance to this pathetic excuse for a franchise. You're all probably Jets fans as well – the ones who got a bad call in their favor in 68 vs. Oakland to even get to the Super Bowl. Thank god for Bob Stanley or the streets of Flushing would be full of bodies who jumped out of basements. Let's all hear it for that great Avenue Q song, Schadenfreude. Absoluteley delicious, even served cold!
please. provide us with the exact details of mr. lo duca's diet and fitness plan, or lack thereof, over X period of time. WITH ATTRIBUTION. not your own personal opinion, which is worthless, even if you were a health and fitness professional, because you don't have a window into what he did and didn't.
inability to lose weight speaks to metabolism and age more than it does lack of any attributes you wish to assign to him or anyone else.
hope that made you fell better
your post says a lot about you
we. gave. reyes. the benefit of the doubt constantly. he got sloppier and sloppier as time went on. and i don't want to hear that he's a kid and he's had the weight of the franchise on his shoulders. HE'S PAID TO HAVE THAT WEIGHT, and with that, comes responsibility. if you don't want the responsibility don't take it, it's pretty simple.
that said, the responsibility should have been shared a lot more than it was this year. the people brought in to provide leadership didn't.
i may never get over this
am worn out by the 40+ years of sucking interrupted by infrequent miracles
we could be on the brink another the bonilla coleman era and i vowed never to stay around for that again
letting rickey henderson back into the clubhouse was a huge red flag that i ignored. he is poison, cancer. delagado and wagner are dogs. reyes is a punk and will be passed standing still by about 5 NL shortstops
another 77 to 83 ice age may be ahead. don't have the stamina for that
When TBF and I were walking around Flushing after the game yesterday, both of us trying to alternately keep ourselves from crying (but not talking about it) and keep ourselves from biting the other person's head off, I finally asked, “Do you think they care?”
“Who?”
“The Mets.”
“Some of them do. Some of them don't.”
It was a simple answer to a grown woman acting like a 11-year-old girl, but I think it's just the truth.
If there's one thing I'm getting really angry about, it's the veiled anti-Latino racism coming out of the shadows with Mets fans. I heard it on Tuesday night on WFAN, and now it's here. “If his last name had been Bradford…” what a complete ASSHOLE you are, and anyone else gleefully predicting “no more Los Mets”. Get over your sorry white boy, closet xenophobe selves, and go root for a team in a city with no ethnicity, like, say, ATLANTA.
sean, this is what i have been trying to say for weeks.
i can deal with bad teams losing, i can deal with good teams playing hard and losing, what i can't stomach is great teams, composed of millionaires being completely lethargic and not giving their all. and losing.
people kept telling me BELIEVE! and i kept saying, 'in what? history?'
Last year on Yankee Elimination Day I read the Yankee blogs with glee, but kept my comments to myself. I figured , why be a dick about it?
Hello, Dick!
gotta do something to kill time until his monthly NAMBLA newsletter arrives.
Tom Glavine=Severus Snape
Ah, yes — resort to a NAMBLA reference, well done. Hope that and memories of 1986 keep you warm during another championship-less winter this year.
1964 Phillies. 1951 Dodgers. 1978 Red Sox.
2007 Mets.
'Tis a wonderful time to be a Bombers fan.
Lindstrom for Vargas??? . . . Bannister for Burgos??? hmmmm ???
you forgot the 2004 'bombers', whose nickname was deliciously ironic that year
if you're going to point out the apple in our throat, be aware that the biggest apple ever is stuck in the 2004 spankess' throats
Yeah, we had to cling to memories of the 2000 Series to get us through that rough patch …
Hmm … most Yankee Elimination Days at least are celebrated in October as opposed to the usual late summer Mets slide.
Um, as the world's biggest Mets fan (which I lay claim to being), I am horrified to admit that what we have just witnessed was worse than the Yankees' '04.
Ah, celebrated nonetheless. And we will again, as ARod will become the post season ARod we all know. Just admit it, it actually hurts more in October.
Great job, as always, Greg. I actually text messaged that exact quote to my brother (Gene Sullivan), “What a bunch of fucking losers.” Any idea when the nausea will go away?
I was sitting here thinking that the immediate anger had passed, that reflection had set in, that the first seeds of rebirth for 2008 would soon be planted. Then I got a call from a friend with whom I hadn't spoken for a couple of weeks…and I turned right back into Aaron Harangue, if you will.
Stock up on Pepto. It's not going away soon.
Gang, please don't feed the trolls. Trolls, please return to your usual haunts.
Deleting comments isn't my favorite activity, but I'll do it if I gotta.