[T]he schedule has a little party up its sleeve for us…We have struggled (and thus far failed) to maintain mediocrity without facing a single game west of Addison Street. There are three trips pending that carry the Mets into Pacific Daylight and Mountain Standard: OAK-SEA in June; SD-LA in August; ARZ-SF slightly thereafter. The American League entrants are awful but they are awful far away, too. Long distance has always been enough of an excuse to scramble the Mets' equilibrium. The N.L. West teams are all sorting themselves out but none appears to be cake.
That's nineteen dates due to cause us trouble. Toss in a week of COL-HOU, both weak sisters, but both on the road. Now it's 26 games that are lurking in the wilds of the west. Oh, and four in St. Louis in September when it may not matter anymore. That's 30 geographically unfriendly stops in our future.
There's no rule saying the Mets have to go, say, 10-20 out in the great wide open. But would you bet on much better having seen how this team plays away from Shea and knowing what they do as a rule when they travel that far? Without looking up everybody's docket, I know Atlanta has already been to San Diego. Washington has played in San Francisco. Florida's seen Chavez Ravine. Our divisional rivals have already had to take at least a little bite out of their western obligations. We haven't. That's what worries me.
—Me, May 26
By beating the Cardinals on Sunday, the Mets finished the Dirty Thirty I harped on over and over at 11-19. So it turned out there was no rule that they had to go 10-20.
But it did kill their season. Yes, the city of Atlanta killed their season, too, but that's always been widely reported (“always” being the operative word). I knew coming in to 2005 that every time the Mets have a wacky starting time, like 8:05 or 2:15 or 9:40 or anything after 10 o'clock, it seems to be trouble.
And it was. It drives me crazy. I don't understand why they couldn't win one extra game against every opponent west of the Mississippi River. OK, not Arizona — they took all four games in Phoenix. But everywhere else? Consider:
Oakland 1-2
Seattle 0-3
Colorado 1-2
Houston 1-3
San Diego 1-2
Los Angeles 1-2
San Francisco 1-2
St. Louis 1-3
What gives? Besides us? Win one more game in each of those series (and they each included maddeningly winnable losses) and suddenly we're 79-64. We could still suck at Turner Field and be the clear Wild Card leaders. It would be the best of all Met worlds!
But no, the Mets insist on traveling poorly at any distance. When we pack up the last bit of regret from this season in whatever receptacle we choose, be sure to slap a tag on it and ship it to the wrong destination. Because when it came to road games, the 2005 Mets played like lost luggage.
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