Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: We Win (Again)
by Greg [1] on Wed 26 Sep 2007 04:32 AM
And who among us didn't begin to lose Faith during that dreadful first Dodger series coming on the heels of that dreadful Tiger series coming on the heels of that dreadful Phillie series coming on the heels of that dreadful Diamondback series? June looked like a dread end, I can confess that now.
I don't know that I ever felt lower all year than when Hong-Chih Kuo hit the third homer in three pitches off Maine and then flipped his frigging bat in celebration. I spent that whole night (it was a long one) ruminating on whether we should have followed Ronnie's advice and plunked somebody or if the best revenge would have been a retaliatory W. Of course it didn't come that night. Nothing came that night [2]. I remember thinking it would have been great if Gomez or Reyes could have laid a bunt right down the first base line and then run right up the guy's ass. Gomez did bunt, I think, but right back to the mound. We weren't doing anything well during the first half of June.
But the first half of June didn't last forever. It rarely does.
True confession: I kind of began to give up on the Mets on June 12. Maybe my Faith was clinically dead for a few seconds. I began thinking what if the Mets do suck this much, what if losing eight of nine is what they do from now on? I brooded for a while and decided, so what? What am I going to do, not be a Mets fan? It seemed like one of the worst stretches I'd ever endured as vicarious participant in the cause, but it was still this year, 2007. I mean, come on. If you're a Mets fan, you'd have to unfurl the Worst Ever list for a couple of hours before any part of '07 could even begin to enter the conversation.
Funny thing was for all the lack of clutch hitting and clutch pitching and general air of discontent, we were still in first place even if it wasn't by as much as we would have liked. I guess we learned that in a season of 162 games they all count. Good thing the Mets had that good start. And that nine or so games somewhere in the middle aren't the end-all and/or be-all. And that we had players who were capable of turning it around as easily as they were capable of going down the tubes.
I think we all learned that by September.