The Mets have been playing some pretty good ball the past week, don’t you think? Granted, their latest wave of success has been at the expense of two of the NL’s more hapless squads: the decimated Cincinnati Reds and the Colorado Rockies at sea level. But hey, there are no style-points in baseball. The NCAA has the monopoly on taking “strength-of-schedule” into account. Mercifully, in MLB circles, a win’s a win and Met fans will take all they can get.
The flip-side of this, of course, is that piling up wins against weak opposition – please stifle your laughter at the fact there actually is opposition weaker than the Mets – tends to make some segments of the fan community giddy. There has been some hopeful chirping in various corners of social media – references to 1973’s successes with 17 games to play, as well as 2007’s & 2008’s heartbreaks over the same chunk of the year. Yes, after play on September 8, 1973 – a loss to the Expos — the Mets’ record stood at 68-74. However, they immediately embarked on a 14-5 run to finish the year and steal the NL East. Many are pointing September 8, 2014 as a similar “turnaround
day” for the franchise. As of that date, the Mets’ record stood at 68-75 and they’ve had a series sweep since then. The excitement in that small corner has ramped up and even gotten to your intrepid columnist a little. For this midget “hot streak” reminds him not so much of 1973, nor of 2007 or 2008. This one feels more like 2001.
You may recall that the defending NL Champs stumbled through the first five months of the season, sporting a sad record of 61-71 after a loss to Philadelphia on August 28. After that date, though, a 9-1 spurt brought them to within eight games of first place Atlanta on September 9. The Mets then enjoyed an off-day for travel before gearing up to see those very Braves on the 11th. We all know what happened next.
Upon resumption of the season, though, the Mets remained hot. A sweep in Pittsburgh, followed by the historically emotional home series vs. the Braves, then three more wins in Montreal left the Mets at 79-74, a scant three games behind Atlanta. The Mets were primed to make an historic run to the division – they were far closer to that than to a Wild Card – which would have seemed nothing less than absolutely appropriate. Instead, though, the Mets went into Atlanta and abjectly collapsed. They had leads in each of the three games, but lost two of them – the second on a walk-off grand slam. After those shocks, they limped home to drop series to the Pirates and Expos, cravenly losing four of their last six.
Fast forward to 2014. The sweep of the Rockies prompted a wry Tweet from me. After that, the Mets will welcome the Washington Nationals, aka “The Bane Of Our Existence.” A jarring statistic: New York is 2-10 vs. Washington, 69-65 against the rest of their MLB opponents. So if the Mets had played just .500 ball against the Nats, they would find themselves in the thick of the fight for the second Wild Card, rather than trying to hang on by their fingernails. Even if they manage to take four of their final seven games against Washington, they’d still need to go 7-2 to finish over .500, let alone sneak into the playoffs. And that’s not even taking into account the requisite off-the-field distractions.
Sorry to be a wet blanket.
Follow me on Twitter @CharlieHangley.
Where is the fun in that? I’d rather cheer for my team. Ya Gotta Believe! You”Urge caution” Because I might start believing in this team? Please. Spare Me From myself Oh Great one.
Any optimism built up will die quickly if the Nats do what they usually do to us.
Indeed…living off the maimed is not worth getting excited about. With 10 games between the Nats and Braves alone, I think we can max out at 76 wins realistically.
I thoroughly enjoyed Spencer’s youthful enthusiasm. Reminded me of a time oh too many years ago. 1969 and 1973 were fun times, (in a turbulant domestic society) and we even had Willie Mays on the team and going to Shea with a high school buddy brings back fond memories.
I now watch the games, even though I realistically don’t expect a playoff spot, and enjoy the sport and participate in the knowledgeable game chatter because I am a fan. If Spencer is right then at least I can say I didn’t give up hope either. LGM
No need to apologize for this team or their management Charlie. Reality is sometimes hard to face. Wishful thinking and a new ownership? Now that would truly be a joyous occasion for All Met fans! Anything is possible. We as fans don’t give up on our team until it is mathematically eliminated.
Color me crazy, but I take great pleasure in beating Colorado and Cincinnati. I’d much rather have a winning record (or close to it) against everyone else, and fall short to a team/teams that are legitimately good, then lose 53-55% of the games against the entire league.
Doesn’t that make sense?
I checked the Mets WAR by position relative to the league on bb-ref and was happy to see that where we are weakest is pitching (specifically, starting pitching). Our positional players are actually in the top third in comparative WAR. And we have one of the best minor league systems, on top of no less than three stars that didn’t fully make it to this year.
If you can’t take a shitload of joy out of that, you’re living a miserable life.
One last thing – I hope we go out there and embarrass the shit out of the Nats in the next three games, and then sweep the mfking Marlins. But even if we don’t, next year we’ll know that this was the best team that didn’t make the playoffs in 2014.
There’s some poetic justice that while the team was sinking into financial quicksand the Wilpons had the gall to tell us that the money for operating the Mets was not affected by their buddy Bernie Madoff. The baseball gods have a way of evening things out. And we were taught as children what comes goes around. Until the Mets get new ownership the Wilpons legacy will forever be embedded in our hearts. Think positive Jeff Wilpon and click your heels three times and all your troubles will go away.
This young team is producing completely in spite of their ownership, who’s stupidity not only got them fleeced by a friend, but who’s arrogance is now getting them sued. Anyway, I’ve enjoyed the Mets recent hot streak, but as of today they lost three of four to the Nats, and the brief playoff dreams are now dead. There is still plenty to root for with the watching the younger guys develop, but it’s time to get back to the reality of making 2015 the best team it can be.