For some people, it’s hard to talk about death. My opinion is that deep down, very few of us are afraid of death. Rather it’s the slow, painful process that sometimes accompanies death that is the truly scary part. It’s the old joke – When I die, I want to die in my sleep, peacefully, like my grandpa. And not screaming in terror like the other three people in the car.
The 2024 Mets remind me a little of death. That seems a touch harsh but hear me out. Most of us did not have high expectations for this year’s team. The club this year being mediocre seemed inevitable, you know, like death. We were hoping for a fun ride, with maybe a breakout performance or two, but just didn’t want it to be painful at the end.
So, what happens? We get the breakout performance from Mark Vientos. And we get an MVP-type season from Francisco Lindor. And just enough from the others on the team to give us hope that death won’t occur as soon as we expected. Unfortunately, that was just a preview for … pain.
The Mets are playing two teams they are trailing in the Wild Card chase and have lost two games they should have won because their $100 million closer gave up game-losing gopher balls in both of them. The Mets are 3-3 in these matchups but should be 5-1. How different our perspective would be right now without those two painful losses.
Before the start of the season, my opinion was that this was an 80-82-win team. They’re likely to finish a couple of games better than that. And that should be good news, a comforting thing in the overall scheme of things. But the way they’ve lost these last two games, along with how they lost series to bad teams like the A’s and Angels here in the second half, is the opposite of comforting.
It’s a blown opportunity, like not buying Apple stock when it was $0.04 cents in 1982 or even $0.20 cents in 2003.
But this is what happens when you invest so much in a sports team, especially if you’re loyal and don’t flip from team to team chasing the next super squad. But for most of us, “You can’t walk away from the price you pay.”
The party’s over Willie crooned and it looks like no meaningful September games for our Mets. But who knows maybe they win Five straight and get back in it.
To me, death is the strange overwhelming sense that when I’m gone, I won’t know what is happening anywhere including what the Mets are doing. Gives me shivers.
I too have FOMO around the idea of death. And of missing the playoffs.
And not to nitpick but the As are playing .600 ball since the all star break.
But yeah we ve had 5 blown games in August which is why we re 4 games out and probably eliminated
There have been entertaining moments this year for sure, but despite that the Mets are a couple of eff ups away from not meaningful baseball in September. This despite being buyers at the deadline and the owner and POBO publicly insisting this is a playoff caliber team. Falling short at the end of the year, well, as someone said, that’s baseball, Suzyn. Not getting to Sept 1 in the thick of it to me has the feeling of failure, once again. Add that to the dismal year the minor league has had and, once again, we Met fans are in a familiar place. My only offseason question is, can Juan Soto pitch?
Certainly hope this morbid tone wasn’t a result of my comment shortly after Carroll’s GS last night
The sun’ll come out Tomorrow.
Mets beat Arizona, Phillies beat the Braves, Cards beat the Padres
Diaz gets the save. Butto gets the win.
Bet your bottom dollar that Tomorrow there’ll be sun.
Mets vs ChiSox, Phillies vs Braves, Dodgers vs Padres, Arizona vs Rays
Happy Labor Day weekend.
Will I see you in September
Expectations were low to begin, then got inflated during the hot stretch. Didn’t get much of boost from the trading deadline while competition got stronger. Didn’t leave much room for error or injury and there have been plenty of both. But a strong September could erase all that. I don’t dare to dream about the postseason, I just want them to finish ahead of the Braves.
Hard to imagine a scenario where they finish ahead of the Braves and don’t make the postseason.
Laughing at u people who gave up 3 days ago ! It’s a long season , don’t u know ?? And after sweeping the woeful W Sox , we are only 1.5 games back of the Braves !!