Believe in a new, yet not-so-new Mets philosophy

I usually am the first Mets fan to start shouting “Ya Gotta Believe” until the Mets are officially out of contention. Unfortunately, this year this team has actually driven me to the point of “Yeah whatever”. Even despite the recent wins against the Detroit Tigers by two touchdowns, I am just taking it one game at a time. That is all that any Mets fan can do. You never want to get overly optimistic because you have been burned too many times to count, right? I do not blame you. At least not anymore. Before I used to get on every Mets fan’s case about not believing. You could hear me yelling at Mets fans at Citi Field over their lack of faith. Now, I want until I see if this team is serious.

It seems like they are.

There is still a lot of baseball to be played and the Mets are not dead. They have clearly shown that there is fight in them and they will continue to fight until there is nothing left in them anymore. With players like Jose Reyes and Justin Turner playing such exciting baseball, there is no doubt that this team believes in themselves. Well, with a team that has “Ya Gotta Believe” as the organization motto, how can they not? Look at the players they have. I have always believed that in order to truly be successful, you have to believe in yourself. Nobody will believe in you until you believe in yourself. You have to give people a reason to believe in you.

This is not the Mets of the past who do not try different things to win. It is no longer the team who went from blue collar to white collar. Quite the opposite. They have returned to their blue collar ways. You have Turner who is willing to get hit by a pitch if that is what it takes to win a game. Reyes is being, well, as Reyes should have been all of these years. They have finally begun to hit grand slams, two in one game alone. They will kick and scream and claw their way to a win.

What makes this team different from past teams is they are no longer relying on the long ball anymore. They are playing what was once called “Willie ball”. It is all about those singles, doubles and Reyes-like triples. It is about the ability to work the pitcher. Take a walk here and there. You can walk the bases loaded and walk a guy home. Whatever it takes. It all helps to bring in runs and, in turn, to win games. It moves you up in the standings.

This team is not going to roll over and die. They may be hurting because they are missing their big guys in David Wright, Ike Davis and Johan Santana. However, they are doing what makes a team great and championship caliber: Winning games with the crucial guys missing. This is what the Philadelphia Phillies and New York Yankees have been able to do over the years and the Mets, well, not so much. It is a successful concept because, after all, no team will ever go a full year without an injury. You have to be able to win without your biggest cogs. It seems like the Mets have finally learned to do just that.

So is this a team to believe in? Yes it is and for all of the reasons I stated above. If you want to be cautiously optimistic, that is your choice. However, even you have to accept the fact that you believe in this team a little more now than you did a few weeks ago. So go ahead and take hold of your inner Tug McGraw. Shout it out: “Ya Gotta Believe!”