"It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone."They did it. They blew the division lead.
-A. Bartlett Giamatti
"It gets late early out there."
-Yogi Berra
Goddamn it.
I've been scouring the internet for days looking for some insight, something to say "It can't be over, can it?" MLB.com and their Pythagorean Standings. Metsblog and it's pro-Willie banter. Faith and Fear to keep me grounded.
And I keep thinking of Game 7.
It rocked and rolled. We high-fived everyone after every routine ground ball. Then Yadier F'n Molina screwed it up...
He hit the home run - and no one booed or hissed. 55,000 in attendance (and no doubt millions at home) watched stunned, speechless, unable to utter a sound. I've experienced disbelief before - but never on such a large scale.
And that's where I'm at again - and hoping to endure that bottom of the ninth rally one more time... hoping the Mets rally the troops one more time... hoping they play with the fear of God in them and with more inspiration than a few scattered hits off the Craptacular St. Louis Cardinals...
...and that Beltran swings the goddamn bat this time. And the crowd goes wild this time. And that we don't blow our shot at redemption this time.
A Mets' fan's fatal flaw is that we're optimists. We caught a few breaks once upon a time (100-to-1 in '69, Buckner in '86) - and now we feel entitled not to an automatic birth to the playoffs (we'll never attain that kind of arrogance), but that somehow, someway - the boys'll come through. They won't break your heart. They will earn your respect.
I have endured years of "Mets suck"-"Who won more World Championships?"-"Shea's a hole"-"Anthony Young? Seriously?"-"Armando/Braden/John F'n Benitez/Looper/Franco"-"Worst Team Money Can Buy"-"You'll Never Catch the Braves" crap in hopes that just once - I'll witness one of those breaks. Just one, in a game I've studied and cherished more than anything on this planet.
3 games against the Marlins to earn my respect again. We're due.
Please, someone, tell me we're due.
2 comments:
dude, i can't even stomach watching them anymore. i'm not watching one inning this wknd - i'll go by the scores in the morning.
it's disgusting, and it's not worth all the hope and effort we put into them
I am confident that––somehow––over the weekend series with the Marlins, Yadier Molina will find a way to homer against us.
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