Meet the Mess

Mets fans tend to be very pessimistic, due to a history of frustration and disappointment.  The Met fan also happens to be a miserable person. Have you ever met a happy Met fan? There is no such thing.  They take their fan hood into their everyday lives and expect everything to end in pain and suffering.  Surprisingly to most of the baseball world, this season gave them some hope.  Before the season began Met fans hoped to be competitive.  Achieving this would be a difficult task considering all-star shortstop Jose Reyes would miss all of spring training with an overactive thyroid, all-star center fielder Carlos Beltran would miss the entire first half after having off season knee surgery (Nice move telling the team about your knee a month before spring training), and a pitching staff after ace Johan Santana was very questionable. Despite these obstacles, the team began to surprise its fans.   They played exciting and inspired baseball for most of the first half of the season.  They became a dominant team in their new stadium. Unsuspected heroes formed in Angel Pagan, R.A Dickey(Best Name in Baseball), Ike Davis, and John Niese.  The team finally looked as if they were headed in the right direction.  Met fans were actually happy.

Then the tide began to turn. Beltran finally returned to the line up after missing the entire first half and the hated Luis Castillo also returned.  The worst return however belongs to Oliver Perez who is stealing the 12 million dollars given to him irresponsibly by general manager Omar Minaya.  This team that was already pathetic on the road began the post all-star break with a 2-9 west coast road trip.  The 2-9 record was actually generous considering the Mets were given a gift in San Francisco by the awful umpiring of Phil Cuzzi. The offense with the new additions to the line up looked anemic, being shut out 4 times and failed to score more than 3 runs in all but three games. You know it is a sad day when Aaron Heilman is shutting you down. I think mediocre high school pitchers could have shut this team down. They finally came home and won 2 out of 3 from the Cardinals, but followed it up with another awful series against the last place Arizona Diamondbacks.  Back it was on the road and the results like usual were not any good losing 4 out of 6 to division rivals Atlanta and Philly.  The pitching staff for the most part has continued to pitch well, but the offense continues to flounder.   Here is a good fantasy baseball tip: find out who is pitching against the Mets and add them to your starting rotation.

The team is now under .500 and free falling faster than a coked up Lindsay Lohan.  Atlanta has soared ahead of them.  The defending national league champion Philadelphia Phillies, despite injuries to their two best players have continued to play well and top them in the standings. Their once hopeful playoff chances are basically over. Were changes made to spark the team? No.  Omar Minaya on the west coast trip stated that he was pleased with the performance of his manager and coaching staff.  I am actually surprised ownership allowed Minaya to speak publicly considering it is impossible to understand half the things he is saying. Did they make a trade to improve the offense or pitching staff? No.  They will continue to charge the hardworking fans an obscene amount of money for tickets, despite the fact that ownership does not believe in this team and was not willing to expand their payroll to improve the team.   Luis Castillo and Oliver Perez should have been off the team.  Eat up the rest of the money on their contracts and say goodbye to them.  It's not like they were doing anything to earn their money.  And speaking of the Wilpons, I understand that they spend money, but they run this franchise as if the Mets are second class citizens.  The Yankees who have the best record in baseball and won the World Series last season made three separate moves to try and improve their team at the trading deadline.  The Yankees play to win championships.  The Mets goal is to play meaningful games in September.  Too bad September is going to be a ghost town in Citi Field.  The Wilpons are never ever willing to go the extra mile in order to get the team over the top. They simply settle for mediocrity.  The only thing worse than the Wilpons in this city is Knick and Ranger owner James Dolan.  Lets hope the Mets do not decide to bring Isiah Thomas in to run the organization.  I think that even the Wilpons are too smart for that.

Like most years for Met fans, aside from 69 and 86, the year will end in another disappointment.  The Brooklyn Dodgers started the expression “Wait till next year”.  Unfortunately for Met fans, I do not see things getting better for them in the future. The catch phrase for the Mets should change from "You Gotta Believe" to “You Gotta Grieve”.   The biggest highlight for the rest of this year will be senior citizens walking the field for a day game against the Rockies.  As a Met fan myself, I want to bring my parents to court charging them with child abuse for raising me as a Met fan.