Well, the New York Mets have done it again: They made baseball history yesterday by creating the biggest, choking, collapse in the history of the game that left children weeping:


Women in tears:

And grown men crying to the heavens while the winners wallowed in cascades of champagne:

The NY Daily News summed up the rotten season this way:

The Mets completed a historic collapse on the season’s
final day as Tom Glavine, their Hall of Fame-bound pitcher, put them in
a seven-run hole before their hitters even had a chance to swing. In
first place from May 16 until Friday night, and owners of a seven-game
lead with 17 games left, the Mets saw their season officially end four
minutes after an 8-1 loss to the Marlins yesterday at Shea, when the
Phillies finished off the Nationals.

Will manager Willie Randolph pay the price for the choke?

Here’s a fine graphic from the NY Daily news semiotically demonstrating the Mets’ September free-fall:

Now we must ask what sort of child would root for the Mets in Queens
when you have the Yankees right up the hill in the Bronx.
What child wouldn’t want to root for an ongoing winner like the Yankees
instead of a perpetual loser like the Mets?
Do children decide their team colors and their rooting interest?

Or do
their parents hand down misbegotten dreams that franchises like the
Mets will actually win more often than the historically excellent
Yankees?
Did anyone ever tell the Mets that orange and blue are the ugliest
color combination in the history of sport? Is it possible the team
colors hold the curse for perpetual failure?

Where is fandom born? In the body or on the neighborhood streets?
As a local caller shouted on a local SportsTalk radio show:

“It’s
child abuse to let a kid be a Mets fan, ’cause all it does is teach
them how to lose and be miserable for the rest of their lives!“

Truer words were never yelled into a telephone as yet another
disappointing season is spiked into the woeful hearts of Mets fans
everywhere and we Yankees fans
can only sit back and nod and knowingly gloat how we always have the
best and most talented team on the field anywhere in the world at any
time.

18 Comments

  2. arin!
    We feel your pain as we laugh in your face! 😀
    Is it Mr. Met — the man with the giant baseball head — that helped you become a fan?

  9. Call me a weirdo but I just root for whatever team is local to where I live. I enjoy the sport itself. I honestly was more of a Yankees fan when I lived in NY but I think that was more of a Seinfeld thing than anything else.

  10. Hi Gordon!
    So are you an all-sport fan where you live now or are you limited to baseball?
    I always admired the Yankees. Growing up in the Midwest I rooted for the lowly Royals because they were as close to a “hometeam” as we had and the Yankees were always dangerous and thrilling. Every team gives the Yankees their best no matter what time of the season it is…
    Moving to NYC — it was Yankees or nothing! We arrived in their prime. Right around when Jeter was a rookie. The Brosius home run in the World Series is something of a thrill you will never forget.

  11. I am actually only keen on baseball. I sometimes watch tennis and love to see football (the one where the ball is regularly kicked with the foot) but don’t live in a city that has a major league football team. I don’t particularly like American football too much.
    Maybe you should put together a slideshow on the topic of how Mets fans root for a perpetual loser now that Google Apps has presentations. 🙂

  12. Hi Gordon!
    I wasn’t a baseball fan until I moved to NYC. Football — the helmet kind — was really the only game in town in Nebraska when I lived there.
    Baseball has its own rhythm and time. The game ends when it’s over. No time limit. That brings a comfort and quiet that is missing in the loudness of pro basketball and football.
    I’m a little disappointed in Presentations. I thought it would be much more robust. Oh well, the online bonus chapter is ready to go! 😀

  13. How is it that “the best and most talented team on the field anywhere in the world at any time” has not managed to win a World Series since the year 2000, when their opposition, if your statements are to be believed, was none other than the pathetic Mets themselves? Was even THAT an accomplishment? Your diatribe woould suggest as an answer a resounding ‘NO.’ The Yankees are better described as “the most expensive and, cost-wise, most underachieving team on the field anywhere in the world at any time.”

  14. goetheana —
    The Yankees are all about fair play. It would be bad taste to win every single game even though they could, right?
    So, to make it interesting, they sometimes take it easy on an opponent or two but every-so-often their superhuman talents sneak through as recently witnessed by their miraculous comeback from 14 games behind Boston to almost win the pennant this year.
    Overtaking Boston would’ve revealed a bit too much of their real plan to dominate the entire sporting world so they quietly came just close enough to make it look fair as they plan the destruction of Beantown in their dreams.

  16. Yay, Katha!
    I love it you’re a Yankees fan! I’ve never understood why, when someone is given a new and raw choice for happiness and entertainment, they wouldn’t always pick a winner over a loser. Who wants to wallow in losses? 😀
    Baseball is a great game. I never properly appreciated it until I moved to NYC.
    Will you become a Twins fan now? 😉

Comments are closed.