It's been a few hours. I've had some time to collect my thoughts.

It stings. It stings because, in baseball, nothing is certain from day-to-day and year-to-year. The window of opportunity to be successful is rarely ever open. So when the time is right, you really have to will yourself to achieve greatness. This year, the window for the Mets was wide open. Not only that, the screen had been kicked out, and it felt - at times - that there was nothing that could prevent them from immortality.

As the season unfolded, there would be comparisons to the 1986 championship team. A lot of them. The team was even marketed as the second coming. "The Team, The Time." Dramatics became nightly routines in Queens. Come-from-behind wins, walk-offs, there was even that sweep of the Yankees when it seemed the 'bombers were reeling. The way the Mets dominated their opposition, and their going pretty much wire-to-wire (after game 2 of the season) - just like in '86 - it was spooky.

It would be far, far too easy to resort to excuses. Injuries plagued key team members, and in their wake, the clamor of skeptics grew louder. Predictions were downgraded and then upgraded seemingly on the hour, if you listened to sports radio. But injuries in sports are completely random. They are uncontrollable, and as such they cannot be harkened on or bemoaned. A team's success is determined by their response to such circumstances.

A lot can be said about destiny, and its enigmatic relationship with baseball lore. To be in this situation, to watch it unfold, the stars appeared to align in practically every inning during the post-season (minus game three of the NLCS). No more clear was this than during the sixth inning tonight. You cannot script such an inexplicable turn of events - a bigger shift in momentum. The ending was all right there, waiting to be written. Put it in the books.

The funny thing about destiny, fate, whatever you want to call it...for it to materialize, to REALLY happen, it was to be unexpected. And with one swing of the bat (from a guy who meticulously plucks his eyebrows, the fag) in the top of the ninth - it happened. Now THAT was unexpected.

In baseball, the window of opportunity is never open for long. An entire league does not lie dormant two years in a row. Windows close, and fast. The Mets can say whatever they want to pump themselves up for 2007, but they might have just missed the best opportunity they'll have.


...Whoa. I guess that's pretty long. Stream-of-consciousness. Totally pathetic.

Tigers in 5.

Bye-bye, Mets.

Normally, I would urinate on any and all things "Met-related", but that was one fucking hell of a catch, and I hope it doesn't get lost in the shuffle of baseball history because the Mets lost the game.
Tigers in 6

slowriot wrote:A team's success is determined by their response to such circumstances.

Like sending Lastings Milledge to the minors and putting Anderson Hernandez on the bench for the playoffs.

That guy was deadest wood on the bench, but the whole bench was goofy.

Now, I'm no fancy major league baseball player with a postseason line of .366/.485/.817 and sackfuls of filthy lucre piled on my doorstep, but when it's bases loaded with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, expect a first pitch fastball and be ready to swing. Also, when you're down 0-2 in the situation outlined above, expect that breaking ball, the pitcher's command of which having improved over the course of the inning, and be ready to swing to protect the got-damn plate if nothing else.

Your so-called at-bat, indeed:



I suspect someone's going to spend a lot of quality time with his special tennis ball machine this offseason.

Lousy finish to what was finally a compelling game in this NLCS.