As an avid New York Mets fan, life this year has been downright rough. The anticipation of an epic year, a year when it would finally be our turn, a year following two years of heartbreak at the hands of the Phillies and Marlins, has turned into one of the biggest debacles of all time. In my 23 years as a Mets fan, I've never seen a low like this. 9 starters on the dl, including names like Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran and Johan Santana. There's no coming back from a hit like that. The season is over, and we all know it.Last night, however, the Mets took the field at LandShark and, for the first time I saw a team eager to play. The thing is, it obviously wasn't the normal Met squad. Aside from the newly acquired Jeff Francoeur, I knew maybe one or two players out there. And yet, they beat up on the Marlins 10-3! It was a classic underdog story; a couple of kids, happy to play the game on the center stage, overcame experience with sheer excitement.
So I ask, what happened to the glory days of New York baseball- when teams had proverbial heart? Last night I saw a Mets team that looked like a real New York team, an image I think they've lost over the years. They were a rag-tag group, rough around the edges, wet behind the ears, but ready to scruff when the time came. The Met's are New York's blue collar team, and they need to embrace that identity. It's one with a storied history of success in this city. From the Bums in Brooklyn to Mays in Manhattan, the New York National League teams have always been a group of "good ol' boys."
So why the change? New Yorkers like a team with grit- a team that finds ways to win beyond the conventional American League method of writing a check. Last night was a testament to this fact: in sports, success can't always be bought. The total dollar amount on the disabled list comes to $67,675,000.00 (metstoday.com)...That's more than $67 million dollars of high-profile talent doing nothing to help the team win. It seems the roots are stronger than the flower, so let's stick to them.
