Why the 2011 World Series will haunt Mets fans

Just when I thought I could take a mental vacation from the Mets for a bit, at least until Jose Reyes officially hits the market, I turned on the World Series.  And I was reminded of the Mets immediately.

The Cardinals and Rangers rosters are sprinkled with players who evoke, at best, bitter-sweet emotions, and at worst, bad ones.  On the St. Louis side is Octavio Dotel, the now-veteran reliever who seemingly just days ago was a young flamethrower in Queens.  Dotel saved the Mets in Game 5 before Robin Ventura's walk-off grand slam ever happened, but was bypassed bypassed in favor of the immortal Kenny Rogers in crunch time of Game 6.  We all know how that worked out.  Dotel was then shipped off to Houston for Mike Hampton, who helped the Mets reach the 2000 World Series before ditching New York for the schools (read: money) of Colorado.

Matt Holliday, on the other hand, was never a Met but will forever be linked to the team.  Back in the winter of 2009, the Mets seemed to have their choice of two top free agent sluggers: Holliday and Jason Bay.  The Mets chose Bay over Holliday, words that should eventually go on Omar Minaya's gravestone.  Holliday has been an all-star for the Cardinals, while Bay has been, well, less than that for the Mets. 

Now on to the Rangers.  Nelson Cruz was originally signed by the Mets in 1998, but was traded away while still in the minors.  In a rare case of a player becoming good after leaving the (*sarcasm alert*), Cruz has blossomed into an excellent hitter.  However in this case the Mets can't really be blamed for missing out, as several teams gave up on Cruz before he finally made the major leagues in 2005

Here is where it gets really bitter-sweet: the players that remind us of 2006.  Darren Oliver, now a 41 year old lefty specialist with Texas, was a key part of the Mets 2006 world series champion team.  Or, I should say, the team that should have won the world series but didn't.  Speaking of which, that brings me to ....

Endy Chavez and Yadier Molina.  One (Chavez, now on Texas) should have been the hero of the 2006 NLCS, the other (Molina, still on St. Louis) a distant memory.  Instead, the roles were reversed.  Molina will forever be known for hitting the series clinching home run, while Chavez' seemingly game saving, miraculous catch is now only mentioned with the caveat of "but the Mets lost".

I guess it's really more bitter than sweet.  

Mets Fans are Winners this October

  The last few weeks of the baseball season have read like a fantasy checklist for Mets fans:

1. Colossal late-season collapse by a rival (Braves) - Check
2. Colossal late-season collapse by another team in a major media market (Red Sox) - Check
3. Yankees eliminated - Check
4. Phillies eliminated - Check
5. October baseball in Flushing - Sorry, now I'm just getting greedy

Aside from a Mets championship parade down Broadway, I can not think of a better sequence of events that could have unfolded.  Is it a bit sad to find pleasure in the choking of other teams, especially when my own team was nowhere near a position to choke?  Yes.  Does that doesn't make it any less great?  No.  

When the regular season was winding down, things looked pretty bleak.  Not only were the Mets irrelevant, but our most hated rivals (aka the Yankees, Phillies and Braves) were all on the fast-track to October.  Throw in the Red Sox, who I have grown to hate due to spending my college years with an abundance of insufferable Boston fans and that fact that Boston teams now win everything, and there seemed to be a 50% chance that a team I strongly dislike was going to win the World Series.  I was already debating who I would begrudgingly root for in another Yankees-Phillies fall classic.  

Two collapses, several A-Rod strikeouts and one crazy squirrel later, and that chance has improbably dropped to 0%.  The Braves and Red Sox, the ladder of which was picked by most to win the World Series back in April, both managed to bump the 2007 Mets from the title of "worst collapse in baseball history".  The Yankees and Phillies, seemingly on a collision course once the playoffs began, each played only five more games before wilting under the pressure of their understandably mammoth expectations.  Oh, and thanks to the Red Sox and KFC-gate, the Mets aren't even the biggest off-the-field punchline in baseball anymore.      

The end result is that I can finally watch playoff baseball stress-free.  No more trash talk and gloating from Yankees, Phillies, and Red Sox fans (and those twelve or so Braves fans out there).  And no more worrying that one of the teams I hate most will win it all.  They are all now exactly where the Mets are: on the golf course. 

No matter who takes home the trophy this October, Mets fans will be winners too. 

Did the Mets step back or forward in 2011?

The 2011 season has mercifully come to an end for the Mets, giving way to a barrage of major questions that Mets fans are asking. Will they re-sign Reyes? Will they bring the outfield walls in closer? Will they find a way to make the Shake Shack line go faster?

While these questions all deal with the future, I have one about the past: Was the 2011 season a step in the right direction for the Mets?

The standings and several on-field performances say no. The Mets lost two more games this year than last year, duplicating their fourth place finish. Generally awful pitching was the main culprit, as one time top prospect Mike Pelfrey looked much more like a 5th starter than an aspiring ace, youngster John Niese showed little improvement, and the bullpen was downright putrid. Johan Santana, acquired to be the savior, didn't even throw a single major-league pitch.

Mets' pitchers weren't the only ones stuck in the mud this past season. Key hitters David Wright and Angel Pagan each followed up a very good 2010 season with a mediocre-at-best 2011. Supposed catcher of the future Josh Thole regressed on defense and didn't do much on offense either. And sixty-six million dollar man Jason Bay, despite teasing us at the end, showed little to make us think that the remaining two years of his contract will be any better than the first two.

I havn't even mentioned that the Mets traded away their closer (Rodriguez) and All-Star outfielder (Beltran), and may have seen the last of their best player (Reyes). In many ways you could say the Mets took a step back in 2011.

Yet despite the poor record and subpar statistical performances of several players, the season actually felt like a step forward for the Mets franchise in some ways. Dillon Gee and R.A. Dickey provided hope that they can be reliable mainstays of the rotation and Daniel Murphy emerged as an excellent hitter before being injured. Even guys with less star potential like Justin Turner, Lucas Duda and Ruben Tejada proved they can be valuable contributors to a major league team.

But more important than the improvements of some players was the shift in philosophy of the entire organization, from the front office down to the 25th man. GM Sandy Alderson showed a commitment to getting the Mets back on track by dumping albatrosses Oliver Perez and Luis Castillo before the season, and then getting a top pitching prospect for two months of Carlos Beltran. Manager Terry Collins displayed a grittiness that seemed to trickle down to his players, who despite often being overmatched talent-wise rarely gave up in games.

In the end, the 2011 Mets' season were decidedly less than mediocre. A quick glance at the standings and statistics will likely make you think the season was a wash, especially considering the possible impending defection of Jose Reyes. Even so, 2011 was a step forward if only because it felt like a different organization than the one we have followed the past 5 years. The results may not come next year or even the year after, but at least the foundation has started to take shape.