Sometimes I find it so hard to see the positives in the Mets season, thus far. I spend so much time looking at and thinking about the negatives, that I forget how many times the Mets have overcome adversity in the past.
I was thinking about last year when the Mets lost Pedro Martinez and I thought, "oh my God, our season is over!" Of course I was wrong, our season was not over, and the Mets began playing even better.
I thought the same thing last July when I was driving to work and heard that Duaner Sanchez was injured in an automobile accident. My frustration became even more compounded later that same day, when I heard the Mets had just traded Xavier Nady for Roberto Hernandez and some throw-in named Oliver Perez.
What an idiot I was then, now that I can think back. It wasn’t the end of the world after all. The Mets had a pretty remarkable season despite the adversities.
If Kaz Matsui and Anderson Hernandez had not got injured, we never would have discovered that Jose Valentin could play a remarkable second base and hit the daylights out of a baseball.
If Cliff Floyd hadn’t gotten hurt, we would have never discovered how amazing a player Endy Chavez was.
If Victor Zambrano hadn’t gotten hurt we never would have made the trade for El Duque last May.
Sometimes you just have to let things play out before we start screaming our heads off. And nobody screams their head off more than me. I’m writing this now, but only hours ago I went off on Carlos Beltran and Carlos Delgado. I should have known better, but sometimes my emotions and my passion for the Mets get the best of me. I know there are many of you out there who do the same thing.
The bottom line is that sometimes you just gotta have faith. I know the Mets are suffering through many adversities right now, but I also know that there is nothing wrong that can’t be fixed.
I don’t really believe that Carlos Delgado will finish the season with a .220 batting average, or that Carlos Beltran will only have 1 RBI in June when all is said and done. They will both be tearing the cover off the ball soon enough.
The bullpen will be OK. And even though we may not still have some of the current pitchers on our roster, I know that in the end it will again be one of the league’s best. That’s how baseball is. You see a problem and you try to fix it, if you can’t fix it, then you change the parts. That’s what General mangers are for, and we are lucky to have one of the best in Omar Minaya.
So the next time another Mets loss gets you down in the dumps, just remember that we went through more injuries and adversities last season than we have this season.
Baseball is not a sprint. It’s a marathon. Things are going to happen during the course of a 162 game season. The Mets are still the class of the division. The roster we have now is not the same roster we will have in October. Changes are coming. It’s inevitable.
So just enjoy the ride and in the end, the cream will rise to the top.
You Gotta Have Faith!
