Last night, Carlos Beltran continued to cement his status as one of the greatest post season players of all time with yet another incredible performance. Having already delivered a two-run double to tie Game 1 of the NLCS at 2-2, the former Met would hit a walk-off single in the bottom of the 13th inning to clinch a dramatic 3-2 win over the Dodgers for the Cardinals.
Beltran also kept the game alive for the Cards earlier in the game, when he unleashed a tremendous throw from right field to nail a runner at the plate in the 10th to keep the game even.
The walk-off single ended the longest playoff game in Cardinals history and the sold out crowd had Busch Stadium shaking from its foundation as Cardinals poured out of the dugout to meet Beltran and celebrate the huge win.
“I’ve got to give the glory and honor to God. He’s the one to give me the opportunity to be able to play in October, and this is what it’s all about,” Beltran said after the game. “You work so hard during the offseason, Spring Training, the regular season to get to this point, and we’re fortunate to be here.”
Wow… If Homer were still alive, he’d probably pen a glorious epic about Tron…
I got not one, but two emails yesterday,asking me what I meant two days ago when I wrote that the Mets were in the market for a unicorn. It was just my way of saying that the front office and even a great deal of fans find fault with any quality player that doesn’t fit into their price point.
I actually alluded to it somewhat on Twitter the other day:
Too many fans are hung up on finding the perfect star player instead of focusing on upgrading the quality of play we get from each position.
— Metsmerized – Joe D (@MetsmerizedJoeD) October 10, 2013
I’m tired of holding every player to this imaginary “he’s not a difference maker” standard as well. Sandy Alderson first used the term after he retreated from his stance that he wouldn’t trade R.A. Dickey and then a week before trading him said “I won’t trade Dickey unless it’s for a difference maker.”
As we all sit back and wait for the front office to deliver this run of sustainable championships they keep talking about, we’ve not added one difference maker to this team at the major league level. The fact is we’ve traded those difference makers away for minor leaguers and never anyone who could make that same kind of an impact on the team.
So here we are chasing unicorns – looking for the most perfect offensive difference maker we can find at the lowest rock-bottom price.
It feels like I’m rooting for a front office who isn’t grounded in reality and has no idea how to navigate in today’s market. And yes, I’m well aware that the offseason hasn’t even started yet, but I’m still hearing them say the kinds of things I’d expect from my 10-year old nephew rather then a front office that is among the most highly compensated regimes in the game.
To improve this team, the Mets require many upgrades in over a half dozen different areas. They don’t have to be difference makers, they only have to be better than what we’ve been trotting out there for the last three seasons under Sandy.
But instead of getting excited about the available players in this market, you instead hear or read things like Carlos Beltran is too old… Mike Napoli is too expensive… Shin-Soo Choo wants a four year deal… Jose Abreu is one-dimensional… And so on and so on…
I got an idea… Let’s do nothing… Let’s just stay awful… There’s plenty of teams that don’t mind staying awful, so let’s be like them…
This team needs quality players that will either cost us money or prospects. Get that through your skulls.
And this front office needs a quality season in 2014 which will require cunning, resources and risk, but mostly guts, which I’ve yet to see from this front office.
Stop looking for flaws in every quality player and start taking notice of the myriad of gaping holes this team has accumulated over the last three seasons. The New York Mets are in tatters right now… Fix My Team!
