Watching our arch rivals, the Philadelphia Phillies, get to the World Series guaranteed that this off-season is going to be particularly longer (and particularly more painful) than usual. But lets face it: the Phillies deserve it. They played with heart while we played like we were dead. Their offense came through in the clutch and ours didn’t. Their bullpen saved games while ours blew games. Seeing that we would have been up on the Phillies by 7 games if they ended after 8 innings blew my mind.
I hope the Mets see what could have been. I hope they take this year, last year, and 2006 into prepective and realize that we could have been a dynasty of victory. Instead, the Mets logo may very well be the universal choking symbol.
This off-season, the bullpen needs to be rebuilt from scratch. Castillo needs to be dealt. Daniel Murphy needs to be playing every day. We need an outfield that isn’t going to get hurt and be out for pretty much the whole season. We need at least one quality starter that can eat innings so we don’t have to resort to the bullpen.
But most importantly, whatever may or may not happen, the fans need to stick by their team. The fans need to come out in full force at Citi Field (that feels weird saying that) on April 13, 2009 and show what it really means to be a Mets fan! We’ve stuck by our Mets through good times and bad and these times may be worse than being out of contention in August. But the Mets are still our team, and losing is a part of their history, even before the “historic collaspe.”
I believe that the Mets will go far in 2009. I believe Jerry Manuel will guide us to the postseason next year. And I never want to hear the words “historic collapse” come from the mouths of ESPN analysts ever again! Jerry Manuel is the man to silence them.
LGM.
