Columnist Neil Best of Newsday caught up with a very frustrated Sandy Alderson after last night’s season-ending loss to the Royals.
The two of them crossed paths as Sandy was walking down a Citi Field corridor with his dog.
“We’re going home disappointed,” he said. “To me, it wasn’t a successful season if it wasn’t as successful as we all would have liked. We didn’t play really well.”
“We had three hits tonight,” he said disgustedly, undercounting the actual total by one. “We can talk about the glovework, we can talk about baserunning and we can talk about defense — none of those things that we do particularly well.”
“But the bottom line is we didn’t hit. And we had two ninth-inning leads and one eighth-inning lead in three of the Mets’ four losses. That’s the way it goes.”
Asked about manager Terry Collins’ decision to let pitcher Matt Harvey start the ninth inning, Alderson said:
“I don’t really want to talk about tonight’s game tonight. It’s not fair.”
Alderson rarely shows this kind of emotion and evidently he cared a great deal about how far this team could go and what they were capable of.
His flurry of moves at the trade deadline showed a GM who went all-out to try and bring in the players he believed would bolster the Mets for an NL East title run and beyond.
Often accused of not caring enough about winning and being disconnected emotionally from the team, clearly it’s a mischaracterization. This is a man who is as passionate about the team and commitment to winning as we are.
I kind of feel bad for Sandy and how things ultimately transpired during the World Series. It left a bitter taste in all our mouths. But he and everyone on the team have nothing to be ashamed of.
While the postseason didn’t end as we all had hoped, I’m proud of what they were able to accomplish this season and I enjoyed the thrill and excitement of every win and loss.
The Mets showed us just how bright the future really is and I look forward to many more trips to the World Series in the coming years from this young, exciting, and talent-laden team.
