The Smokin' Sports Gun

When you think about he Mets season so far, what do you have? Right now you have a first place team with 31-20 record which is the fourth best in baseball. You have a team 11 games over .500 in May and a team that constantly picks each other up with the best offense in baseball on paper. You have a team that fights back in every game their down, and does nothing but win series, only loosing three all season and never being swept. And then you have the fans.

The fans, myself included that felt that the Mets are not doing well enough because they’re not getting the sweep on most teams lately. You have fans that can think the team is not doing as good as they should despite just winning three straight series, you have fans that really are acting like this team in is the old Mets. Now truth be told maybe their have been some incidences, some pitching collapses and such in games we should have won however you have to put in all perspective, look at the overall reality.

In February if I had told that 51 games through the season that the Mets would be 31-20, be in first place by 4.5 games over Philly and Atlanta, you’d be happy. If you were guaranteed before the season started that at this point the team would be doing as good as they are you’d be ecstatic. And that would assuming everyone was healthy and everything was going as planned, and you’d be happy. NEWS FLASH: the Mets are still on pace to win 98 ball games!

Now think about the fact that our starting rotation has been a mess having 10 different starters going out there through 50 games and only two of them being effective (I think you can figure out who), you think about the fact that our 43 million dollar closer has already blown three saves, and a game to the Yankees, and the fact that Beltran who right now is the MVP of the Mets was out a week, all that considering it would be a testament to the resilience of this team just to have a winning record.

Instead you have the fourth best record in baseball.

And it’s not entirely the fans fault; we get it honest, because after the first loss we won our next 7 games starting off the season at 8-1. And there really was a feel that this team could go 161-1, we had a swagger about ourselves and were expecting to 161-1. However the team came back earth, only problem is doing that well that early, the fans were (and some are) still on mars.

However if we take the time site back and appreciate what this team in done, we should have a smile on our faces every time we think about the Mets. If we were doing this well without the injuries and pitching problems, etc. we should still be happy. But this team, these 2006 New York Mets are not “losing because of” but “winning in spite of”. The fans shouldn’t be gloomy because we blew some game and didn’t get some sweeps, they should be blissful that the team is doing this well period with all the problems they've had.  

That all being said if the Mets are doing this well like this, wait until the team in healthy. Wait 'till Bannister gets back, Wagner settles in and the team gets into the dog days of summer. This team can be and probably will be unstoppable, and if everything goes right, the team has the potential to over 110 games. So if you’re not satisfied based on right now, think ahead to the future.

And if that doesn’t make you content know that 17 of the Mets last 20 games are against the Marlins, the Nationals, and the Pirates. And the other three, well the division will go through the Braves. Either way it’s favorable for the Mets down the stretch.

So my advice for Mets fans…sit back, relax, we have a good team. And the team is only going to get healthier and better with Milledge up, Hernandez probably coming up and everyone getting things together. Even if we lose or don’t get a sweep against a team we have more than 10 times the payroll, chill, look at the big picture. And the big picture right now is despite all our troubles, at the end of the day we’re still one of the best teams, well in first place and have nothing but good things waiting for us past here.   

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