"Just One Game" One Too Many

I’ve been watching this team since the early 70s. That game epitomizes this franchise perfectly. Just good enough to lose in the most demoralizing fashion.

— Mets killin'me (@Metfanrich) May 8, 2019

AP/Gregory Bull
Photo via Newsday

Once upon a time after we failed to sweep the Phillies at Citi Field, I was fuming over the fact the Mets had not followed up throwing behind Rhys Hoskins' back with another win to truly make an early season NL East statement. Someone on a facebook group chided me that my claims were unjust of that game "being on Mickey Callaway" after the offense failed to show up. "It's just one game" was basically the gist of what I was told. One game in 162 after winning the series. I still didn't think it was enough. Look how they've been and where they stand since they failed to sweep the Phillies.

The same can be said for yesterday's game in regards to failing to back up their potential momentum-swinging win from the night before. You HAVE to follow that game up with a series victory. The Mets did not, and as Rich above on Twitter points out, it's just yet another example of how close but no cigar this team always seems to come over the course of their history. 

It made me think of a post Greg Prince of Faith and Fear in Flushing once made as we saw the good early vibes of 2012 slip away right before our very eyes that July. He pointed out how the Mets always seemed to find themselves with the tying or winning runs ever so close yet falling so far away. Greg in "Tick...Tick...Tick...", posting on July 22, 2012 at 2:09am (a similar time to when I am writing this), quoted another writer regarding the early Mets incarnation:

“The Mets got two runners on in the ninth, but couldn’t get over the hump, and went down to their 12th straight defeat. That was to be a Met pattern for their early years. They would get themselves into a seemingly hopeless position, only to rise up off the mat to stage a desperate rally, which invariably fell just short. In their 120 losses, the Mets brought the tying run to the plate in the last inning 56 times. Thirty-nine of their losses were by a single run. ‘He concedes defeat almost daily,’ Robert Teague wrote of the Met fan, ‘but only after the very last Met has been retired.’”—William Ryczek, The Amazin’ Mets, 1962-1969

56 times. Out of 120 losses. The difference between the worst modern record of all time and not owning that was that fine a line. And so it goes. 3-2 Padres, the tying run left on base.

There are moments when you see a season slipping away. We seem to have that every day lately. Then a player like Pete Alonso makes our imaginations run wild as to the possibilities of what this team can do.

I once wrote into a screenplay I'm working on a random throwaway line that I've since used from time to time in real life when someone actually asks me the following question:

"How are your Mets gonna do this year?"

"Who knows? The Mets are always a wild card, even if they don't contend for one."

The 2019 New York Mets may still contend for one. They may even contend for the division. But it becomes "just one game" too often around here.

NEEDED. OFF. DAY.

LET'S. GO. METS.