Ok, so their season just ended yesterday but the pain has essentially lived inside of me since I watched Carlos Beltran stare at Strike Three against the Cardinals in the 2006 NLCS. Yeah, that's right, the New York Mets.
I've been lucky (?) enough to say that I have the most history with this ball club. You see my father grew up a Mets fan and instilled the Blue and Orange in my blood. I can't recall the year but I can remember my first Mets game that I witnessed at the old Shea Stadium. Mets vs Giants. Mets win 3-1. Sid Fernandez was the winning pitcher that night and we sat about 10 rows up along the first base line. Throughout the years, I've been able to hear numerous stories of Tom Seaver, Ron Darling, Davey Johnson, Jerry Koosman, Rusty Staab, Casey Stengel and more. So many stories of the '69 and '86 World Series teams; of how close the '73 and '88 and '00 teams were. So much promise, so much hope, so much despair.
When I can first recall remembering individual seasons, the dreaded Yankees won their first World Series in many a year and it seems as if they've won about another five since. Oh, wait a minute... All the meanwhile, the Mets have shown and said a lot of potentially powerful things, but in the end, it all fizzled out. I am extremely grateful that the Mets did have the 2000 season because without that year, I would not know what it would be like to have baseball success in New York.
I still don't totally know what that feeling is like. Again, the Mets have not won the World Series since 1986. But, I do know the feeling of having the team run by Art Howe, and Oliver Perez has your number three pitcher, and blowing a seven game with only 17 games to go, and blowing a four game lead with seven games to go, and 2009, and now 2010.
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