HAKANIN.Sports

The unthinkable meltdown. A 2nd half that will haunt many Mets players and fans including myself for years. A pathetic 1-6 final week at home, against mostly teams with losing record.

What’s worse? Phillies takes the division, Jimmy Rollins magically backed up his claim that they are the team to beat back in spring training because we can’t get it done. Philly fans gloating in our faces. During the broadcasting of Phillies and Nationals game today, the announcer mentioned that several Philly Phans (how clever) sitting by the visiting team’s bullpen were removed from their seats for using racial slurs towards Nats’ relievers. Hey, every city there are mostly great fans and some bad apples, and NY fans aren’t model citizens either, but racial slurs? Very classy. At least our bad apple(s) distract the opposing pitcher with a flash light.

Now the season is over, and the blame game begins.

Here are the obvious list of people that will be on the hot seat -

• Willie Randolph. I like his quiet, stone faced, get it done approach. But at some point you just have to get things going, and inspire the team. Some managers do it by fighting with the umpires, arguing and showing support for the players, and some pull off post-game tirades. Willie has been good to New York, but I wish he could have stepped up and adjusted.
• Omar Minaya. Minaya went out and brought the Mets attitude and credibility, and did a heck of a job, better than Steve Phillips and Jim Duquettes can say about themselves. However, he failed to really address the weakness of the team during the offseason and before the trade deadlines. Many of his recent moves have turned out to be ineffective and disappointing. In Buster Olney’s recent article, he pointed out that many of Minaya’s moves to “strengthen” the pitching staffs, the Mets actually took several steps back. For example, Brian Bannister and Matt Lindstrom were two quality arms that turned into Jason Vargas and Ambiorix Burgos. The latter duo gave the team so little, it hurts to watch Bannister and Lindstrom blossom in their respective teams.
• David Wright/Carlos Beltran/Jose Reyes: Now, clearly these star players aren’t on the hot seats like Randolph and Minaya are, but the collapse definitely cost Wright a MVP trophy. As leaders of the team, they need to set the tone for the rest, whether hustling on the field, or being vocal off the field. Wright’s quote of “Personally I’m embarrassed. I think it’s embarrassing. It’s pretty pathetic.” came a little bit too late. Sure, they are still young (well, Wright and Reyes) and still working on the transition of being great players, but September 2007 should be a learning experience and turning point for them.

I don’t like the blame game, and I am willing to give Minaya and Randolph another chance because they have also done great for the Mets in the past years. I simply can’t wait for the next spring training because I am pissed and I want the Mets to redeem themselves. It almost pains me that I am going to Pennsylvania next weekend and I have to take a train to Philly, but I think I am still going to wear my Mets hat, or even my Mets jersey.

It is going to be a long winter.

- Paul

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Filed under: MLB, New York Mets, Sports, WTF?