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Mets lose again as historic collapse looms
stevek
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in Sports Talk
Wasn't sure if anyone here was aware of this or not. Sorry if this is considered piling on.
Mets lose again as historic collapse looms
1 hour ago
NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — Oliver Perez lost his control, and the New York Mets lost control of the National League East on Friday.
Perez tied a major league record by hitting three batters in one inning, and allowed a two-run homer to Jeremy Hermida and a two-run single to Miguel Cabrera as the Florida Marlins beat the reeling Mets 7-4 in the opener of a three-game series.
The Mets have now lost five straight and 11 of 15 to fall into second place in the NL East, one game behind the Philadelphia Phillies.
Philadelphia defeated the Washington Nationals 6-0 on Friday night. Both the Mets and Phillies have two games remaining.
New York, which led the division by seven games on September 12, had been in first place every day since May 15 and moved one step closer to one of the more monumental collapses in baseball history.
No team in history has failed to win the pennant when holding at least a seven-game lead with 17 games to play.
Korea's Byung-Hyun Kim pitched five-plus effective innings and Matt Treanor also homered for the Marlins, who won their fourth straight game and continued to excel in the role of spoiler.
Florida defeated New York after sweeping the Central Division-leading Chicago Cubs earlier this week.
The struggling Mets' staff received a strong seven-inning effort from Pedro Martinez against St. Louis on Thursday, and desperately needed the same from Perez on Friday.
However, the erratic lefthander was never in control, allowing six runs, six hits and two walks in 3 2/3 innings.
The Mets have had a starter last more than five innings just three times in their last 13 games.
Carlos Beltran hit a mammoth two-run homer, but the Mets failed several times in clutch situations and had their troubles defensively as a mental mistake by third baseman David Wright contributed to Florida's two-run third.
Perez tied the record shared by many pitchers when he hit three batters in a two-run third for Florida.
Mets lose again as historic collapse looms
1 hour ago
NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — Oliver Perez lost his control, and the New York Mets lost control of the National League East on Friday.
Perez tied a major league record by hitting three batters in one inning, and allowed a two-run homer to Jeremy Hermida and a two-run single to Miguel Cabrera as the Florida Marlins beat the reeling Mets 7-4 in the opener of a three-game series.
The Mets have now lost five straight and 11 of 15 to fall into second place in the NL East, one game behind the Philadelphia Phillies.
Philadelphia defeated the Washington Nationals 6-0 on Friday night. Both the Mets and Phillies have two games remaining.
New York, which led the division by seven games on September 12, had been in first place every day since May 15 and moved one step closer to one of the more monumental collapses in baseball history.
No team in history has failed to win the pennant when holding at least a seven-game lead with 17 games to play.
Korea's Byung-Hyun Kim pitched five-plus effective innings and Matt Treanor also homered for the Marlins, who won their fourth straight game and continued to excel in the role of spoiler.
Florida defeated New York after sweeping the Central Division-leading Chicago Cubs earlier this week.
The struggling Mets' staff received a strong seven-inning effort from Pedro Martinez against St. Louis on Thursday, and desperately needed the same from Perez on Friday.
However, the erratic lefthander was never in control, allowing six runs, six hits and two walks in 3 2/3 innings.
The Mets have had a starter last more than five innings just three times in their last 13 games.
Carlos Beltran hit a mammoth two-run homer, but the Mets failed several times in clutch situations and had their troubles defensively as a mental mistake by third baseman David Wright contributed to Florida's two-run third.
Perez tied the record shared by many pitchers when he hit three batters in a two-run third for Florida.
0
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I feel bad about posting this news story and rubbing it in. I really should delete this article.
Nah.
Mets fans are going to be scarce now.
The team is killing itself -- they have been hanging their heads for days, when they are not even out of it yet!! They should not give long-winded interviews to media -- all they should say is "we are not out of it, and we will focus on winning" or something like that.
By COREY KILGANNON
Frank Messina can be found at every Mets home game sitting in Box 257, Row F, down the right field line, scribbling hasty lines on ticket stubs, beer napkins and game programs.
His self-proclaimed title, Mets Poet, is emblazoned across the back of his Mets jersey and printed on the season ticket holder plaque next to his seat.
For much of the year, a feeling of weightless joy and images of grace and beauty have run through his work.
In June, when the Mets were in first place, he stood on the outfield grass at Shea Stadium and videotaped his recital of “Leaping Gazelle,” a homage to the team’s second-string outfielder, Endy Chávez, “the graceful Metropolitan,” who has “the look of victory in his eyes.”
In the last week, though, Mr. Messina, 39, has become a classic brooding, ill-fated poet. As his team stands poised on the edge of a historic collapse that rivals “Casey at the Bat,” his poetry has become morose, dark, miserable, downright apoplectic. The poems have captured, in their own way, the feelings of anguish and fear deep in fans’ hearts as the Mets’ once promising season has unraveled.
After watching the Mets lose Thursday night — the team’s 10th loss in its last 14 games — he left a hushed Shea Stadium, took two trains back to his home in Norwood, N.J., and composed “Victory’s Door,” which begins with this stanza:
Do you know what it’s like
To be chased by the Ghost of Failure
While staring through Victory’s door?
Of course you do, you’re a Mets fan.
Max Siegal, an associate producer for “Mets Weekly,” a magazine show on SNY, the Mets’ cable television channel that has featured Mr. Messina several times, said the poet was struggling to express in words what many are feeling.
“Being the poet for the Mets is quite a burden, especially now,” he said. “You’re not writing victory songs. Frank’s writing the story of calamity and collapse.”
Calamity continued last night. The Mets lost 7-4 to the Marlins, while the Philadelphia Phillies won, 6-0 over the Nationals, taking a one-game lead on the last weekend of the regular season.
Mr. Messina will tell you he is just a Mets fan, but also one who aspires to speak for all the others in blue and orange.
As he said recently, “As a fan, my world is caving in because the Mets are collapsing, but as a poet, this is exactly what I write about.”
“To write about the Mets is to write about losing and knowing how to lose,” he said. “That’s what it is to be a Mets fan.”
Mr. Messina’s poems, which embrace many topics other than baseball, have been printed in books, journals and magazines and performed at readings and slams. They have been recited from the field at Shea Stadium (by him) and read over WFAN, the sports talk radio station (by one of its hosts, Joe Benigno).
Mr. Messina has no official status with the Mets. In fact, when asked yesterday about him, Jay Horwitz, a Mets spokesman, said he had never heard of Mr. Messina. “I never knew we had a team poet,” he said.
In any case, Mr. Messina says his poetry is inspired by his passion, not by a desire for recognition.
When he grew up in Norwood, it was home to such famous Yankees as Graig Nettles, Thurman Munson and Gene Michael. Mr. Messina’s father was a fan of the New York Giants baseball team, and, just as many Giants fans did when the team left for San Francisco, his father became a fan of the fledgling Mets to continue rooting against the Yankees.
“My father used to apologize to us for bringing us up as Mets fans and making our life so difficult,” he recalled. “I started out writing about growing up a Mets fan in a Yankee town: the victories, failures and struggles and angst of being a lifelong Mets fan.”
In his poem, “Mets Fan,” he declares himself “a second-class citizen/ trapped in a first-rate city.”
It is also to be “the outsider;/ Slumbering through broken dreams/ like an abandoned umbrella, blowing/ down Big Apple’s Broadway of ‘meaningless September.’”
“Most people don’t think of baseball as a typical poetry topic, but it has everything in human nature that makes for great writing,” Mr. Messina said recently in an interview. “It has victories and failures and struggles and angst.”
Mr. Messina writes about some of the regulars in his section at Shea, like the man whose body is covered in Met tattoos, and the old beer vendor who wears his Purple Heart medal on his cap and relates his story about the Battle of the Bulge.
Mr. Benigno, who is also a die-hard Mets fan, and like Mr. Messina talks as if he is working behind a New Jersey deli counter, knows something about sports fan poetry, mastering such everyday-guy phrases as “Who’s better than you?” and “What, are you kidding me?”
“No one would question a poet writing about love for a woman, but when you’re a fan of a team, the emotional attachment is even stronger, because women come and go, but your team never changes,” Mr. Benigno said. “People who are not sports fans don’t understand that.”
While Mr. Messina and other Mets loyalists worry about what this final weekend of the regular season will bring, the fans of the Phillies are more accustomed to season finale heartbreaks.
This time the Mets’ swoon has accompanied a Phillies ascent and the fans are taking particular pleasure in the Mets woes.
Al Lesky, 56, from Shamong Township, N.J., near Philadelphia, remarked on Philadelphia teams’ history of losing seasons. The city has not won a major sports championship since 1983, and the fans still smart from the Phillies’ remarkable 1964 late season slide: after leading by 6 ½ games late in the season, the team lost the last 10 games and the pennant.
“So maybe this year it will be some kid in North Jersey or Connecticut who will remember 20 years from now the Mets collapse,” Mr. Lesky said.
Mike Harris, a parking lot developer who plays basketball at the Sporting Club at the Bellevue, a gym in Philadelphia, was optimistic about the Phillies.
“I figure they will win two of three and get in,” he said. “I’ve never felt that way before, since it is like a Philadelphian to think negatively. Somehow, things are different this year.”
Mr. Messina is also optimistic. He describes a Mets collapse as having the epic proportions of the sacking of Troy or Lear losing his daughters. Still, he insists his Mets will “pull out a win by the skin of their cleats” and that the Phillies wind up in Mudville.
The examples used are from past years.
Scenario #1: If there is a tie for a Division Championship and the winning percentage of the two Clubs tied for first place is higher than the winning percentage of each of the second-place Clubs in the same League, the Division Champion shall be:
The Club with the higher winning percentage in head-to-head competition between the two tied Clubs during the championship season; or
If the Clubs remain tied, then to the tied Club with the higher winning percentage in intradivision games during the championship season; or
If the Clubs remain tied, then to the tied Club with the higher winning percentage in the last half of intraleague games during the championship season; or
If the Clubs remain tied, then to the tied Club with the higher winning percentage in the last half plus one of intraleague games during the championship season, provided that such additional game was not a game between the two tied Clubs. This process will be followed game-by-game until the tie is broken.
Example of Scenario #1: The Oakland Athletics and Seattle Mariners end the championship season tied for the AL West Division Championship. Both Clubs have a higher winning percentage than the Boston Red Sox. Through games of September 7, the Mariners have the higher winning percentage in head-to-head competition (7-6, .538) and would be declared the Division Champion. Oakland would be the Wild Card.
Scenario #2: If there is a tie for a Division Championship and the winning percentage of the two tied Clubs is lower than the winning percentage of the second-place Club with the best record among all non-Division winners in the same League, the tie for the Division Championship shall be broken as follows:
A one-game playoff shall be played on Monday, September 29 to determine the Division Championship. The site of the game would be determined by a coin flip and the winner of the game shall be declared the Division Champion.
Example of Scenario #2: The Houston Astros and St. Louis Cardinals tie for the NL Central Division Championship. The Florida Marlins have a better record than both tied Clubs and would be the Wild Card. The Astros and Cardinals would play a one-game playoff on Monday, September 29 to determine the Division Championship.
Scenario #3: If two teams are tied for the Wild Card, the tie shall be broken as follows:
A one-game playoff shall be played on Monday, September 29 to determine the Wild Card. The site of the game would be determined by a coin flip and the winner of the game shall be declared the Wild Card.
Example of Scenario #3: The Seattle Mariners and Boston Red Sox tie for the AL Wild Card. The New York Yankees and Oakland Athletics win the AL East and AL West, respectively. The Mariners and Red Sox would play a one-game playoff on Monday, September 29 to determine the AL Wild Card.
<< <i>What's the first tiebreaker if the Mets and Phils end up with the same record? Is it head to head or division records? >>
Ain't gonna be no tiebreaker - the Phillies will win it outright - I guarantee it!
Well considering the Phils have only managed one World Series Championship in their near 125 year history and haven't been to the post-season at all since their magical 1993 campaign, I'd say pile away.
Dimes: 54S, 53P, 50P, 49S, 45D+S, 44S, 43D, 41S, 40D+S, 39D+S, 38D+S, 37D+S, 36S, 35D+S, all 16-34's
Quarters: 52S, 47S, 46S, 40S, 39S, 38S, 37D+S, 36D+S, 35D, 34D, 32D+S
74 Topps: 37,38,46,47,48,138,151,193,210,214,223,241,256,264,268,277,289,316,435,552,570,577,592,602,610,654,655
1997 Finest silver: 115, 135, 139, 145, 310
1995 Ultra Gold Medallion Sets: Golden Prospects, HR Kings, On-Base Leaders, Power Plus, RBI Kings, Rising Stars
<< <i>15 Yards for piling on!
Mets fans are going to be scarce now.
The team is killing itself -- they have been hanging their heads for days, when they are not even out of it yet!! They should not give long-winded interviews to media -- all they should say is "we are not out of it, and we will focus on winning" or something like that. >>
I'd be hanging my head too if my team blew a seven game lead in just 15 days.
Dimes: 54S, 53P, 50P, 49S, 45D+S, 44S, 43D, 41S, 40D+S, 39D+S, 38D+S, 37D+S, 36S, 35D+S, all 16-34's
Quarters: 52S, 47S, 46S, 40S, 39S, 38S, 37D+S, 36D+S, 35D, 34D, 32D+S
74 Topps: 37,38,46,47,48,138,151,193,210,214,223,241,256,264,268,277,289,316,435,552,570,577,592,602,610,654,655
1997 Finest silver: 115, 135, 139, 145, 310
1995 Ultra Gold Medallion Sets: Golden Prospects, HR Kings, On-Base Leaders, Power Plus, RBI Kings, Rising Stars
I'm still hoping...
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
Probably best that these clowns get out of the way for a real team
Go Phillies! You have certainly earned it.... and if he didnt get hurt, Utley would be your MVP.
<< <i>I'd be hanging my head too if my team blew a seven game lead in just 15 days.
Older Phillies fans who remember their colossal collapse in 1964 may be looking for karmic payback here.
How does this compare to the Cubs collapse of 1969? In a nutshell, the Cubs had a 10 game lead (over the Mets)in late August perhaps even as late as Labor Day and lost...
Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.
<< <i>I will just admit that I have not followed this too closely...
How does this compare to the Cubs collapse of 1969? In a nutshell, the Cubs had a 10 game lead (over the Mets)in late August perhaps even as late as Labor Day and lost... >>
If the Mets do miss the playoffs, I'd put it comparable to the failure of the '69 Cubs, but not quite as bad as the ignominious failures achieved by the '64 Phillies or '78 Red Sox.
Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.
ISO 1978 Topps Baseball in NM-MT High Grade Raw 3, 100, 103, 302, 347, 376, 416, 466, 481, 487, 509, 534, 540, 554, 579, 580, 622, 642, 673, 724__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ISO 1978 O-Pee-Chee in NM-MT High Grade Raw12, 21, 29, 38, 49, 65, 69, 73, 74, 81, 95, 100, 104, 110, 115, 122, 132, 133, 135, 140, 142, 151, 153, 155, 160, 161, 167, 168, 172, 179, 181, 196, 200, 204, 210, 224, 231, 240
Sillies losing 1-0!!!
It ain't over yet.
Remember '64!!
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
The Kiss of Death!!!
Thanks, Steve, we needed that!!
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
Lets's GO WASHINGTON!! LOL!!
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
Bosox1976
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.