By: Emily Nassi (University of Delaware)
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All Mets’ fans don’t want is a repeat of last year.
Below .500, 23 games behind, lost 92 games – injuries aside, most people just want to forget 2009.
Have most Mets’ fans come to expect seasons such as 2009? As the Mets dip below the .500 mark, I find myself shrugging my shoulders and saying “I’m not that surprised.”
If someone were to look back at the past few seasons for the Mets though, they really weren’t that bad, excluding 2009. After the 2000 World Series, that’s when the team dropped off horrendously.
Just as the Mets never really recovered, the Mets’ fans never recovered either. I predict that if the Mets finish out the season with a losing record: they’ll lose some money when people stop paying money to sit in the hot sun to watch another defeat. They’ll lose media attention (unless they get to Detroit Lions status, but that’s another story). They won’t lose true fans, but fans will lose the faith in the Mets’ and their ability to even make it into the postseason, let alone win on the big stage.
This year has the potential to be different. A few injuries, but nothing to the magnitude of last year. Besides, Jason Bay hasn’t been performing at the level where anyone would like him to anyway. Maybe some time off will do him good.
The Mets are one game below .500, the first time in two months. They have the names and the talent, but something is missing. From my standpoint it seems as though the Mets are vastly underperforming. The fans lose confidence. The Mets lose confidence. The Mets retreat back and that’s the end.
Take yesterday’s game for example. R.A. Dickey had one of the lowest ERAs in the NL, and then gives up 6 runs in one inning, and had to be taken out after three. Meanwhile, the Mets had started that game off with a 2-0 lead in the first. Reminds me of their season, actually. Start off great, everyone has high hopes and then poof! In a flash, that’s the end.
The Mets’ gave me and other fans alike high hopes in the beginning of the season. Now, as they return to a place of familiarity, we should be angry and annoyed. There are a few faithful fans out there that feel that way, but the rest of us are just sighing and shaking our heads and moving on.
The Mets need to make August their best month yet. The postseason isn’t the only thing that is riding on this month; it’s the whole livelihood of the team and its fans for years to come.
