2012 Mets: "Comeback-Breaking"

this garbage could pile up fast

The 2012 season sure seems like its gone up in smoke these last 2 weeks.  From Gee's blood clot scare, to johan going back on the DL... its been a brutal stretch.

But the fact is, even though I was enjoying the hell out of the 2012 season, and i loved the fact the Mets were hanging around, i never really felt like this season was going to wind up in the playoffs.

I did feel, however, that this season was shaping up as a fantastic spring board for this roster, going into 2013 and beyond.  So when things like injuries and errors and even a historically bad bullpen start to explode all at once - I am not totally surprised. This is a far from complete team.

But what i had not counted on is the possible negative baggage these players might be gaining.... especially when it comes to the washington nationals.

In  my opinion, one of the reasons this years team seemed so fearless is because, for the most part, this roster was not scarred by the brutal finished in 2007 and 2008. They have no experience being continuously, and emotionally destroyed by the phillies or braves (and to a lesser extent the marlins).... And as a result, they played pretty loose - and had the ability to bounce back from bad losses because "hey, its just one loss!".... but the last 2 weeks have seem some unconscionably brutal losses... especially to the Nats.    And when you look back at the whole season so far, they seem to have lost to the Nats in pretty much any way possibly. each one more painful then the next. Mickey Pipes emailed me referring to these losses as "comeback-breaking".... which is pretty much the perfect way to describe them.... After enough of these kinds of defeats, it has to start to weigh on a team. We've seen it before.

The mother of all these 'comeback-breaking' losses was the game where Valdespin cracked the 3-run dinger off Clippard to give the mets the lead in the 9th... two blown saves later, and i think that game will be looked back on as where it really started to unravel. As they went to the 9th in that game, even with our uber-shaky bullpen, i thought to myself, "this is the mets fighting out of yet another losing funk." They had been doing it all year. every time you thought they might fall off a cliff, they pulled out a magical win, or went on a winning streak.... and even though i was afraid they might blow that lead - i also thought 'this is where they pull the season back from the brink yet again"

as we now know - they didn't do that....they lost in awful fashion... and in my mind, i felt like they had their season broken at that moment. (though i didn't think it would be such a quick decent to sub-.500... i just thought, 'we really are not going to be a playoff threat from here on out').

Despite the nonsense from the NY media that "new york fans will not tolerate rebuilding" - When the season started i think most fans were ok with the idea this was a transitional season for the team though it was probably combined with contempt for the ownership).

fastforward to late july, and now i am concerned there is a chance this roster might begin to view the nats the way it seemed the teams of past years viewed the phillies and braves... when it came down to a close and late situation... it doesn't matter, they're gonna beat us.

The reality is i am probably projecting a ton of my own fears onto the roster. i know the braves and phillies sure had me mentally defeated.... it figures the nats are the team that seems to be evolving into the NL Easts perennial power... i mean why not, up until this season they were the only ones who had never tormented the mets before... and in less than one season i've gone from being essentially indifferent about the washington baseball team to pretty  much despising them, their fans and the fact they netted two franchise players with back to back #1 picks.... What annoys me more is that after winning the 2006 division, and leading almost all of 2007, i thought the Mets were going to become the perennial favorite to win the NL east.   The Nats have a little of that 2006 Mets feel.... i can only hope they self combust like the mets did in 07 and 08.

And like other irrational mets fans, there are a lot of times i feel like i jinxed the team as well. there is small stuff like, "i was sitting in this chair when they scored in the 7th, so i will sit there again"... and also some bigger stuff i think i jinx (did i mention this is irrational?).  Back in 2007 the met hat i wore all the time was just super gross, so i bought a new one.... this was right before their epic collapse... and i just bought a new mets hat this year at the all-star break... and just like that, they fall apart again.... i also have a deep rooted jinx history when it comes to drawing a met... they almost always become total bombs after i finish the drawing (granted i've picked some doozies) . ones that jump out are the defensive dynamo pat howell, who i drew after he made about a dozen unreal catches during the 1992 season...i think he was out of baseball a month later.... right around that same time i was convinced that the mets new temporary closer, who was succeeding while john franco was on the DL, was going to be a star.... so i sketched out a drawing of anthony young... yup...he definitely became famous.

the reason i bring this up is i just finished this design before the all-star break... so you can blame me if it gets real bad for RA in the second half of this season.

sorry RA...