Never Enough

The Mets and their fans truly deserve each other, they are a constant study between euphoria and hysteria. This has always been their history, maybe this is what a lack of success over a long period of time creates in people. Regardless of the reason it's what this franchise's character has become and probably always will be. In 1962 when the Mets were formed they were an expansion team compiled of the lowest common denominator of players you could find. Castoffs, aging veterans, and just plain bad players, 100 losses a year was commonplace. Any success they ever had in the early years truly was a miracle. If you rooted for the Mets from the beginning the current status of bipolar behavior is something you got used to early on in your fandom. Maybe the worst thing that could have happened to them was their miracle win in 1969, as great as it was for their fans and the City of New York it truly was an illusion as far as any future success being a real option for them. As I've stated before the Mets as a franchise have been the prototype of dysfunction, bad signings, bad drafts, tight purse strings and just bad play. All leading to a tremendous lack of success over the years. Their lifetime franchise winning percentage is somewhere around 450%, not the formula for hanging pennants on their walls. If I sound like Mr Scrooge I apologize as a lifelong Yankees fan I've grown up with a different mindset. Obviously all those World Championships help when you're trying to get through the lean years, and the Yankees have had long stretches like that themselves. They went from 1965 to 1976 without a playoff appearance, and then from 1981 to 1996...15 years of lackluster performance. But even so Yankee fans never lost their perspective about expectation, performance and what was real about their team.  I'm truly glad for the Mets and happy for all of their long suffering fans. It's obvious they have a pretty solid team but it's also obvious that they played in a terrible division with three of the worst teams in all of baseball rounding out the bottom of their division. There's no question the strength of schedule and the failure of the Nationals who everyone expected to run away with the division contributed to this success. Be that as it may, they deserve to be where they are, they are an exciting young team, their fans have waited a long time and they are obviously enjoying their success. But it's hard to accept the skewed media coverage and euphoria about something that became inevitable almost 2 months ago with their strength of schedule, and the Titanic like performance of the Nationals.  The Mets finally got it right, did what they had to do at the trading deadline picked up a real stud for the stretch run, and as it usually does when teams get it right they ended up with a Division Title.
Championship teams learn to expect championship type performances and every year offers an opportunity to back up that mindset. The Mets are new at this and can be excused for their euphoria, but performance and expectation are the ingredients for long-term success. One day maybe the Mets and their fans will learn this concept the way they should, by expecting performance not praying for it.  Then maybe they won't feel like little brothers to the Yankees.  Boston did it and they suffered longer than the Mets, be that as it may, congratulations to the Mets. The playoffs start soon and the Mets have a chance for a deep run, hey it may be another Miracle you never know "you gotta believe"...