Shea Is Burning!

Shea is Burning…

…It hurts doesn't it? Your hopes dashed, your dreams down the toilet. And your fate is sitting right besides you." -John Malkovich in Rounders

….So another year of what used to be called America’s pastime has passed the time and now moves into the playoffs. As in most team sports, playoff time is the most exciting part of the year. A season within a season if you will…a build up of what could be and what if…..of what should have been and what can possibly be or what will be FOR SURE NEXT YEAR….
…The Lead up… The Rockies, then the Padres.
Then the Rockies again, and then…no… the Padres.
No wait, the Rockies...…
…..The Phillies are definitely playing the Rockies in the National League Division Series. The Playoffs start today and as determined after a thrilling back-and-forth Monday night Wild Card tiebreaker game at Coors Field. Colorado defeated San Diego in a see-saw battle, 9-8, to earn a spot in the postseason….
…If you didn’t see it, it was very exciting, having every thing on the line, one game to take it all… I went to bed thinking it could be anybody’s game. I turned in after San Diego scored two runs in the top of the 13th inning (of a 9 inning game!); only to see Colorado scored three in the bottom half to tie it back up. "I was tired; it was a west coast night game in extra innings & was about 4 A.M. in New York, so I figured I'd find out what happened in the morning….
… So my smokin’ hot girlfriend just out of the shower early on Tuesday morning, naked but dry, and showed me the morning sports page (A Beautiful Sight) saying, 'You're not going to believe this!”…
. ...First off, if you’re a sports fan and never have been with a woman who is into sports, you’re missing out big time…It’s great…They understand what sports is all about and will rarely give you a hard time for the left over debris from you fanaticism…
….Now, I you can find a woman who can watch a baseball game on T.V. and not get bored, That we call a keeper my friend…
….There is was on the front page…I fell asleep and missed the best ending to a MLB regular season in memory…Rockies Todd Helton, the former Tennessee Volunteers football quarterback, huddled his teammates. Trevor Hoffman hurling in the bottom of the inning…. He told them a few things and after a double, a triple, and a sac fly to win it, a post-game shower of champagne and beer sent the Rockies to the playoffs and touched off bedlam from a sellout crowd of 48,404......The majors are reporting record attendance records this year….Which raises the question: Did Bonds,’ McGwire’s, and Sosa’s use of the juice really hurt baseball?? Last I saw baseball was dying after a labor strike in 1994 and the ever growing popularity of the National Football League. The boys get on the HGH and the juice and start hitting 7 million homeruns a year and the crowds are back. Back and in record droves at that…..Looks like that cheating saved baseball Mr. Commissioner….

I regress….So if you don’t like baseball; play-off time is the perfect time for you to get aboard…
….I won’t be watching…
…O.K…. I’m lying…I’ll watch.

…..When you grow up watching Baseball, you watch the playoffs. I will not however be watching my beloved NY Mets in the playoffs. Mostly because they don’t deserve to be there. No major league team had owned a lead of seven games or more with 17 to play and failed to finish in first place. New York, which had that margin on Sept. 12, matched the largest lead blown in September. The 1938 Pittsburgh Pirates and 1934 New York Giants also led by seven games in the final month only to tailspin. Philadelphia swept a three-game series at Shea Stadium from Sept. 14-16 - giving the Phillies wins in the final eight meetings between the teams this year. That started a slide the Mets never recovered from. Doomed by inadequate starting pitching and a leaky, exhausted bullpen, New York lost 12 of its last 17 games, committing 21 errors in the process. Luis Castillo struck out to end New York's latest lackluster defeat against a second-division club, prompting the last round of boos at Shea Stadium this year.…Moments later, the final in Philadelphia was posted on the out-of-town scoreboard and Mets fans filed for the exits, quietly muttering to themselves.
It was one of the darkest days for a franchise that prided itself on late-season comebacks in 1969, 1973 and in the 1986 World Series against Boston. Last year, the Mets advanced to Game 7 of the NL championship series before losing 3-1 to St. Louis. Beltran struck out with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth inning, a sudden end to a thrilling season.
.......This time, the pain was drawn out over 2 1/2 weeks of wretched play - and the finale was a wash from the first inning on….But I knew they wouldn’t be there. …Every Mets fan knew it. Oh sure on the outside all fans will show the world the confidence in their teams chances but deep inside, every Met fan knows that the bigger they are, the harder they fall and the better the Mets look, the worse the October heart break will inevitably be. But this is the mark of a true fan…I mean its easy to root for the Yankees who win every year…But a true stand by your squad fan is there cheering and hoping, even when they know for sure their team will blow it in the end... Our one saving grace is the fact that our regular season collapse wasn’t viewed by nearly as many home T.V. spectators as the ass kicking we’d have been dealt in the playoffs would have been & THERE’S ALWAYS NEXT YEAR! Hey at least The Mets are the Mets and not the Cubs. They are in the playoffs but will disappoint their fans soon enough as they always do….
…I think I see Steve Bartman walking a Billy goat through the Wrigley Field parking lot….So for our Mets; it’s off to the golf courses for the winter. Do they have golf courses in Central America? Plenty of time for the front office in Flushing Meadows to find some washed up former gold glove all-stars to overpay before next season starts…

Jah Bless