Sunday, September 30, 2007

Mets Collapse Still Not as Bad as Boston's "Mookie Ball"

There's a lot of gnashing of New York teeth tonight as the Mets completely imploded in there final weeks of the season and left wreakage strewn about the National League East. At one point they were 7 games in first place with 17 games left to play.

Although no other team has broken down so fast in the stretch run, this debacle is still not nearly the tragedy of the "Mookie Ball" (a reference to the slow ground ball down the first base line that the Mets' Mookie Wilson hit in 1986; the one that went through the legs of Boston Red Sox first baseman, Bill Buckner, to drive in the winning run during the 10th inning of Game 6 of the World Series). Since there is some karma in every ill fortune, Mets' fans can perhaps understand a bit of the agony that Red Sox Nation felt, but without the scapegoat that Buckner provided Bean Town.

Now for some more karma in others' good fortune: the Red Sox secured home field advantage throughout the playoffs by being the best team in their league and the Chicago Cubs finally made it back to the October Classic. What do the Cubs have to do with it? Bill Buckner was wearing a Chicago Cubs batting glove under his mitt in 1986 when the Mookie Ball went through his wickets.

The Mets once benefitted from someone else's misfortunes. Now they find themselves at the business end of a short stick. But what goes around comes around.

They lost 2007, but they'll always have 1986:

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