Games of Redeeming Features
I try not to write about sports on this blog, but circumstances have dictated that I take up the pen in defense of my beloved New York Metropolitans in the form of an open letter to fellow New York Mets fans, and the New York and National media, respectively, and anyone else who will listen.
Dear Friends,
I have been a rabid Mets fans as long as I can remember. I have rejoiced in the 100 win seasons of the mid-1980’s and I have suffered through the 100 loss seasons of the 1990’s. I witnessed the absurdity of Bobby Valentine’s fake moustache, the rain delay hijinks of Robin Ventura, and the infamous career of he-who-shall-remain-unnamed but, if named, whose name would rhyme with Barmando Aenitez. I sat in my college dorm room in Boston and watched Kenny Rogers walk Andruw Jones with the bases loaded to end the NLCS. I was among the 55,000 that nearly brought Shea Stadium crumbling to the ground from the sheer elation we collectively expressed when Endy Chavez performed a miracle, and I rode the #7 back to Manhattan in stunned silence after Adam Wainwright’s curveball extinguished all of our hope. I can do the Teufel shuffle. When I pitched my eighth grade team to a championship, I threw my mitt skyward, just like Jesse Orosco. My favorite color is orange. I love baseball and I remained true to my team through good times and bad.
Right now, we’re going through a bad time. The Mets have lost 6 out of the last 7 games in crushing fashion. What was once a comfortable 7 game lead with just 17 games to play has dwindled down to a skinny game-and-one-half lead with 10 left to play. No team in the great history of the game has ever blown a lead as big as 7 games this late in the season, and the Mets are dangerously close to “accomplishing” that without precedent. The fallout has been that many people in the New York media, but especially the fans, have gotten caught up in pointing the finger of blame at anyone and everyone surrounding the organization – the general manager, the pitchers, the batters, the fielders, those too injured to do any of the above, and especially the manager. I suspect that a great many have even jumped off this sinking ship entirely. However, it is the blood lust in the voices and words of those that have remained that have troubled me the most. The majority of Mets fans, or perhaps only the loudest, has begun to speak of their team with utter contempt. Allow me to dissent.
Baseball is a long game, played over a long season, played over the course of a long career, and it’s a game at which you are only marginally more likely to succeed than fail, if even that. That is, relative to other sports, baseball is, by definition, wrought with an incredible amount of failure: a hall of fame batter fails to get a hit 70% of the time; a hall of fame pitcher gives up a run every three innings; a great team still loses around 40% of the time. Yet, it is in the very face of this failure that baseball presents an opportunity for success. As Hall of Fame broadcaster Bob Murphy always used to remind the listener, “Baseball is a game of redeeming features.” If you make an error in the field, you may get to bat in the bottom half of the inning to win the game. If you make a bad pitch, you may get a chance to get the next guy. If you lose today, there’s always tomorrow. If you don’t do well tomorrow, there’s always next year. But everyone, EVERYONE, will get a chance to both fail and succeed. It is the very nature of the game.
My fellow Mets fans that are ready to string up this player or executive in a public square are losing sight of this fact. And with it, they are also losing their ability to enjoy the game. When you cease to view baseball through the specter of redemption, you lose the ability both to deal with loss (e.g., Cubs fans) and appreciate victory (e.g., Braves fans). For those, I suggest you watch football instead, where the great majority of the plays result in positive yardage and a great team can win 90-100% of their games. But that is not baseball. Every baseball team goes through stretches where no one can do anything right, seemingly. And the team and its fans just need to weather that. Earl Weaver, long time manager for the Baltimore Orioles, when faced with the prospect of putting in a pinch hitter that was 10 for his last 20 versus another hitter who was 0 for his last 20, was reputed to have said that one would be better off using the less successful of the two, because “he was due.” That hope, even in the face of all evidence to the contrary, is what makes baseball unique and, to me, what keeps the game enjoyable. In what other sport could one make such a brazen claim?
Point is, the New York Mets, and each of the individual players that have been stinking it up as of late, will get a chance to redeem themselves. Whether or not they will remains to be seen, but it is guaranteed that they will at least have a chance. It begins tonight when Pedro Martinez, who himself is trying to comeback from a career threatening injury, takes the hill. Mets fans, please channel some positive energy in the direction of Miami tonight, for, if nothing else, being a sports fan gives you the opportunity to be hopeful. Being a baseball fan, in particular, lets you witness redemption.
With that said, Let’s Go Mets!
Dear Friends,
I have been a rabid Mets fans as long as I can remember. I have rejoiced in the 100 win seasons of the mid-1980’s and I have suffered through the 100 loss seasons of the 1990’s. I witnessed the absurdity of Bobby Valentine’s fake moustache, the rain delay hijinks of Robin Ventura, and the infamous career of he-who-shall-remain-unnamed but, if named, whose name would rhyme with Barmando Aenitez. I sat in my college dorm room in Boston and watched Kenny Rogers walk Andruw Jones with the bases loaded to end the NLCS. I was among the 55,000 that nearly brought Shea Stadium crumbling to the ground from the sheer elation we collectively expressed when Endy Chavez performed a miracle, and I rode the #7 back to Manhattan in stunned silence after Adam Wainwright’s curveball extinguished all of our hope. I can do the Teufel shuffle. When I pitched my eighth grade team to a championship, I threw my mitt skyward, just like Jesse Orosco. My favorite color is orange. I love baseball and I remained true to my team through good times and bad.
Right now, we’re going through a bad time. The Mets have lost 6 out of the last 7 games in crushing fashion. What was once a comfortable 7 game lead with just 17 games to play has dwindled down to a skinny game-and-one-half lead with 10 left to play. No team in the great history of the game has ever blown a lead as big as 7 games this late in the season, and the Mets are dangerously close to “accomplishing” that without precedent. The fallout has been that many people in the New York media, but especially the fans, have gotten caught up in pointing the finger of blame at anyone and everyone surrounding the organization – the general manager, the pitchers, the batters, the fielders, those too injured to do any of the above, and especially the manager. I suspect that a great many have even jumped off this sinking ship entirely. However, it is the blood lust in the voices and words of those that have remained that have troubled me the most. The majority of Mets fans, or perhaps only the loudest, has begun to speak of their team with utter contempt. Allow me to dissent.
Baseball is a long game, played over a long season, played over the course of a long career, and it’s a game at which you are only marginally more likely to succeed than fail, if even that. That is, relative to other sports, baseball is, by definition, wrought with an incredible amount of failure: a hall of fame batter fails to get a hit 70% of the time; a hall of fame pitcher gives up a run every three innings; a great team still loses around 40% of the time. Yet, it is in the very face of this failure that baseball presents an opportunity for success. As Hall of Fame broadcaster Bob Murphy always used to remind the listener, “Baseball is a game of redeeming features.” If you make an error in the field, you may get to bat in the bottom half of the inning to win the game. If you make a bad pitch, you may get a chance to get the next guy. If you lose today, there’s always tomorrow. If you don’t do well tomorrow, there’s always next year. But everyone, EVERYONE, will get a chance to both fail and succeed. It is the very nature of the game.
My fellow Mets fans that are ready to string up this player or executive in a public square are losing sight of this fact. And with it, they are also losing their ability to enjoy the game. When you cease to view baseball through the specter of redemption, you lose the ability both to deal with loss (e.g., Cubs fans) and appreciate victory (e.g., Braves fans). For those, I suggest you watch football instead, where the great majority of the plays result in positive yardage and a great team can win 90-100% of their games. But that is not baseball. Every baseball team goes through stretches where no one can do anything right, seemingly. And the team and its fans just need to weather that. Earl Weaver, long time manager for the Baltimore Orioles, when faced with the prospect of putting in a pinch hitter that was 10 for his last 20 versus another hitter who was 0 for his last 20, was reputed to have said that one would be better off using the less successful of the two, because “he was due.” That hope, even in the face of all evidence to the contrary, is what makes baseball unique and, to me, what keeps the game enjoyable. In what other sport could one make such a brazen claim?
Point is, the New York Mets, and each of the individual players that have been stinking it up as of late, will get a chance to redeem themselves. Whether or not they will remains to be seen, but it is guaranteed that they will at least have a chance. It begins tonight when Pedro Martinez, who himself is trying to comeback from a career threatening injury, takes the hill. Mets fans, please channel some positive energy in the direction of Miami tonight, for, if nothing else, being a sports fan gives you the opportunity to be hopeful. Being a baseball fan, in particular, lets you witness redemption.
With that said, Let’s Go Mets!
posted by Donkey Boy at Friday, September 21, 2007
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