NPR: New York Mets Complete Historic Collapse

New York Mets Complete Historic Collapse

The New York Mets finished off one of the worst collapses in baseball history Sunday. Never before has a team up by seven games with only 17 games left to play not made it to the postseason.

I spent a lot of time Sunday thinking about my friends who are diehard Mets fans. Few things in sports can leave you as emotionally wasted as watching your team disintegrate a few steps away from the finish line.

Leave it to the New York tabloids to deliver the final blows. "From Champs to Chumps," roared the New York Daily News. The New York Post chimed in with: "Choked to Death."

"It's never been more appropriate for a team to play in a city called Flushing," wrote the Post's Mark Hale. (Yeeeouch!)

As a Red Sox fan, I have walked down this road of thorns. We saw a 14-game lead over the Yankees collapse in 1978. And then, to make it worse, the team struggled back to force a tiebreaker with the Yankees, only to lose it all on Bucky Dent's home run. Or how about the ball Bill Buckner missed in Game Six of the '86 World Series, the one that would have ended decades of frustration. In the end, the Mets won that one, and we had to wait 18 more years to reach the Promised Land.

As Bill Clinton might have said, I feel your pain.

11:27 AM ET | 10- 1-2007 | permalink

Comments (Send a comment)

Uh, huh. New Yorkers are famous for moaning. Send them to the north side of Chicago to become Cubs fans. That'll teach them the meaning of baseball purgatory. A good broad shouldered men had to leave town with a dead goat tied around his neck when the Marlins won with two outs. At least the Mets have won a world series sometime in the last great century.

And for the Red Sox, coming back from three down to win four in a row.....No, you've had your quota of miracles until the year 2568. Don't push it.

fred call

Sent by fred call | 3:58 PM ET | 10-01-2007

My comment is this. This hurts a lot. My wife has said I have overreacted about this, but she does not understand. When you see inferior product running around and playing while your team sits at home, that disgusts you. I do not have other teams and I am just a casual observer of all other sports. But to listen to the radio and all you hear is about collapse of the Mets, that disgusts you. Personally I believe for a collapse of this magnitude and how it was done, I believe the Mets organization needs to give a public apology to all of its fans. Because this was nothing short of a wound that feels like it will not heal until April 1, 2008.

Sent by Brandon | 2:47 PM ET | 10-03-2007

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