By Way of Explanation...

I happened upon an interview, last week, of our own Gary Cohen on ESPN 1050 radio in New York, with Michael "Ssssee Ya!" Kay, and Gary had a few sage words on the inconsistency and sometimes lackluster play from the Mets this season. If I understood him correctly, he thinks that the NLCS loss to the Cardinals had a profound effect on the psyche of the team - not, though, in the way you might think.

Gary believes that the Mets took acute notice of the fact that the Cards had a middling regular season and still won the World Series, in contrast to their own squad, which, of course, marched to 97 victories in the regular season and somehow won nothing. So, perhaps, the 2007 Mets have decided, en masse, to do only what needs to be done in getting through the season and into the playoffs - why bother sprinting when a jog will do?

As my legion of regular readers know, I have been frustrated with the team for months - at times outraged. I have to confess that this season has not been a particularly joyous one for me, and I think that the most frustrating part about watching this team has been the inability to find an adequate explanation for the poor play: the talent is there, the execution has definitely not been. The last happy moment I can remember of the 2007 campaign was Endy's walk off bunt, and that was, well, a long, long time ago.

I don't think I'm alone in my aggravation: when Willie and LMillz shared a chuckle a few nights ago in the dugout, it was the first time I had seen Willie smile in forever. For a while I thought it was his shoulder, but then I realized: no, he's as teed off as I am.

However, having digested Gary's explanation for the team's woes, I feel better about the whole thing. In fact, enlightenment has brought a calm and peace to the season for me: the Pirates loss last night didn't even bother me a bit.

It is understandable that the team would react this way to last year's disappointment, and I can't hold it against them.

The really interesting concept here is this: the 2007 Mets are apparently so damn good that they can get away with doing only the bare minimum, playing just well enough to maintain a lead in the division, winning just the right amount of games to keep hold on a playoff spot.

This is a helluva team after all.