“Nothing is over, until we decide it is.
Was it over when the German’s bombed Pearl Harbor?
No!”
~ Bluto (“National Lampoon’s Animal House”)
11 come-from-behind wins this season and we’re not even at Mother’s Day. A team that fought back after giving up an 11 run inning (even though they lost) rather than packing it in for the next game. A team that lost it’s leadoff hitter on Opening Day, lost a key starting pitcher for the season, and their only “superstar” isn’t more than a “good player” in the eyes of their owner. Don’t forget that they were picked to finish last (which it is possible could still happen), and openly rejected their owners idea of painting them as a team of underdogs. The 2012 Mets have a very underrated yet important feature on their roster and in their clubhouse,
Heart.
After winning the franchise’s first World Series in 1969 the team sang, “You’ve got to have Heart” on the Ed Sullivan Show. It’s the core thought behind Tug McGraw’s “You Gotta Believe” rally cry and personally, I believe the team’s identity. What we’ve got here this year is a team that flat out doesn’t care what people think about them – they’re going out to play baseball and to play it as hard as they can until someone tells them that the game is over. Maybe it’s too easy to say that without Carlos Beltran and Jose Reyes, two great players who were often criticized for their demeanor and play style compared to a team with less talent who needs to out-hustle, out-work and out-last most opponents.
Andres Torres and Ruben Tejada (before he got hurt) see a lot of pitches. I mean, a lot. Torres had back-t0-back 9 or 10 pitch at-bats in Philidelphia. Daniel Murphy and Josh Thole (also, before he got hurt) are very patient hitters who don’t try to do too much in a two strike counts. This season the Mets are hitting .292 with runners in scoring position and 2 outs. The only team with a better average is the Texas Rangers and the Mets lineup doesn’t even compare. In the same situation (runners in scoring position and 2 outs), the Mets have 38 hits, 7 HRS and 53 RBIs (tied for best in baseball). That’s clutch. That’s heart.
When you look at these stats the obvious question comes to mind – “What if Ike Davis starts hitting?”
The answer, in short, is that the 2012 New York Mets could change everything about the organization. They can move us past Bernie Madoff, the bad signings, Fred Wilpon ripping his own team, and the team being an afterthought in the N.L. East.
Rebuilding is when you scrap what wasn’t working to start out new, and try to establish something that will work for years to come. Sometimes it’s just re-establishing something that was there before.
