Disgusting Part 2: Elimination Boogaloo

I’m not going to go on another rant as I did last night. What’s the point? Jeremy Hefner gives up eight runs in the first inning, the Mets give up another eight in the eighth and ninth, and they lose 16-1. It’s no more or less disgusting than last night. It’s just a different kind of disgusting. Whether it’s Josh Edgin giving up a back breaking home run to Ryan Howard or Josh Edgin giving up a grand slam to Ryan Howard in a blowout … why split hairs on what the difference is? Breaking our hearts and kicking our nuts are pretty much the same thing at this juncture.

The only differences were the fact that Thursday’s loss officially eliminated the Mets from the playoffs. How fitting. The other was the post game “festivities”, where Terry Collins gets asked if the team quit and just responds “ask them … I don’t want to say publicly”. For a guy who has been candid to a fault to say that, that pretty much says it all. Then you have Jeremy Hefner who sounded like he was conducting his post game locker room scrum with reporters in the middle of a good cry after he couldn’t record an out. It’s a shame that it’s come to this.

I watched the entire game. I’m insane, I know. But here’s what struck me most of all: How could the owners of this team, who supposedly care about the health of this franchise, watch a game like this where it was so quiet and lifeless that you could hear a guy cough throughout the entire broadcast, and then be able to hear one lone fan clap and cheer “Let’s Go Mets” and think that this is acceptable? Then have the gall to publicly announce that the paid attendance was 20,010? It might be standard operating procedure, but it insults our intelligence. I understand that this is a make-up of a rainout and they’re generally empty. I understand that this team blows emu balls and the average sports consumer would get more out of their night if they watched two rats fight over the grease inside an empty potato chip bag in the subway. But even by any reasonably lowered expectation, that atmosphere was beyond abominable. How does a Wilpon watch that entire game, as I did, and not think that this is completely and totally embarrassing? The play on the field tonight is bad enough. But that combined with the three people in the stands … How is a Wilpon not completely embarrassed tonight?

They’re the ones who have to look in the mirror, and look at their franchise. And if they can’t see, or refuse to see, that every aspect of this franchise from the product on the field to the apathy in the stands is an embarrassment, then I can’t help them. If they just want to look at that number 20,010 and not see what’s actually going on with their team, then they’re dumber than even I thought they were.