On Bonding and Bowling

For those of you that were worried, stop.  Because Terry Collins has a plan.

He is planning on having bowling nights for staff and players. That’s right, bowling.

“You have to have fun, don’t you?” Collins asked. “I don’t even care if you don’t want to bowl or you want to bowl left-handed, but we are going to get together, have some pizza, have some fun and try to draw us closer together.”

I don’t want Chris Capuano bowling left-handed.

But seriously, how can bowling not bring the Mets closer together?  How can bowling not bring anybody closer together?  Of course, the Mets famously bonded over the Olympic hockey tournament and not only did it only get them just 79 wins (as Bitter Bill Price basically predicted), but even though Canada won in overtime, Jason Bay was still atrocious.  Imagine the season Jose Reyes would have had if the Dominican Republic had a better goalie?  (Or, you know, a hockey program … or ice.)

I’m not here to bash a bowling outing.  I’m not that petty or snarky.  But it brings a question to my mind … has there ever been a horrible season in which the team in question’s players were asked: “Where did this season go wrong?” to get the response: “Well, it really all started on that bowling outing in spring training.  It really drove a rift in the team, you know?  I mean, there was the unfortunate incident with the lane oil, and it set the tone for the season.”

Maybe nobody ever credited a great season to a bowling outing, and I doubt anyone ever will so we should be careful to not build this up more than necessary.  But I’d say there was more of a chance of that happening than bowling causing a bad season (and if it did that’s a story I have to hear).  Unless, of course, it ends with an MRI on an elbow ulnar collateral ligament at the end of the night.  (I guess R.A. Dickey is allowed to bowl since he has none anyway.  But he has to make the face.  It’s mandatory that Dickey make the face when he’s going after a sour apple split.)

So … bowling.  May not help, but can’t hurt.