—The Rime of the Ancient Mariner-Samuel Taylor Coleridge
To be clear, I was sitting on the couch in my parent's living room, ottoman between legs, like the night Mookie Wilson became immortal and Queens was the center of the world 20 Autumns before, when it happened. Lord Charles, the hammer, the hook—whatever you call it. The first time I laid eyes on one while standing in a batters box was the last time, some kid from Bayside High made me look silly. So as the St. Louis Cardinals celebrated in front of me and Carlos Beltran walked off, defeated and despondent, my first thought was of wonderment...
"Who throws a fucking 3-2 curve ball in the ninth inning of the seventh game of a National League Championship Series?!"
The answer, of course, was Adam Wainwright, that's who...
In the days that passed the natural inclination of most Met fans was to curse Beltran for keeping the bat on his shoulder and taking the backwards K. None of those fans have every seen a curve ball up close and personal, and therefore didn't know any better. But while the Beltran K and the failure of the team to advance to the World Series in 2006 was fated by Wainwright's 12-to-6er, it would not compare to what would befall the franchise over the next four years...
I don't have the time or inclination to rehash days gone by, suffice to say that the Mets, historically are a likeness of the Mariner in Samuel Coleridge's epic "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" and Beltran, fair or not represents the albatross in this current playing out of Met struggles. The trading of Seaver, the one inning too long for Gooden and the surrender of the Scioscia home run, Benitez, and Heilman and Yadier. The Beltran strikeout laid on the neck of the franchise like the albatross...
Beltran has been a great Met, when he has been healthy he has been everything we ever asked of him. He was no Mike Piazza, but who could be, Beltran came in and was a 5-tool player for this team. He played hurt until he couldn't play no more and hurt he was still better than the majority of center fielders in the game, so I'm sorry to see him go in that sense. But it occurred to me this morning as the Mets approached 6 1/2 games behind the wild card leading Atlanta Braves that there is a distinct difference in this team than the one that was playing the game just one week ago. They are free, the rain has fallen, there is water and there is wind. Regardless of how this season plays out, and whether the Mets keep it interesting through September or succeed in the improbable by cinching a wild card playoff birth, the albatross is gone. Never again will anyone have to answer for not swinging at a curve ball...
Never again will a Met's player have to answer for what happened in the past, because the all of a sudden, the Mets have a future...
3 comments:
One of the most unfairly criticized players in Mets history. It's the first pitch of that at-bat he should've smoked.
Like Todd Hundley, oh, that was just you.
All kidding aside if there is something we can learn from the the past 25 years; when in doubt, walk the catcher.
My biggest sports arguments are ALWAYS with those who have never played the game. Well done in that respect.
Also little league curve balls were pretty easy to hit. They hung. No bite. But at 16 years of age I encountered my first screwball in a righty on righty matchup. I still remember the path of that particular pitch vividly. Its the ONLY one I ever saw. And I K'd swinging as the ball ran in and plunked me on the knee. I never saw another one...probably because softball wasn't too far down the road.
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