Stop Me If You've Heard This Before....

This might sound familiar. The Mets have 2 weeks left in their season, have a lead in their division and the teams they have left to play, except for one, are out of playoff contention. The Mets have full control of their destiny, they have the power to step up and put away sub par teams when it matters most. They need one or two good outings from their starting pitchers or they need that one big hit from their stars. For the most part, the Mets have more talent and bigger payrolls then the teams they will have to face down the stretch. At the most, they only have to win a couple games to ensure their playoff birth. Does this all sound too familiar? If it does, then you were watching baseball last year and you witnessed the Mets collapse and now, you are seeing the same thing happen all over again exactly the same way. It feels like the Twilight Zone. How is it that a team can end their season exactly the same way, with the same negativity and embarrassment two years in a row? In sports history, no team has collapsed in consecutive seasons. There has never been a team that with the lead in their division, gave it up the last two weeks of the season twice in two years. Although, if you watch closely, you might see history in the making. If the Mets continue to lose to below average teams this year, like the Washington Nationals and Atlanta Braves these last two weeks, then they will go down in sports history as the biggest choke artists ever assembled. Why is it so difficult for them to learn from their mistakes? What does it take to motivate a team to win? Could it be the thought of utter collapse again? Could be the sound of boos coming from your home stadium? Could it be your heart telling you to just push it a little farther? Could it be the desire to be a champion and to succeed? The Mets have one more chance tonight, September 17th, 2008, to show to their fans and quite frankly to themselves, that they are beyond the dark shadows they cast at last season's end. That they have the fire within, that will finally be let loose to burn down the images of the epic collapse that has been following them around for the last year. This is it. There are no more second chances. There is not another opportunity out there to try again. If the Mets lose and find a way to miss the playoffs again this year, the repercussions will be drastic. There is a dim light of hope still shining in New York that our wonderful city will be represented in the 2008 Major League Baseball postseason, but the energy that powers that light is quickly running out. Lets all hope that last year doesn't happen again.