Baseball Ends In the Big Apple

The Yankees and the Mets ended the regular season tied for the best record in baseball. Both teams fell short of their goal -- winning the World Series. For one team, as disappointing as it was, the outcome was inevitable. But for the other, the team whose dreams were dashed last night, this was supposed to be their season. Instead, Met fans watched the season end just as Carlos Beltran watched strike three.

So what happened?

The Yankee failure was more obvious and, I predict, will happen again in 2007. There are only four or five championship caliber players on that team. The rest are talented but pampered and selfish and they lack the manager who can light a fire under them.

The Mets, however, lost to a team that finished the season 83-79. These were the same Mets that had played all season long like the Tigers played this postseason. I believe they lost for a number of reasons.

• Injuries: well, of course! Losing Pedro Martinez was tough to overcome. Losing El Duque made their postseason look even more bleak. There is no doubt this hurt the Mets. But it is not the only reason, nor is it the biggest reason -- El Duque and Pedro could not have pitched any better than Mayne and Perez did in games 6 & 7. Period. What it did do, however, was put excess pressure on sophomore manager Willie Randolph who...
• Overused the bullpen: While this is going to be an unpopular truth, it is truth nonetheless. Willie Randolph, who deserves mountains of praise for what he accomplished with this team in the regular season, also deserves some blame for their untimely defeat. This series was not lost on Aaron Heilman's changeup (a bad fall guy, if you ask me -- he's one of the heroes of this team). This series was lost in Los Angeles. In the three game sweep of the Dodgers, the already overworked Met bullpen were forced to eat up a ton of innings. It was also true early in this series. Randolph showed such little faith in his starters that he tired out his greatest asset. And the team paid dearly for it.
• He's no Mariano: They may play in the same city. The may play the same position. And they may even have the same music played when they walk to the mound. But make no mistake, Billy Wagner has nothing in common with Mariano Rivera. Or Trevor Hoffman, for that matter. Or Todd Jones. Billy Wagner throws as hard as anyone in baseball history. But he's too darn hittable. And the more the Mets needed him, the worse he performed. Look at it this way, if Randolph had faith in him, he would have been out on that mound in the top of the ninth, not poor Heilman.
• Dead bats: Great performances by Suppan aside, the Mets hitting in the last four games was atrocious. They couldn't even hit Jeff Weaver, for crying out loud. You need pitching to win. But you still need to generate some offense.
• A-Rod plays for the Mets? Called strike threes are simply awful any time a player does it. I'll take a guy who strikes out swinging over a looker any day of the week -- at least the guys who swing may hit the ball. What Carlos Beltran did in the bottom of the ninth is unacceptable. When you are a three, four or five hitter you better be prepared to swing. The season was on the line. You do not watch any close pitch go past. If he swung and missed, we could all forgive him. This, however, is just plain bad baseball.

So now baseball moves to the midwest for a fall classic no one would have picked in spring training. The former laughingstocks known as the Detroit Tigers take on the team tied for the worst record ever of a league champion in the St. Louis Cardinals (the 1973 Mets had the same record -- and lost to the Oakland A's in seven).

I don't anticipate St. Louis putting up much of a challenge against this Tiger ball club. They've got too much heart and determination -- and good health.

Tigers in five.