Disappointments Past and Present

(Note: This post was written immediately following the New York Giants' loss to the Philadelphia Eagles)

Mets fans know disappointment, particularly of late; indeed, disappointment has been the takeaway from each of the past three seasons.

But no two disappointments are the same. Disappointing as they each were, 2006, 2007, and 2008 are all variations on the theme.

Of them, for me, 2006 remains the greatest disappointment. All along, 2006 just felt like the year. The come from behind victories, the non-stop momentum, the run-away division title. All year it felt like the stars had aligned; then, on October 19, the stars came crashing down.

To be in the stadium that night, you'd have never seen it coming. Between the improbably excellent pitching of Oliver Perez, Endy's magical catch, and the flag-waving fervor of the crowd, you felt sure the Mets would somehow find a way. As I've written, you felt that certainty until the only thing left to believe was that strike 3 had come and the Mets' season had gone.

All that said, 2006 isn't the public face of Mets disappointment; 2007 owns the honor. The end of 2007 was stunning and humiliating, but where the end of 2006 defied all logic, the end of 2007 made perfect sense.

From their public pronouncements to their play on the field, all season long the Mets seemed to be on auto-pilot, asleep at the switch and overconfident. Only at the end did they seem humbled.

Pictures of devastation on the faces of Mets fans are readily available, but what endures for me is that great headline from Faith and Fear: "I'm OK, and That's Not OK". I think there's a lot of us that felt that way.

And then there was 2008. When the end came last year, I found myself oddly at peace with it. A lot of fans (and, my god, an awful lot of sportswriters) lumped 2008 in with 2007, calling them two halves of a whole.

But for me, 2008 was a different story altogether. In 2007, complacency did them in; they sleepwalked through the season and were comatose to the end. In 2008 the Mets had a fatal flaw -- their bullpen just couldn't hack it -- but as soon as Willie Randolph was canned, they seemed determined to make it work.

They scratched and clawed and gave us one of the most stomach-twisting, can't miss, drama-packed seasons of baseball that I can remember. Did they fall short? Yes. Was it disappointing to have come that far only to fall short? Of course. But on some level, too, it was OK; such is the way of the world.

* * * * *

Disappointment wears different masks. It can come from a dream deferred (2006). It can come from shown-up entitlement (2007). And it can come from admirably falling short (2008).

To me, the Giants' loss today feels more like Column A than anything else. The difference, of course, is the Mets didn't win the World Series the year before a charmed season crashed down around them.

But this season always felt special for the Giants. After scratching and clawing for respect, first, and a title, second, in 2007-2008, the Giants finally took the next step in 2008-2009. From the first game of the season they looked like worldbeaters, but come the last, which came too soon, they finally ran out of magic.

It happens. It sucks, but disappointment happens.

But the truth is, for me, as disappointing as this loss today was, writing about baseball makes me feel better already.

- A.F.O.M.G.