Honkballer Millionaire
They said it couldn't be done.
They said this hardscrabble group of unproven, untested Nederlanders could never beat the mighty juggernaut from the Dominican Republic.
I love an underdog as much as the next guy, but the truth is that I was pulling for the Dominicans. How couldn't I? Between Fernando Tatis and Moises Alou, this team had all of my favorite Mets.
But in the end it was the Netherlands that played their way into the second round. If you believe what you read, in the Dominican Republic the loss is being treated something like a mix between the Kennedy assassination and 9/11.
How did it happen? There's really no saying, but armchair analysts such as myself point to the typical psychological explanations. The Dominicans were overconfident and unprepared. The written-off Dutch lads forged a brotherhood premised on overcoming low expectations. Now if we could only find a role for a banging Dutch chick and an incredulous but nonetheless megalomaniacal WBC official, this story would easily win best picture.
There are lessons too for the Mets. Last fall I dubbed this offseason the "You Ain't Shit Offseason", the idea being that somewhere along the way (2006, most likely), this Mets team became counterproductively self-confident, and an entitlement mentality set in. So thorough was their dominance in 2006 (nevermind what happened in the playoffs, of course), that the team played the next season as if the playoffs were their birthright.
It's possible a similar affliction doomed the Dominican team in the WBC. As one distraught fan put it, the Dominicans should beat the Nederlanders 9 out of 10 times, and yet they lost two straight to them. In the first game I'll bet it was overconfidence, but in the second game I have to think it was a certain tentativeness that did in the Dominicans, particularly when they didn't score early.
Whatever it was, the Mets would do well to play like the honkballers from the Netherlands. They played without expectation, but they also played without fear. They played their game and let the other team succomb to overconfidence, tentativeness, or whatever it was.
They honkballed like warrior poets. Soon it will be the Mets' turn.
- A.F.O.M.G.
They said this hardscrabble group of unproven, untested Nederlanders could never beat the mighty juggernaut from the Dominican Republic.
I love an underdog as much as the next guy, but the truth is that I was pulling for the Dominicans. How couldn't I? Between Fernando Tatis and Moises Alou, this team had all of my favorite Mets.
But in the end it was the Netherlands that played their way into the second round. If you believe what you read, in the Dominican Republic the loss is being treated something like a mix between the Kennedy assassination and 9/11.How did it happen? There's really no saying, but armchair analysts such as myself point to the typical psychological explanations. The Dominicans were overconfident and unprepared. The written-off Dutch lads forged a brotherhood premised on overcoming low expectations. Now if we could only find a role for a banging Dutch chick and an incredulous but nonetheless megalomaniacal WBC official, this story would easily win best picture.
There are lessons too for the Mets. Last fall I dubbed this offseason the "You Ain't Shit Offseason", the idea being that somewhere along the way (2006, most likely), this Mets team became counterproductively self-confident, and an entitlement mentality set in. So thorough was their dominance in 2006 (nevermind what happened in the playoffs, of course), that the team played the next season as if the playoffs were their birthright.
It's possible a similar affliction doomed the Dominican team in the WBC. As one distraught fan put it, the Dominicans should beat the Nederlanders 9 out of 10 times, and yet they lost two straight to them. In the first game I'll bet it was overconfidence, but in the second game I have to think it was a certain tentativeness that did in the Dominicans, particularly when they didn't score early.
Whatever it was, the Mets would do well to play like the honkballers from the Netherlands. They played without expectation, but they also played without fear. They played their game and let the other team succomb to overconfidence, tentativeness, or whatever it was.
They honkballed like warrior poets. Soon it will be the Mets' turn.
- A.F.O.M.G.
posted by A Friend of Mr. Glass' at 9:47 AM
1 Comments:
dudes gotta figure out a spot for kielty. he hits the ball hard as hell every time i see him bat.
is Pagan hurt again? who are the 4th,5th and 6th OFs?
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