Goodbye, Baseball

So I'm about three days late in articulating this, but I wanted to write a quick post about some thoughts that went through my head during Game 5 the other night.

First off, I'm happy for the San Francisco Giants. Tim Lincecum is eminently unhateable as far as I'm concerned, and he's easily the closest thing that team has to a "star" (unfair description: a two-time Cy Young winner, he's one of the brightest stars in the game).

Aside from that, as you've no doubt heard ad nauseam by now, the Giants were a team of "misfits" and "cast-offs," the kind of team that didn't have any business going all the way.

It would be enough to give you hope for the Mets in 2011, only the Mets' pitching isn't out of this world good. More than any quixotic notion that this was a matter of 25 guys coalescing into a no-I-in-team success story, the Giants' championship run was predicated on their pitching staff, which was brilliant in the postseason.

Is there a model for the Mets to replicate here? Not really. I mean, I want to think that someday they'll draft the next Lincecum and actually have the patience to let him develop, but more often than not that's not how the game is played in New York.

We'll see. We've got a shiny new GM, a guy who actually inspires confidence. In snapping up J.P. Ricciardi, Alderson already looks like a genius, if only because Ricciardi had a standing offer to join the Red Sox' front office, an organization we'd be lucky to be like when we grow up. He also re-upped with Mr. Glass, which needless to say made me happy.

But back to Game 5. Looking at aerial shots of the Ballpark in Arlington, it occurred to me that Sunday might be the last time I'd watch competitive baseball for another 6 months or so, and sure enough, it was.

I've written it many times, the end of the baseball season sucks no matter how it ends. I actually was able to watch and enjoy the final out of the World Series this year (first time since 2007), but as strike three came home Buster Posey's glove, it struck me almost instantly that that was it: goodbye, baseball.

There's football, yes, and even basketball, kind of, now that we have Amar'e Is Real. Still, it's small consolation.

And so we focus on the Hot Stove season. Is there any avoiding another tiresome season of mediocrity? Is there any relief from the burdens of Oliver Perez, Luis Castillo, and so many others? Stay tuned, Mets fans, stay tuned.

- A.F.O.M.G.