Good News!

The Mets did not hit into any Double Plays last night! Hooraaaaaaay!

Then again, the only Met who was batting was David Wright, and that was on West 53rd Street, taking batting practice against David Letterman.

The day off should, if nothing else, allow the Mets to regroup from their miserable efforts over the weekend, in which they looked bad and the fans let them know it, both in the stands and elsewhere.

I've already made mention of the lack of patience the fans are going to have with the team this season. The first, last and only reason is because of the way last year ended. You didn't have to be a genius to know that if the Mets got off to even a slightly lethargic start this year, the fans would immediately be up in arms, getting on players, getting on Willie, getting on Omar and everyone else. Nobody's been immune.

It's not going unnoticed by the players. This article in yesterday's NY Times talks about what appears to be an increasing rift between players and fans. Some of the players, Scott Schoeneweis in particular, would prefer to ignore it. Brian Schneider seems upset by it. It's not so much that the fans expect the Mets to go undefeated, as Wagner seems to intimate, but that the Mets seem to lose in ways that are lifeless and lethargic.

The kind of losses that they seemed to have through most of last season.

It's not unlike Mets fans to boo their own players after a particularly bad performance. Or, in the case of Bobby Bonilla, all the time. But the fans reaction this year hasn't been directed at any one particular player, it's been directed at everyone. If they were or weren't on the team last year, they've got to carry the weight of last season.

What they don't seem to understand is that it's not so much the losing that bothers the fans, although it does bother the fans. But to lose in a continued fashion, exuding the intensity of a bowl of rice pudding that really seems to make the fans nuts. It's repeatedly being entrusted with a lead and repeatedly failing that drives us crazy. It's constantly getting men on base and hitting into double plays each time that makes us tear our hair out. If you want the fans to stop complaining, Play Better Baseball, dammit!

It's enough to make me want to call up SNY and ask them to stop replaying last season's games.

Fans Have Not Forgotten, or Forgiven, the Mets [New York Times]