Which Came First, the Myth or the Mets?

One of the joys of being a Mets fan is auto-schadenfreude, as pretty much every time they will let you down. Of course, unless you're a Yankee fan, which is sort of like rooting for death (you just know you'll get beat eventually), almost every team knows it will lose. But while teams like the pre-2004 Bosox and current Cubs get to have curses, the Mets just get to be loveable losers--liking them is partially about relishing in what silly bad thing they might do next. It might be the confusion among Spanish-speaking and English-speaking fielders that led to collisions, errors and the terrific band name Yo La Tengo, it might be Dallas Green making men out of pitching prospect boys and destroying the arms (at least for any hope of the arms helping the Mets in their careers) of Paul Wilson, Jason Isringhausen and Bill Pulsipher, it might be Armando Benitez blowing Game 1 of the 2000 World Series and any chance the Mets had of beating the better Yanks that year (I mean, c'mon, we thought Timo Perez could be a hero back then).

So today I go home at lunch to see how the boys are (one of us checks in on them every lunch), and the Mets are on TV. And so I watch as I eat, and it's after Pedro has given up a first inning homer and has become Pedro circa 1999, striking out 12 guys in 4.1 innings. And Carlos Beltran is looking natty as a Met, too, smiling wide and hitting a homerun. It's so good to see brilliant players in the Mets unis. I even get the warm and tingly feeling from Jose Reyes again, thinking this is the year he finally achieves his promise, as he's clearly just a ballplayer (if one cursed with hamstrings that often leave him hamstrung).

Pedro leaves the game, the Mets go up 6-4, and he should win his first start as a Met.

Then the Mets become the Mets again, and two mighty swings by Adam Dunn (sure, he'll lead the majors in homers this year, sort of excuseable) and Joe Randa (not good enough for the KC Royals) mean the Mets blow it in the bottom of the ninth.

It hurts so good to have baseball back.