You’ve been hearing it all season long. The Mets are talked about with some variation of the caveat “They’ve been exceeding preseason expectations”. Adding this implies that those preseason expectations are more important than the results so far. It seems to suggest that we shouldn’t take what we’re seeing seriously, because a lot of talking heads in the offseason didn’t believe and guessing that this is all an illusion rather than a progression helps protect their opinion of themselves.
Not everyone thought the Mets would lose 90+ games though. I thought they’d be above .500, and I’m hardly the only one even if we’re in the minority. Rich Coutinho is another who’s been very upbeat on this team and his coverage of the team has a been a lot fairer and balanced than many of his contemporaries. The Mets aren’t exceeding our expectations, but are making good on the promise we saw in them.
Still, this was all March talk, and it’s now July and the second half. The Mets ARE in contention. They are winning baseball games and scoring a lot of runs and pitching well. It’s well past time to stop talking about what we thought about this team in March and start thinking about what’s going to happen going forward. We can’t pretend that it’s okay if the Mets fall short because we didn’t think they could do it. That’s a defeatist position from the outset. Baseball seasons are not linear progressions and no matter how much you believe in the process there is no guarantee that next year will be better than this year. It’s time to stop thinking about the carrot down the road, unless you’re Sandy Alderson who needs to consider all possible carrots, and start fighting for the carrot that’s right in front of us.
The expectations for this team have changed; make the playoffs. We can go back and make fun of Michael Kay and the others that predicted doom and epic disaster for this team later on. We’re beyond the point of celebrating that we don’t completely suck, it’s time to push the bar higher. We’ve got ourselves a pennant race, and there is no reason we should accept failure. None. Let’s sit on our couches, head out to Citi Field, see the Mets on the road and root and cheer and scream, and stress and enjoy over what’s going to happen over the next couple of months. That’s what being a fan is all about. Maybe they fall short, as most teams do, but don’t count them out before it’s over like so many did before the season even started.
