Now That's A Collapse!

The Philadelphia Phillies came back from 7 games down with 17 games left to topple the New York Mets, who all of the sudden turned into a bad team with two weeks to go.

I told a Mets fan after watching the Mets play the Braves that one thing that a Mets fan should be wary of is their starting pitching. Yes, their middle relief sucked too. And I thought this would be exposed in the playoffs. Instead, it was exposed in the regular season and they couldn't, for the most part, beat a healthy dose of the Washington Nationals and Florida Marlins down the stretch. Their starting pitching was largely inconsistent for a long time, and I got the, "Well, Tom Glavine is good, and now they've got Pedro, too." response.

As a longtime Braves fan, I enjoyed many wins with Tom Glavine on the mound. But the thing that stung me and stuck with me the most about Glavine was his trouble in the first inning, especially in the playoffs where batters begin to approach him differently than they do in the regular season. For all intents and purposes, this was a playoff game today and Glavine gave up 7 runs in the 1st inning. I'm sorry to say, this is typical Glavine. He will amaze you and make you a big fan and will let you down when you least expect it. It's sad but true. I'll always remember he was on the mound in Game 6 of the 1995 World Series and pitched shutout ball, but I'll remember all the failures too.

During the final game of that Braves/Mets series, there were Phillies fans in attendance. They were holding up a sign that touted their sweep of the Mets from a week prior (and their sign would have continued to be accurate the following weekend, when the Phillies swept them again). They were drunken females getting a load of derision from the Mets fans, especially when the Phillies were getting pummeled that night. Some Mets fans were yelling at them, "You're looking for the wild card, you want the Braves to lose! The Mets have nothing to do with you!" They continued doing their strange Phillies fandom throughout the game, cheering when the Braves did something good, yelling, "The Mets suck!" and a standing ovation in my section erupted when they were kicked out of Shea Stadium. These girls had a little too much alcohol.

I wonder, now, who feels more embarassed.