Stunned Mets to embark on another grueling offseason
NEW YORK -- There was silence at the end.
Just a strange silence.
|
|
| The Mets can't believe it happened to them again. (Getty Images) |
But first there was silence at Shea.
Just a strange, stunned silence.
You can say that no one should have been surprised to see the Mets season end Sunday, with a 4-2 loss to the Marlins. You can say that we all saw this coming, because this is how it always ends for the Mets.
You can even say that it doesn't matter, that this Mets team with its mess of a bullpen and inconsistent offense could never have gone anywhere in October, anyway.
You can say all that, but it doesn't change what Mets fans had to be feeling, and what Mets players had to be feeling.
Two straight years, they could have done it on the last day of the season. Two straight years, they didn't.
"It's not fun to have the feeling in your stomach that you wasted an opportunity, that you wasted a season," David Wright said as his teammates packed up and walked off into another winter full of questions.
"It's going to be a long offseason," Wright said. "I think everyone in this room has to look at themselves. I feel this is a failed opportunity."
Wright is part of the Mets' precious "core," the group that general manager Omar Minaya and Mets ownership believes in so strongly. And even though it's a group that has now failed on back-to-back final days, Minaya stood in a hallway outside the clubhouse and said he still does believe.
"If you look at a lot of championship teams, they've gone down to the last day (other times)," Minaya said. "It's one or two wins short. We have to find a way to get those one or two wins."
