Eating Crow

Well, for what seems to be the 25th time this season, the Mets managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory last night. It was a pathetic heartbreaker, as the majority of Met games wind up this season, to lesser or greater extents. So over here at the Hopper household, we’ve all come to the conclusion that I’ll be eating crow very very soon.

You see, way back in March, I bought me one of those baseball preview guides, with all the baseball experts analyzing the baseball stats and baseball numbers, prognosticating who will win the baseball divisions in each baseball league, triumph in the baseball playoffs, and win the World Series. Of baseball.

They had the Mets back in the playoffs, securing a wild card spot. The Yankees, on the other hand, were divined to eke out a “rebuilding” .500 season.

I am the only Met fan in the house (though they have eroded a soft spot in my wife’s heart). The girls are all die-hard Yankees fans. And I unwisely floated this baseball magazine’s predictions to them, a little too heartily, with a tad too much gusto, perhaps.

At 25-33, eight games below .500, the Mets are treading just above the basement of the NL East, on track to finish the season 70-92. They have lots of problems – injuries to key players, regulars shifting to cover unfamiliar positions, poor fielding, horrible starting pitching, horrendous relief pitching, questionable managerial decisions, just to name a few. Some are saying they’ll lose a hundred games this season, though I don’t think the implosion will be that severe. 70-92 seems about right to me.

The Yanks, on the other hand, sit three games in front of Boston in the AL East. Their “.500 rebuilding season” has them so far at 35-23, 12 games above average and on par to win 98 games this year. The humongous Aaron Judge has replaced Yoenis Cespedes as King of New York, and will probably drive them deep into the playoffs, if not to the World Series. As a result, the wife is demanding a Judge jersey and has quietly tucked away her Mets shirts.

So unless something drastic shakes Citi Field, like a 15-game winning streak and / or the acquisition of three or four seasoned vets before the trade deadline, I will be eating crow for dinner for the next four months or so.