Mets Rediscover The Value Of Intangibles

The Mets record-tying homestand was full of little things that yielded big results.

We all know that good pitching and timely hitting are at the core of any win streak. The quality pitching keeps the team in the game, and the clutch hitting brings opportunity for victory. However, the often ignored unquantifiable quantities are important contributors to a team’s long-lasting success. Or really, the lack of these quantities is an important contributor to a team’s demise.

For many years now, Mets fans have grown accustomed to seeing mental and physical miscues. Even during the relatively successful Bobby Valentine tenure, it wasn’t all that rare to see an outfielder forget how many outs there were, or a player forget to touch second while returning to first on a long fly out. Just last year, it seemed like every game brought a new kind of absent-minded play. From a losing error on the game’s final play (which happened more than once) to the potentially leading run missing third base on his way home, fans were often left scratching their heads, wondering what misfortune would be next. The whole scene was reminiscent of many 80’s sitcoms (the really good ones excluded) where you knew what was going to happen before the show started, but how it would play out was where the canned laughter came in.

So really, it should come as no surprise that this most recent Mets’ homestand was full of these plays. Terrible throwing errors, bone-headed decisions, Little League-style lapses of judgment, all of this was old hat (old cap?) for the Citi Field fans. That is until…wait for it…dramatic pause…it wasn’t the Mets committing these errors! Seriously. The Mets were the ones playing sound fundamental baseball. That team that was shut down by the opposition’s inconsistent young pitcher? That wasn’t the Mets, that was the Cubs. That awful play with the dropped pop-up (on an infield fly, no less) followed by nobody covering home plate? That was Chipper Jones and Brian McCann and they still play for the Braves. That wild pitch with the bases loaded? Yeah, that was thrown by a pitcher on the Los Angeles NotTheMets.

This isn’t to downplay the importance of good ole pitching and hitting. Despite only hitting 5 home runs during the 10-game homestand, the Mets got the hits when it counted, including multiple 2-out RBI’s. Meanwhile, the starting pitching was statistically comparable to a hot streak by the ’91 rotation of Gooden, Viola, Cone, Darling and Wally Whitehurst. All terrific pitchers, and Wally Whitehurst. Without these hitting and pitching performance, obviously there would be no win streak.

Perhaps more importantly though, without these intangibles there’d be little hope for more of these streaks as the season continues. Timely hitting, quality pitching, these are temporary waves for a team to ride. But a team that has the fundamentals and intangibles in place is usually the team left standing at the end of a long season.
One more note…The Mets weren’t perfect during this homestand. There was some miscommunication on a fly ball, some lazy fielding, Reyes thought there were two outs when there were really three, etc. Fortunately these occurred at times and in ways that didn’t affect the outcome of the game. And frankly, after the almost daily ugliness of 2009, these moments deserved little more than an eye roll and a smirk, like a silly joke told by someone you admire.
It’s probably safe to say the Mets and their fans would trade their 2009 comedy of errors for a bunch of eye rolls and smirks, and perhaps some wins to be named later.

See what I mean?

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Topics: 80 S Sitcoms, Bobby Valentine, Canned Laughter, Covering Home, Demise, Dramatic Pause, Field Fans, Fundamental Baseball, Home Fans, Intangibles, Lapses, League Style, Little League, Mets Fans, Miscues, Misfortune, Old Hat, Outfielder, Win Streak, Young Pitcher

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