Opinion: The Pennant Race is Not a Building
In the Bergen Record, the sunny Bob Klapisch writes…
“The ballpark was filled with an awful,
end-of-the-season vibe, as if everyone realized the Mets were no longer breathing. Who still believes in them now, after another loss and another step toward the fastest collapse in baseball history?”
…well, i believe, bob…but, i know you know it’ll take a lot more than a clever headline to break me…so, there’s one fan for you…i just hope i’m not alone…
…by the way, i actually reject this idea of a ‘collapse,’ which is to say that teams build up some sort of structure that can be knocked down, i.e., [pennant race] is [building]…and that does the beauty of the baseball season a total injustice…for what it’s worth, i never refer to the Yankees losing to the Red Sox in 2004 as a ‘collapse’ either, but i know i know i’m alone in that…
…to me, the season is more horizontal, left to right, 162 games, all equal, no one game is more meaningful than the rest…you play each game on the day it is scheduled and whomever wins more will advance to the post-season…on what day you win, be in April 1 or Sepetmber 30, technically, is meaningless…all that matters is that you win more after 162…if the Phillies lose more games this weekend than the Mets, will we talk of them ‘collapsing,’ because they played like garbage in April, despite playing well through most of September…no, of course we won’t…yet, technically, it’s the same thing…ultimately, the Phillies will have lost more games, it doesn’t matter when and how, all that matters is that they lost more games…
…plus, looking at it this way, it allows me to smile a bit more and be positive, have fun, and enjoy the ridiculousness of this white-hot focus on the last three regular-season games, something that is quite rare for us fans…enjoy it…let the media have their headlines, back pages and rhetoric…don’t look back, don’t look forward, just look at today…this game…because, it’s really all that matters…
