Opinion: The Black Cloud
In an emotional, and must-read report for SNY.tv, Ted Berg writes:
“I’ve written all along that, rather than playing without hustle or heart or desire or the killer instinct, the Mets are merely playing without that much talent, a predicament far more tangible and fixable than the ones so many of my colleagues have lamented…Now, I don’t know what to think. Maybe everything I thought I knew is wrong. Maybe these Mets are too accustomed to losing, after all. Maybe they’re underachievers. Here I thought they weren’t winning games because they can’t hit. Maybe they simply can’t win games…I should love this job…But every day, with every agonizing Mets loss, it becomes harder. I can only imagine how the players feel.”
…i sense that fans are giving up, emotionally speaking…it’s not that fans will stop watching or stop attending a game here and there, at least not yet, it’s just the passion that so many of us had in the middle of last season is long gone…
…and, apparently we are not alone…
…i have talked with a few agents who keep in touch with players, who knows players, i have talked with people connected to the team, people connected to its players, etc., and the sense i get is that there are several people on this team – key players – who are sick of the pressure, sick of the booing, sick of the media, sick of New York, and, if the team is winning it is tolerable, but, if the team is losing, they just can’t take it…
…i know Willie Randolph wants us to ‘turn the page,’ he wants us to focus on the future, and the long season that still 
remains…the thing is, like it or not, The Collapse is always looming…it hangs over all of our heads like a black cloud…the fans are still being affected by it, and players are still being affected by it…
…and so, i am starting to believe that this organization may need new players who have not been impacted by Game 7 and The Collapse…they may also need a new voice to lead them…the fans need new people to cheer, and to provide hope and something different…something other than the same slogans, the same results, the same players, the same cloud that is putting pressure on the players and depressing the fans…at this point, it’s not just about making the playoffs and winning baseball games, it’s about keeping us interested, passionate and hopeful…
…i want to believe this current group can get beyond all of this, and in some cases i do, but ownership may have too much riding on all of this to simply rely on faith at this point…
