When it comes to great sporting moments in a fan’s life, there is little that can top the unexpected run to glory, the season that seems like it falls out of the sky.
Oh, sure, being a dominant favorite and fulfilling those ambitions is nice, too. The ’86 Mets, the ’86 Giants, the ’70 Knicks, any number of Yankees championship teams through the years: There’s a definite satisfaction to the swagger that goes with that. But it’s also a little nerve-wracking, too.
The ’69 Mets are the gold standard for the route Pat Riley would dub “the innocent climb,” succeeding when nobody expects you to. You don’t always have to win the title in those years, either. The ’99 Knicks, for instance — just going from the eighth seed to the Finals was something that took the city’s breath away.
That probably is why last year’s Mets were such a fascinating case study. From 52-50 on the last day of July to National League champions, all in the blink of an eye.
Still, savvy Mets fans, those with a sense of history, all of them seemed to understand something: Winning a World Series so unexpected was vital. All the talk of how this was a pitching-rich organization primed to be good for years to come? Intellectually that might have been true. Emotionally? You have to take your shot when you get it. And if you miss …
Well, if you miss, sometimes what you’re set up for is exactly the opposite. If the 2015 Mets surprised you at every turn from Aug. 1 until Nov. 1, then so, too, have the 2016 Mets — only in every wrong way imaginable. And because there is no ration or reason attached to being a sports fan, there are a lot of Mets fans whose frustration and fury trump whatever happy vibes they enjoyed a year ago.
It’s a not unfamiliar terrain. Take the 2013 Knicks. The year before, in a splendid aberration from 15 unrelenting years of awful basketball, the Knicks won 54 games and a playoff series. The anticipation for the 2013-14 season was something Knicks fans hadn’t felt for years. In fact, when ESPN ran its computers and predicted the Knicks would win 37 games that year, that news was greeted with howls and guffaws.
Turns out, ESPN overrated them by a game.
Still, the team that feels like the ’16 Mets’ identical twin, in spirit and in practice, was the ’99 Jets. In the same way the ’15 Mets stunned their sport, so had the ’98 Jets, who two years earlier were 1-15 but in Year 2 of Bill Parcells went 12-4 (after a 1-3 start), won a home playoff game and led the AFC Championship game at Mile High Stadium in the third quarter.
The Jets lost that game but immediately became consensus favorites to win the Super Bowl the next year. Vinny Testaverde was coming off a career year. The Jets had added so many complementary players who wanted a seat on the Jets’ victory tour it seemed almost impossible to believe it could be derailed …
And then, in the first game of the year against New England, Testaverde’s Achilles tendon went pop. The Mets didn’t have one traumatic moment like that, but a series of them — David Wright, Lucas Duda, Matt Harvey. And maybe losing players like that for both teams meant the Super Bowl wasn’t an option.
But in the same way Sandy Alderson hadn’t made a strong enough contingency plan to offset the spate of Mets injuries, Parcells had left himself exposed without Testaverde. Rick Mirer wasn’t near good enough as a backup, and though Ray Lucas later emerged and had a fine season, by then it was too late: The Jets started 0-3 and 1-6 and 4-8, the season over long before a late winning streak salvaged an 8-8 record.
More telling was the instant shift in the fan base’s pulse: from hope to horror, glee to glum. It can happen that fast. And can disappear even faster.
Vac’s Whacks
There are way too many times when the Mets look like a sandlot team that was put together five minutes after batting practice. Bad baseball is one thing. Unwatchable baseball, that’s what’s unforgiveable.
There are times I wish Jason Alexander could have visited Geno Smith just after the Jets picked him and offered him a little advice on how to apply the Costanza Rule — whatever you think the right thing is, do the opposite — to his entire career.
Baseball season got you down? Tuesday Jerry Barca’s terrific look back at the ’86 Giants, “Big Blue Wrecking Crew,” hits bookshelves. It’ll take your mind off your worries, that’s how good it is.
Another year without George Young in the Hall of Fame is another year the Hall is as big a joke as that Canton stadium is.
I don’t have all the pertinent facts, so I don’t know how to properly assess Josh Brown. But Ben McAdoo ought to learn a harsh lesson that when he volunteers the notion of a zero-tolerance policy regarding domestic violence, he is going to be held to it — and not with a waiver clause if he needs to go on the street looking for a placekicker.
Whack Back at Vac
Dennis Benzer: In 2020 Japan should not issue a Visa to the Ryan Lochte and let him stay home and watch on TV.
Vac: I think we can all agree by then he’ll surely be keeping up with the Kardashians.
Steve Schafler: Well, unless there’s a 1973-type Mets miracle, it looks like we might finally see the Cubs in the World Series. How great would it be to see Steve Bartman throw out the first pitch in Game 3?
Vac: Sign me up for that. And can we get the billy goat a glove, too?
@vincehaney: What gets me is the lack of contingency planning around oft-injured David Wright. A wing, a Wilmer, and a prayer? Mind-boggling.
@MikeVacc: If last year was Sandy Alderson’s “Deer Hunter,” this year is his “Heaven’s Gate.”
Patrick Grant: Could Usain Bolt make it in the NFL like Bob Hayes did?
Vac: That’s fun to think about. But Bolt makes a handsome living running where Hayes couldn’t earn a nickel at it. And nobody clotheslines you down the straightaway of a 100-meter race.