Good News, Bad News

My wife Karin and I joined son Mike to watch the last — and saddest — day of the NY Mets 2007 season.

Here is the good news, my wife holding a complete set of 2007 Mets postseason tickets for two, before we left our car to walk to Shea Stadium to watch the game and deliver the tickets to Mike:

Mets 2007 Postseason Tickets.

Here is the bad news, a picture taken just over an hour later:

One out in the first inning: Marlins 4, Mets 0.

You can see by the scoreboard that the Mets are down four runs within minutes after the game has started. Starting pitcher Tom Glavine would make an early exit in that inning after he recorded just one out and gave up seven runs, going from starting pitcher to season closer in a matter of minutes. [1]

The Mets never came back, thus ending their season, causing grown men to cry, and and breaking some hearts in the process, as foretold by the late A. Bartlett Giamatti:

“It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone.”

Notes:

1. Let’s do the math. Glavine recorded just one out and gave up seven runs before exiting the game, including two that were scored as “unearned” but in fact were not as they were due to his wild throw to third base. That works out to 189 runs per nine earnings, for an E.R.A of 21! Though hard to believe, this was reported to be his second-worst outing ever. It was almost certainly his last for the Mets.