Meet the Mets: Baseball's Biggest Joke

On May 20th, the Empire State Building was glowing blue and orange in recognition of the Mets' series win over the Yankees.

The Bronx Bombers were down and out, losing a different starting pitcher every game and watching their consecutive postseason appearance streak grow increasingly doomed.

Back then, it was the Yankees who seemed to be shooting themselves in the foot.

David Wright would later go on to use to the same words to describe his own Metropolitans.

It’s hard to feel sympathy for this Mets team, and the same goes for their fan base.

It’s hard to feel for a team that blew numerous opportunities to close the door on a playoff spot. And it’s hard to feel for a group of fans who proclaimed their team the “Kings of New York City”...while team management worked diligently to add extra seats to Shea Stadium in anticipation of the divisional series.

Queens was ready to hold their ticker-tape parade before October 1st even arrived.

But the inconsistencies of this 2007 Mets club led to their ultimate demise.

Whether it was Jose Jose Jose not running out a routine grounder...or Carlos Delgado going weeks between productive at bats...or Billy Wagner searching for a way to get three outs...or Lastings Milledge trying to compete with the NFL’s Terrell Owens and Chad Johnson for most ridiculous scoring celebration...or Tom Glavine, John Maine, Oliver Perez, and company looking to find quality starts...or David Wright digging deep for tired sound-bites on his team’s struggles...or manager Willie Randolph trying to keep his team focused...

This club was in trouble from the beginning.

While the Mets were unable to win just two games (instead of one) during their final home stand, the team that had taken eight straight from them was celebrating in the City of Brotherly Love as if they'd just won the World Series.

In reality, though, the Phils were just overjoyed to be on the positive end of the worst collapse in baseball history.

You can take the 2004 Yankees and 1978 Red Sox and move them down on the list of baseball embarrassments. This year’s Mets take the cake.

A first-place team from April 1st until this past week, they were innings away from clinching their second straight division title with ease.  However, they chose to blow a seven-game lead with 17 games left to play—a statistic that has employees at the Elias Sports Bureau scratching their heads in disbelief.

Maybe it's that the Mets beat themselves in the final stretch of the six-month season.  Maybe it's that the Nationals or Marlins wanted “it” more.

Blame Willie Randolph, blame Omar Minaya, blame the Mets’ 25-man roster, or maybe blame the shortstop from the Philadelphia Phillies.

The loudmouth middle infielder whose bold prediction hit headlines this past winter couldn't keep his trap shut.  But as the Mets kept playing the “we’re still in first place” card after every loss, Jimmy Rollins was busy playing National League MVP.

You're currently logged into Facebook

Do you want to share your Bleacher Report activity on Facebook?