Dear Billy Wagner:

Source: Hot Stove New York.

I come to you, hat in hand, eating a healthy slice of humble pie, to say that I’m sorry. After spending the last two weeks experiencing life with Aaron Heilman and his band of not-so-merry men as the closer(s) for my favorite baseball team, I now realize I’ve been too harsh on you.

In the past, I’ve cursed you while following games on television, the radio, and the Internet. I’ve called you overrated. I’ve said to anyone that will listen that you do more talking than pitching and that you can’t close out good teams. At one point, I thought moving Duaner Sanchez into the closer role was a good idea. I’m not proud of myself.

But it wasn’t personal, I swear. I don’t hate you. I’m just a Mets fan desperate for another World Series crown. I’m not sure if you know, but Mets fans have been burned by an inability to hold leads in big games in the past. In 1988, the Mets were heavy favorites in the National League and were on their way to a commanding 3-1 lead against the Los Angeles Dodgers when Mike Scioscia turned the series around with a ninth-inning bomb.

In 2000, I suffered through an Armando Benetiz meltdown in Game One of the World Series. And well, you know what happened in Game Two of the National League Championship Series in 2006. So if you can’t tell yet, I’m a bit shell-shocked. And bitter. When you blew a few games earlier this year, that shell-shocked bitterness came back.

But being subjected to the Heilman, Sanchez, Schoeneweis, Feliciano, and Smith quintet, while you are away, opened my eyes. To say the experience has been nerve racking would be an understatement. There is a reason you have 385 career saves and been named to five All-Star teams.

More often than not, you don’t hang change-ups while you are ahead in the count, walk light-hitting shortstops, hit batters with men on base, or give up home runs. Your replacements, on the other hand, do these things with regularity.

So please hurry up and get better. I have to admit, you’re latest setback has me a bit worried. Patching together outs at the end of games against the Nationals and Pirates is one thing. Closing out the Braves, Phillies, and Marlins is a different story. And while you may not be the best closer in baseball, you’re the best we’ve got.

Missing you every ninth inning,

Every Mets Fan