What Could Have Been: The Mets' Bleak Future Was Sealed When 2006 Ended

The stadium was rumbling as if an earthquake had struck from underneath it.  The fans were screaming as if their lives depended on it.  It was October 19^th, 2006, Game 7 between the St. Louis Cardinals and the New York Mets.  The winner here would face the Detroit Tigers in the World Series.

Jose Valentin stood at third base, staring at the small diamond-shaped plate that sat 90 feet away.  Of course, his run meant nothing.  He glanced over to where Endy Chavez was faking down the line at second base.  If he scored, then they were alive and well.  Someone coughed.  It was Paul Lo Duca at first base, the run that mattered the most.

Carlos Beltran took a deep breath.  The count was 0-2, but his history against Cardinals pitching assured everyone, including the 50,000+ men, women, and children sitting around where he stood, that the game was surely not over yet.  It couldn’t be.

Adam Wainwright stared down the ‘gauntlet’ at Yadier Molina, who had just crushed a go-ahead homerun a half-inning previously.  This was it.  All or nothing.  He held the small, 9-inch ball in his hands, twirling it nervously.  Looking for the signs, he understood.  Curveball, outside and at the knees.  Good enough for him.

Wainwright stood up and lifted his leg.  The ball was flying out of his hands at slow motion.  At the plate, Beltran clutched his baseball bat as the ball came rocketing towards home.  It was a curveball…

The Shea Stadium faithful leaped up into the air as the bat connected with the baseball, sending it sailing into the air.  The jubilant voice of Gary Cohen could be heard across the country.  It was going… going…

GONE!  A walk-off grand slam!  The Mets win!  The Mets win!

The party lasted all into the night as the team prepared for the World Series. The grounds crew at Shea Stadium spent weeks cleaning up the champagne that was spilled that nght.

They had skated by a pesky Cardinals team, but now had the face the juggernaut Tigers.  But they had something the Tigers didn’t have: the confidence of a lifetime.

That proved to be all that they needed, as the Mets went on to sweep the Tigers in four games with their newfound confidence.  The Tigers had won their pennant much easier and much faster than Mets had.  Naturally, the Tigers were a tad sluggish in the World Series… and the Mets crushed them.

The Mets came out the following year with a fire in their eyes, going 36-13 in the first two months.  They kept us this streak going like a championship team should, knowing that they had one once that therefore, since they had the exact same team the next year, they could win easily.

With the confidence they had procured, and they went to win 110 games in 2007, the largest amount in team history.

However, a surprising Colorado Rockies team that had won 13 of their last 14 powered into the playoffs with even more confidence, and proved too much for the Mets, whose starting rotation had been, until this point, fairly decent, and the Mets lost in the Division Series in five games, unfortunately.

So, the Mets elected to sign Cy Young Award winner Johan Santana the following year.  They gave up a few prospects for the sign, but it was well worth it, for in 2008, led by All-Stars David Wright, Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran, Carlos Delgado, and now Johan Santana, the Mets clobbered the Division

The Mets then swept through the playoffs, beat the Wild Card Phillies in the Championship Series, and went on to beat the Tampa Bay Rays to win another World Series title.

In 2009, the Mets knew that several other teams were going to attempt to challenge them in 2009.  The strength of the Phillies was growing.  The Dodgers were becoming a formidable power. 

So, seeking a third World Series win the past four years, they all stayed in perfect shape in the off-season and came to Spring Training like it was 2006 again…

A few players got injured in 2009, including Carlos Delgado with a hip problem, Carlos Beltran with a knee problem as Jose Reyes with a hamstring issue, although quick diagnosis kept him on the DL for only 10 days.

Luckily, because the team had come to camp in shape, not for a second feeling sorry for themselves, the DL stints were very quick and David Wright, who knew now how to win a championship, collaborated with the rest of the team and kept them afloat until the others returned around the All-Star break.

As it stood when last observed, the Mets were around 20 games over .500 and tied for first with the fightin’ Philadelphia Phillies, vying for their third World Series title in four years.  Now, as a complete team again, they had a good chance at winning again.

Everything was so perfect…

His mother was shaking him awake.  Man, he couldn’t believe he had fallen asleep.  He was in his car heading home, at least 50 miles away from Shea Stadium.  He could hear the post-game on the radio vaguely, but not clearly.  It was safe to ask.  After all, he had to believe…

“Who won the game, Dad?”

“The Mets lost.”

And we all know what happened next, all because the swing never took place, because the bat never connected with the ball, because Carlos Beltran stood idle as the tiny, 9-inch sphere that carried the hopes the Mets had in 2006-2009 sailed towards him… and right by him as if it was never there.