Rhoden: Don't fire Randolph for Mets' collapse, etc.

Yes. If only Mr. Randolph had chosen a better battalion of ball boys, the entire season might have been saved.

And I'd have to get up pretty early in the morning to get a thread locked as quickly and efficiently as you do, boots. That Lasorda thread, and your witless bigoted hypocritical wisecrack, was locked right around 9am. I hadn't even finished my second cup of coffee.

 

Could it be that the Mets weren't as good as we all thought? Minaya added a lot of costly older players (Alou, Green, etc...etc...etc...) in the last two seasons. They didn't have a true No. 1 starter, someone who could end a losing streak and go deep into games. The bullpen was older and overworked.

But to blame the clubhouse kids and bat boys is the height of silliness. They had nothing to do with the Mets choking.

 

Pick your fight elsewhere old man river. The laSorda thread was locked because your cohort in fighting decided to make his attack on me public instead of taking it to PM. Just as you are doing now.
But hey, you have a problem with resin and rosin so I wouldn't expect you to comprehend where I'm coming from.
Look, do me a favor. If your next post IS NOT ABOUT Rhoden, or the Mets, either send it as a PM or keep it to yourself.
I'm asking you to do this because this was a good thread. It doesn't need to be locked over foolishness. If you truly cared about the way threads are, you would take my suggestion to heart.
You have the ball now jcmacg. What are you going to do?

 

Maybe we can salvage this thread from its unfounded and unfortunate beginning - and its rapidly decaying middle - by asking this:

How does a team choke?

Is it all psychological? Is some of it physical? Spiritual?

And which of these, specifically, can we find in the Mets big bowl of fail?

 

Thank you for your effort.
I've talked to psychologists, psychiatrists, spiritualists, etc. There is no secret to success in team sports. You've got 40 people thinking 40 different ways at any particular time but their one common interest is to win. What you are asking can't be explained.

 

It's a collection of a team knowing they don't have enough to hold a lead. The Mets knew their bullpen was a shoddy put together type of mess and teams exploited that. They beat up on their starters late in the season to force Randolph to use the pen. When a team knows they aren't sending the best out there, it can have an adverse effect on their mind.

 

I've got the mental picture of the hypnotist in the clubhouse scene from The Natural...

You're on a boat, gently rocking...

 

I think that the players were banking on Pedro coming back and salvaging the season, lifting them into the playoffs. All season long, when they were asked about him, the Mets said, "Wait 'til we get Pedro back. Then we'll be rolling."

But for a team that was supposedly chock full of talent--the National League's most talented team, said some--why look at Martinez as the savior?

 

Hypnotism has long been an athlete's friend. It helped Ken Norton the first time he fought Muhammad Ali.

 

In retrospect, I think the Mets' front office got a little too smart for its own good. They thought they could patch together a veteran staff (Glavine, El Duque, Martinez) along with a couple young guys (John Maine and Oliver Perez) but they didn't have a true No. 1 and they're bullpen never came together like last year to make up for the four- and five-inning starts. Between health issues and the lack of a stopper, their problems finally caught up with them. That's how you end up giving Humber his first MLB start in the final week. Lots of work to be done on the pitching staff during the off-season.

 

buh... buh... buh... the GM is a supergenius. I know this because he was on the cover of Sports Illustrated...

 

They're not alone. Pitching, or the lack of quality pitching, is a problem for practically every MLB team.