Sports: Another Great Collapse

In 1964, it was the Philadelphia Phillies who blew a big lead late in the season and lost the National League pennant to the St. Louis Cardinals, who then went on to win the World Series. This year, it was the New York Mets, who led the National League eastern division by seven games in mid-September, only to lose the regular season division championship to--of all teams--the Philadelphia Phillies. Not only did the Mets lose the division championship, but they didn't even make the play-offs via the wild card route. Tom Glavine lost the last game of the season. The Mets gave up seven runs to Florida in the first inning of yesterday's finale. The sad thing about it, from my perspective, is that the Braves weren't able to cash in on the Mets' misfortune. Even after a late-season trade that seemed likely at least to get us in the play-offs by bringing us a big-time bat, the Braves pitching let us down, as the Braves could manage only slightly better than a .500 record for the season, with 84 wins. So the Braves have missed the post-season for two years in a row now after all those years of winning the division. Next year, TBS will no longer be telecasting the Braves as they have in the past. It will be interesting to see what the financial and ownership structure of the team will be in 2008. I hope the Braves get back in the play-offs next year; but I wonder if I'll be as big a fan of the Braves by then. For now, I have little sense of how the post-season will go this year. I expect either the Yankees or Boston to win the World Series. I just don't think the National League teams are that strong this year.