Off to Spain

There will be no updates on the blog for over a week, as I am off for spring break to Spain. Four Ranger games that I will miss. That will still leave 11 when I return. It's not like I'm leaving with the Rangers having a 12 point lead over the 9th seed with 16 games left and I return with 3 games left in the season. Let me explain.

2007. September. Not much more you can say. A vacation in Croatia, along the coast, while the weather was still warm. A seven game lead with 17 to play. The Mets had a weekend series with the Phillies at Shea. They lose the Friday night game. My flight was on Saturday. The lead was down to 5 1/2. A two week vacation would bring me back in time to see the final weekend series vs the Florida Marlins. No sweat, but damn why couldn't they win that Friday night game?

Since I was going to a place that had zero interest in baseball I decided to completely forget about all things American, including baseball, and simply catch up when I return. A bunch of Mets FastForward's were set on the DVR, waiting for me. While I was away I could not help but think a week or so into the trip: have the Mets clinched the division?

Arriving back in the States on Friday, September 28th, I turned away from every newsstand I passed at JFK, avoiding headlines. Same on the buses- don't look at the newspaper the person across from you is reading. Made it home with no clue as to what transpired the past couple of weeks. Turned on the TV first thing and brought up the DVR menu. All the Mets FastForwards were there. Let's watch two weeks of baseball in a matter of a few hours leading right up to the first pitch of that Friday night Marlins series opener.

While I was away, I was expecting playoff tickets to arrive, with my mother-in-law, a converted pessimistic Mets fan since I came into the picture, on hand to receive the pickup. She was at work when we arrived. My wife calls her to let her know we made it back. I'm watching the Saturday 9/15 Phillies game, right where I left off two weeks ago, the Mets comfortably ahead 5 1/2 with two more games to put a nail in the Phillies coffin.

"Did the tickets arrive?" my wife says to her mother on the phone.

A pause. A gasp from my wife.

"Oh my God." That's all it took.

I watch now fully expecting the Mets to blow a 3-2 lead late in that Saturday game and they did. Then a Sunday loss to complete the sweep. I breeze through ever disaster against the Nationals and Marlins. Joel Pineiro absolutely shutting down the Mets in a makeup game vs the Cardinals. I returned to find the Mets in a tie with the Phillies for the division with three games to play.

The moral of the story is if you care about your team, don't go on vacation at the end of the season. For me I don't know what was worse- the absolute shock to go from 5 1/2 up to tied in the standings, or the slow torture that was Mets baseball those two weeks. Maybe I was better off.