Enough

As The RA Dickey magic was coming to a crashing halt during the bottom of the 3rd inning of Sunday's game against the Phils, the boys in the booth were talking about the Phillies ability to stay around despite being decimated by injuries. According to Kevin Burkhardt, Charlie Manuel attributed 3 things to his injury plagued team's success this season: starting pitching, luck, and character. Despite the Phillies having played without Rollins, Utley, Victorina and Howard for a good portion of the year, they continue to battle for a division crown. Meanwhile, just a few hundred miles north of Philadelphia the Red Sox, who have also been decimated with injuries all season long are playing their hearts out at 15 games over .500. Like the Phils and Red Sox, the 2009 Mets were decimated with injuries. Yet there was no gritty baseball being played in Queens that year. Instead it was a year that just could not end soon enough, which finally did at 72-90. And unlike the case with the Phillies and Red Sox-who could easily have chosen to rest on their recent laurels- all we heard from the Met organization was excuses. The same kind we have heard for the past five seasons. In 2006 they weren't ready. In 2007 they just got to cocky. In 2008 it was a run down bullpen. In 2009 it was injuries. And while we have not yet heard an official explanation from the dolts in charge regading this season, it is all but guaranteed that we will. It is a harsh reality to face but the Mets just do not possess what Manuel attributed as the 3rd ingredient to his teams sucess. They simply have no character. As we sit and watch teams like the Red Sox and Phillies battle through adversity it makes the failures of these Mets that much more pronounced. We have been forced to watch an under achieving group of failures long enough. It is time to put this era behind us.