I got nothing. Say it ain’t so.

9/20/07 - Marlins 8, Mets 7…10 innings.

When November rolls around and all the champagne has dried up and all the ticker tape has been swept off the streets, all the championship teams share the same common denominator-They win close games. They push, and get pushed back. They slip and fall, but they get back up stronger. They refuse to lose.

We see that perserverance in one National League team. I’m sad to say it’s the Phillies, and not the Mets.

Philadelphia won’t catch the Mets in the division. I think deep down, every Met fan realizes that. They haven’t caught the Mets all year, even when it seems inevitable that they are going to. They are an imperfect team with woeful starting pitching that will undoubtedly stumble for a couple of games in the home stretch, but they fight. The Phillies have moxie, passion, tenacity.  This year’s amazin’s don’t.

This whole season has been one giant, symbolic parallel to Carlos Beltran looking at strike three in Game 7 of last year’s NLCS.  This team is far from complacent- it’s clear that everyone in that dugout wants to win bad- but for one reason or another, they haven’t come out on top in tight games all year long. That doesn’t bode well for the playoffs, where you can’t go into a weeklong slump only to rebound a week later.

It’s silly to blame Randolph for leaving Sosa in an inning too long, or the Mets bullpen for walking batters, or Jose Reyes for striking out yet again with the bases loaded. The bottom line is, these Mets have found a way to break your heart in every way imaginable this year, and although I’m not a big believer in karma, I’m starting to believe that the boys from Queens are a little more aware of their fallbility.

All I know is it is a good thing I’m moving to Bristol, because I can’t stomach another Yankee parade through the city if they stomp over the Mets in October.  I really hope I’m wrong about these guys.

I’ll try to get my act together with the posts for the pennant race.

What a month it has been! I was just offered an entry-level job with ESPN, so I am off to Bristol (I hope they have SNY there). My sister got married last week, and my best friend gets married in less than two months. In the next couple of weeks, I need to somehow find an apartment, move in, and plan a bachelor party.  In college, I scraped together a thesis in about 6 weeks, and there were a multitude of times when I thought I’d fail out from not completing it- that is kind of what this stretch reminds me of.

Nevertheless, I’m finally back and writing about my favorite team. If there are any loyal readers out there, I’m sorry for the long absence- I haven’t abandoned my boys, just haven’t had much computer access recently. I’m sure everyone is still reeling from how well Brian Bannister is doing in KC and trying to decipher who is the greater of two evils - Pat Burrell or Chipper Jones, but at least the Mets applied the turnicate to their season with a sweep (SWEEP!) of the Braves at Turner Field. Maybe all this team needed was a little

pressure.

Except, that is not all they are getting. We have waited 9+ long months for this, but the golden boy is finally returning, and not a moment too soon. Say what you want to say about the poise and durability of this Mets pitching staff, but the Mets sorely need Pedro.  You know it, I know it, and Willie knows it. They need him in the dugout, in the locker room, in front of the cameras, dancing with Mr. Met in between innings, smacking Jose Reyes around a little bit, or teaching Oliver Perez a changeup. He’s the ignition that starts the Mets car, and it has been unmistakenly apparent this season with this successful but lifeless Met team.

Chris “Mad Dog” Russo has repeatedly said that all you can expect to get from Pedro is a five inning start in Game 3 of a playoff series. To back this dubious claim, he points out that Martinez has barely eclipsed 88 on the radar gun in his rehab starts. Someone should tell Russo that Billy Wagner doesn’t usually surpass 92 on the gun during Spring Training, but that isn’t really the point. Whether or not Pedro was holding something back off his fastball  during his minor-league stints (And knowing Pedro, he almost certainly was), Russo should know that Pedro is the unofficial leader of this Mets clubhouse. We saw it from his first day in the dugout wearing a Met uniform, and it will be no different this time around. He injects a shot of adrenaline into anyone who comes into contact with him, on and off the mound.

When Pedro and Duque couldn’t pitch last postseason, we saw a Mets team struggle to conjure up any kind of momentum. With Martinez on the DL this season, we’ve seen a talented but underachieving team clinging to first place since the All-Star break.

On the day Pedro returned to the dugout, a team that had just been agonizingly swept by their biggest rivals in a ballpark where they never lose suddenly walked into Atlanta and smacked around their biggest nemesis in a ballpark where they never win.

Coincidence? Maybe. Chris Russo would undoubtedly tell you so. But it makes no difference to any rational Met fan. We all know that no matter what shape he’s in, as long as Pedro can still walk out to the mound and throw, this Mets team will improve prodigiously more than any five inning, game three start would indicate. So go ahead. Vote for Pedro.