Year in year out, struggle after struggle, and expectations crushed. The Mets are the epitome of a failed organization. No matter what this organization does to improve its chances of winning there will always be a haunting at the end of the tunnel. ‘LOLMETS’, ‘Poverty Franchise’ or just the Mets. The team cannot be stopped from utter backlash and humility from anything bad that happens. 

I’ve been a fan all my life and all I can say is ugh tomorrow will be better. From the days of being at the ballpark and sighing in regress from another fatal loss, or the days our star pitcher gets hurt and is out for months. Things like this hurt us as fans as damage our will to continue our fight as a dedicated loyal fan base.

To the times of shear jealously and fatal destruction that has torn down our team from injuries, setbacks and front office failures. Nothing has hurt more than the optimism Mets fans have every year and have it slowly disappear from poor records. 

It’s a damage that has discouraged Mets fans as we are hungry for more and desperate for a change of scenery. The misdoings and years of mismanagement from the Wilpon organization only to have more fallouts with the Cohen ownership, this time it hurts more because of the expectations we have to play like a big city ball club. We seem delusional and angry but we are sad for the future of this team. Hoping for a day of revenge where we can take back the league and bring some silver back to Queens. But for that to happen the curse of the Mets needs to be lifted. 

It may sound a little eccentric but given all what has happened to the Mets since their inaugural season it is hard to think they are not a cursed franchise. With more recent injuries plaguing their staff there becomes a deeper cause for concern especially with our aging rotation. Max Scherzer feels a bit sore in his arm and might need to head to the IL if it gets worse, Verlander was just reinstated off the IL after being on it since Opening Day as well as Jose Quintana out since the spring makes it all the more disastrous. To make matters worse the Mets star closer Edwin Diaz suffered an injury at the WBC due to jumping up and down too much…… 

Steve Cohen was suppose to turn this team around in under 2 years and prove to New York the Mets can be a winning ball club again. But the curse is shadowing over the entire existence of all Mets loses. When things look to be going good they end up going south and this isn’t a new thing. Back in July 2006, less than 24 hours before the trade deadline, one of the Mets star relief pitchers Duaner Sanchez was hit by a drunk taxi driver. He was out all the rest of the season and 2007, he returned in 2008 and was never the same.

Or how about we count the years where we came so close to playoff contention but as soon as September came around we would always struggle greatly and fall so short of a chance like in 2005/2007/2008/2009. Its clear there is some repetition present with the Mets. And the times we have made it the post season it was only two times we actually won it all. Though baring all bad luck, the years we were able to reach the playoffs we would usually go far in them. As for the 2022 campaign that was a little different where we lost 2-1 in a 3 game series to the Padres in the wildcard round. 

There are so many what-ifs with the Mets if injuries or setbacks didn’t interfere with the players success in New York how would they have turned out. If David Wright never jammed his shoulder in 2014 would he still have been effective over the remaining years of his contract? If he was successful would he have a good shot at making it to the Hall of Fame? If Edwin Diaz didn’t blow up to be the worst closer in baseball in 2019 and had one of the worst closers ERA in the game. If he was successful how would that have changed things down the stretch for the Mets in August given they were on a crazy hot streak. The pain and misery of seeing 3 of the NL east opponents make it the World Series and win 2/3 times competing agains the Astros. 2019 with the Nationals and 2021 with the Braves, the Phillies came close but lost to the Astros in 2022. In the year of Jacob Degrom’s last season with the Mets he and Max Scherzer two of the best pitchers in the game could not stay healthy for the entire season and barely played 25 games combined.

As I look from the sidelines at other team’s success I wish I could have a sliver of their luck with the Mets. To the times the Mets gave up on players too quickly who ended up making a name for themselves in colors not named orange and blue. 3B Justin Turner who was prematurely DFA’d from the team back in 2013 and picked up by the Dodgers to make room for star 3B David Wright, only to find out next year Wright would never be the same again. Or the rising sensation in middle infielder Jeff Kent who only saw seasons of mediocrity and was eventually traded to the Giants where he out beat Barry Bonds for the NL MVP back in 2000. From unwise drafting decisions to letting go preneual stars in the making due to false injury concerns. 

To say our pitching depth is weak is an understatement especially when the team rejected to sign future all star pitcher Kumar Rocker from the 2021 MLB Draft. After going 14-4 with a 2.73 ERA in 122 innings and 180 strikeouts he managed to drop all the way down to #10 in the draft and only briefly landed in the Mets hands until he was dropped a week later for forearm concerns. Letting go of Nolan Ryan and having to watch him become one of the greatest pitchers in baseball history from the sidelines must hurt. Trading him for shortstop Jim Fregosi never turned out as expected. A career .268/.340/.403/.743 hitter with the Angels for 11 years only to have 1 1/2 terrible years with the Mets before being dealt again to the Rangers. Or almost having Roger Clemens come to Queens on draft night but instead he chose to pitch in community college in Houston.

When is it our turn to be happy? When can Mets fans smile and finally be relieved that the pain and humility of this organization is finally over. I suppose that feeling could have been better if Carlos Correa signed with the Mets. But oh wait he did and quickly after he signed the Mets went down the injury conspiracy road and eventually never signed him because of their low ball dollar amount.

Isn’t it a bit comedic to think the Mets had to go through almost 3/4 of their old pitchers to win the World Series back in 1986, and almost had to face the franchise Tom Seaver as a Red Sox, luckily he was left off the roster so the nightmare situation never happened. Though the Mets were still greeted by old teammates Mike Scott and Nolan Ryan in the NLCS who were vicious in their return to the orange and blue. Combined their stats together they had a 2.18 ERA, 32 innings pitched in the NLCS, 38 strikeouts, and just 7 ER. Most came at the cusp of Mike Scott’s killer NLCS performance where he won MVP and had just a .50 ERA, the same year where he won the NL CY Young and ERA Title. Oh how things can pave their path for obscurity. And to top things off Roger Clemens the pitcher the Mets were going to sign out of high school came out to meet the Mets before they took home the chip. Clemens wasn’t as impressive as Scott but still effective, he went 3.18 ERA in 11 innings pitched in 2 games started with a 1.31 WHiP. He was lights out for the most of it during that series. And Roger Clemens not only took home the AL Cy Young that year but he was the most valuable player in all the American League. Really puts salt on the wound for Mets fans, though we did end up winning it all it still didn’t hide the fact we’ve been through years of cursed history.

This is where things get a little absurd to say the least and there is no real evidence to prove this conspiracy but that’s what make Mets fans Mets fans… delusional. And the conspiracy begins all the way back to the Curse of the Bambino when the Red Sox made the fatal choice to trade away Babe Ruth and be dammed by history until the next time they would win a World Series. To think with just one terrible trade the Red Sox made the future of their organization would fall into ruins for almost a century before the curse was lifted in 2004 exactly 86 years after the trade of the Bambino….

Can we exactly pinpoint the reasons for the Mets utter failures the past 50 years due to taking the World Series from the Red Sox? Well no we cannot, but I don’t thin anybody believed the reason the Red Sox were loosing all so much was because of the Babe Ruth trade. Everyone was skeptical of their own beliefs but until they eventually won the chip in 2004 the curse of the bambino was lifted but still lingered over the Mets for years to come. Now of course it seems hysterical to believe the Mets are under a curse for 86 years and won’t see a World Series champion until 2071, but for right now it is just about mindless conspiracies because of how poor our franchise has been playing for years. I still remember videos of game 6 of the World Series, the Red Sox looked to be the World Series champs for that year, their clubhouse was covered in celebratory plastic wrap and hats as they prepared for a champagne shower. But then a slow grounder to first and the ball slipped between Bill Buckner’s legs eventually allowing Ray Knight to score the winning run from second base. It seemed like the Red Sox were all more closer to a ring until a fatal decision with a bad defensive first baseman costing them all and they wouldn’t see this field in action again until 18 years later.

Its foolish to say we are under a curse but in reality it makes sense, we do so much every year to fill the holes from previous years but still struggle to make noise when it matters most. What are we doing wrong? Why does all the bad luck have to be poured down Mets fans throats, why are we the laughing stock of the league. For whatever it may be, the Mets have not lived up to expectations as they should have been over the years. But everyday they step on the field they are hungry for more, fighting for the day till we are the last ones standing and hoping for a change of character. The 2022 Mets made some noise last year and had some strong moments, this 2023 season has been far from ideal but all teams start out cold. It has only been the first month of play, we cannot let this take away our hope and love for this team. No matter what setbacks this team has been through the Mets will always have a loyal team watching them, waiting for a chance at revenge.