HoraceClarke66: "It could be worse."

 From the cigarette-and-ice tortured desk of HoraceClarke66...

 Let’s face it. Last night’s crushing loss probably put paid to our boys’ chances of making a playoffs they had absolutely zero chance of winning. (All right, a 1.9 percent chance, or whatever other risible number baseball reference has assigned to it.)

 Tonight we face the AL’s real Cy Young winner, and then we go on to face the best team in the league, while neither Toronto nor Boston is likely to lose again on the season.

Sure, there’s hope. The TB Rays might tank all three games to us. If they’re smart, the last thing they’ll want to see is Toronto in the playoffs. But that’s a pretty weak reed to lean on.

 So let’s look at what your New York Yankees won the night before last, to go along with that 29^th consecutive winning season:  their 90^th victory of the season.

 That makes 64 times they’ve won 90 or more games (including 21 times they’ve won 100 or more), out of 119 seasons. And really, just 116 seasons when, thanks to lockouts or Covid, they actually had a chance to win 90.

 Think of it. That means in 55 percent of all Yankees seasons—better than even money—the team won 90 or more games.

 For contrast, take a look at your New York Mets, who were 4 ½ games up on their wobbly division in early August, but now will ring up yet another losing season, their 34^th in all.

 How many times have the Mets won 90 or more games in their 60, tortured years of existence?  Just 11 (including 3 in which they won 100 or more, the last time in 1988.).

 Sure, I hear you say, but the Yankees have been around much longer. True. Yet 30 of those 34, 90-plus-win seasons by the Bombers and 11 of those 100-plus-win seasons have come since the Mets have been in existence.

 The Mets are the only big-league team in New York baseball history that has stuck around for at least five years and managed to compile a losing record. 

The Yankees, the Giants, the Dodgers—hell, even Boss Tweed’s old New York Mutuals—all had winning records here.

 

Not the Mets, who yet again saw a major free-agent signing come to town and come apart at the seams. (Hey, say what you want about George Foster or Roberto Alomar, at least they didn’t turn thumbs-down at the Flushing Faithul.)

Year in, year out, under new management or old, almost every season is a major disappointment for our brethren in Queens and their fans. Like the song sort of says, one seasons follows on another, laden with sloppiness and tears.

Things could be worse. We could be…Mets fans.

There. Feeling better already?