This should surprise no one but this was a tough list to put together.
Carlos Beltran Called Third Strike Ends NLCS (10/19/2006)
It’s not so much the called strike itself.
I think Beltran gets way too much shit for that.
They wouldn’t have gotten that close to the World Series without Beltran who was phenomenal that year.
The Mets were already down 3-1 in that series when that happened.
However, the 2006 Mets had the best team in baseball for most of that year without question.
Then the pitching staff broke down and they lost the NLCS to a team that went 83-78.
Mix in the Endy Chavez catch and it still seemed it was our year.
For Mets fans, the torch got snuffed and it was all over so suddenly.
From the moment Madoff got caught, the Mets had six losing seasons in a row.
The four years before he got arrested were all winning seasons.
When Madoff got caught, the payroll was in the $150 million range.
From 2012-15, it wouldn’t go above $100 million.
The only silver lining in the Madoff/Mets connection was that it did quicken the Wilpons into selling the team.
They traded away the man whose nickname was literally “The Franchise”.
Finally, they didn’t get enough back for Seaver.
The 1977 Mets were a mess on and off the field.
This was during heated contract negotiations with Seaver and was the last straw.
When Seaver saw the story, he was enraged and demanded being traded.
The Mets wouldn’t have a winning season again until 1984.
When the Mets traded away from a washed up Jim Fregosi, they were still a very competitive team.
Ryan had military commitments (he was in the Army Reserve) throughout his entire Mets career.
It wasn’t until 1972 that those commitments were fulfilled and he could focus entirely on baseball.
They made the 1973 World Series without Ryan.
He was still only 21 so I don’t think it was age related.
I have to imagine it was the drugs.
Whatever it was, that velocity never came back.
It’s difficult to even explain how great Gooden was in those first couple of seasons.
Gooden was that good immediately.
The 1980’s Mets teams were among the most talented rosters of any team in my lifetime.
That they only went to a single World Series is almost hard to believe.
There are many reasons why but for me, the clearest reason is the downfall of Gooden.
