Non-NFL Sports Thread for 9/28/08 - Dejection 2:The Bitter Sequel

Photo from Cataffo News

For the second consecutive year, the team that finishes third place in the National League East Division feels like it finished ahead of the second place team on the final weekend of the season.

Because that is the feeling that is once again being portrayed, as the Florida Marlins ruined the New York Mets playoff hopes for a second straight season. Or in better terms, the Mets blew it again, with the Marlins putting the final nail to seal the coffin shut like they did 12 months ago.

In their 4-2 lost to the fish today, the Mets closed Shea Stadium in the cruelest of fashions: losing on a day where most in the stadium thought that this wasn't going to be the last day of the team's first domicle. That sentiment was further ushered in by the performance yesterday of Johan Santana, who seemed to give the Mets that extra jolt that they didn't have when the Marlins gave them the self-abasing sweep on the final weekend of last season.

Instead, that momentum only lasted for one day, as the bullpen of Jerry Manuel's club showed expertly what they have done well all season long, on the most important day of the year for the club.

And that is, of course, insuring the team's chances of losing.

The culprit today was Scott Schoeneweis, and the damage was done after Carols Beltran hit a two-run home run in the 6th to tie the game. But Wes Helms pinch-hit solo home run off the beleaguered lefty reliever, along with an tack on RBI from Dan Uggla, placed the enormous pressure right back on the shoulders of the not so amazing "Amazins."

And when Carlos Delgado just fell short of a three-run homer in the bottom of the 8th inning that would have given the Mets their first lead of the day (and would have sent Shea into an uncontrolled state of euphoria), the writing seemed to be on the all.

One inning later, the word seemed was no longer required in the previous sentence.

Matt Lindstorm pitched a scoreless ninth as playoff baseball will not be in New York City for the first time since "The Strike" happened in 1994. And with both Yankees and Shea Stadium closing, instead of the year ending in a glorious Subway Series, for both Big Apple teams, disappointment, frustration, and humiliation are the emotions felt at season's end.