When they get to work on the 2010 Mets highlight film, one of the easiest decisions they'll have to make is the soundtrack for the portion of the film devoted to the team's current road trip.
Just put on "The End" by The Doors and let the apocalyptic west coast fun begin.
Is there any remaining doubt that this road trip represents the end for the Mets? Have you not yet appreciated the weird scenes inside the goldmine?
This team isn't just losing games, they are barely showing up for them. They are going about their duties with the somber approach of a trench soldier in World War I who knows that once they go over the side there's not much chance that they are coming home again.
You never like to compare sports and war, but there's a numbness to this losing jag that you don't see all that often on the field of play. The Mets play these games like they have a responsibility to be there rather than a desire to win, and the second things start going wrong it feels like everyone assumes crash position and just hopes they survive to see another day. Every out they make seems massive, every run allowed seems like an insurmountable obstacle and every day this feels more like a bedside vigil than a baseball season.
That will change, as it always does in baseball, and soon the Mets will string together a few wins and smiles will return to faces. The stink of this stretch won't quickly fade, though, and the true nature of the Mets has been revealed in brutal fashion over the last eight games.
It is a team with a brighter future than you might have thought entering the year but a team with just as bleak a present as you probably assumed. It is a team that needs a change in leadership to shake off the last vestiges of past collapses large and small and it is a team that needs to come up with a coherent plan to avoid them in the future.
It is a team that can't hit, can't win on the road and pitches well only intermittently. It is a team that has to stop playing players because of their names and salaries and has to start playing them based on productivity.
These are your 2010 New York Mets.
Josh Alper is a writer living in New York City and is a contributor to FanHouse.com and ProFootballTalk.com in addition to his duties for NBCNewYork.com. You can follow him on Twitter.
