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Our Day Was Ruined

Please try to think happy thoughts today. I know its difficult, but at least let me offer this as consolation. Monday marks the 21st anniversary of the Mets NL East division clinching.

And keep this in mind: The 1986 squad couldn't beat the Phillies either. And they turned out just fine.

The 1986 Mets went 8-10 against the Phillies, the only team against which they had a sub-.500 record. And the Phillies beat them 6 straight in one stretch, including a 3-game sweep when the Mets needed only 1 victory to clinch the NL East.

Those Phillies were a pain in the ass. Von Hayes was their Chase Utley, hitting .357 against the Mets with four home runs and 16 RBI in 17 games. Mike Schmidt was Ryan Howard, hitting .373 with 15 RBI against the Mets, and he copped an MVP along the way. And while the rotation wasn't too impressive, it did feature a rookie lefty, Bruce Ruffin, who pilfered two victories from the Flushing 9. Had their been a wild-card in 1986 (though with 2 divisions, that would have been really odd), the Phillies might have gotten it. They had 86 wins, same number as the Reds, the NL West runners-up.

The Phillies even got a walk-off win against the Mets in 1986 and I believe we've referenced it here. On April 12, they outlasted the Mets, 9-8 in 14 innings, via a Steve Jeltz game-winning single, in a game too gross to be detailed here (the only thing it didn't have were 6 Mets errors). In Jeff Pearlman's book documenting the 1986 season ("The Bad Guys Won"), he notes that this is a game that inspired the Seinfeld episode featuring special guest star Keith Hernandez.

What was it that Newman and Kramer said after their parking lot encounter with the Mets spitter? Ah yes, it's the line that headlines this blog entry.

Forgive me, but that's how I feel after a disastrous Sunday of suffering through that Mets debacle, than rooting for one Clemens (Kellen) and against another (Roger) in potential walk-off scenarios, coming up empty on each occasion.

True Metsdisasters know...The Mets did have one walk-off win against the Phillies in 1986, a game that Tim Teufel won with a pinch-hit grand slam on June 10, against Phillies reliever Tom Hume.

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