It looks like it is going to be a wet and wild weekend at Shea. The Mets need a sweep of the Marlins. It will be all hands on deck because after this there's nothing if the Mets don't win. So I expect it to be a pretty exciting series. I suppose plenty of Mets greats will stop by as well. To heck with the rain, it's time for the Mets to make a few more Amazin Moments at Shea.

I hear the fat lady starting to sing. :(

The loss tonight was the stake in the heart of the Mets I believe. The Phillies won, so the best the Mets can do is tie for the division. The Brewers are winning (5-1 in the bottom of the 7th) tonight. If that holds up the Mets will be 1 back in the wild card and out of control of their own destiny.

Anyway, I'm not going to let the end of the season get me down. I'm going to celebrate Shea, celebrate the memories and all that good stuff. This situation is disappointing for sure. At the very least I hoped we could get the monkey off of our backs and show everyone that the Mets could do it in September and make the playoffs. There's always next year.

For whatever it's worth. The Mets starter tomorrow was TBA today. Word from Gary, Keith and Ron was that if the Mets lost tonight (which they did) that Johan Santana would pitch tomorrow on three days rest. To that I say fine. That's what he gets paid the big bucks for. But I hope the Mets bring their damn bats for him. The Mets had chances to score runs early in the game tonight (5 base runners in the first 2 innings) and didn't get it done. Hopefully pride alone can prevent something like that from happening tomorrow.

Folks,

While i don't hold TOO much hope in an amazing comeback Saturday/Sunday, you've got to remember some key moments in METS history:

They never thought that the Mets would come from last place at the end of August 1973 to get to the world series.

They never thought that the hapless Mets would be World Series champs when facing the Orioles in 1969.

They never thought that down to their last out in 1986 the Mets would come back and win Game 6 AND Game 7 and be World Champs again.

What infruriates me the most as a Mets fan is the way the fans at the ballpark, OUR BALLPARK, are going crazy and BOOING OUR PLAYERS!

Be upset, be insanely dissapointed with the performance, but do you honestly think that booing these guys will help them in ANY WAY?

If you're that disgusted STAY HOME! I want my memories of Shea to be the love of the game of Baseball and the love of the Mets. As somebody once said, they may be BUMS but their OUR BUMS!

Tug Said it.....I believe it.....That settles it......
YA GOTTA BELIEVE

we are in a tight spot, but we have to come out with fire and be ready for the challenge. santana on the mound gives us a good chance to win. if our abts come ready to play we have a great shot. first, we need to forget about catching the phils. they will win the division by either 1 or 2 or more games, it doesn't matter how much. they won't lose 2 to the nationals. but the brewers are playing the cubs. i know they're good, but i can't see the brew crew sweeping the cubs. and they are playing their regulars (they'd better be!) so the brewers will likely lose at least one of those 2 games, which opens the door just enough for us to climb back in...supposing we jump through. WE CANNOT BE ELIMINATED IF WE WIN TODAY! the players need to know that and leave it all out on the feild. if we win 2 and the brewers end up sweeping, their's nothing we can do about it, and we should go out with our heads held high. but if the brewers s=open the door for us and we don't take advantage, that is what will give us nightmares all the way till next season. so fans, johan, bats, and bullpen, play hard, play to win, and send shea off with a playoff berth!

I like the new look manuel put on the lineup today. reyes of course will always be leadoff but i like beltran in the number 2 slot because he is fast enough and hits for good enough average to be the standard 2 hitter but also sports enough power and rbi ability to help out when the bottom of the order gets on and needs somebody to drive them in. while i would prefer wright 3rd and delgado 4th, i also like spreading out murphy and church, so that teh bottom of the order has something to work with too and we aren't so top heavy. hopefully we can make the playoffs and try it out there too.

Johan with a 3-hit shoutout, i think it's his 3rd CG of the season. A perfect game (in my eyes) when the Mets needed it most, working on only 3 days rest. Talk about clutch. And to think i almost had tickets to that game, would've been my happiest moment ever. I sure hope Rob uploads his pics quick.

Wooooooooooo! i am soooo psyched. what a game by johan santana. Going on three days rest in an absolutely do or die game which he pleaded with manuel to let him start in, johan strikes out 9 in a 3 hit, complete game shutout, lowering his season era to a smokin 2.53 and breaking the 200 strikeout mark. WOW! that will go down as one for the ages regardless of what happens later today or tommorow. he may have just earned his entire 30 million a year paycheck with one game. there is absolutely nothing we needed more than that. nolasco was dealing too, and our bats were only able to put up 2 runs (pretty much what johan has had to work with all year) and our bullpen gave up 3 runs in 3 innings last night. johan singlehandedly bailed out our bats, single handedly garunteed a win and gave the bullpen a day off to rest up for the huge game tommorow. best pitcher in baseball hands down and if we make the playoffs i seriously think people will have to consider him for cy young, even over CC.

Anyone know who's gonna take the mound tommorow? We'll be facing Olsen, i know, and i think the brewers might try to throw out CC again, so we really need a W. hopefully the cubs can beat the brewers and make this a tie heading into the last day. we can't use pelfrey or johan, and maine is hurt. and perez has only 3 days rest. our options are tony armas jr., claudio vargas, nelson figueroa, and jon niese. i say we go with niese....he threw 8 shutout innigns for us earlier in the year in his second career start (although his frist and third were less than admirable) and he is our best pitching prospect so this experience could be invaluable. of course, whoever gets the ball would be under a TON of pressure, and that might be a bit much for a young guy. figueroa and armas have a bit more experience. who do you think should get the call?

At least someone put up a gem for his Shea finale. In the spirit of closing out Shea, I'd like to buy that man a Rheingold.

I know they are leading the Brewers 2-0, but the cubs are benching all their starters. Alfonso Soriano, Mark DeRosa, Aramis Ramirez, Derek Lee, and Ryan Theriot are all grabbing pine for the cubbies. if they win i don't care, but if they wind up losing....isn't that sort of cheap? this is the same team whose manager said just this past few days when they were playing us that he was starting all his regulars throughout for the integrity of the game. that's all well and good, except he started his starters for the 4 games vs. us and now that their playing our opponents he benches his starters! that is really cheap and if the brewers win without the cubs best players in i will be ticked.

I got back from the game a little while ago and am sorting through all the media. I got to say hi to Sgt. Warbucks who was at the game with a friend. Lots of pics, audio and video coming. The Brewers are behind by two now so we'll see what happens with that game.

The Mets are tied for the wild card. Keep in mind that if the Mets and Brewers end up tied that there will be a one game playoff at Shea Stadium on Monday. The damn Phillies won. No time to fret about the NL East though.

Now....if only Wright or Church could've come up with a sac fly or even a deep ground ball a few nights ago, we'd have Milwaukee on the brink of elimination tomorrow. Still, if you're in it going into game 162, ya gotta believe.

Going up against the fish in the last weekend of the season again. Maine was stellar in the 2nd last game of '07 against them as was Johan tonight. Here's hoping Perez doesn't have a meltdown like Glavine did on the final day. Tomorrow is a must win because the pitching match up tomorrow in the Cubs/Brewers game heavily favours the Brewers although Sabathia could be the little bit more vulnerable on short rest.

I tuned in to the end of the Brewers/Cubs games and there were a LOT of Cubs fans there and I assume it will be the same tomorrow. I'm guessing a lot of Cubs fans bought up tickets early thinking this might be the series where they clinch the division. When Wood was closing the game, it seemed like a Cubs home game with all the noise they were making.

I wonder if Lou will start his strongest lineup. You would think he would want his team to go into the playoffs on a winning note.

....Whoaaah LIVIN' ON A PRAYER!!

One of the funniest quotes I've heard from a manager speaking of player performance. The full Jerry Manuel quote follows.

"If I had to describe that one, I'd say that was gangster," said Jerry Manuel, who had to be prodded this week to let Santana start on short rest. "That was serious gangster right there."

http://www.nypost.com/seven/09272008/sports/mets/gametracker__marlins_at...

My brother came through with a ticket for the final game today. So I'll be there rooting for a win. Have camera will travel so I hope to have some more good video and audio from the game.

who cares about the brewers cubs shenanigans. we don't need them to lose. we need to win. all winter in the weight room and all the offseason moves we made and all the spring training and the 6 months of season we've had, we have been fighting for our chance to get an undo of last season. to get a do-over on that last day. this year, while the season storyline has been much diffreent (we were teh ones coming back from 8 games out and making it a tight race towards the end instead of the phils/brewers), the basic situation is the same. we are tied for playoffs position entering the final day of the season. we can get in, fall out, or postpone decision on whether or not we enter the playoffs based on our one game this year. nothing else this whole season matters. we can forget about last seasons nightmares. we can forget about all our bullpen woes and 12 blown 9th inning leads and 29 blown saves and our bats crumbling with RISP and all those stats and it is all erased if we beat out the brewers. things go our way and we are in the playoffs, with redemption and a fresh start. things don't go our way and we have another year of humiliation and frustration and defeat having lost on the final day of the season for the second straight year.

no pressure ollie! lol

Great job by Smith putting out the fire there and Beltran ties it up. Milwaukee may only be down by 1 run, but it's starting to get late for them and their pitcher [again] on 3 days' rest.

LET'S GO METS!

...

Milwaukee now tied (on a bases loaded walk no less), but it looked like they could've blown it open and didn't. We're tied, they're tied.

...

I hope Rob can at least work some Mets magic at big Shea one more time.

Wow I did not see this game coming. Today was setting up to be the perfect day the Jets won big my fantasy football team is winning 145-81 and the Mets were tied and the brewers losing. Enter Scott NO@#!$#!SHOenweis and Luis Ayallow home runs! Then Delgado JUST misses a HR and same with Church. That's been the story of the mets at shea so close but so far away. Maybe a change of scenay will be good for the Mets. Oh and if Heilman and Shoenweiss are Mets next season I'm gonna become a yankee fan!!

and I'm at a lost for words. How the Mets could do absolutely nothing in the clutch with our lineup is beyond me. We better see major changes from Jerry and Omar or the Mets will die off for another 20 years. I mean, how we still have Feliciano (who's let in 57 hits in 53 innings AND 20-some walks) is beyond me, not to mention that he's made 85 appearances to boot!

actions needed this offseason:
1. Fire Feliciano
2. Fire Heilman
3. Find better arms
4. Fix Pedro (he still has the stuff, he can very easily be a #2 starter again if we work on it)
5. Revamp our lineup (they can't do anything with RISP)
6. Fix David Wright's swing (he keeps swinging up and always flies out to an infielder in big spots)
7. Work on baserunning (the Mets should steal TONS more bases)
8. Hope everyone we have injured will heal up
9. Put Johan through one hell of a conditioning program so that he can pitch on 1 days rest and can pitch like 10 complete games a season.

I'm not even speechless, that was last year. This was just aggravating this whole season. They fall apart all the first half, look like they have no chance. Then they fire Willie, move Jerry up and make the big climb. Good streaks here and there, winning 10 in a row, 5 a few times, whatever and no extended losing streaks. Bad losses didn't turn into 3, 4, 5 in a row or 8 out of 10. Even with Wagner having a miserable season as a closer, blowing some gimme saves and somehow making the All Star team, we still hung in there. Maine went down, but he wasn't the same Maine as last year anyway. Martinez was nowhere near as good as when he came back last year. Perez was hot, cold, hot, cold, but always more cold.

Then they climb back just close enough to where we passed Philadelphia in the last week and had what seemed a safe backup in the WC. We didn't play THAT BADLY down the stretch either - 7-10 in the last 17 is hardly THE COLLAPSE II. Milwaukee had been lousy all month--then all of a sudden, WHAM! They can't lose. Philadelphia? What's their record the past 2-3 weeks been? Jeez, it takes some amazing combination of events and trends for this to happen two years in a row, albeit to a lesser degree this year. I'm still left with a bitter taste in my mouth for the anti-New York bias in the league, the media (try the ESPN Baseball Tonight podcast with the rah-rah Phillies fan sometime). Every other team in the league loves nothing better than making sure New York gets knocked out. They rearrange their lineups and rotations accordingly and go soft on Milwaukee and Philadelphia. Do you think Washington played Philadelphia with the same intensity this weekend as they did us last week??? Or Chicago playing Milwaukee??? Hell no. There would be some poetic justice if MIlwaukee turns around and knocks Chicago's sandbagging butts out of the playoffs. And if Florida or Atlanta could've played the rest of the season the same way they did against the Mets the past 3 weeks maybe they would've had something to play for in game 162. Losers.

And for all the media who were running articles when the Mets were up like "There's still time for the Mets to blow it" from that Newsday jerk, it's on your hands too for perpetuating the assumption that the Mets would blow it this year because they did last year. YOU turned it into a self-fulfilling prophecy instead of having positive word one to say about the Mets.

It kills me to think that either Philadelphia or Milwaukee will now advance, but conversely one of them WON'T. I guess root for Philadelphia to lose first, then Milwaukee. I'll pull then for L.A. over the Cubs since the Cubs sandbagged it against Milwaukee. 100 years? Screw 'em, keep waiting as far as I'm concerned. Piniella....what else would you expect from a Yankee. Heck, I might have to root for an A.L. team for the first time here--I'm in Minnesota anyway, that might be an option, or there's always Tampa Bay. I doubt they'll be a force to reckon with year in year out despite an amazing turnaround for one year.

I can imagine what a grim scene the final Shea "festivities" were on the field after that fiasco. I feel sorry for the Mets greats that were there and wonder how NOTHING from them rubbed off on the current Mets.

people keep bashing Wagner, he is not overrated and he most definitely did not have a miserable season (apart from the injury). In fact, he was the sole shining light in our bullpen for a long time. Whenever we had to turn the ball over to the relievers, i had to hide in my room until the 9th inning, after which i was ok. Sure he had 7 blown saves this year, a lot of great closers did. If you take those 7 games out of the equation, he's lights out. I hate to break it to you guys, but I could care less if a pitcher blows 10 saves in a season if he's pitching lights out for the other 152 (which Wagner was). There are soooo many other relievers we should get rid of first, and because of us having to get rid of so many, i say we keep Wagner and see what he has after he heals up (regardless of however long away that may be). I mean, someone like Ayala with barely any talent came on and pitched well for us after the same surgery, I trust Wagner will come back strong.

As for the rest of the team, well, it's pretty obvious where we should build.

You're telling fans of a team that missed the NL East title by 1 and 2 games the past 2 years and the Wild Card by 1 game this year to discount the 7 blown saves he had this year in only half a year. Blow half of them and we're prepping for the NLDS. Sorry, an All Star closer's got to close the deal more than 79% of the time and not be such a baby about starting or entering an inning mid-inning and, yeah, he sometimes might have to get 4 or 5 outs. If Santana were closing, he sure wouldn't complain like that. So he stood up to the media when he sucked and said so in so many words. I'd still rather have a closer that didn't suck. How many years of Benitez did we endure? Not saying everyone's going to have a Brad Lidge year (41 of 41), but some of Wagner's blown saves were absolutely brutal. Look up what some of those games were. Wagner may come back strong, I couldn't care less, it won't be for the Mets in 2009, I doubt it will be for the Mets ever.

I was sitting one row from the top of the stadium yesterday and the air was pretty thin up there to begin with. But when Ryan Church made the final out (which I actually captured on video) you could feel the air sucked out of people's lungs. It was over. No more baseball at Shea Stadium.

People were pretty stunned. And it didn't help that the Marlins lingered on the field in celebration. At one point the fans started cheering, "Off the field!" The Mets may have lost the game but Shea is still our house.

Anyway, the end was very disappointing. There were some happy (if not Amazin) moments. Before the game I got some video (to be shared soon) of Dwight Gooden and Tom Seaver entering Shea. The Beltran home run put a charge into the crowd. And what a crowd it was. That stadium was packed to the gills. More to follow...