If not victory, dignity

This morning I passed a hospital and saw a frail old man struggling to get out of a hired car. His wife held his cane while he adjusted his belt. Collared shirt half out, shoes tattered, but wearing a tartan sport coat. You could tell he was on the way to a doctor’s appointment of some sort, and you could tell he was bearing through physical hardships that had taken their toll over many years, but just the coat itself hinted at his need to maintain a modicum of dignity while so much within and around him failed.

And so it is, too, for this year’s New York Mets. Carlos Beltran and David Wright spoke from the same vein when they both talked about their returns from injuries that many might have not faulted them for hanging up their 2009 cleats for. They are ball players, they get paid well to do it, they love the sport, and they want to do their jobs and compete. As Beltran said, even if it’s just a matter of being able to come back for the very last game of the season, that’s what they have to do.

The team on the field needs to adopt more of that mantra. These past many weeks in particular, the script has often been “keep it close for 6 or 7 innings, fall apart badly late, show absolutely no capability of displaying offense and die.” That needs to change as we enter this final month of regular season competition. For the past 3 seasons the Mets have been the inglorious recipients of the wrath of spoilers named Phillies, Marlins & Braves. This is the opportunity for them to repay a bit of that back to the very teams that previously so gleefully doled it out upon them. There is a level of intestinal fortitude (or maybe somewhat lower, anatomically) that needs to man up (aka: Be Johan) right about now, and become the spoiler that can go home with its chin held high. If you’re capable of staying in the game for 6 innings, the problem isn’t who you’re missing but who you have. It’s time for those who represent the blue and orange to step up to the responsibility that Wright and Beltran clearly see. Not only would it do a great bit of good toward team morale, it would probably let fans leave a horrid season feeling a bit less violated, and at least a slight bit more optimistic about the future.

Finally, within David Wright's return he's received a great deal of criticism for the choice to move forward wearing a new helmet, designed to offer greater protection and mandated for future use by minor and Little League baseball. He's received a great deal of heckling in the blogosphere and from the twitterati for it, mostly for aesthetic reasons. The helmet may not look cool, but it's a lot cooler than a coma. In the process, he's allowed vanity to give way to leadership, as he will be a valuable role model to youngsters who might otherwise think about safety as an option rather than a necessity. Yes, he may resemble the Flintstones' "Great Gazoo," but Gazoo held the fate of the universe at his fingertip. That's the kind of power the Mets could really use...

(Follow up: Wright has chosen to forego The Helmet for a standard batting helmet in today's game. Melon season has officially ended. All bets are off.)