Dipping Into The Archives Vol. 35

2006

How to treat a season that began with so much hope, yet ended short of the ultimate prize? Is it a worse feeling to root for a team that came so agonizingly close to the ultimate prize or one that was never a factor? The 2006 Mets season is one that stirred up such feelings. Even more than 1988, this is one that really hurts. This looked like such a championship caliber team, yet hopes were dashed following a perfectly placed curveball as well as by a Butterfly Effect scenario caused by a fateful taxicab ride. What made it worse in retrospect is that we all know what happened in the following two seasons.

Just take a look at the faces in that cover montage. What a wonderful combination of established stars, rising young talents, and glue guys. With a mixture of veterans and youth, in addition to a well thought out 1-25 roster construction, this had all the makings of a team meant to contend for years to come. GM Omar Minaya eventually drew a lot of criticism for overspending in subsequent years, but he worked some real magic here, and constantly tinkered with the roster throughout the season.

The big free agent prize was Billy Wagner, but in addition to that splash, plenty of important supporting players were also signed that offseason. Jose Valentin! Darren Oliver! The ageless Julio Franco! And two separate trades with Miami brought Carlos Delgado and Paul LoDuca into Queens. With these players added to the already established Martinez/Beltran/Glavine/Reyes/Wright core, and with Mike Piazza’s offseason departure, a new era had begun. As the season went on, Minaya would add Orlando Hernandez, Shawn Green, and John Maine.

Virtually every important player had a big year. The Wagner & Delgado moves paid immediate dividends; Wagner saving 40 games and Delgado becoming one of 3 Mets to drive in more than 110 runs that season. Another big year came from David Wright, continuing his march to stardom. Jose Reyes had his first fully healthy season and he responded with a .300 average, more than 60 stolen bases, more than 300 total bases, and an endless series of highlights. But no one topped Carlos Beltran. After a shaky debut season in 2005, he demonstrated nightly just how talented of a player he was. Some have suggested that this was the single greatest season a Mets position player has put together. That’s difficult to say for sure, but he was spectacular. He was a true 5 tool player, and that was evident in 2006.

As mentioned, the team made several trades to improve the squad over the course of the season, but one piece was missing - one more top of the rotation starter could have completed the puzzle, and as the trade deadline approached the Mets were in talks for some of the big names that were available. 4th outfielder Xavier Nady was the main trade bait that the Mets were dangling, and such names as Roy Oswalt, Jake Peavy, and Jason Schmidt were bandied about. That all changed when setup reliever Duaner Sanchez got into a taxi.

The cab was involved in an accident, which seriously damaged Sanchez’s shoulder. All told, he would miss the remainder of 2006 & all of 2007. The accident, which occurred on the eve of the trade deadline, forced the club to quickly pivot. Instead of a starter, the Mets suddenly needed a bullpen arm to replace Sanchez. Nady was in fact traded, but instead of a top of the rotation starter the return was Roberto Hernandez with Oliver Perez thrown in. The move had major ramifications, which I’ll get to in a moment.

Another highlight of the season was that it was the 20th anniversary of the 1986 championship year. The Mets held a 20 year reunion, which was an emotional ceremony. For years the organization seemed almost embarrassed by that team. In fact, that day was the first time many of the former members had returned to Shea in years. The fans made it obvious how much they love that team; the roars as each player took the field were deafening.

In addition, ground was broken on the new, as yet unnamed ballpark. Shea Stadium was in its final stages. It was time; the “it’s a dump, but it’s our dump” talking point was already several years old, but let’s face it. What was once a state of the art ballpark was now terribly out of date. The concourses were too narrow, and the exits were so small that it took forever to get out of that place. And it was so grungy that you almost felt like you needed to take a Silkwood shower at the end of the day. I had so many great times at Shea, but it had outlived its usefulness.

Which brings us to October. The Mets finished in first place and quickly closed out the Dodgers in the NLDS, highlighted by a play in which LoDuca tagged out two runners attempting to score on the same play. The Cardinals, who barely finished above .500, were the opponents. Piece of cake, right? Right?

A big issue was that the pitching staff was drained by this point. Martinez and Hernandez were both injured and out for the entire postseason. Steve Trachsel was pitching so poorly that the team lost all confidence in him. The Cards took a 3-2 series lead, bringing the series back to Shea for must wins in Games 6 & 7 with no options other than having to make Maine & Perez the scheduled starters.

Maine pitched brilliantly in Game 6, which led to a winner take all Game 7. Perez was outstanding, but opponent Jeff Suppan was just as good. That led to one of the most memorable plays in baseball history. Top of the 6th, game tied at 1-1, Cardinals have a runner at first with one out. Scott Rolen hit a deep drive to left, but Endy Chavez cemented his place in Mets lore by leaping over the wall to save a home run and then immediately firing the ball back to first for an inning ending double play. Surely this meant that Aura & Mystique had crossed the Triboro Bridge and now took up residence in Queens.

Unfortunately the Mets were still unable to score. Yadier Molina hit a tie breaking 2 run homer in the 9th. The Mets had the bases loaded with 2 outs and Carlos Beltran at bat. Adam Wainwright froze him with a curveball and the season ended with Beltran caught looking. The sad irony is that Beltran had a productive postseason, but there is still a certain segment of fandom that refuses to forgive him for that at bat. The Cardinals went on to defeat the Tigers in the World Series but we all felt that it could’ve been, and should’ve been us.

Especially following the late season collapses the next two years it’s worth considering what would have happened had Sanchez never gotten into that cab. He was exactly the type of hard throwing reliever that is so valuable, but he was never really the same. Perez’s performance in Game 7 encouraged the Mets to sign him to a long term contract. In light of the years of “Good Ollie or Bad Ollie” would the team have been better off if he was never in the organization to begin with? And clearly the team would have benefited if someone like Roy Oswalt had been in the rotation. Remember, Pedro Martinez missed much of the 2007 season due to injury.

To avoid ending this segment on such a downer, in 2006 SNY signed on for the first time and the Gary/Keith/Ron booth made its debut. Even when the team has been bad, and there are some ugly seasons to come, we have always had a great broadcast booth.

SNL Recap

It seems obvious that when Jacob Elordi stepped into the first meeting of the week that everyone immediately noticed that he is tall and quite handsome, because the premise of seemingly every sketch was centered on the fact that he is quite handsome. A reality show in which the bachelorette must choose from a group of shorter men with the twist that producers add his character at the last moment? Sorry, Tiny Teddy. A sketch in which accidentally attends an AA meeting for women supporting women? Yep. A sketch in which he appears as a successful actor guest lecturing in an acting school only to reveal that he finds constant work purely on his looks? You bet. It made for a fairly bland outing.

The middle portion of the show was solid, but the first 20 minutes or so were quite iffy. Yet another Trump cold open was only passable, and the monologue went with the audience Q&A template. The sketch based on Katt Williams’ appearance on Shannon Sharpe’s podcast clearly went over the audience’s head. No one seemed to get the promise, and it was largely greeted with silence.

My highlight of the week was the bowling sketch. Elordi & Heidi portrayed a couple on their first date; the premise relied on the animated characters on the scorecard. There were some nice surreal moments. This led into the second best sketch, a commercial for Alaska Airlines, pointing out that because no one died it was pretty cool that a door flew off the plane.

This week’s surprise cameo came from Rachel McAdams, who came on first to introduce the second song from musical guest, and inheritor of the Regina George role, Renee Rapp, who was also joined by Megan Thee Stallion. McAdams returned to appear in the acting class sketch. Her character, named Natalie Partman, was unable to find acting work precisely because she is the spitting image of Rachel McAdams. She relied on cue cards even more than normal; it was almost distracting.

Not much to talk about from this week’s Update. Two correspondent pieces this time. The first was from Devon as Tim Scott and Punkie appeared as Deobra Redden, the man who tried to attack a judge in a courtroom.

This will go down as one of the weaker episodes of the season. Elordi did not demonstrate much of a natural comedic sensibility. As for the Employee Of The Week award, Bowen and Heidi had their moments, but I will give the prize to Devon. His impressions of both Shannon Sharpe and Tim Scott were very strong. Right now looking at the 5 who are featured players, Devon, Marcelo, and New Chloe have shown the most promise.

Next week Dakota Johnson returns as host for first time since the days of Fifty Shades Of Grey 9 years ago. Justin Timberlake will make a stop on his career redemption tour as musical guest.

Sports Illustrated

Hours after I sent out last Friday’s post in which I lamented the fate of Pitchfork came the news that virtually the entire staff of Sports Illustrated was being laid off. Over the course of Friday afternoon there were conflicting, and at times confusing, pieces of news but suffice it say that things look dire. There was lots of sharing on social media of people’s favorite covers. I don’t know if this one is my clear cut #1, but it is a great one.

The owners promise that the publication is not dead. What is unclear is the fate of the laid-off writers. Corporate shenanigans have gutted the staff in recent years, but there are still a number of skilled, hard working writers over there. Whether some or all will be rehired at the end of the day is very much in question. Whatever happens, it’s still a dark day for such an iconic publication. Calling the recent history of SI death by a thousand paper cuts is an understatement.

Announcement Day Tomorrow

Tomorrow at 6:00 EST Hall of Fame President Josh Rawitch will open up an envelope and officially announce that Adrian Beltre has been elected as the newest member. It looks likely that Joe Mauer will receive the good news as well. The question is will they be joined by others; what about Todd Helton and Billy Wagner? Either? Neither? Both? There will be much to talk about next time.

Closing Laughs

All this and Oscar nominations to discuss next time as well? See you on Wednesday. Those who are tardy do not get fruit cup.