Sunday, September 30, 2007

A Day of Great Expectations and Melancholy [J. Mark English]

The only thing that I am certain of today is that by eight o'clock tonight, I will be sitting in my seat at Giants Stadium, awaiting the kickoff to a Sunday Night Football match up between the Eagles and the Giants. The Giants come in with a 1-2 record, as are the Eagles. The result of the game will likely determine which team has the hopes of turning around its season, and which team may want to start early preparation for the 2008 draft.

The implications of the Sunday night match-up will pale in comparison to the events that would have already occurred in Queens, slightly north of Giants Stadium, as well as the events that would have transpired a hundred miles south on I 95 in Philadelphia.

The Mets and the Phillies, as well as the Padres, will set the mood for Met fans at Giants Stadium tonight. Can the Mets stave off a complete disaster by finishing with a desperate finish in their finale? Will the Phillies actually surpass their expectations of always choking? Will there be an additional game needed to determine who wins the division tomorrow afternoon? Beyond this, will their be even another game after Monday to determine the Wild Card team?

Many questions hover in the baseball world as of this post, and most will be answered by the time I have made it past the security entrance at the Stadium. Football really will take a back seat to baseball today.

I'm sure to have vertigo from staring simultaneously at the Mets game, the Phillies game, and the Padres score. I'm dreading the tension, the palpitation I'm likely to suffer as the games take hold. It is likely I'll have a few heart attacks an during every gut wrenching pitch.

I think I have a pretty good notion of how this day will end. The Mets will probably lose, and the Phillies will win. This will make me an angry Giants fan, but an even more depressed Mets fan. There will be a feeling of melancholy for me at the game tonight. Instead of thinking about the Jints and their present day battle, my mind will still be on the Mets and what could have been.

Earlier this season the Mets played an up and down game against the Phillies that could be seen as an allegory for the season (they lost). Matt Cerrone of Mets Blog described his reaction following the game:

…man, i’m exhausted from this game…i can only imagine how the players feel…frankly, this game felt like a microcosm of this entire hi-wire, roller-coaster of a season…good play, bad play, down, out, dejected, hopeless, up, winning, hopeful, then, bam, the carpet is yanked out and i’m sitting here confused, looking at the scoreboard wishing it would change…

I fully expect that this will be my range of emotions throughout the games today. Of course, I will be enjoying it while it lasts to the very last out. Then I will console my sorrows with a shot of whiskey, and then hope that the Giants can exact some revenge on the Philadelphia Eagles.

LETS GO METS!

LETS GO GIANTS!

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