I THINK the Mets are going to win the NL East easily. But what does that matter? A week ago I believed the Mavericks were a lock to win the NBA Finals.
Sports are not a movie or a play. There is no script. That is why there is going to be a parade in Miami, and that is why Willie Randolph is intensely monitoring his team, looking for signals that his players believe October games are a certainty.
He hasn’t seen any yet, he said yesterday. Randolph said that the team’s initial letdown after their overpowering 9-1 trip through Los Angeles, Arizona and Philadelphia was not because his players were strutting in June.
Quite the opposite. He says his players were trying too hard to do what they did on the road.
“We got too big, too individual,” Randolph said. “We got caught up in the hype of that trip, and we so badly wanted to show our fans that we can do this in front of them, too.” Losing three of the first four back at Shea before beating the Reds on Tuesday night was a reminder of how quickly good play could turn bad. But Randolph did not need a jolt that even a lead as big as the 91/2game bulge the Mets took into last night’s game is vulnerable.
Since 1900, there have been six occasions when a first-place team had at least a double-digit lead over the second-place team and did not win its division.
Randolph was the second baseman for the 1978 Yankees, who actually were fourth and 14 games behind the Red Sox as late as July 19 yet won the AL East. He also was the bench coach for the 2004 Yankees who led the ALCS three-games-to-none over Boston, yet the Red Sox overcame 86 years of misery and that seemingly unconquerable deficit to capture the pennant.
“I know not to celebrate anything in June,” Randolph said.
But do you bring up the past?
Do you allude to personal experiences to focus your team? Or is it taboo to allow negatives into your clubhouse? Why plant the possibility of blowing a lead in your players’ heads? Randolph falls into that camp.
He says he concentrates on “catch phrases” to galvanize his players. So he talks a lot about “grinding it out” and – unless proven – expects his players understand that means regardless of where the Mets are in the standings. Randolph even debated himself on whether to discuss recent history, the great road trip.
He decided to, but only in the context of the play. He didn’t talk about the results. He fixated on the style that produced the results. Aggressiveness on offense. Execution on defense.
“It was my way of telling them both that is a nice way of doing things and yet that we have not done anything yet,” Randolph said.
Tom Glavine concurred that the focus must be on these kind of smaller issues. He, too, knows the terrain. The 1993 Giants were one of those six teams to blow a double-digit lead and did so to Glavine’s Braves. He also was part of the 1996 Braves, who won the first two games of the World Series in The Bronx by a combined 16-1 and led Game 4 6-0, yet lost to the Yanks.
Glavine says he also does not address those kind of scenarios directly with teammates. But he admits using the media to get the message out about not taking anything for granted. He said within the confines of the clubhouse the players don’t look at that big picture, but rather “we evaluate ourselves against the other teams in the league.” That actually favors the Mets, as well, since no NL East team is near as strong as the 1978 Yanks or the 1993 Braves.
Still, you don’t want to take anything for granted. Surprises happen. There is no script. And if the Mets needed any further lessons on that, they only need to look into the opposing dugout last night, locate the Reds’ bench coach.
Bucky Dent.
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Front runners
This isn’t the first year the Amazin’s have looked strong early on. The Mets have held division leads of five games or more before July 1 on three other occasions in team history. Here’s a look:
START — FINISH
DATE — RECORD –LEAD — RECORD — PLACE — LEAD
06-21-88 44-24 +7 ½ 100-60 1st +15
RESULT: Lost NL championship vs. Dodgers, 4-3
06-16-86 44-16 +11 ½ 108-54 1st +21 ½
RESULT: Won World Series vs. Red Sox, 4-3
05-20-72 24-7 +6 ½ 83-73 3rd -13 ½
RESULT: Missed playoffs
Elias Sports Bureau