Here is the deal I would urge you to make with yourself:
Do not heap praise on Terry Collins for the Jordany Valdespin swing that resulted in an A.J. Ramos change-up landing over the right-field fence at Marlins Park yesterday and dialed back the alert surrounding the Mets from where it was heading, which was around DEFCON 2.
Do not credit Collins for the seven-pitch, 1-2-3 save Bobby Parnell turned in, thereby avoiding a Groundhog Day ninth-inning apocalypse. While you’re at it, do not congratulate Collins for David Wright’s mammoth home run, or John Buck’s two-run double, or for the fact that Zach Wheeler ignored the thin air of Reno, Nev., Tuesday afternoon.
In exchange, though, you must forfeit the following, however aggravating it may be for you right now: You cannot blame Collins every time the bullpen lights a match to a close game, or every time his batting order suffers from a bad case of anemia, or every time watching Wheeler makes you want to improvise an old lyric, “I saw a kid pitch in Reno once/Just to watch his career die …”
Do we have a deal?
Hello?
Look: I recognize how agonizing the last week has been for people who care about the Mets, who watched a respectable start to the season sag into a six-game losing streak before they finally, mercifully held on for dear life yesterday in Miami for a 7-6 win. I empathize with anyone who stayed to the bitter end early Tuesday morning, lasting till the 15th inning, especially if you doubled that up with the episode of “Adventures in Backstopping” that followed later that day.
And here’s the thing: I think even the most impassioned Mets fan — and, yes, despite the continuing fascination with attendance figures there is still a large group that identifies itself as such — would admit, intellectually, that Collins isn’t to blame for everything bad that has befallen the Mets.
In the moment, sure: You witness another loss, you want to do any number of impulsive things — throw your remote, cancel your basic cable, renounce your fandom. And call for the manager’s head. It’s natural, it’s time-honored, it is every bit your right to do as a fan, even if you fundamentally understand that John McGraw, Joe McCarthy and Tony LaRussa couldn’t have teamed up the past few days to coax a Met into getting a hit with a teammate leading off second base.
Does that mean Collins should be spared your scorn? It does not. You are entitled to scrutinize him and not always like what you see, because there are times when you wonder if he isn’t watching one game and managing another, the one in the picture-in-picture box.
Does it mean he holds a free hall pass for all of 2013? It does not. The worst part of the losing streak was that the Mets too often looked like the glazed-eye nine that no-showed August and September last year. And that’s simply not going to be acceptable baseball behavior if it happens again, extensively, on Collins’ watch.
But there is still a matter of taking a deep breath, taking a step back, and trying to focus on the bigger picture. It is absolutely your right as a fan to be fed up with the tower of bad baseball the Mets have piled up to replace the stinging triplicate heartbreak of 2006-07-08. It is your right — maybe even your responsibility — to send loud, angry messages to the ownership whose financial proclivities have ushered in this era of darkness.
And you may not buy what the GM is selling.
But unless you plan on being miserable all summer, it is at least helpful to concede that however you feel about Sandy Alderson’s Plan, it is the only one the Mets have now. There are pieces already here, some of them succeeding, some struggling. There are the pieces on the way. There is the pledge from on high that there will be looser purse strings next offseason, an oath they’d better be ready to follow through on.
It doesn’t mean you should blindly accept the daily dose of bad baseball you were given the last week. The Plan may not work, but it hasn’t yet failed. Collins may not be the guy who gets to see if it blossoms or wilts. There may yet come a time to cast him aside. Just not yet. Just not now.