Maybe it is easier just to blame it on a jinx, or a hex, or a pox. In an odd way, these provide both comfort and cover. They did for the Red Sox from 1918 until 2004, for the White Sox from 1917 until 2005, for the Cubs from 1908 until 2016.
If you can blame the mystical for your problems, after all, then you don’t have to ponder certain cold realities. You’re living under a black cloud?
Why, that explains it all!
It is why the “Madden” Curse has become a Thing, because Michael Vick was on the cover of the 2004 video game minutes before he broke his leg in the preseason and missed the first 11 games, because Rob Gronkowski and Donovan McNabb and Shaun Alexander were all on the cover in other years before injury or ineffectiveness knocked them flat. (Sure, Calvin Johnson, Eddie George and Ray Lewis went on to have monster years after appearing on the cover, but … jinxes!)
If you are a Mets fan, if you know a Mets fan, then you remember exactly what the first reaction was when mailboxes all over the tri-state area opened 15 months ago and out tumbled the March 28, 2016, issue of Sports Illustrated. And there, under the headline “STRAIGHT FIRE” were Jacob deGrom, Matt Harvey and Jeurys Familia all staring back, all smiling confidently.
“Could the best be yet to come for the Mets’ [still] young guns?” SI asked.
A lot of Mets fans with a sense of history — of both team and magazine — chose not to answer with words, but rather Pepto-Bismol. After all, Eddie Matthews had appeared on the very first cover on Aug. 16, 1954 — and promptly broke his hand, and his Milwaukee Braves instantly cascaded on a nine-game losing streak.
There are scores of other examples.
(And plenty of counter-testimony, of course. Michael Jordan, after all, appeared on the cover over 50 times, but … jinxes!)
Of course, it didn’t help that both deGrom and Harvey suffered season-ending injuries last year, that Familia did likewise earlier this year, that Harvey is back on the disabled list this year. And probably doesn’t matter to Mets fans (and jinx aficionados) that the Mets were one of four split covers — one of whose subject, the Cubs, went on to win the World Series (fighting one jinx with another!).
Besides, that isn’t the image that really sours the soul of Mets fans. Rather, it is one that was taken by several media outlets on photo day at in Port St. Lucie that same spring: Bartolo Colon, Harvey, Noah Syndergaard, deGrom, Steven Matz and Zack Wheeler, all lined up, tossing baseballs to themselves, looking bullet-proof.
That is the photo that sticks in manager Terry Collins’ mind.
“I don’t even know where they all are right now,” Collins said, sadly, last weekend in San Francisco.
The plan, for years, was this: Assemble the best young starting pitching available, throw those arms out there night after night, see what happens. You want to avoid losing streaks? Throw Syndergaard-Harvey-deGrom-Matz-Wheeler at the National League night after night. All young. All fireballers. All confident. All gifted.
Some of it — much of it, in truth — was merely the residue of past plans, the happy happenstance of haphazard luck. Harvey already was in place when general manager Sandy Alderson took over the Mets, drafted by Omar Minaya. So was Matz, though his prized left arm already had spent too much time in operating rooms.
DeGrom had been a college shortstop. For years, it was assumed Rafael Montero would own this slot, until deGrom arrived in 2014, started getting people out, never really stopped. Syndergaard? Syndergaard was a throw-in, for goodness sake, the lesser part of the R.A. Dickey trade in which the Mets coveted Travis d’Arnaud.
The one jewel of the lot was Wheeler, pried from the Giants at the trade deadline in 2011 in exchange for Carlos Beltran. When he debuted in Atlanta on June 28, 2013, it was as the second half of a “Super Tuesday” doubleheader with Harvey, who had dominated the Braves in the afternoon. Wheeler won that night. And the Mets’ future began, at last, to take shape.
Until it didn’t.
That haphazard luck we talked about earlier? That is what is required for this plan to stay as close to the blueprint as the Mets needed it to be. Two days shy of two months after Super Tuesday, the Mets revealed Harvey had hurt his elbow. And from that moment until right now, the Mets never have had all five arms available at the same time. Wheeler missed all of 2015 and ’16 with Tommy John. DeGrom and Matz finished last year on the DL. Syndergaard and Harvey are there now.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
It may seem like the Mets have been bombarded by bad fortune. But, really, they could have seen this foreshadowing just by paying attention to their neighbors in the NL East, the Phillies. On Dec. 15, 2010, the Phillies stunned the sport — primarily The Bronx — by signing Cliff Lee away from the Rangers, when it was all but assumed he was bound for the Yankees.
The Phillies had won the World Series in 2008, lost to the Yankees there in ’09, won 97 games and made the NLCS in ’10. They were enjoying the most prosperous era in their history and already had Cole Hamels (home-grown), Roy Halladay (acquired from the Jays for — among others — d’Arnaud) and Roy Oswalt (imported from the Astros). It was hailed as the greatest rotation ever assembled.
And for a while, it really was a marvel to watch. The Phillies won 102 in 2011. Halladay, Lee and Hamels combined for 50 wins, and all had sub-3 ERAs. That part was splendid. But Oswalt was limited to 23 starts, and in the playoffs St. Louis’ Chris Carpenter outdueled Halladay in a decisive Game 5, 1-0.
And that was that. Oswalt left. Halladay hurt himself. So did Lee. The 2012 Phillies went 81-81. They haven’t sniffed .500 since.
And for a sobering dose of perspective, backtrack two paragraphs, to the part where Lee, Halladay and Hamels went 50-23 in one season, 2011. And now consider this: For their careers, Harvey, Wheeler, deGrom, Syndergaard and Matz are a combined 130-104.
Maybe it is more than a jinx …
The thing that really taunts, and teases, is that the one time this staff was reasonably close to full health was during the 2015 postseason, and that is what keeps the embers of hope alive. The snapshots — deGrom manhandling the Dodgers in the NLDS, Syndergaard intimidating the Royals in the World Series, Harvey pitching brilliantly against both the Cubs and Royals — survive.
And the numbers back them up. DeGrom, Harvey, Matz and Syndergaard started all 14 games, went 7-3, pitched to ERAs ranging from 2.88 (deGrom) to 3.68 (Matz). For those 14 games, it seemed certain the Mets had ridden the right horse, going with the arms, going with the kids …
And it still may work out that way. DeGrom, the oldest of the quintet, won’t turn 30 until next June. Harvey is 28. Wheeler is 27, Matz 26, Syndergaard 24. As SI pointed out (before jinxing the hell out of them): they’re [still] young guns. If they can ever stay intact long enough for their manager to remember what they look like. Together.
[mlbvideo id=”1476026983″ width=”600″ height=”360″ /]