Focus

This Post article has Delgado repeating the Mets '07 story.

"We need to stay focused an extra six weeks," Delgado said yesterday of his team that choked away the NL East to the Phillies. "We kind of assumed that we were going to win. If you look back at 2006, it was kind of a magical year for us, maybe we thought it was going to be the same way (in 2007)."

"We kind of didn't play it out the last few weeks," Delgado said.

"If I see it next year, we definitely are going to be more aware of it," he said. "We are going to make it better in 2008. No one is going to hand you anything on a silver platter. In this game you have to go out and get it."

This reasoning behind the '07 meltdown has been offered by multiple players on the Mets. Bottom line: this is inexcusable and speaks volumes about the character of the players and coaches. GOOD players and coaches already know this to be true, they don't sit back and wait for victory to come to them, they go after it EVERY SINGLE GAME. Did you ever see Michael Jordan ease up on the gas? How about the Patriots? Red Sox? Or even the Yankees despite an onslaught of early injuries this year and a hideous start out of the gate? Those teams, unlike the Mets, had the proper character in their players and coaches. I could excuse a lack of focus on a young team, but with as many veterans as the Mets have and with one of the oldest teams in MLB, there is no excuse. This to me is a culture that must be ingrained in every player from the top of the organization down, from ownership to GM to coach to player, and it just disgusts me that it is not taking place on the Mets. It doesn't really bode well for '08, unless they make some major personnel changes.