"They'll blow it in the playoffs" ... If they get there.

Well they did it again. For the second year in a row the New York Mets shot themselves in the foot and blew the division lead in the final month of the season to miss the playoffs. This time they fought all season long just to miss the playoffs on the very last day. Yet again they snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

I will allow some slack for the fact that the closer, Billy Wagner, went down for much of the season, but the bullpen just failed to produce. The ace pitcher Johan Santana didn't lose a single game after the all-star break. In fact most of his games were 7+ inning games. I thought that I heard manager Jerry Manuel say that every time Santana pitches the bullpen gets a break.

I was very excited to see that the last game in Yankee Stadium was a regular season game, however I was not happy to see that the last game in Shea Stadium was also a regular season game.

Now I don't know who to cheer for now. My plan was that if the Mets didn't make it then I was all for those Cubbies. But here they go again, they blow it in the playoffs.

I'm sure that with disappointment for the second year in a row, there are going to be changes in areas that probably don't need it and the bullpen won't be fixed. I just assume that because no matter what team it is, the bullpen is always the weakest link and the most difficult to strengthen.

I really liked Willie Randolph, even if he was a Yankee, however, after seeing the way that Jerry Manuel has handled the situation, I hope he is there to stay for a while.

Who knows, maybe the destruction of Shea will be the beginning of a new era. So in the spirit of the one of the best baseball movies ... "turn this place into a parking lot!"