Mets Fans, Hope and Wisdom from Shawshank

One of my favorite movies of all time is The Shawshank Redemption. Been a while since I watched it, but as spring training begins one quote from that movie/book stands out. It's when Red says to Andy:

"Hope? Let me tell you something, my friend. Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane. It’s got no use on the inside. You better get used to that idea."

Never has a quote been more true for Mets fans than this one. For the last three seasons, we've been getting high on hope. Hope for no more injuries. Hope for smarter decisions. Hope for comebacks. Hope for turnarounds. Hope for financial rumors to be nothing more. Hope for firings. Hope for firings.

I'm sick of hope. And this spring we find ourselves hoping for one of the worst things: that the Mets won't be as bad as we think they will be.

Now my morbid demeanor will soon fade away as I will be sucked into the glory that is spring baseball. I'll get excited to watch some of the young players make a name for themselves in St. Lucie. I'll remember what fun it was to watch Ike Davis early on last season and how surprising R.A. Dickey was.

I'll even convince myself that the Mets can be competitive. I will have hope.

But unlike Andy Dufresne from Shawshank, I don't have a secret escape hidden behind a poster of Rita Hayworth.

However, there's a second half to the quote that I mentioned above. It's Andy's response to Red's depressed response:

"Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies."

I hope that's true for Mets fans.

An Odd Feeling to the 2010 Season

This 2010 campaign just feels weird. There's already an anxiousness among the Mets fan base that's unprecedented for this time in the year. So you lose two out of three in your first series of the season. That doesn't mean your doomed to be in last place for the remainder of the year.

But that's what it feels like. Jerry Manuel is already talking about how his team needs offensive support (hello? did you see your team score 13 runs in the first two games?). The media is asking about where the team's power is going to come from. We're already crucifying the starting rotation and it's apparent lack of support after Johan Santana.

And it's only the first week of the season. This is going to be a painfully long year. The Mets are trying to prove that last year was a fluke, but we as fans won't believe them until we see that our team isn't floundering amongst the bottom feeders of the National League.

I was on pins and needles last night and the game before as the Mets were trying to come back from early deficits. It's April for crying out loud. I know that, you know that, but it doesn't matter. We need some hope.

Nothing is a harbinger of hope like a series against the Nationals.