The blog for Mets fans
who like to read

ABOUT US

Jason Fry and Greg Prince
Faith and Fear in Flushing made its debut on Feb. 16, 2005, the brainchild of two longtime friends and lifelong Met fans.

Greg Prince discovered the Mets when he was 6, during the magical summer of 1969. He is a Long Island-based writer, editor and communications consultant. Contact him here.

Jason Fry is a Brooklyn writer whose first memories include his mom leaping up and down cheering for Rusty Staub. Check out his other writing here.

Got something to say? Leave a comment, or email us at faithandfear@gmail.com.

Need our RSS feed? It's here.

Use Facebook? Come check out our page, or drop by the personal pages for Greg and Jason.

Or follow us on Twitter: Here's Greg, and here's Jason.

BLOG PARK @ FAFIF YARDS

METS EXTRA

You Could Look It Up
Baseball Almanac: Mets
The Baseball Cube
Baseball Library
Baseball Prospectus
Baseball Reference: Mets
Cool Standings
Cot's Baseball Contracts
ESPN: Players
ESPN: Scores
Hall of Fame
Metaforian
Mets by the Numbers
Retrosheet
Salary vs. Performance
Ultimate Mets Database

The Youth of America
Buffalo Bisons
Binghamton Mets
St. Lucie Mets
Savannah Sand Gnats
Brooklyn Cyclones
Kingsport Mets

The Braintrust
Daily News
The Journal News
Newsday
New York Post
The Record (N.J.)
The Star-Ledger
New York Times

Road Apples
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Miami Herald
Philly.com
Washington Post

Press Notes
ESPN Clubhouse: Mets
ESPN Local
MLB Press Pass
Sports Illustrated: Mets
Sports Illustrated Vault
SportsSpyder
Yahoo Mets

Grant's Tombs
Polo Grounds
Shea Stadium
CitiField

Out of Town Scoreboard
Ballparks, Arenas & Stadiums
Ballparks of Baseball
Ballpark Tour
Baseball Pilgrimages
Clem's Ballpark Diagrams
Digital Ballparks
Frank's Ballparks
Jay Buckley Baseball Tours
Mike McCann's Engaging Images
Stadium Page

Frequency
Bob Murphy
Gary, Keith & Ron
MLB Extra Innings
Neil Best's Watchdog
NY Baseball Digest
Radio Roadtrip
SNY
WFAN
WPIX: Sports
XM Radio
YouTube: JPhilips41

The Picnic Area
19th Century Mets
100 Greatest NY Days
Brooklyn Ballparks
Bugs and Cranks
Carl's Mets Page
CBS Sportsline: Mets
Centerfield Maz
DGW Photo Blog
Eephus Pitch
Forgotten New York
Gotham Baseball
Hot Dog Vending at Shea
Howard Megdal
Inside Pitch
Jackie Robinson Foundation
Knuckleball From Hell
Long Island Ducks
Mathematically Alive
Meet the Matts
Met Camp
Met Fan Book
Mets Images
New York Mets Hall of Records
NY Mets Report
NY Sports Day
NY Sports Dog
NY SportSpace
Productive Outs & Cracker Jack
Pro Sports Daily: Mets Rumors
Record Online
SABR NYC
SportSnipe
The Sportswriting of Andrew Kahn
Steve's Mets Photos
Very Unofficial Mets Site

Extreme Baseball
At Home Plate
Baseball Analysts
Baseball Card Blog
Baseball Crank
Baseball Fever
Baseball Think Factory
Blogging Baseball
Bobby V's Way
Brent Mayne
Cardboard Gods
Cardboard Junkie
The Dead Ball Era
The Dugout
Dugout Central
Excruciating Baseball Lists
Hardball Times
Israel Baseball League
Japan Baseball Daily
Jewish Major Leaguers
Life in the Minors
Negro Leagues Baseball Museum
Quality At-Bats
Rob Kirkpatrick 1969
SABR
Sports Collectors Daily
Stats on the Back
Streetplay
Super '70s Baseball Cards
Topps Baseball Card Blog
USA Today

Multipurpose Stadium
Brooklyn Mutt
Can't Stop the Bleeding
The Daily Fix
Dan Shanoff
Deadspin
Gelf Magazine
Getting Paid to Watch
Get Untracked
Gil Meche Experience
Jeff Pearlman
Joe Posnanski
Ladies...
Legend of Cecilio Guante
New York Magazine: The Sports Section
Quickish
Riding With Rickey
Scratchbomb
Uni Watch
Uni Watch Blog

The Rotunda
Amazinz
Crane Pool Forum
Grand Slam Single
Happy Recap Board
Mets Refugees
The Mofo

Everybody's Comin' Down
Mets: Official Site
The 7 Train
LIRR

When You Forfeit You Only Lose 9-0

That was going through my head as the Mets trudged to the plate for the top of the ninth: Gee, we’d have been beaten less badly if Terry Collins had run up the white flag a while back. The fact that Ike Davis and Jason Pridie held down the pig and rubbed some home-run lipstick on it before everybody got to go back to the hotel didn’t make me feel particularly differently.

Ryan Howard demolished us. So did somebody with the no-really name of Vance Worley. Ronny Paulino made his Mets debut, possibly after being coaxed back from standing alongside the highway with his thumb out and a sign reading ANYWHERE BUT HERE. Because yeah, it was that kind of night. A Mike Pelfrey Doesn’t Have It kind of night. A Dillon Gee Doesn’t Have It Either kind of night. A Why Am I Wasting a Perfectly Decent Friday Night On This Goddamn Debacle kind of night.

Those kind of nights happen when you’re a baseball fan. If you’re committed enough (or perhaps just numb enough), you stick around because you want to see another backup catcher make the all-time roster, or because it would feel like the smallest of moral victories to deny the other guys a shutout, or because a sophomore player’s modest hitting streak might become slightly less modest. And I suppose these are good things, even admirable in some way. Perhaps they’re money in the karma bank for use in games like the win against the Nats. Or perhaps they’re just evidence that we’re hopeless addicts. Either way, it’s too late. The Mets win and we watch and cheer rapturously. They lose and we watch and cheer for whatever we can find. It’s why I’m writing this and why you’re reading it. It’s what we do.

But even addicts can make good choices now and again. And I’m going to make one now: The Mets lost, it was bad, and we’re going to stop talking about it. Tomorrow’s another day.

4 comments to When You Forfeit You Only Lose 9-0

  • Andee

    Seriously, though…is Pelfrey toast now? Yeah, I know he had the flu, but he did last time too, and he wasn’t this bad. He’s been terrible in every start except one; yeah, probably unlucky too, BABIP fairy, etc. etc. But also bad. And since he’s a Boras client, will probably refuse a Buffalo assignment, since Boras will take every possible opportunity to burn us. Bah.

    • He’s no longer a member of Jaison D’Etres, at least. Replaced him with Mike Leake. Yes, Pelf, you’ve been bumped for someone with a shoplifting issue.

  • Florida Met Fan Rich

    Well that run was exactly what I expected it was!…We can beat the really crappy teams then we are going to “Get Run” by the real teams!

    It was fun and exciting to go on that winning streak but it was the ASTROS-D-BACKS & NATS!

    I guess we are back to “Let’s try not to get swept mode”!

    Pelf has been bad since spring training! He is off with his mechanics and I’m sure by now it is way in his head!….Take some pressure off him, he was never a #1 pitcher anyway.

  • Dave

    Butt ugly. My wife and daughter wanted to watch the royal wedding postgame show all night and our other TV is on the fritz, and I didn’t mind missing most of this one.

    And why is it, no matter what year it is, no matter who’s in the lineup, no matter where we are in the standings, one surefire way to completely silence the Mets’ bats is to bring up a guy from the minors…doesn’t matter if he’s even a real prospect or not. We’ll make him look like Koufax.