Did that blow your mind? Because that just happened. ~ Ricky Bobby

Endy's catch went from being one of the most clutch catches of all time to being just another great play. Seeing him extend and bring back a homerun ball he had no business catching was one of the craziest things I have ever seen. You just felt that the Mets were destined to win after that. Oliver Perez was thrust into the biggest game of his life after being added to the playoff roster due to injury. Last night felt magic. Last night felt like destiny for this Met team. I still cannot understand for the life of me how the Mets did not pull this one out and let Jeff Suppan shut them down again.

Yes, yes...the Mets had a great season. Everyone pat themselves on the back. It does not change the fact that this was one of the most heartbreaking losses you will ever see. My friend and I were at Stout last night and the crowd was great. The bar was going nuts as there were plenty of "En-dy-Cha-vez" chants going around, "Let's Go Mets" chants, "Endy, Endy, Endy...Oi, Oi, Oi" chants, etc. After the Mets lost, I just walked out of the bar. I drop my money on the table and said, "I gotta go". The "buck up Mike, things will be alright" texts started to come through as my Yankee friends feared I might do something drastic. My one friend IM’d me this morning, “Did you wake up in a gutter? I wouldn’t blame you if you did.” My Met fan friends? Silent. I called one friend and he said he did not want to talk.

However, I did do something drastic. I got a hot dog, meat on a stick, and probably e coli. People might call me a bit a of germaphobe so that is no small thing for me to actually purchase something from a street vendor as I've seen them drop food and pick it back up as if the five second rule was really a rule to be followed, but drastic times call drastic measures. Now we get to look towards next year. Omar will make a 97 win team appreciably better. The Mets will return next year with another ace in their stable and will probably have the best starting rotation in the National League when Pedro Martinez returns mid-year and possibly the entire Major Leagues. The Mets will have a full year of the new and improved Jose Reyes. The Mets will have the best bullpen in the Major Leagues again. In 2007, anything less than a trip to the World Series will be a failure. Omar has turned this franchise around in short order and though you could not call them anything but a success in 2006, not much can assuage how a lot of us are feeling right now. The Mets were so close to winning this series and this one hurts badly.

* * *

Friday morning quarterback time. Really not much to complain about as it was just a rough loss. You have to tip your cap the Cardinals pitching as Suppan was huge and Wainwright was unreal getting two huge strikeouts in the ninth with men on base including striking out Carlos Beltran with the bases loaded. Ironically enough, the big fear in regards to last night's game was Oliver Perez and he was dealing last night and was not the problem. He went six innings and had 88 pitches (61 strikes and four intentional balls). Personally, I would have rather seen him come back out in the seventh despite Rolen knocking that ball over the wall, but you got the feeling that Willie thought he was lucky to get this far with him and lucky to get as much out of him as he did. Perez's at-bat never came up in the sixth so it certainly would have made sense to try and get another inning out of him to me.

That would have set up Bradford for the eighth, Heilman for the ninth, etc. As for Heilman, he took the loss, but he did his job and I do not fault Willie for bringing him out in the ninth. I'm sure a lot of people will fault Willie since the closer is supposed to be in there in a tie game at home in the ninth. Some people might think it was a loss of confidence in Wagner, but Heilman is one of the better relievers in the league. You play for the win in the bottom of the ninth, but with the Mets offense, getting another inning from Heilman and then having Wagner for two was not exactly a bad thing. You would figure that would have given the punchless Mets three more chances to scratch out a run basically ensuring a win.

In the end, it really is not a big deal since the Mets were not winning the game with one run. The Mets got two hits in the first and did not get another until the ninth inning. After they scored in the bottom of the first, I was expecting the Mets to put up quite a few on Suppan, but that obviously did not materialize. Instead, the Mets season ended as Carlos Beltran took strike three an another wicked curveball from Wainwright who has impressed me a lot this series. Really, you could say Beltran choked, but he didn't. He was big this series for the Mets and Wainwright is downright nasty. The Mets had first and second with no outs and only LoDuca was able to do something at the plate. The Mets lost this one as a team, the blame doesn't sit on any one person.

"A classic game," Mets manager Willie Randolph said. "I'm disappointed for our ballclub. I'm real proud of my guys. It stings right now. It's a good experience for some of our younger guys, to go through this kind of drama. ... We've come a long way in a short time."

I wasn't going to post any links today, but this one deserved it. Wallace Matthews is the biggest douche ever spawned. The article is so bad, it has to be read.

In fact, the A's, swept by the Tigers, probably could have beaten either of these two in the World Series, as could the Twins, the Angels, the Red Sox and, as much as it pains to admit it, the Yankees.

With the exception of Chavez' leap, this series and last night's game were very much like the lady who sang the national anthem. Close, but nothing special. (It was Glenn Close, by the way.)

But then, what can you expect from a team with no pitching playing a team with no hitting? The Cardinals, winners of 83 games, boast a lineup of one guy who can hit, Albert Pujols, and eight who can't. And Pujols wasn't hitting.

The Mets, meanwhile, sent out Perez to win this crucial game, a pitcher with a 3-13 record and 6.55 regular-season ERA, a pitcher so bad he was sent to the minors by the Pirates but had become so vital to the Mets hopes that his 5 2/3-inning, five-earned run performance in Game 4 of the LCS was praised as if they had just discovered the new Koufax.

Really, it gets worse. The article is off the charts in terms of stupidity. It really makes him look petty and like he has an agenda to follow.