Read: Meetings, Meetings, and We B 4 I

[Lil Bit Special]

From Metsblog:

http://www.metsblog.com/2008/06/11/read-meetings-meetings-and-we-b-4-i/

According to Roger Rubin in the Daily News,

[Lil Bit Special]

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/mets/2008/06/10/2008-06-10_despite_meeting_mets_blow_lead_and_fall_-2.html

Few grand plans have gotten off to a worse start than the Mets' new one did Tuesday night.

They haven't played like a playoff team, but the Mets still believe they are one. And Tuesday, before facing the Diamondbacks, the Mets players emerged from a brief players-only, closed-door meeting, each carrying a piece of paper with a blueprint for a future that includes the postseason.

No part of it included blowing a four-run lead and falling, 9-5, at Shea. Reliever Joe Smith surrendered a go-ahead solo homer to Chris Snyder in the eighth and Duaner Sanchez coughed up three more runs in the ninth to complete the Mets' undoing.

One player allowed the Daily News a quick glance at the sheet, which looked a lot like a flow chart with a series of arrows. At the top was the team's record entering Tuesday night's game, 30-32. Near the bottom was a circled final regular-season record of 92-70.

Below that was an arrow pointing to a single word: "Playoffs."

The sheet also had several phrases and motivational messages. One said "We B4 I." Another read "team above self." A third message was "we have time."

Players asked about the meeting said the only matter discussed was players' union business, the reelection of Aaron Heilman as team representative. One who was asked about the sheet he held said, "It's a team matter. I'm not talking about it."

The Mets players seemed focused when they came out of their meeting and during the first innings of the game. Moises Alou returned from the DL and had a two-run single in a three-run first. David Wright had a two-run homer to make it 5-1 in the second. And John Maine was pitching well into the fifth.

It came undone quickly. Maine gave up a two-run homer before getting out of the fifth having thrown 101 pitches, and Claudio Vargas allowed a two-run single that tied it. After a 61-minute delay for a storm, during which Billy Wagner and Scott Schoeneweis helped the grounds crew secure the tarp, came the late-inning meltdown.

The D-Backs, who had lost 14 of 20 and prompted Mets manager Willie Randolph to say, "We're hoping they stay down for awhile and we can fatten up a little bit," hung a fifth straight loss on the staggering Mets.

"This is obviously a trying time for us," Wright said. "We have to get through it, keep our heads up and keep some positivity. Guys are hanging their heads.

"We need to dig down deep and make a stand. It won't take a week. It won't take a month. We have to do it over the next 99 games."

The Mets' program isn't exactly the one out of the comedy "Major League," a film in which a fictionalized version of the Indians mapped out a plot to win 32 games and make the playoffs. There is no villainous owner such as Rachel Phelps who the team is looking to expose with every win.

The Mets' plan to play .620 ball over the season's final 100 games is ambitious. It's a better clip than either the 2007 Rockies or Phillies, two of MLB's hottest finishers last season. And they are the only villains so far in this story, having played far below their potential.

"I still think this is going to be a good team," GM Omar Minaya said. "You can't allow yourself to succumb to the negativity that comes with what happened last year and the bad start this year....It's a mental test."

Alou gave no specifics about the team meeting when asked earlier about it but said, "Nobody's happy with what's going on here, but nobody has given up....We've got 100games left. A hundred games is a lot, so we have time to get our act together."

The Mets need to pick up the pace on that. There are only 99 left now.