A Few Thoughts Before I Put the 2006 Mets' Season to Bed

• The crowd at Shea last night was fan-fucking-tastic: loud whenever the game situation called for it and on their feet for most of the rest of the game. My only quibble is with the (thankfully few) braindead morons who left immediately after the top of the ninth. You’re telling me that getting home ten minutes sooner is worth the chance that you’ll miss a bottom-of-the-ninth comeback to win the NLCS in Game 7? A comeback by a team that had done it all year and, by the way the game had gone up to that point, seemed destined to win? You should be ashamed to call yourselves fans.

• Endy Chavez with the greatest catch of all time. You can have your over-the-shoulder Willie Mays catch; I’ll take Endy’s any day of the week.

• Can’t really second-guess any of Willie’s decisions last night. Heilman looked good, and the bottom of the order was coming up, so no need for Wagner in the ninth. Also, no way you send up a pinch-hitter to bunt with two on in the bottom of the ninth: down two runs and with three outs, you really want to give up an out? The run expectancies are nearly the same anyway, and I think sending Floyd to the plate to get the big hit was the right call.

• Finally, I have to say I’m not nearly as despondent as I thought I would be. The Mets had an awesome regular season and a trip to the World Series came down to a coin-flip Game 7: I’d take that result any year. The core of the team is young, and most of them will be back again to try next season.