Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame Joe Musgrove's "Cheating" for the Mets Being Eliminated

Met fans are so dumb!

"How dumb are they?" Glad you asked: They're so dumb, they chanted, "Cheater! Cheater! Cheater!" at San Diego Padres pitcher Joe Musgrove even after the umpires determined, upon Met manager Buck Showalter's request in the bottom of the 6th inning, that he was not using a foreign substance on the ball.

It simply cannot occur to them that their own team failed.

But the Mets did fail. Because of course they did. Or, as the Geico commercials would say, "When you're the New York Mets, and you make it to the postseason, you fail. It's what you do."

Jeff Passan of ESPN: "New York's 101-win season ends by getting one-hit in a winner-takes-all game in which Buck Showalter had Joe Musgrove's ears checked for foreign substances. Nothing showed up. Kinda like the Mets."

"Tommy Smokes" of Barstool Sports: "I don't care about 101 wins. I don't care about Steve Cohen. The Mets playing trumpets there and having Mr. Met dance when down 4 runs in an elimination has set back any possible positive turnaround this franchise was gonna have."

Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame Joe Musgrove's "Cheating" for the Mets Being Eliminated

5. Unreasonable Expectations. Given hype divided by results, and the fact that cheating was not discovered (thus setting aside the Yankees' 2004-present struggles against the Boston Red Sox and their 2015-present struggles against the Houston Astros), this is the most embarrassing performance in New York baseball since the Mets blew the 1988 National League Championship Series against an apparently inferior Los Angeles Dodgers team.

4. Max Scherzer. One of the greatest pitchers of his generation, and he blew it under pressure in the biggest game he's pitched since coming to Flushing Meadow.

3. The Padres Are a Good Team. In situations like this, more often than not, Reason Number 1 is, "The opposition was better." In this case, it's only Number 3. Yes, the Padres are a good team, good enough to make the Playoffs despite losing the best player they came into the season with, Fernando Tatís Jr., first to injury, and then to a cheating scandal. If he had been eligible to come to the plate, and had done so, and Met fans had chanted, "Cheater!" at him, well, they've won only 2 Pennants since 1986: 1 with Mike Piazza, and 1 with Bartolo Colón, so they could be told to shut the hell up.

2. William Nathaniel Showalter III. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Buck Showalter is a LOSER.

He had the umpires check Musgrove for foreign substances, because his overpaid hitters only produced 2 baserunners in a win-or-it's-over game. All that did was piss Musgrove off and make him throw harder. It was his last mistake of the season. Probably not his biggest.

1. The Mets Weren't Good Enough. From April 7 to September 20, they went 95-55, a 103-59 pace. From September 21 to October 5, they went 6-6, an 81-81 pace. Including the Playoffs: From September 21 to October 9, they went 7-8, a 76-86 pace.

In the six biggest games they had this season, three at home to the Atlanta Braves to decide the National League Eastern Division title, and three at home to the San Diego Padres in the NL Wild Card Series, they went 1-5.

All that money that new owner Steve Cohen spent, and they got 2 baserunners. Or, as Bob Uecker said in the movie Major League, "That's all we got? One goddamn hit?" Yup: A single by Pete Alonso to lead off the bottom of the 5th inning. And Starling Marte drew a walk to lead off the bottom of the 7th. No Cliché Alert here: That leadoff walk didn't end up "killing" anybody.

The Mets have had notable chokes and/or flops in the 1973 World Series, the 1988 NL Championship Series, the 1998 regular season, the 1999 NLCS, the 2000 World Series, the 2006 NLCS, the 2007 regular season, the 2008 regular season, the 2015 World Series, the 2016 NL Wild Card Game, and now, in 2022, both the regular season and the NL Wild Card Series. The Curse of Kevin Mitchell: Now 36 years.

Their fans going nuts over the 7th-inning entry of their closer, Edwin Díaz, with Mr. Met playing a fake trumpet to go along with that song blasting over the loudspeakers, when they were already down 4-0, is emblematic of the Mets and their fans: A joke, now and forever.

Meanwhile, because they could win their Division, the Yankees are still in the postseason.