ARLINGTON, Texas — We’re trying like crazy to be fair about this, even as the news worsens by the day, even as the Mets’ predicament turns more and more dire. Surely, the 24-32 record the Mets dragged into Wednesday’s capper of a brief two-game stay in Texas would hint that this has been a disappointing start to the season.
And if it continues apace?
Well, then you wouldn’t be premature at all to reserve a space in the pantheon of Mets’ disappointing seasons. And any such list would have to include, in descending order of disappointment:
1: 1987
It may seem quaint to consider a team that won 92 games “disappointing,” but that was 16 fewer games than the ’86 team had won, and if that title team seemed to enjoy a seven-month ride when everything went right, the ’87 team went exactly the opposite way beginning with the day Dwight Gooden tested positive for cocaine in spring training.