You see the look, and you know the condition.
Countless baseball people over the years — players, managers, executives and the rest — have agreed to work for the New York Mets. They enter wide-eyed and excited, ready to do great things for a jewel franchise with a large, passionate fan base.
They depart — be it months, years or decades later — dazed and confused, the headlights permanently imprinted on the deer.
Monday at Citi Field, the Mets will introduce Carlos Beltran as the 22nd manager in their history, and I would’ve been less shocked a month ago if you told me that Nancy Pelosi would be the Republican presidential nominee in 2020 than by this development, such was the ugliness with which Beltran and the Mets parted ways in 2011.