Forty years ago this very season the Mets found a way. 

They found a way to miraculously defeat the heavily-favored Baltimore Orioles and capture the franchise’s first-ever World Championship in what is arguably the greatest postseason upset in baseball history.

Four decades later, the modern, somewhat hokie, concept of Interleague Play brought the Mets back to Baltimore. 

Once again, the Mets found a way – to lose.

As they have all season, the Mets found a way to lose two very winnable games and fall to 33-31 on the season.

Whereas improbable plays from the likes of Tommie Agee, Ron Swoboda, and Al Weiss catapulted the 1969 club to greatness, shoddy managing, base-running blunders, and unthinkable errors have put the 2009 Mets in a tough predicament.

I know pitching (Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman, and Gary Gentry), as it always does, played a huge part in the Amazin’ Mets’ success of 1969 almost as injuries have so heavily contributed to the struggles of the 2009 club.  

Remember though that the 1969 Mets didn’t do it on pitching alone.  Without the Amazin’ plays and unlikely heroes, the club wouldn’t have even won the pennant.

A similar notion can be adopted here in 2009.  The injuries have taken their toll, but even the battered Mets could be at least five games better in the standings had it not been for the inexcusable mental lapses on the part of both the players and their manager.

Wednesday night it was Jerry the Genius feeling the need to remove an effective pitcher (Bobby Parnell) in favor of a lefty-lefty matchup (bringing in Pedro Feliciano).  Parnell easily retired the leadoff batter in the seventh inning, but with lefties Markakis and Huff due up Manuel would let Parnell go no further.

I’m glad Manuel went back to this matchup strategy considering it worked so well when left-handed hitting Raul Ibanez Ibanez met southpaw reliever Ken Takahashi in the 10^th inning of the Mets’ 6-3 setback to NL East leader Philadelphia last Thursday.

I am aware of, and have previously highlighted, the remarkable work Pedro Feliciano has been doing this season.  I like Feliciano so much so that I don’t want our manager to burn him out (he’s appeared in 37 of the club’s 64 games), or at the very least, not bring him into a game unnecessarily when the man he’s replacing is showing no signs of ineffectiveness.  

What’s wrong with Parnell, a former starter, eating an extra inning?  If he is to be our future closer, or even an eighth inning guy, he will need the ability to retire both right-handed and left-handed hitters.

The way this season is going I’m beginning to think that the Black Cat is back 40 years later, but this time he’s haunting us.