Bye Bye Mets

The New York Times is running an article entitled, "Mets Complete Stunning Collapse." The article states, "They led the Phillies by seven games on Aug. 25. They rebounded from a humbling four-game sweep in Philadelphia by winning 9 of 10, a stretch, several players said, that left them no doubt that they had turned around their season. They held a seven-game lead on Sept. 12 and entered the final week of the season with a lead of two and a half games and a seven-game homestand against sub-.500 teams. They went 1-6." As a Chicago Cubs fan this was a particularly sweet article to read.

Read the Article!!

Discussion Starters for Younger Children

• Ask your students to tell about a time when they lost a game that they think they should have won. How did it feel to lose? Why did it feel this way?
• What kinds of lessons can be learned by somebody who loses a game? Have your students ever learned a lesson from a game? What did they learn?
• What is your students' favorite game? What do they like about this game?
  
• Have your students ever cheered for somebody? For whom have they cheered? Why did they cheer?
  

Discussion Starters for Older Students

• Vocabulary terms to discuss: Hapless; Listless; Beleaguered; and, Confounding.
  
• Do your students think that the manager of the New York Mets should be fired since the Mets did not make the playoffs after such a promising beginning, and even middle, of the season? Why/why not? Ask students to develop analogies to explain the role of baseball managers.
  
• Ask students to define the term rivalries? Why do students think that rivalries exist? In ways are rivalries good? In what ways are they bad? In what additional ways are they interesting?
  
• Ask students to imagine that they were inside of the Mets' manager's head during the team's final baseball game. What was he thinking? What would students have to know about the manager in order to truly determine what he was thinking during the final game? Why would they have to know these things?