Carlos, I'm Sorry

By Joe Schackman

Carlos Beltran's career as a Met has been overshadowed by one at-bat. For that, I am sorry.

Few moments in my life as a sports fan have been lower than the last out of the 2006 National League Championship Series. Specifically, Carlos Beltran’s strike three looking that sent the St. Louis Cardinals to the World Series and knocked the Mets out of the playoffs. The Cardinals went on to win the championship that year, won it again last year and are now leading yet another assault on baseball’s top prize. The Mets haven’t been back to the playoffs since.

For most Mets fans, the image of Beltran, bat glued to his shoulder, is the only thing they remember about him. He was blamed, ridiculed and then traded by the franchise that should have instead launched him to stardom. And for all that, plus everything else, I want to say something that most Mets fans aren’t ready to: Carlos, I’m sorry.

When Beltran joined the Mets, he brought with him absurdly high expectations. His contract was huge, one of just 10 $100+ million deals to that point. While since then, inflation has watered down the impact of that nine-figure mark, at the time it was a rare honor bestowed only on the league’s super elite. Fans rightfully expected a lot from their new center fielder. The problem is that they expected far more than Beltran, or perhaps any player, could ever provide.

Nevertheless, Beltran did his best to live up to the hype. Despite an okay, but not great, 2005, he still managed to cement himself as one of the best players in baseball over the first couple years of his contract. His combined WAR from ‘05 and ‘06 reached 23.7, thanks to a rare combination of power and speed that made him one of the top all-around outfielders in the MLB. He would finish fourth in MVP voting in 2006.

Of course, that legacy was washed away the moment he watched Adam Wainwright’s ninth-inning curveball fly by.

And while Beltran played extremely well again in ‘07 and ‘08, the Mets’ back-to-back collapses down the stretch overshadowed his accomplishments. Injuries hit then, and the rest of his time in a Mets’ jersey was seemingly spent biding his time until the team could hand him off. New York finally found a taker, trading him in 2011 for Zack Wheeler.

That change was just what Beltran needed. He played 44 games for the Giants, hitting seven homers and finishing with a .920 OPS. Then the Cardinals brought him over to fill an offensive void left by Albert Pujols. For much of this year, he looked a lot like the MVP-caliber outfielder the Mets thought they would have roaming Citi Field for years to come. And like all of the others before this year, his postseason has been fantastic. The Wainwright strikeout might be his playoff legacy, but there’s no denying that he’s one of the best post-season hitters ever.

Above all else, that’s what’s so painful for me as a Mets fan. It sucked that he struck out to end the NLCS. It sucked even more that he left the bat on his shoulder the whole time. And it sucked that he couldn’t stay healthy his last few years in New York. But worse than all that is the realization that we, as Mets fans, wasted our years with Beltran.

Here we were, with the best center fielder in the game, and we not only couldn't embrace him, but we couldn't even appreciate his talent. I can criticize Yankee fans for a lot of things, but loyalty to their players is not one of them. Play well for the Bombers, and you’ll likely never be forgotten. That’s not true when it comes to the Mets and their fans.

I’m just as guilty of this as anyone else. I didn't give Beltran the respect he warranted, and I’m not even exactly sure why I now feel the need to make up for lost time. Maybe it’s because I’m watching him play, and excel, in a different uniform while the Mets wallow at home for another October. Maybe it’s because I hope that if I apologize enough, he’ll start to forgive our fan base and the team that in many ways did him so wrong. Maybe at some point in the future he’ll come back to Queens, stride to the plate with that bat that looks as long as a hockey stick, and watch the entire stadium stand and cheer. And then maybe Mets fans will earn a shot at another superstar, and this time we’ll recognize that we have something special and treat him right.

Beltran’s career is far from over. He’ll be back next year, and the year after, and maybe for a few more after that. He’ll likely move to the AL so he can take some pressure off his aging knees. But a return to the Mets probably isn't in his plans. If he someday hobbles into Cooperstown, he’ll don a Royals cap. It’ll be a painful moment, watching a man who should have been a Met forever shun my team, and wondering how different things would have been if he had just taken that bat off his shoulder.

Joe Schackman is a co-founder of Began in '96