Uh oh – I think my “black just doesn’t look good” panel needs a little more work. Holy crap…
On the 1969 Baltimore Orioles as Cyclops, the 2007 Mets as the lotus fruit, and José Reyes’ free agency as the choice between a six-headed monster and a deadly whirlpool:
“So many stirring moments in The Odyssey can be recast in Mets terms — at least with some creative stretching. The massive Cyclops, putting the immovable boulder at the entrance to his cave so that Odysseus and his men have no chance of getting out alive? Surely those are the 1969 Baltimore Orioles, supposedly unbeatable, yet the Miracle Mets found a way. The lotus fruit, which causes anyone who eats it to stop striving, to just relax and while away the hours? Surely that fruit was consumed by the 2007 Mets, as they complacently sat on their division lead; that team never realized until it was too late that once you eat the lotus, you can’t stop eating it. Scylla and Charybdis, one a six-headed monster, the other a devastating whirlpool? There is no good choice here; whichever way Odysseus’ ship sails, men will die. Surely that was the decision faced by the Mets front office regarding Jose Reyes: the Scylla of signing an injury-plagued shortstop to a long-term contract that would extend well past the point when his greatest asset, his speed, would cease to matter, or the Charybdis of losing their most exciting player to a division rival.”
via Mets Hofstra Conference Excerpt: The Odyssey — The Sports Section.
