Mets Clinch Eastern Division

(AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
Mets Third Baseman David Wright celebrates
Mets clinching the NL East title


(AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
Wright celebrates with fans after victory

It’s All Good. No, It’s Better Than That.
By BEN SHPIGEL
Published: September 19, 2006

Considering how the previous three games had gone, it might have been a tad bold for the Mets to wrap their clubhouse televisions in plastic so early yesterday afternoon. They did not jinx themselves this time, however, and the team with the best record in baseball played like it last night.

The celebratory bath with what must have seemed like the finest Champagne had eluded them in Pittsburgh, but it arrived in full force after the Mets defeated the Florida Marlins, 4-0, at Shea Stadium to clinch their first division title since 1988. After Cliff Floyd caught Josh Willingham’s liner to end the game, catcher Paul Lo Duca mobbed Billy Wagner at the mound, and the rest of the team sprinted out of the dugout to join the merriment near second base.

“I kept waiting for it and was like, ‘Don’t go in the lights, don’t go in the lights,’ ” Floyd said of Willingham’s ball. “When it landed in my glove, I just wanted to hold on to it forever.”

Fireworks popped, Pedro Martínez ran toward the dugout with his arms raised, and the announced crowd of 46,729 went wild. But there was another cause for celebration. Steve Trachsel, the maligned starting pitcher whose 15 victories have been undermined by inconsistency and a high earned run average, atoned for two poor recent outings by pitching six and a third scoreless innings. José Valentín, batting .179 in his last 12 games, hit two homers and drove in three runs.

“I’ve been waiting a long time for this,” said Trachsel, a Met since 2001.

But it was an anticlimactic victory in a season with little suspense. The Mets have held sole possession of first place in the National League East since April 6 and developed a stranglehold on the division in mid-June with a 9-1 trip. In ending Atlanta’s unparalleled run of 14 consecutive division titles — in the West and the East — the Mets became the first team other than the Braves to win the East since the 1993 Phillies.

Inside the Mets’ clubhouse afterward, corks flew, beer splashed and players danced and hugged to “Macarron Chacarron,” the unintelligible song that sometimes plays during a José Reyes at-bat. At one end, a begoggled Reyes poured bubbly over Duaner Sánchez, who was wearing the goggles he uses when he pitches.

“See, they come in handy,” Sánchez said.

Oh, yeah fuck Francesa and that rat fuck Russo. I've hated their asses for a long time, now they can shut the fuck up. Got any questions about Omar Minaya now, motherfuckers. I think not.

Fuck the Atlanta Braves. How many series did you win? Yeah. Ok. Now slink away.

And of course, fuck the fucking Yankees.