Free agency, job security add to Mets-Dodgers pressure cooker

• published: 15 Oct 2015
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Free agency, job security add to Mets-Dodgers pressure cooker LOS ANGELES — There is a blue hippo in the room, now whatever you do, don’t think about the blue hippo. Good luck. The blue hippo in baseball is the win-or-go-home game. Really, good luck finding the discipline to not let that into your mind and heart and bloodstream. Good luck steadying your nerves, focusing your thoughts, treating this like just any other game. Of course, that is what all the players will say, that they have the Zen principles or Navy SEAL mentality to ignore the stakes and goat-or-hero implications that can be riding on every pitch, every ground ball, every swing. There probably are moments after the first pitch is delivered when muscle memory and instincts take over, and the Mets and Dodgers will fall into something approaching normality Thursday night, Game 5, get the Cubs or get your clubs. But the size of the crowd, the magnitude of the moment, the meaning — both individually and collectively — of the outcome will resonate through Chavez Ravine. Those who manage the stress best, re-purpose it to positive thoughts and energy, have the greatest chance to tame the blue hippo. No sport plays more games than Major League Baseball. So there always feels like a tomorrow. But in a decisive playoff game, for one team, there will not be. It is impossible to ignore. There is no “poof” and that thought vanishes from your brain. The safety nets are all removed. Hang a slider at the wrong time, bobble a double-play pivot, fail to lay down a sacrifice and you might be explaining why that happened — to yourself and others — for the rest of your life. Again, good luck not thinking about it. Derek Jeter has played more postseason games than anyone in history and was renowned for handling the environment well. He was a master of not over-complicating matters, of not deviating from his standard mindset and routines. Of turning October into just another day in June. But I always thought there was more than that with him. Jeter had joy playing this time of year, not anxiety. He embraced these games. He saw them as dream, not dread. His self-confidence and positive nature allowed him to dismiss the possibilities he would buckle or mess up on the biggest stage. Heck, he wanted the biggest stage. No kid in a back yard or local field imagines himself hitting a walkoff homer on May 15. The fantasy is the seventh game of the World Series — or the decisive game of a Division Series will do as a proxy. Jeter, to me, seemed to channel this way of thinking. Essentially: I have imagined my whole life being in exactly this spot, why the heck should I be scared now? You can’t be Mr. November in June. Those who excel now can take a deep breath and find quiet, calm, confidence. The ability to think clearly despite all the various noises buzzing about. For the managers, Terry Collins and Don Mattingly, that will mean not letting the game speed up on them and being caught in a rote behavior that works over the long season, but fails to appreciate the no-tomorrow realities of a Division Series Game 5. Neither man is assured employment next year. Having to explain, for example, why a better option never left the bullpen at a seminal moment sticks like glue. Paging Matt Williams. Collins is close to certain to return, and simply getting to the NLCS would probably lock that down. It also would go a long way to helping Mattingly, who is on far less stable ground. Dodgers Game 5 starter Zack Greinke is going to opt out of his contract after this season and — no matter what occurs Thursday — he is looking at a payday that probably starts at five years and $150 million and climbs from there. Saving the Dodgers’ season could only force the organization’s hand to retain him. Quirky, but a deep thinker, Greinke must quarantine himself from such concepts. The same goes for Yoenis Cespedes, the other big free-agent-to-be in this game. He is getting a huge deal no matter what, but clearly if he hits the Mets into the NLCS, the pressure will intensify for the organization to do whatever is necessary financially to retain him. Cespedes has to find a way not to get big in his swing and to leave all the cha-ching for another day.