Mets: Winners and Losers? 

In baseball, there are winners and losers. We expect and accept that. It is part of the rules of every game. There must be a winner so there must be a loser. It makes it tough on the losers though, until they realize there's another year. You can always win again if you learn from your mistakes and try hard. Sometimes it takes a long time, but when it happens, as in the case of the Mets this year, it feels amazing. That is why I always think of them as the 'Amazing Mets." As Yogi might have said, "They came to a fork in the road and took it."  As a long-time Mets fan, I'm excited that at long last they feel like winners and hope they make it all the way to win the World Series.

In life, we also have winners and losers, but unlike with baseball, some 'losers' never get a chance to become winners. In some cases, they are branded losers as early as pre-school now. In a very frightening way, we have come to accept the idea that some children must be labeled as losers, almost as the Mets were. I read about  them every day and can't believe how readily we all accept this system where labels are branded on kids by endless testing and the accompanying pressure cooker climate of our schools. Unless kids feel they have a chance to win, we will keep having explosions and losers. But as Yogi also said, "It ain't over until it's over." I believe we can make a difference and rise again. Let's go Mets!