3 periods in NY Mets history where the team hit rock bottom

New York Mets fans have got to feel like they are witnessing the building of an organization that can maintain a level of competitiveness and strength, able to endure aging, injuries, and subpar seasons – an organization built to be the hunted rather than the hunter. It hasn’t always been that way, and Mets fans are well aware of that.

The Mets have had some seasons to remember…and some seasons better left forgotten. But there have been some periods in Mets history that are hard to forget and remembered for the bad, not the good, a period when the organization hit rock bottom.

There were the best of times – like 1969 and 1986 – and then there were the absolute worst of times. Here are the three worst periods in New York Mets history:

3 – The seasons covering 2003 and 2004 were really a horrible time to endure for Mets fans.

The Mets had had a period of rejuvenation when Bobby Valentine came in to manage the team near the tail end of the 1996 season. Beginning in 1997, Valentine began to inject a new energy into the organization and the team became exiting again. In fact, the 1999 and 2000 seasons were two of the best offensive teams the Mets have ever had and the 1999 team fielded one of the best defensive infields ever, and was featured on the cover of Sport Illustrated. They went to the NLCS in ’99 and faced the Yankees in the last Subway World Series in 2000. So what happened?

Mets management decided that Valentine had lost the clubhouse during the 2002 season. After having a winning record every year, one of the best managerial records in Mets history, the Mets finished under .500 for the first time. And Valentine was a bit verbose and liked having a say in how things went. It was a good excuse to get rid of the outspoken manager.

For some reason, Mets management decided to steal Art Howe away from the Oakland A’s and Billy Beane’s Moneyball. Howe was a serviceable player in the 1970’s but he was a dinosaur. He had no communication skills with the players, and was even worse with the media. He was a HORRIBLE fit for the organization.

Couple that with the fact that the team was getting old with aging star Tom Glavine and Al Leiter hanging on and the experiment of moving Mike Piazza to first base going awry. The team had some decent names, on paper, but it didn’t translate into on-field performance. They were VERY hard to watch.

Howe didn’t help by sitting there looking…helpless. And he was brutal during press conferences.

So after a period of steady competitiveness, management threw fans into dark period with back to back 90-loss seasons as the icing on the cake.