What it will take for Mets to avoid the ugly history staring them in the face

In those years before the Red Sox finally took a sledgehammer to 86 years of impossibly tortured history, there grew a familiar refrain among the men who were presently wearing the vestments that had so frustrated New England for generations. It was probably best verbalized by Kevin Millar in the spring of 2004.

“I respect history,” said Millar, who would go on to become something of a poet laureate for that jinx-busting collection of self-tagged Idiots. “And I empathize that there are a lot of Red Sox fans who’ve suffered through a lot of disappointment. But I was 7 years old when Bucky Dent hit his home run. I was a sophomore in high school when the ball went through Bill Buckner’s legs.”

He laughed.

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