I don't really see it as a collapse. The fact is they were an 88-win team and being an 89-win team might of won the division but wouldn't have made them that much a different team (and probably one that would have fallen in 3 games in the NLDS like the Phillies did). The Mets pretty much were lucky to be at top of a weak division for most of the season, and player slumps and holes in the roster caught up with them. The team had a hot April, a cold September, and mediocre months in-between. Swap their April performance with their September performance and all the psychobabble about how "they gave up," "didn't have heart," "lazy loafers," and "playing with their heads up their asses" would be replaced with "valiantly fighting," "playing with heart," and "just missing a great comeback." And all of it is bullshit. Like I said before they were an 88-win, 2nd-place team and deserved to be an 88-win, 2nd-place team. 2007 wasn't their year. 2008 will be. It's time to move on.