Remembering the Mets' Stunning 2007 September Collapse

September is a month that can bring extreme euphoria or anguish to MLB clubs. On rare occasions, teams that previously looked poised to capture a division crown hit such a rut that it becomes impossible to right the sinking ship.

Enter the New York Mets, who have a laundry list of lowlights on their resume throughout the years. However, none is more infamous than their shocking collapse in the final month of the 2007 season.

We can confidently say that Mets supporters disagree with that assessment about the 2011 Red Sox and Braves, Mr. Heyman.

Heading into September, New York held a commanding seven-game lead over the Philadelphia Phillies in the NL East. Somehow, the club managed to lose 12 of its final 17 contests. That included a 1-6 homestand against the then-Florida Marlins, St. Louis Cardinals and Washington Nationals. Neither of those three clubs eclipsed the 80-win mark that year, so it's not like Willie Randolph's side succumbed to a gauntlet of a closing schedule.

Perhaps the most telling game of the prolonged debacle was an outing from Tom Glavine, who was tattooed so profoundly by the Marlins that Randolph was forced to pull him in the first inning, cinching the debacle once and for all.

When it rained, it poured on Queens in September of 2007. Not in Mets' fans worst nightmares did they imagine that this was possible. Things surely couldn't get worse than Carlos Beltran getting buckled by Adam Wainwright's curveball in Game 7 of the NLCS to send the Cards to the World Series just 11 months earlier, right?

Leave it to the Mets to outdo that travesty within a 12-month span.

There are a myriad of reasons that Queens diehards temper expectations entering most campaigns, and the stunning 2007 September collapse should be No. 1 on that list. We aren't exaggerating when we say that it still stands as one of the greatest choke-jobs in baseball history.