The Greg Norman Syndrome ...

The headline says it all.

The Greg Norman Syndrome is easily defined. It is listed in every sports dictionary, and comes on the page with the other words that begin with "Cho."

Now, the guru of sports Bloggers, Bill Simmons of ESPN.com's Page 2, has his Patrick Ewing theory. He even takes a page to define it for his readers. I will trust my readers to be so sophisticated, that no definition is required. I will only remind you that the year was 1986, the setting was the Masters at Augusta and Norman lost a six stroke lead and trailed Nick Faldo by four strokes when the green jacked was placed on Faldo's shoulders.

The Greg Norman Syndrome is plain and simple. And....unfortunately, the Greg Norman Syndrome has fallen upon the New York Mets.

As of today, the Muts have lost 11 of 15 to blow a seven-game lead in the NL East. Currently, the Philadelphia Phillies have a one-game lead for the division title and the Muts find themselves two games back in the NL wild card race.

David Wright has been the only Met to show any type of consistency or guts during the stretch. The Muts pitching has been atrocious, the middle relief beyond atrocious - just plain terrible.

The Mets held first-place in the NL East as of mid-May but relinquished the position as of September 28-29th to teeter on the brink of the biggest collapse in baseball history.

Other mind-crushing versions of the Greg Norman Syndrome for major league baseball?

Numero Uno - Slow fade to black and bring-up Vin Scully circa '86 - "There's a little roller up along first, behind the bag! It gets through Buckner! Here comes Knight and the Mets win it!"

#2 - The NY Giants fell victim to the 1914 Boston Braves, who came back after trailing by 15 games on July 5.

#3 - The Boston Red Sox led the AL East and their rival NY Yankees by 14 games on July 19. The Yanks closed the deficit by season's end to force a one-game playoff, which they won when Bucky Dent’s pop-up somehow carried above the Green Monster at Fenway Park in Boston for a three-run home run.

#4 - The ’51 Brooklyn Dodgers led the NL by 13 games on Aug. 11 before the New York Giants came back to force a playoff which was won with Bobby Thomson’s "Shot Heard ’Round the World."

Scott Norwood need not apply.