Tomorrow night will be the 167th game of the New York Mets’ 2015 season, potentially the final one.
I haven’t written about the Division Series games… when they finish at or after midnight, it’s tough to find the time before the next day’s news cycle makes any further thoughts about them seem stale or redundant.
And after Saturday night’s game, I was just too angry. I’m willing to let Chase Utley‘s slide go at this point – he was just playing the game the way he has for his entire career… he’s not going to change now. I’m still angry that Chris Guccione is a Major League Baseball umpire even though he either doesn’t understand the rules of his sport or else he just does’t have the guts to enforce them properly. And I can’t believe that Joe Torre would bother to suspend Utley and then Major League Baseball would decide to wait until after the Division Series is over to hear his appeal.
But I didn’t log in today to rehash something we’re all tired of talking about.
Whatever happens in Los Angeles Thursday, I’m proud of the New York Mets. When we heard Sandy Alderson‘s projection of 90 wins for this team in spring training, most of us laughed. I know I did – another Stand Up Sandy joke at the expense of Mets fans, I thought.
The Mets proved us wrong. They got amazing pitching pretty much all year. They had that phenomenal early season winning streak based on that pitching and timely hitting. They overcame injuries and suspensions to stay in the thick of the race until the trade deadline, and they convinced Alderson to make some moves to give them enough pieces to take the next step. And once they got Yoenis Cespedes, Juan Uribe, Kelly Johnson, Michael Conforto and Tyler Clippard, they made us all believe.
We got to watch the Mets win their first division title in nine years and we got at least five games of playoff baseball. Our team outlasted both the Pittsburgh Pirates (98-64, lost the Wild Card Game to the Chicago Cubs) and the St. Louis Cardinals (100-62, lost the NLDS to the Cubs in four games.) And if Jacob deGrom has a better night than Zack Greinke, we’ll get to watch our Mets have their own crack at the Cubs. Wouldn’t it be something to revisit the ghosts of 1969 and quell all of the Back to the Future II “prophecy” talk?
And if Greinke has the better night? I’ll tip my cap… as much as I want the 2015 season to go on for the Mets, a loss tomorrow night takes nothing away from what they’ve already accomplished.
And I’m proud of us. I couldn’t be at Citi Field for the first playoff game in the ballpark’s history, but the electric atmosphere came through the television broadcast and people’s Periscope feeds from the ballpark. Clayton Kershaw gave Mets fans less to cheer about last night, but when they had opportunities, the fans responded. Citi Field will never be Shea Stadium, but at some point it stopped being the Brooklyn Dodger monument we never wanted and just became the Mets’ home.
Thank you.
Let’s go Mets!
PaulHadsall.com 