Finally, the Mets are as serious as we are

Spring Training camps open today. I expected to write that a month ago, but whaddayagonnado? The principal players in the bad production called “The Odious Baseball Lockout of 2022” provided the drama and suspense needed for good theatre, but the audience certainly suffered for it. At least there was a happy -- if unsatisfying for [...]

Gil Hodges’s Hall of Fame election and the Mets managerial search

Nothing causes you to examine your present quite like something good happening to someone from your past. Your childhood best friend gets married and that makes you wonder why you can’t get a date. A co-worker – hired the same day as you -- gets a great promotion and you find yourself still in the [...]

New York’s a lonely town

This title line is from a forgotten 1960s pop ditty about a California surfer dude who moves east and experiences some severe culture shock. It also pretty well sums up the Mets’ futility and frustration in the hiring of some top front office personnel. They’ve been rebuffed at every turn. Did you ever hear the [...]

The 2021 Mets and the 1985 Mets: similar, but not the same

As this is written, the New York Mets are coming off a very large win over their crosstown rivals, the New York Yankees. The victory restores their record to .500, squaring up at 71-71 and putting them a bare half-game behind the Philadelphia Phillies for second place in the NL East, five behind the Atlanta [...]

The Mets could be this year’s runaway hit

A couple of weeks ago, much was made of Broadway’s return to action. In the early summer, post-pandemic atmosphere of gaiety, the comeback of the theatre was hailed as yet another sign of the world’s slow return to normalcy: the Great Bright Way is shining once again. The baseball season is looking pretty bright around [...]

Jacob deGrom’s elbow spotlights the Mets’ tenuous hold on first place

You can pretty much say that baseball is back. On Friday night, June 11, a maximum allowable capacity – 90% in these post-COVID days – stuffed Citi Field for the beginning of a much-anticipated series. Everyone’s darling, the “It Girl” of 2021, the San Diego Padres came to town for their first and only road [...]

Gut Reaction: Mets 3 Padres 2 (6/11/21)

There’s an abbreviation that gets used online and when texting that goes “SMH.” While some might find a lascivious connotation to these three letters, it actually stands for “shake my head.” When hitters face Jacob deGrom, that’s all they can do. And sometimes, it’s all Mets fans can do when deGrom leaves a game. Why [...]

Gut Reaction: Mets 3, Orioles 2 (5/11/21)

The winning streak continues, unlikely and possibly quite costly. In a game that was dominated by the two starting pitchers, the big action came in the last three innings and had nothing to do with either of them. John Means squared off against Marcus Stroman and for six-plus innings, there was nothing to choose between [...]