You’d think a fella would know better. Your intrepid columnist has been down this road before and gotten burned, but some lessons come hard. Back in 1999, he left a famous playoff game early in deference to a pre-scheduled family function: yes, I missed the Todd Pratt moment of the Todd Pratt Game. I heard [...]
We all love a good recovery story, don’t we? A week ago, the Mets were a pitiable giant lumbering about the 2016 season, large but powerless. They lost two-of-three to both the Phillies and Marlins, neither of whom would be considered challengers for the NL East crown. The Mets weren’t hitting, getting mowed down by [...]
This one was just like Sandy Alderson and Terry Collins drew it up: power hitting and power arms. The Mets stroked four home runs -- two of them by David Wright, his first home runs and RBIs of the year -- in support of another masterful start by Noah Syndergaard. The one they call "Thor" [...]
It can safely be said that so far, the 2016 New York Mets’ season isn’t anything we signed up for. First of all, there’s this stumbling, troubling 3-5 start. As with all statistics in any game, that’s the bottom line. Did you win or did you lose? The fact that the Mets – overall consensus [...]
If the Mets are going to crap the bed, does it have to be vs. the Phillies and Marlins? The Mets are now 2-4 and looking listless. Tonight is a game best left forgotten. Steven Matz got the first two batters of the game out in neat and efficient fashion. The third hitter, Christian Yelich, [...]
For the Mets, it’s been an odd start to the 2016 season. First off, no one has ever opened a season with, basically, a continuation of the World Series. If Lucas Duda’s infamous throw had been on the money in game five, they would have headed back to Kansas City on November 2. Instead, it [...]
Well, that kind of stunk. The Mets traveled across the state of Florida to take on the power-laden Toronto Blue Jays in Dunedin: a three-and-a-half-hour bus ride to a place they hadn’t played in 27 years. As Adam Rubin pointed out on Twitter, there was a brawl that day. In a spring training game. Before [...]
A year ago at this time, we heard a lot of palaver about how hungry to return to the World Series the Kansas City Royals were. They were seen as fluky pennant winners in 2014 and were picked by some to finish as low as fourth in the AL Central in 2015, but in spring [...]
There’s been a week’s worth of Grapefruit League games, now and the Mets are a .500 ballclub. I say this in jest, but it betrays my innate Met-fan fear that last year was an illusion, that a tremendous run of luck propelled the team into the World Series and that they might not be as [...]
Today begins the age of discovery. Today is the first day of spring training games for the New York Mets. This afternoon, the Mets will renew old acquaintances with the Washington Nationals. This seems apropos, seeing as the Mets and Nats will likely wrestle for the NL East title all season. Yes, the shortest/longest winter [...]
On a snowy Friday night in late January, 2016, the New York Mets announced that they had re-signed slugging outfielder Yoenis Cespedes to an extremely lucrative three-year contract. As most on the east coast were socked in, holed up at home amid mountainous snow piles, Met fans danced in the streets – well, the streets [...]
. If you’re a teenage Met fan, you’re having a brand new experience. If you’re in your 30’s, you can recall what it was like nine years ago. If you’re in your 50’s, like me, you can think all the way back to 1987. The Mets are coming off a great regular season, capped by [...]