Mets On the Rise: 1968, 1983…2014?

It’s a fun thing to wake up overseas, on a fantastic vacation, roll over, grab your cell phone and follow the last couple of innings of a Mets’ win. That’s exactly what your intrepid columnist experienced as the All-Star break ended. Germany was awesome, but Saturday morning looked a little bit better with the Padres having been dispatched just before my morning shower. Home was arrived at just in time to see Bartolo Colon be imperfectly perfect, followed by a weekend split sausage in Milwaukee. Coming, as all this did, on the heels of a 9-1 homestand leading into the break, even an ultimate series loss to those Padres out of the gate didn’t engender much dread: it was disappointing, yes, but it wasn’t the “oh-my-God-how-did-they-swept-by-the-Cubs?” brand of devastating. Since the middle of June, that’s been kind of a theme for the Mets, hasn’t it?

People have been saying that there’s a “feeling” around this team. It’s vague and amorphous, but you do get the sense that something’s on the horizon. Heck, Keith Hernandez said it on the SNY air a couple of weeks ago. Young pitchers having early success will give you that feeling, of course. Zack Wheeler and Jacob deGrom have arrived as advertised, deGrom even better than that. Wheeler’s last five starts have been eye-popping, even if the Mets have only a 3-2 tally to show for it. His K/9 ratio is exactly 9.00, which means, of course, that he’s averaging a strikeout an inning. deGrom has some gaudy stats, but his peripherals are somewhat less so. However, he does possess some of those dreaded “intangibles,” similar to his eventual rotation mate, Matt Harvey. He’s got attitude to spare – we Met fans would call it “confidence.” He’s smart and has shown the ability to make adjustments on the fly. And he hits! Remember when Mets pitchers went oh-for-April at the plate? With Colon, Dillon Gee and Jon Niese filling the proven veteran roles, we’ve been enjoying some fine mound work of late, even if the offense is only providing the barest amount of support.

Veteran Met-watchers will find this analysis familiar. 1968 looked pretty similar. The young pitching looked to be outstanding (Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman, Nolan Ryan), supplemented by veterans (Don Cardwell, Al Jackson) and just enough offense to get by. At the time, no one had any kind of inkling that the record the following year would skyrocket from 73-89 to 100-62, complete with title. 1983 saw the team on the cusp, as well, though that year was kind of the opposite, owing more to the position players than young pitching. Darryl Strawberry emerged as a bona fide major league hitter, Hernandez was acquired mid-year and George Foster rebounded a bit from his disastrous first year in Queens. The pitching staff was manned mostly by veterans (Seaver’s encore, Mike Torrez, Craig Swan) while he youngsters ripened at Tidewater. True, Ron Darling arrived in September, but Dwight Gooden, Sid Fernandez and Walt Terrell wouldn’t arrive until 1984 and cause the record to jump from 68-94 to 90-72.

The more we watch, the more it looks like 2014 will be joining this list. Some amateur analysis seems to think so.

Here’s hoping they’re right.

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