The Mets Police

Last night’s time of game: 3:42.

I don’t know when the game ended, I can estimate 11:47pm EDT because I was long gone.

I’m one of the casuals.  A lapsed baseball fan who started watching MLB on September 30th this year (and I plan to skip the first 6 months next year because the current playoff format is absurd.)

Last night I gave the game “one more inning” at 5-0 because the Dodgers have some actual star players that are fun to watch, and I was rewarded with a fun inning.

Then I did some mental math.  Once again, it was the 6th inning and 10pm.  Like I did the night before, I decided I didn’t want to chase the game until midnight so I turned it off.  The game is still too slowly paced to sit there for two more hours playing on my phone waiting for something to happen,

Sometime around 4am I woke up and checked my phone, saw the score, and went back to bed.  That’s my engagement with the sport these days.

This was baseball’s big chance.  The TV numbers were up from the downs and they will have a nice story to tell, but what happens when the World Series ISN’T Yankees Dodgers.

I don’t think baseball has learned a thing.   The biggest moments happen too late.  The games are 4 hours long.

They will tell a story about how great a season this was, and sure it was less horrible than recent seasons, but I am not sure Baseball Is Back, I think a sexy match-up just hid the problems,.

 

Last night I woke up around 11:15 or so.  The TV was on.  Seems the Yankees were playing the Dodgers in the World Series.  It was the 9th inning.

I had missed three innings or so.  It was 4-0, I think, and 11:15, so I turned it off.

Baseball likes to play its biggest events when the most likely fans are passing out in recliners.

There’s nothing new here, as this has been going on for decades now – but here’s the thing – notice how the sport is far less popular than it used to be.  When you’re getting bigger audiences in Japan than the US, it’s time to question those “8pm” starts – and when did last night ACTUALLY start?  8:20?

This was the best opportunity baseball has had in 20 years.  They blew this one too.

You can “old man yells at cloud” me all you want – but this old man has disposable income, and the generations after the old man don’t care about baseball.

Behold! A gateway to your own past if you wish. All that you knew has been altered.

As Mets fans we have been blessed to have this current dynasty after all those years in the desert.  This team is stocked, and as exciting as the recent run of championships has been, I think the future is just as bright.  Let’s take a look at the three key moves that have led to this run, and how close the Mets were to being stupid and missing out on all this fun!

November 2015: Mookie Betts for Matt Harvey

Coming off the 2015 World Series run, this was a bold move, that incredibly, laughably,  fans at the time hated.

Matt had given up his arm to the Mets, and the Mets knew it.  The Red Sox were desperate for pitching, and wound up getting completely fleeced.  The Mets knew they had enough pitching in Syndergaard,  deGrom, Matz and Bartolo Colon and they sure  didn’t miss the 4 games Harvey won in Boston.  Harvey bounced around to Anaheim, Oakland and Baltimore, and we have one of the All Time Mets.

A decade later, with #50 destined to hang in the Citi Field rafters some day, it’s hard to imagine life without the Most Popular Met.

March 2022:  The Mets sign Freddie Freeman

Another bold move.   This one  reminded me of Hundley and Piazza.  In Todd Hundley, the Mets had a fan favorite slugger who came around when the team was down.  But when an even better player became available in Mike Piazza, it was a no-brainer to upgrade the decision.

Similarly, as loved as Pete Alonso was, it was a no-brainer to go get an MVP caliber player to play first base when one was available, and Freddie’s  2023 MVP season proved the Mets were right.

It’s a shame that the DH wasn’t around for 2022, or Pete could have stayed…and the Mets did “sell low” that March, not getting all that much back for Pete, but in the end, how can you be mad about taking the Braves best player away and getting an MVP and a few World Series runs out of it? (Not to mention the monkey getting off Buck Showalter’s back for never winning a ring.)

In the past, the Mets would have listened to the fans and held on to Pete, and they’d probably be scraping by for a wild card.

Steve Cohen goes all-in on Ohtani

This is something that wouldn’t have happened under the Wilpons.  We were told that Ohtani wanted to play on the west coast, or that he didn’t like the cold (is NYC THAT cold?  (It is 67 right now in Tokyo as I write this).  There was no way Ohtani would come to New York, so why even bother checking to see if that was true.  A builtin excuse for the Stupid Cheap Wilpons.

Steve was having none of that, and this was the dream of Uncle Steve come to life.  Our beloved billionaire owner picked up the phone himself, and blew Ohtani away with a deal that man couldn’t refuse.  Now, baseball’s brightest star is in Queens, and it’s been great for the sport, not to mention another World Series run this October and this great Subway Series we are having.  $900,000,000 in deferred salary sounds like a lot, but the franchise will easily appreciate by that much in the meantime.  Steve knows you have to spend money to make money, and spend money he did.

The Stupid Cheap Wilpons would never have done that, and we’d likely be sitting home watching the Dodgers or someone in the World Series.

What a great time to be a Mets fan!

Time has resumed its shape. All is as it was before. Many such journeys are possible….let me be your guide.

Yankees-Dodgers.

Some of the best players in the game.

Extra Innings.

A Walk-Off Grand Slam 10th inning lead change.

 

Well, for baseball, that’s the script.  We’ll see how much Baseball Is Back after that one, but this is the shot in the arm the sport actually needs.

I’m not sure baseball has solved its problem of late starts and games too long – I understand the game went to extras, but I actually fell asleep 3x after the 7th inning (woken up by Joe Davis) and even fell asleep in the 10th inning.  Fortunately I woke up to see the bases were loaded and there were 2 outs, so I did catch the grand slam and Joe’s meh call.  (Better than Gary Cohen doing his John Sterling impression, nowhere near as good as Jack Buck’s Kirk Gibson call.)

Also, can someone explain Ken Rosenthal to me?  I’m sure he’s lovely and The Baseball Mafia seems to love him, but I don’t get him as a TV personality.

Anyway, baseball was back for 4 hours – tonight should be fun.

 

Look, there’s only one The Franchise, and he has a statue. Let’s not start getting nutty here.

NJ.com reports:  There is a petition circulating the internet calling for the Mets to put up a statue of former catcher Mike Piazza in front of Citi Field around the 25th anniversary of 9/11 and his home run.

Some users on Reddit don’t agree with the proposal.

“No,” one person wrote. “It was a great HR but I don’t want to think about 9/11 every time I go to a game. It was traumatic enough when it happened.”

“Not appropriate and kind of insulting to people who died or lost family members that day,” wrote another. “And I say that as a huge Piazza fan. It was a special moment but it doesn’t deserve a statue. Let’s not make 9/11 about the Mets.”

I personally have the very unpopular opinion that the home run is the most overrated home run in the history of baseball.  I watched that game that night and felt nothing.   I wasn’t over the shock.  If it meant something to you, that’s fine, but I think it was just another home run.  What if Mark Johnson or Desi Relaford had hit it?

On the statue front, let’s not get crazy.  We put a Piazza statue then we will start looking for excuses for a David Wright statue (of what?) and we’ll have an Endy Chavez and one of Matt Harvey with a bloody nose and we’ll have watered the entire thing down – kinda like Al Leiter being in the Mets Hall of Fame for some reason.

Now, if you guys wanna make a state of THIS, I would be on board.  Fans could be reminded that the SS doesn’t like them as they enter the stadium.

By the way, first of frequent reminders that Steve Cohen is now in Year 5 of the 3 to 5 Year Plan to win the World Series.