October playoff season is finally here and the Mets are in it.
Please reread that sentence, particularly if you are among the throng of naysayers who focus on the last three games played and lost in Atlanta rather than the 101 games won for the 2022 regular season. Granted, being a Mets fan (particularly during the seemingly interminable Wilpon years) means getting accustomed to accepting the worst possible outcomes in any given situation.
However, the Wilpons are no longer in charge and guess what? The Mets in Steve Cohen's 2nd year of ownership brought in a new GM, brought in a new manager, brought in some talented players and they have the second highest number of wins in club history.
Yet to hear most Mets fans tell it, they blew it all and might as well dress warmly for a long, cold winter.
Obviously going in as a wildcard team means an extra round of playoffs which is never ideal, but would you rather they were the New York version of the Marlins or Nationals, watching completely from the sidelines? It's like they used to say about the lottery, you've got to be in it to win it.
So now that the playoffs are finally here, it's a brand new season. Don't go in with the chip already on your shoulder. Realize that whomever the Mets do is brand new. The same applies to the Braves, the Padres, the Phillies, the Dodgers and the Cardinals, too. Anything can happen (and we can't guarantee results for any of these teams).
As a Mets fan I clearly hope the team can proceed as long as they can up to and including a World Series victory, the first since 1986. Of course, the likelihood of that happening depends an awful lot on player execution, managerial strategy and sometimes just dumb luck. If they're out after the Padres series, I'll be disappointed with that outcome but still overall pleased at the huge progress made between year one and year two of the new regime.
What the club did this season is reset fan expectations for the future. It's not going to be enough to chase the upper division but fall short. Now everyone understands that on any given day the Mets can be just as good (or better) than their opponents and to expect anything less than that is no longer acceptable.
I'm about to say something evil and heinous and seemingly unforgivable, but the Mets fans need to accept they must now act like Yankee fans. There, I've said it. Let me explain.
Going into any given season and any specific individual game, the Yankee fans simply expect that their club will win. There's no foreshadowing defeat, no expectation that something terrible will happen and no acceptance of a predetermined failure to achieve. They simply won't accept defeat as a matter of course.
Now Mets fans need to embrace the same pride, the same arrogance and the same bluster about their club. The Yankees went out this season and won 99 games to win their division. The Mets won 101 and did not. So instead of fretting about the Braves, take a moment to feel a swell of pride for finishing two games better than the Bronx Bombers did despite their pennant winning achievement.
This set of outcomes brings us back to the original point. It is now a brand new season and anything can happen. I wouldn't have it any other way.
Hopefully, this season's first round will have us smiling when it is all over. As it is only best of 3, it is a bit dicey in its shortness, but at least not like 2016.
ReplyDeleteWe can only hope that we get thru this mini-series. It still to me feels like the real playoffs start in the next round.
We have Max today - so I am confident.
Marte still very iffy - but they have no Tatis, right? All games at home? Like our chances.
Last note, on Yanks...they were lucky. I think they started out 62-28 and were .500 after that, once they started playing more good teams. Their division had no team close to Atlanta or they'd have been a wild card, at best.
Yet, they get a first round bye and we don't SMH.
And, while many folks bring up the losses to the Cubs and Nats, I remember those 2 losses in August to the Yanks and that not only did Atlanta have a 10-9 homefield location advantage over the Mets in games, but the Mets had the tougher interleague schedule, One more win = a bye. Thankfully, the schedule is being more favorably laid out in 2023. Hopefully the Mets team in 2023 will be strong enough to take advantage of it.
I agree. I can get used to having high expectations! I can get used to being pleased 62.3% of the time at the end of the game and saying, "if only" in the other 37.7%. In fact, I will be very pleased if they win 66.7% of the games against the Padres this weekend. Lets go Mets!
ReplyDeleteI believe the Mets will win this one
ReplyDeleteMack, you may think so, but Yu doesn’t
ReplyDeleteJust a thought,could Wheeler and Syndergard do better in the playoffs than Max and Jake?
ReplyDeleteWe're in the playoffs in year 2 instead of 3 to 5 years which is what Stevie was targeting so whatever happens in this post season lets all say THANK YOU MR. COHEN because there is no optimism without him and LGM!
ReplyDeletePlayoff Time = Talent, Drive, Desire, and something the 1969 NYM team came to appreciate...Opportune Good Fortune.
ReplyDeleteCertainly it is the team that plays the best and seems the most ready for this challenge. But it is also this most "magical thing called luck" where one team seems to make their own breaks and everything falls into place wonderfully.
This 2022 NYM team is the second best Mets team in this franchises entire history, following only the 1986 WS winning team. But it is within spitting distance of being the number one team ever as well. It all depends on how things go from here for 2022.
Some would say that the 1969 NYM team (with Seaver, Koosman, Grote, Swoboda, Charles, Eddie, Buddy...) was the very best team ever in club history. But this team was such a surprise to everyone, no one forecast that '69 team for even a trip to the playoffs, let alone winning the WS.That team (to me) falls under the category of sheer unimaginable surprise and magic. It was a team where everyone just totally "believed" they could win if they just all stayed together as one. So they did.
This 2022 team (to me) has a combination of both the 1986 and 1969 teams all wrapped into one. This is why it is so exceedingly fun right now for us fans. And we thank everyone involved with this outstanding ball club for this.