Mike's Mets - Waiting for the Hot Stove to Ignite

 

By Mike Steffanos

As the World Series plays out, I find myself eagerly looking forward to what I hope will be a transformative Hot Stove season for the New York Mets.

I haven't written much for the blog this month. I lost interest years ago in any MLB playoffs that don't include the Mets. Unfortunately, that is an all too common occurrence in my lifetime. Since the Mets fell to the Dodgers in the 1988 NLCS, they've completed 35 seasons, including this one, and made the playoffs only six times. There was a time when I would have some interest in the playoffs, rooting against teams like the Braves and Phillies, but I no longer feel strongly enough about any other team to waste the energy it takes to hate-watch their playoff series.

I've reached a significant age milestone this month. As a result, I've become more contemplative than I used to be. I chuckled a bit at the overreaction in the normally sycophantic Braves media over another early dismissal in the playoffs. Still, it didn't make me feel better about how the Mets season went.

After beating Atlanta for the second consecutive time in the playoffs, the Phillies were anointed a team of destiny — until they weren't any longer. Twenty years ago, I would have watched them get bounced out of the playoffs with relish. But I didn't turn on game 7 of their NLDS series against the Diamondbacks or even check the score. However the Phillies or Braves feel about their seasons, they did better than the Mets did just by giving their fans a chance to watch their team play October baseball, even if they were ultimately left disappointed. I'll spend my energy hoping the Mets are part of the playoffs next fall.

Every year, as the cream of MLB's crop gets eliminated by clubs like the 84-win Diamondbacks or the Wild Card Rangers, there are a significant number of baseball scribes who either wring their hands over the upsets or give the upstart clubs like Arizona way too much credit. The Diamondbacks supplanted the Phillies as the team of destiny, but the Rangers have their own case to make in that regard. No matter how the World Series turns out, some team will be given a post-dated air of inevitability, as if the playoffs really couldn't have gone any other way. Meanwhile, other pundits will still bellyache about the MLB playoffs' "failure" in producing a matchup of great teams in its Fall Classic.

I wrote about this subject last October, and my feelings certainly haven't changed in the past year. When I was very young, I recall watching World Series games with my uncle. In those years, the best team in the American League played the best team in the National League. The World Series were the only playoffs that existed in Major League Baseball. The absolute best competing against the absolute best gave the Series a cachet that will never be matched by today's tournament-style competition. Hell, I remember the adults complaining when they split both Leagues into two Divisions to create an intermediate round of playoffs. This was blasphemy to the old-timers. But frankly, starting with four playoff teams still ensured that all of the included teams would be very good.

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