Mike's Mets - (Really) Getting Better

 

By Mike Steffanos

Although it hasn't always been easy to believe, I have to admit it's getting better for the New York Mets.

When I was very young, The Beatles were still together making music. I remember when the album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was released in May 1967 when I was 8 years old, just in time to dominate the airwaves in the ensuing summer, which would become famous as the Summer of Love. It was the first rock music I was ever aware of, living in a house where the music of my Mom's generation and my Grandmother's Italian music dominated our stereo. There were many classic songs on Sgt. Pepper's, including the title song, "With a Little Help from My Friends," "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," and "A Day in the Life." When I got a little older and started acquiring my own music, the album remained in rotation of the stuff I listened to throughout my teen years.

One song from Sgt. Pepper's that has stayed with me was "Getting Better." It was a straightforward rock song on an album that tended more to the psychedelic stuff that continued a transition from the early Beatles sound that began with Revolver, the band's previous album. "Getting Better" was primarily written by Paul McCartney, with a disturbing verse added by John Lennon where he confessed to being "cruel to [his] woman" both physically and mentally. This darkened the song considerably and forever complicated my feelings about Lennon's genius, although John did conclude this somber admission on a more hopeful note:

Man I was mean but I'm changing my scene

And I'm doing the best that I can

The main part of the song was brighter and more optimistic. Paul's lightness contrasting with John's darkness was part of the tension of The Beatles, and this song showcased that edginess. It was the optimism of the early verses that stayed with me the most throughout the ensuing decades of my life:

I've got to admit it's getting better (Better)

A little better all the time (It can't get no worse)

Those words have played in my head during many tough times. Sometimes, it was just whistling in the dark, trying to convince myself that things would get better when I really didn't believe that to be true. Other times, I felt optimistic that things were about to turn around.

In my Mets fandom, I have resorted to trying to believe things were getting better many times over the years. From time to time, things actually did improve. Still, those good times tended to end all too quickly. The last years of the Wilpon era stand out as truly dark times when the owners had little money to conceal their inability to grow a real organization. It was great fun when the club made it to the 2015 World Series. Still, it was hard to see it as anything more than just a brief, fabulous stretch of baseball where everything went right. When the penurious owners allowed Daniel Murphy to sign with their chief Division rivals in Washington, I just knew things wouldn't end well, and they didn't.

To finish reading this article on Mike's Mets, please click here.