From the moment that I woke up on this beautiful first Tuesday of August, I’ve been having a difficult time putting into words what this past weekend means to me. And I’m not just talking about what it means to me as a Mets fan. No, from what I’ve been able to gather so far, the weekend of July 31, 2015 and the week leading up to it personally impacted me as sports fan more so than anything I can think of in recent memory.
You see, after watching the Mets blowing a six run lead on Thursday to the Padres in a game that featured not one, but two rain delays, I had reached my breaking point as a sports fan. I was distraught. In the span of 24 hours the following occurred:
-The Mets had a franchise changing trade for five-tool stud Carlos Gomez fall apart due to the Mets’ concern with his health
-Wilmer Flores (who was to be sent to the Brewers if the Gomez traded occurred) cried on the field after finding out mid-inning that the franchise that had signed him at 16 years old was sending him to Milwaukee
-The Mets blow a 7-1 lead on Thursday, putting them three games behind the Nationals for first place.
As a fan of the Mets, I had hit my low point. Yes, for me this was worse than 2006. It was worse than 2007, and it was certainly worse than 2008. I’m aware that I’m in the minority regarding this take, but I was in middle school during that 3 year stretch of relevancy and I’m much more invested in this Mets team then I was for any team back then.
Last Thursday night after watching this Mets team blow that lead, I told my dad that I didn’t even know why I still cared about sports. The best I can do to describe the look on his face is that it was a mixture of incredulity and concern. I consider myself one of the biggest sports fans that I know, and hearing myself say that even had me a little surprised. Even if being a Mets, Jets, Knicks and Rangers fan justifies how I felt, I knew that I couldn’t just stop watching. So I gave the Mets another chance to revive my faith.
Boy oh boy did they deliver.
Friday began the same way Thursday ended: Sandy Alderson was still searching for the impact bat that would restore some life to the Mets’ lineup and their fan base as well. The Flushing Faithful had been starving for the team to acquire an impact bat since the days of Carlos Delgado and Carlos Beltran. Well, on Friday with less than ten minutes to go until the trade deadline, Sandy Alderson finally delivered. The Mets traded pitching prospects Luis Cessa and Michael Fulmer to the Detroit Tigers for Yoenis Cespedes. Finally, a player who puts legitimate fear into opposing pitchers. Finally, the front office and ownership showed that they are willing to go out and do what is necessary to put a winning team on the field.
And so it began. Three hours later, the Mets began what was being billed as the most important series ever played in Citi Field’s short history.
Friday night, for the most part, was similar to countless games this season. A Mets pitcher throws a gem, only to be wasted by a sputtering and pathetic offense. After being nearly perfect through 7 innings, Matt Harvey finally bent and gave up the tying run to make it a 1-1 game. Whether you admit it or not, “Not again..” was the phrase that went through every single Mets’ fan’s mind after that inning. The game ended up going to extras, where Wilmer Flores hit one of the most improbable and special walk-off home runs in Mets history. Less than a week after being nationally ridiculed for crying on the field after finding out that he was traded, Wilmer threw himself into the conversation for having one of the best feel-good stories of the baseball season.
After the emotional high that was Friday night the Mets followed it up with another win and another improbable performance, this time from Lucas Duda.
Duda put the team on his back and homered in the 4th to draw within a run, and rounded the bases again in the 7th inning to tie it up. With two men on and one out in the 8th inning, once again Duda came to the plate. This time around, however, you just knew he was going to drive the run in. Everyone in the ballpark knew. Gary Keith and Ron knew. I don’t care if it’s Babe Ruth himself at the plate, you don’t intentionally walk someone to face a batter as hot as Duda was in that moment. You’re begging to lose at that point. And as we all now know Duda hit a double to left center and drove in what ended up being the winning run, sending Citi Field into a frenzy for the second straight night.
What’s ultimately even more significant than physically driving in that run is the fact that when Duda was up, for the first time in years you could believed that the Mets were going to come through. There was no feeling of despair. There was confidence. And if some kid in New Jersey felt that way while watching that at bat, I could only image how Lucas Duda felt after watching the Nationals intentionally walk Cespedes to get to him.
And then there was Sunday night. At this point my feelings towards the Mets were a mixture of bewilderment and excitement. For the first time in almost 8 years, the Mets looked like a competent baseball team. Hell, I’d even go as far to say that they looked like contenders. Yeah, really.
Yet in typical fashion, it took all of two batters in the top of the first inning on Sunday night to completely destroy all of those good feelings. Anthony Rendon took Noah Syndergaard deep on a 2-0 count to give the Nationals an early 1-0 lead. Citi Field had been silenced and Mets fans were once again thinking “Not again…”.
Then, in one of the most exciting and wild innings I have ever witnessed in the 15 years that I’ve been watching baseball, the Mets offense exploded. In a span of 5 pitches Curtis Granderson and Daniel Murphy launched home runs onto the Pepsi Porch, Yoenis Cespedes singled to left to pick up his first hit as a Met, and then Duda turned on a first pitch high inside fastball and sent it down the right field line for the third home run of the inning.
For the first time in its short history, Citi Field was rocking like Shea. The Mets held on to win 5-2, completing the three game sweep and bringing them into a virtual tie for first place with the Nationals. What was inconceivable after Thursday’s collapse had turned into reality.
In the span of five days, the Mets went from the laughing stock of the MLB to one of its most dangerous teams. In the span of five days, this team brought me down to the cellar and then back to the mountaintop. In the span of five days, the Mets front office has inspired confidence in their ability to field a winning team and its commitment to winning. In the span of five days, your New York Mets went from Pretenders to Contenders. And in the span of five days, this team has its tortured fan base dreaming of baseball in October for the first time in nearly a decade. Baseball is back in Flushing, my friends, and the rest of the league better watch out because the Mets have arrived and are here to stay.
