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Did anyone really think the Mets would go 161-1? So they finally lost a game to the Brewers but bounced right back to win the series in dramatic fashion thanks to, who else? Wilmer Flores and another walk off home run.
And in the midst of running off nine straight wins, they just happened to sweep a three-game series from the Nationals in their home ballpark in Washington last week. Now with the Nationals coming in to CitiField, it will be interesting to see if the Mets can keep the momentum going, or this train gets de-railed.
Spring is in the air. It has to be. Baseball is back. Well…it is in Florida and Arizona. I am sitting in NYC where it is 27 degrees and windy…conditions that beg to ask the question as to why I ever left South Florida.
Football may have the “Monday Morning Quarterback” but the banter around baseball is omni-present. And while it IS enjoyable to hear, read, and enjoy the diatribe, it is also amusing to encounter the absurd. Not all fans are educated about the game. That is crystal clear. But seeing some of the ideas spewed out there is almost cringe-worthy. Spring training is well underway and so is the absurdity.
I just noticed a post on Facebook that calls for the Mets to sign Brett Lawrie to play third base now that David Wright’s status is questionable. What is WRONG with people? What is this person thinking?
The big question is: "Why DID the Mets lose the World Series?" The truth is that the tone was set on the very first pitch thrown by Matt Harvey.
The Royals' Alcides Escobar lofted a long fly ball to left centerfield. Yoenis Cespedes, who had made so many spectacular defensive plays since coming over to the Mets, took his eye off the ball for a split second, could not regroup in time, and had the ball glance off his glove, and then, to make matters worse, kicked it away from both he and leftfielder Michael Conforto. What should have been a fly ball out to the warning track was a bad error...ridiculously ruled an inside-the-park home run.
While ONE play never TRULY determines the outcome of a series, unless it is a "walk-off" occurence in the final inning of the last possible game, it can set an example for how things will essentially go. And it did.
There is a lot of excitement building around the Mets. Not since the mid to late 1980's has the focus been on the Mets rather than the Yankees. Sandy Alderson kept promising that 2015 would be the year that the Mets would be significant. In late June, everyone was calling for the man's head and screaming, yet again, for the Wilpons to sell the team. Late June...hmmm.
The fallout from the Mets and Brewers debacle on Wednesday night has been lighting up social media. Carlos Gomez and his teammates were literally tweeting happy thoughts and goodbyes from an airplane in the air while Zack Wheeler was shaking his head in Florida about possibly being traded a second time at the trade deadline and Wilmer Flores was put in the unenviable position of not knowing what everyone else in the world seemed to already know, and left hung out to dry for the entire world to see.
Last week Jose Reyes made headlines saying that he would love to finish his career with the New York Mets. This coming while he was with his third team since leaving the Mets, having been traded for the face of the Colorado Rockies franchise, Troy Tulowitski, just a couple of weeks ago at the trade deadline.
Alan Karmin is an award-winning journalist and author. He was born in Brooklyn, New York and spent most of his life growing up in the New Jersey suburbs. Alan's family were avid Brooklyn Dodgers fans and when the Dodgers moved west, the Mets became the team to root for. The Mets have always been a true focal point, Alan even wrote a term paper in high school to analyze what was wrong with the Mets. While at the University of Miami, Alan honed his craft covering the, gulp, Yankees during spring trainings in Fort Lauderdale for a local NBC affiliate, as well as the Associated Press and UPI. He broadcasted baseball games for the University of Miami, and spring training games for the Baltimore Orioles and Montreal Expos. New York Mets Mania is a forum for Alan to write about his favorite team and for baseball fans to chime in and provide their thoughts and ideas about New York's Amazin' Mets.
