Well, the Mets lost.

It’s not as if that’s a shock. Let’s face it, the Mets rarely win. Aside from the Miracle Mets of 1969 and the New York squad of 1986, the Mets have fallen short of a World Series championship during their other 55 campaigns.

But this time was supposed to be different.

It was online baseball.

Instead of playing in the spacious Citi Field with LaGuardia imports roaring ahead, the setting was reduced to an online format. Players were reduced to pixels, whose only interaction with fans took place via the video-sharing platform, Twitch.

And this difference invited the return of normalcy. Jeff McNeil, the Mets’ player thought to have the superior MLB The Show talents among the current group of Mets’ players, was dubbed to take over the controls to the Mets’ 2019 virtual roster and compete head-to-head against the best talents in baseball in MLB The Show’s Players League.

There’s no real baseball taking place in the US, but it was certainly fascinating to see players in a way that hadn’t been afforded to us fans yet. I associate Pete Alonso with record-setting home runs. Jake with two consecutive Cy Young awards. Luis Castillo for his missed catch at Yankee Stadium. You get it. But fans rarely get the chance to see a player’s personality. That’s what this streaming provided. It was just guys being dudes.

In the beginning, I was skeptical that this would work. I doubted the idea would gain much traction and MLB would quickly shut down the whole thing, calling it a failed experiment. With college canceled and so many other events postponed over the last few months, what hope did I have? Not much.

But as I watched more, I became more hooked. The Mets actually began winning. It was something I was unaccustomed to. Sure, they had their moments over the last few seasons. But this was sustained winning. Winning that could result in a playoff berth.

McNeil’s Mets quickly ripped off an eight-game winning streak and never looked back. At the outset of the tournament, not many expected a competitive squirrel to be a serious contender in The Players League. But 18 games in, McNeil owned a 14-4 record with walk-off wins over Hunter Pence of the Giants and Carlos Santana of the Indians. Midway through the season, he was the clear favorite in the NL East.

Baseball’s biggest names. Fallen thanks to the aptitude of Jeff McNeil‘s digits. Rhys Hoskins. Defeated. Lance McCullers Jr. Beaten. Juan Soto. Conquered.

As McNeil’s season went on, it didn’t go unnoticed that he was steadily climbing up the leader board of the NL East. Jake Marisnick was hitting bombs. Jacob deGrom was doing Jacob deGrom things. And McNeil’s adopted dog, Willow, was providing all of the Puppy Power she could muster to help her owner clinch a playoff spot.

On April 27th, McNeil had the chance to do what the Mets franchise had only done nine times: clinch a spot in the playoffs. And even though he was defeated by Blake Snell and the Rays, Tommy Kahnle and the Yankees lost, granting McNeil the fourth seed in the playoffs.

Let me state the obvious. Virtual playoffs aren’t the same as real-life playoff games. But still, it invigorated those who had been watching McNeil’s stream and gave them something that’s been tough to find over the last few weeks: hope. What if McNeil advanced? What if he won the whole damn thing? There would probably be no ticker tape parade, but maybe a CAD designer could be hired to create a virtual one.

In the first round of the playoffs, McNeil was matched up against the Orioles’ Dwight Smith Jr.. Smith Jr., the fifth seed, had ridden an Orioles team who didn’t have much talent to a postseason berth, making a run reminiscent of the Miracle Mets of  ’69.

On May 1, McNeil and Smith Jr. faced off on Fox Sports 1. First player to two wins would earn a spot in the semifinals, which would take place the following night. A Robinson Cano RBI double scored the first run of the game, giving New York an early advantage. But pinch-hit dinger from Chris Davis soon tied the game up.

This game would advance into extras. Edwin Diaz jogged from the bullpen and within two minutes, the Orioles had their first lead of the game. The Mets had one last chance to bring the series back to Baltimore with a 1-0 lead.

The middle of the order was up. So there was still hope. But it was dwindling. And the collective hope of all watching Mets fans fell even lower after Michael Conforto recorded the first out of the frame. Pete Alonso was then walked. Mychal Givens smartly pitched around the slugger, intending to go after the next hitter, J.D. Davis.

“Just Dingers” made him pay, driving a first-pitch fastball over the left field fence for a game-ending, two-run home run. And the Mets and their virtual fan base regained that what-was-thought-to-be-lost hope, emulating the real-life Mets.

Game two was a lot less dramatic. Noah Syndergaard had his troubles in the first inning but escaped with only one run allowed. A home run from the ever-so-clutch virtual Robinson Cano knotted the game up at one. A couple of batters later, blasts from Brandon Nimmo and McNeil himself put the champagne on ice.

The next round wasn’t going to be easy. Blake Snell and his 24-5 regular season record was awaiting McNeil and Willow. David versus Goliath. The first seed versus the fourth seed.

McNeil had Willow alongside him the entire time, but alas, it was not meant to be. McNeil had Snell within a game of elimination after a victory in Game One, but the lanky southpaw prevailed in Games Two and Three and was off to the finals. Thus concluded a journey that involved a dog, a cat, a lot of squirrel emojis, and the first sense of normalcy.

This baseball season will be different in so many ways due to COVID-19. But for a brief period in April, we regained a bit of normalcy.

Virtual baseball isn’t the same as real-life baseball, but the similarities were there. We enjoyed the ups and downs of a baseball campaign. The euphoria of a walk-off win and the frustration of a postseason loss. Pete hitting homers, Jake striking out opponents, Brandon sprinting to first, Michael stroking doubles into gaps. They were all there.

But baseball’s more than just the players themselves. It provides entertainment. At 7:10 p.m., my TV is usually tuned to SNY, where Gary, Keith, and Ron indulge me for the night. For the next three hours, I’m glued to my TV, hoping the team can pull off a victory.

That’s what McNeil’s streams provided. It wasn’t only a chance for baseball’s biggest names to gain a platform, it represented an opportunity to regain normalcy. It represented hope. Hope that the Mets could finally do something right and win the championship that’s eluded them for so long. And in this age of COVID-19, we need all of the hope and normalcy we can get.

https://twitter.com/DeeH_NYC/status/1256761616730853377?s=20

We might have not won the whole thing, but nothing’s replacing this banner.