Until this passed weekend, it had been almost three years since the last time I was in New York City and at Citi Field.
It was August 6th, 2013: The MLB debut of soon-to-be-folk-hero Wilmer Flores, a game started by Jenrry Mejia, won by Scott Atchison, and saved by LaTroy Hawkins. At that moment, the Mets were sitting 17 games out of first place with a 50-60 record. Considering the Mets lineup that day, it’s a miracle I was able to witness a win at all:
LF Eric Young
2B Daniel Murphy
RF Marlon Byrd
1B Ike Davis
CF Juan Lagares
3B Wilmer Flores
C John Buck
SS Omar Quintanilla
It’s incredible how much can change in so short a period of time. At that point, the Mets were still evolving and rebuilding. To be honest, they were largely in shambles.
Fast forward to April 29th, 2016 and the lineup hasn’t just gotten a face-lift, it’s become an entirely different being:
RF Curtis Granderson
3B David Wright
LF Michael Conforto
CF Yoenis Cespedes
1B Lucas Duda
2B Neil Walker
SS Asdrubal Cabrera
C Kevin Plawecki
P Steven Matz
Honestly, this article isn’t about the lineup that day, or how they produced a 12-run inning against a pitching insufficient San Francisco Giants team, or how gratifying it was to get two insanely rude Giants fans kicked out of Citi Field. Instead, it’s about how drastically different the feel of New York City is when the Mets are a team that matters.
I was in New York for two days, in the thick of the city, in 2013. I wore a Mets shirt everywhere I went, and I ran into only a handful of people with Mets gear on.
Fast forward to 2016 and once again on a two day trip to the city, I couldn’t visually process the amount of Mets hats, shirts, jackets, and jerseys I saw. In fact, for the first time in my life, regardless of the state I was in, I was able to count more Mets fans than Yankees fans in terms of representation. For a girl visiting from Florida, who makes sure that every Mets fan I bump into gets an excited, “Go Mets!” from me as they pass by, I was ecstatic.
To me, it’s less about the Mets “reclaiming New York” and more about Mets fans no longer having to shyly “admit” they’re fans. Admit isn’t the word. We often proclaim this allegiance with pride, but it’s equally met with “Oh, I’m sorry.” The 2015 World Series run changed that.
Mets fans are vibrant, loud, excited, often misunderstood as obnoxious. You’d be boisterous too if, in the face of fan rebellion against the Wilpons, the Mets charged, revitalized, to an exciting finish just a couple years removed from the lineup above.
These Mets are 17-11. The season is still young, and despite the struggles of Matt Harvey and a couple of players still looking to get into a groove, there’s the unmistakable feeling of unfinished business among the team – and it alone has set fans and a city abuzz.
