Here it is, my friends. Our season-long faith in the Orange & Blue is about to be rewarded as the New York Mets find themselves one win away (or one San Francisco Giants loss away) from clinching a coveted Wild Card spot in this year’s postseason. The Mets can seal the deal as soon as this afternoon with a win at Citizens Bank Park, where a champagne-drenched celebration will ensue after a hard-fought season that truly tested this team unlike any other Mets postseason I can remember – and I can remember them all.
What an amazing group of players the Mets have been blessed with, each with their own compelling story and a remarkable display of determination and purpose. It has truly been a team effort. If you were to stop and think about what the turning point was for this 2016 Mets season, I promise you there’s absolutely no way you can pluck one game or moment that was principally responsible for how they brought themselves within one game of clinching their second consecutive postseason berth. There’s just too many of them to choose from.
Let me tell you something about this unique and impressive team and what they are on the verge of accomplishing. There are no mysterious powers at work here, or as Kieth Hernandez likes to say “divine intervention.”
Rather, what we’ve witnessed all season long – and in particular these last few weeks – have been the embodiment of a true teamwork ethic that has been instilled by manager Terry Collins, and a remarkable resiliency that has left most Mets fans exhilarated with amazement and dripping with pride. If you’re looking for a team to believe in, a team that has overcome so much adversity, a team that has spirit – and heart – and fight – look no further than the 2016 New York Mets.
The trouble I have with today’s sports journalism, is that it focuses so much on all the advanced metrics, the various personal achievements, and all the long-held benchmarks for success, that a remarkable team like the New York Mets and what they’ve accomplished is so easily overlooked.
The Mets won’t have a Cy Young Award winner, or the National League MVP, or this year’s Rookie of the Year. The voters will not name Terry Collins Manager of the Year, and nobody will recognize Sandy Alderson as Executive of the Year for a series of great offseason and in-season moves that have undeniably saved the Mets season and helped them clinch a Wild Card spot.
But make no mistake when I tell you that this Mets team is in the best position among all NL teams to challenge the American League in the World Series. It’s not how you start a season that defines you, but how you finish. And right now, or should I say for the better part of six weeks, the Mets are the best team in baseball winning an astounding 26 of their last 38 games – the best mark in baseball in that span.
The other day I said you should be proud of this team because of their tremendous character, and I meant every word of it, but you should also take pride in their sense of achievement and accomplishment. Take great pride in their perseverance and a never-say-die attitude that hearkens back to Tug McGraw and the 1973 Ya Gotta believe Mets.
There’s so much to love about this team beginning with what a likable group of players they have in that clubhouse. There’s an underpinning of that working class culture and it fuels our penchant for loving and rooting for the underdog.
This is a team that has had to endure the losses of three of their top young starting pitchers, their starting third baseman, starting first baseman, starting second baseman, while having to field a top performing shortstop with a bad knee and a superstar left fielder with a bad quad. Believe me when I tell you that any other team that had suffer through all these injuries would have been over and done with at the All Star break if not earlier than that.
But remarkably, it was after enduring all these unimaginable hurdles, that these Mets turned in their best baseball of the season… The best baseball in their division… The best baseball in their league…
And they’ve done it mostly with some Scotch Tape, some Krazy Glue, and some unexpected – but very welcomed – contributions from a cast of virtual unknowns who may have been short on the elite level tools that make those prospect experts drool, but immeasurably heavy on lesser known attributes such as guts and guile and plenty of good old-fashioned heart.
That’s the story of the 2016 New York Mets and I can’t wait to celebrate with them when they complete the clinch and pop open the bubbly. It will be a celebration of overcoming all the odds with a never-ending supply of perseverance, while providing us with a huge bounty of memorable thrills along the way. Enjoy the game, everybody, and Let’s Go Mets!
