A life without baseball is one I don’t think anyone expected, at least not in this fashion.
Thursday was supposed to be Opening Day and on Sunday, the Mets were supposed to be wrapping up their first series of the new campaign.
Unfortunately, that is not possible now or in the foreseeable future due to the novel coronavirus COVID-19.
While it’s certainly not ideal, team’s and different outlets have been taking to video games to simulate how games will play out. That’s all good and fine, but for me, nothing compares to the real thing.
I’m a nostalgic person to begin with, so to get my baseball fix, I prefer to take the route of drowning myself in Mets highlights.
During these trying times, watching some key Mets moments gives me my fill, but also gives me hope that we will one day have baseball back in the future.
Here are five of the best games I’ve seen in person, and please tell us in the comments what some of yours were!
5.) Mets Topple Nationals In Late Inning Rally (Aug. 9, 2019)
The energy heading into Citi Field that evening was electric. Newly acquired starter Marcus Stroman was making his Citi Field debut against the rival Washington Nationals as the Mets looked to make a late-season playoff push.
I met up with fellow MetsMerized writers Josh Finkelstein and Jack Hendon on what turned out to be a beautiful summer night and a sell-out crowd.
The Nats took an early 3-0 lead capped off by a bomb off the bat of Juan Soto, but Pete Alonso and J.D. Davis homered in the bottom half of the fourth to tie the game.
Washington scored three more times and went into the bottom of the ninth inning with a 6-3 lead.
The excitement turned into nervous energy, but still, no one was leaving. Then Todd Frazier stepped to the plate with two men on.
Frazier clobbered a home run that he tucked just inside the left field pole and the crowd went ballistic. Hendon, Finkelstein and I grabbed each other and hugged and started jumping up and down, screaming our lungs out.
Then, Michael Conforto put the icing on the cake and walked off the Nationals, sending the crowd home happy.
The 2019 season had a lot of ups and downs, but the “never say die!” Mets always made it interesting.
4.) Dominic Smith Hits Walk-Off Homer to End Season (Sept. 30, 2019)
It’s not often that a meaningless game at the end of September holds any weight, but in this case, it was one of the best moments I’ve experienced in person.
My father lives in Peru a majority of the year, but we always make sure when he’s home, we go see some baseball games. It’s been our tradition for years.
The Mets played a 4 p.m. game on Sunday, Sept. 30 to end the season against the Atlanta Braves, who were already in the playoffs after winning the National League East.
Atlanta took an early 1-0 lead, but the Mets answered back in the bottom of the first and hung a three spot, due in large part to a J.D. Davis home run.
Tied up at 3-3 in the eighth inning, Yonkers native Joe Panik homered into the Coca-Cola Corner to give New York a late lead that they would relinquish the next frame.
Former Met Adeiny Hechavarria tortured his former ballclub by tying the game in the ninth, then hitting a go-ahead homer in the 11th.
As the day turned to night, and the Mets having their backs against the wall, it seemed as though the season was going to end on a sour note, until Dominic Smith came to the dish.
Smith, who was sidelined for several months, pinched hit with two on and two out and drove a ball over the right center field fence in improbable fashion.
My dad and I couldn’t believe our eyes, but it was appropriate that a fan favorite like Smith who hadn’t hit at the MLB level in months, ended the wackiest season in style.
3.) Mets Tie Nationals For First Place on Sunday Night Baseball (Aug. 2, 2015)
Being born in 1995, most of my Mets fandom has been surrounded by futility. The 2000 World Series loss, the ’06 NLCS loss, the ’07 and ’08 collapses, the Madoff ponzi schemes and so forth.
2015 will always be a special year to me because it was a magic I had never really experienced as a Mets fan. Any of the success I saw them have occurred when I was younger and I didn’t fully absorb or appreciate it.
The SNY documentary “Five Days in Flushing” fully encapsulates what that season felt like: a roller coaster start, then a glimmer of hope, some crushing blows and then a light at the end of the tunnel.
After acquiring Yoenis Cespedes from the Detroit Tigers right before a pivotal series with the rival Washington Nationals, the stakes were at an all time high.
New York won the first game of the series on Wilmer Flores‘s well-known walk-off home run and won the series the next day, but if they won Sunday, they would sweep the Nats and come to a tie with them for the division lead.
Noah Syndergaard toed the rubber for the Mets and yielded a first inning run, but buckled down.
Then in third, it happened. Curtis Granderson launched a two-run shot to give the Mets the lead and the crowd erupted. While everyone was still celebrating Grandy’s home run, Daniel Murphy launched one of his own. We were all standing from the first home run and the fanfare continued on with Murphy’s blast.
Newly acquired Cespedes poked a single through the left side, then Lucas Duda homered! The energy at that game was unreal.
After New York sealed the victory, I remember waiting for the subway in complete disbelief that the Mets were actually in first place.
The next two months of games were some of the most memorable of my life and it all started with that weekend.
2.) Mets Induct Mike Piazza Into Team’s Hall-of-Fame (Sept. 29, 2013)
Anyone who tells you there’s no crying in baseball is lying. If you don’t get emotional about the best game in the world you aren’t doing it right.
Growing up, Mike Piazza was my idol. He was the first player I latched on to when I got into baseball and I was obsessed.
I was Piazza for Halloween when I was 7-years-old, my dad sent me a birthday card that was signed “from Mike Piazza” (which I found out year’s later was from him), and even still when I look back on his highlights I get the chills.
On Sept. 29, 2013, Piazza was inducted into the Mets’ Hall-of-Fame with an emotional pregame ceremony on a beautiful early fall day in Flushing.
Piazza was choked up, talking about his father and expressing how important the Mets fanbase is to him.
For someone who admired Piazza as much as I did, to see him enshrined forever in the team’s Hall-of-Fame was an awesome moment.
The Mets winning that day was even sweeter. Lucas Duda launched his 30th home run of the year, and Bobby Abreu played his last MLB game.
1.) David Wright Plays His Final Game (Sept. 29, 2018)
On the heels of Mike Piazza came David Wright, who debuted for the Mets in 2004.
For a youngster like myself, it wasn’t hard to love David Wright. He was homegrown, he was exciting and he sparked a new era in Queens.
Through all the highs and lows, Wright stuck it out with the Mets and the fanbase embraced him to the full extent.
The Mets don’t always do the best job of supporting their players, but they did with David Wright.
It was extremely disheartening to see Wright’s health crumble and for him to miss the entirety of the 2017 and nearly all of the 2018 season due to spinal stenosis and its ripple effects.
So when Wright and the team held a press conference in September of 2018 and Wright broke down crying, it was then known it was the end of the line.
It was made known that Saturday, Sept. 29 would be Wright’s last game, so I immediately went to Stubhub and got box seats. Hours later, those same seats were hundreds of dollars more than what I paid for them.
Bracing myself for the game was like no other time I’ve ever went to Citi. There was a sense of excitement to see Wright play again but it was bittersweet because I knew it was the last time.
Remember how I said there is crying baseball? That was on full blast that evening.
The video tributes, the standing ovations, the Mets walking it off in extra innings and Wright’s postgame speech made me and my mom blubbery messes. Regardless, I am glad I got to see one of my favorite players last ever game and to have sent him off the right way.
