That title pained me to write. But, at the end of the day, the current core of Mets is so polluted by the misdoings of administrations past that it’s time to say goodbye, specifically, to Jeff McNeil and Pete Alonso.
Others will go as well. But it’s those two that will sting the most.
Jeff McNeil and Pete Alonso were good Mets. They each made multiple All-Star teams and picked up numerous individual accolades: two Home Run Derby titles for Pete, and a batting title for Jeff. It just doesn’t seem to be working anymore.
I don’t know why that is. I doubt they know why that is. The thing (I imagine) the three of us have in common is we all want to believe. I just can’t help but wonder if I do anymore. And if I don’t, imagine how they feel.
The 2019 Mets were God’s gift to remind me that out of bad can come good. The 2019 Mets were so, so terrible. I saw it. With my own two eyes.
Then, almost overnight, they started winning. And winning. And winning. And winning. And eventually they won so much, they were a half-game out of a playoff spot. If there had been three Wild Cards in the National League that year, they would have made the playoffs, with a playoff rotation of Cy Young Jacob deGrom, prime Zack Wheeler, Marcus Stroman, and a choice between a competent Steven Matz and a fledgling Noah Syndergaard, with the odd man out going to the bullpen. The Washington Nationals, with a similarly top-heavy pitching staff and no relief pitching (at least we had Seth Lugo!), won the World Series that year. I’m just sayin’!
On the day of the trade deadline that summer, Pete Alonso shared a note with Mets fans, encouraging them to believe in the team down the stretch. I scoffed at the notion, as I’m sure many other like-minded fans did. But that night, as they had the night before and the four games before that, they won. Then they won the next day. Then, after inexplicably losing a game to a terrible Pittsburgh Pirates team, they won the eight games after that. They finished a few Edwin Díaz meltdowns away from a Wild Card tiebreaker, which makes this a brilliant time to lament the fact that tiebreaker games don’t exist anymore. It is a travesty.
Nonetheless. I’m telling you. There’s hope. I don’t know when it’s going to take form. But it’s coming.
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