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The New York Mets spent all but a few days of the 2022 season in first place. The spending of owner Steve Cohen, the dealings of general manager Billy Eppler, and the infusion of a new thought process and back to "old school" baseball by manager Buck Showalter proved the recipe for an emergence from the doldrums of what had come to be expected of the recent Mets.
The team has surpassed expectations. And, yet, the keyboard experts on social media are calling the team lifeless, choke artists, playing without heart, hyper-analyzing every move made, every instance of failure magnified. Rather than the post season excitement exhibited by Toronto Blue Jays fans, Seattle Mariners fans, San Diego Padres fans...Mets fans and media alike are ranting about the Mets as if they had just suffered a collapse of epic proportions.
You want to talk about collapse? Let's do that.
If anyone had said that the Mets and Yankees would both be in first place at the same time after Labor Day weekend, most fans not only would be shocked, but pleasantly surprised. Unfortunately while the two teams are still sitting at the top of their respective divisions, the double-digit leads have dwindled. While the Yankees seem to have squandered what appeared to be an insurmountable lead in the American League East, the Mets have seen a 10 ½ game lead in the National League totally slip away.
Social media hounds are exuding feelings of gloom and doom. The usually calm and collected Aaron Boone has publicly come unglued, obviously feeling the pressures of having to maintain the Yankee prestige while vying for a championship. The fans and pundits don’t seem to care that the team is still in first place, even with a decimated roster whereby the only constant has been Aaron Judge.
Likewise, social media has been lighting up with harsh criticism of Buck Showalter and the Mets demise. In reality, Mets fans should be ecstatic that the team is in a pennant race at all. Just think about it…the Mets won 77 games in 2021. They have already won 10 games more than that with 24 games to go. They are on pace to win 103 games. Heck, if they only go 13-11 the rest of the way, they will still win 100 games for only the third time in history. The other two times? They won 100 in 1969 and 108 in 1986. The only two World Series Championships in team history.
Alan Karmin is an award-winning journalist and author. He was born in Brooklyn, New York and spent most of his life growing up in the New Jersey suburbs. Alan's family were avid Brooklyn Dodgers fans and when the Dodgers moved west, the Mets became the team to root for. The Mets have always been a true focal point, Alan even wrote a term paper in high school to analyze what was wrong with the Mets. While at the University of Miami, Alan honed his craft covering the, gulp, Yankees during spring trainings in Fort Lauderdale for a local NBC affiliate, as well as the Associated Press and UPI. He broadcasted baseball games for the University of Miami, and spring training games for the Baltimore Orioles and Montreal Expos. New York Mets Mania is a forum for Alan to write about his favorite team and for baseball fans to chime in and provide their thoughts and ideas about New York's Amazin' Mets.
