Meet the Mets (For Mets Fans Only!)
I absolutely love what I call the stupidsticious bantering that goes on among all sports fans but especially my comrade in arms on this thread. I will still watch certain games and as I pray for that needed hit or strikeout I do a certain hand signal my son and I started doing during 2006. And there was the 2007 and 2008 years. :-( Thus the ranting by mrincredible.
it's not being superstitious as much as it's being cautious. It's a hell of a lot better to be 5-1 than 1-5 for sure. But it's such a small sample of games. Let's see the pitchers go through the rotation a few times before we get giddy.
and beyond that, almost every Mets fan harbored the optimism that if the team stayed healthy this season, it would be competitive. A week and a half into the season, so far so good with only Swarzak headed to the DL. But we know for sure there will be more injuries, so until we get to June or July, it makes sense to keep the excitement in check.
If the Mets get to the All-Star break winning 55% of their games or more, and don't have a bunch of guys on the DL, then it's time to get excited about the rest of the season.
The fandom thing can become mental illness. If it's not okay to enjoy a win, an at bat etc. in the moment and say "yay" without worrying about tomorrow, one has to wonder whether there is really any enjoyment involved.
ml1 said:
it's not being superstitious as much as it's being cautious. It's a hell of a lot better to be 5-1 than 1-5 for sure. But it's such a small sample of games. Let's see the pitchers go through the rotation a few times before we get giddy.
and beyond that, almost every Mets fan harbored the optimism that if the team stayed healthy this season, it would be competitive. A week and a half into the season, so far so good with only Swarzak headed to the DL. But we know for sure there will be more injuries, so until we get to June or July, it makes sense to keep the excitement in check.
If the Mets get to the All-Star break winning 55% of their games or more, and don't have a bunch of guys on the DL, then it's time to get excited about the rest of the season.
I'm just having some fun with the nature of our fandom.
I'm honestly thrilled about the quick start ... every win now means just as much as a win in September. I was texting with a work buddy after the last couple of wins. We're both happy to see what's going on.
But I do think that Mets fans have a tendency to be more verbal when things go badly than when they go well. Maybe for me it's because I'm tired of the endless mockery by Yankee fans (who can't just be happy they root for the most successful MLB team of all time) so i play my cards (hm... bad choice of words) close to the vest.
I pledge to be a little more exuberant on here.
mrincredible said:
I'm just having some fun with the nature of our fandom.
I'm honestly thrilled about the quick start ... every win now means just as much as a win in September. I was texting with a work buddy after the last couple of wins. We're both happy to see what's going on.
But I do think that Mets fans have a tendency to be more verbal when things go badly than when they go well. Maybe for me it's because I'm tired of the endless mockery by Yankee fans (who can't just be happy they root for the most successful MLB team of all time) so i play my cards (hm... bad choice of words) close to the vest.
I pledge to be a little more exuberant on here.
What he said. LGM!!
I get the negativity and pessimism. I choose teams in every sport that fit the Met's cursed mold.
I enjoy the games one at a time. I really liked yesterday's game, especially because it was against the Nats. But I wasn't sitting there getting excited that the team is in first place. It's too early for that. I was glad Conforto is back. deGrom has been really effective, even though I'm not sure he's had his best stuff yet (can't be easy pitching on these brutally cold days).
Even in a disastrous year like '17, I still enjoy individual games. In September I wasn't paying attention every day. But every 5th day, it was still fun being a Mets fan when deGrom took the mound.
Like everything else, enjoyment of fandom can be a matter of perspective. Enjoy the moments, but don't let worrying about yesterday or tomorrow get in the way.
bub said:
The fandom thing can become mental illness. If it's not okay to enjoy a win, an at bat etc. in the moment and say "yay" without worrying about tomorrow, one has to wonder whether there is really any enjoyment involved.
and to add some perspective from a different sport -- the Devils just clinched their first playoff berth in six years last night. Their previous season was arguably as bad as the Mets last season. And wouldn't you know, the Devils were in a playoff qualifying spot from game 1 of this season. Not for one day did they drop below 8th place in their conference. When they got off to a hot start, it was pleasing to see. But there was a serious lull in the middle of the season when it looked like the wheels might come off. Being a Devils fan this year has meant abiding by the cliché of "one game at a time." But it was worth it, because worrying about the playoffs during some of those midseason losing streaks would have been brutal.
On the flip side, I'm a Rangers fan. They had a disappointing season and cleaned house opting for youth and draft picks, after being reasonably serious cup contenders for a few years. I watch (not religiously) to see how the young players are doing and I'm happy when they show promise.
ml1 said:
and to add some perspective from a different sport -- the Devils just clinched their first playoff berth in six years last night. Their previous season was arguably as bad as the Mets last season. And wouldn't you know, the Devils were in a playoff qualifying spot from game 1 of this season. Not for one day did they drop below 8th place in their conference. When they got off to a hot start, it was pleasing to see. But there was a serious lull in the middle of the season when it looked like the wheels might come off. Being a Devils fan this year has meant abiding by the cliché of "one game at a time." But it was worth it, because worrying about the playoffs during some of those midseason losing streaks would have been brutal.
ml1 said:
I enjoy the games one at a time. I really liked yesterday's game, especially because it was against the Nats.
Your autocorrect must've gotten you. Correct spelling is Gnats.
What I love seeing from the Mets - besides timely hitting - is how Callaway is handling the bullpen. They may have something here with Gsellman and Lugo shutting down bats from the 6th inning on. It truly is putting a starter out there with starter stuff and giving hitters fits mid-game.
Train_of_Thought said:
ml1 said:
I enjoy the games one at a time. I really liked yesterday's game, especially because it was against the Nats.
Your autocorrect must've gotten you. Correct spelling is Gnats.
I spell phonetically
NotoriousEAM said:
What I love seeing from the Mets - besides timely hitting - is how Callaway is handling the bullpen. They may have something here with Gsellman and Lugo shutting down bats from the 6th inning on. It truly is putting a starter out there with starter stuff and giving hitters fits mid-game.
It's definitely something different. A lot of teams have had success with power arms out of the bullpen, but those guys usually are 2-pitch pitchers. Now the Mets have a couple of guys out there who have 4 pitches, who are stylistically different from their starters.
I'm not saying anything about today's game. I know nothing. Nothing.
Shultz
it's always nice to see a come-from-behind victory, especially when they were trailing going into the back end of the game. Nice job.
I'll be interested to see which Matt Harvey shows up tomorrow to pitch. Yes, I am a little bit greedy for a sweep.
the most encouraging thing about the start of the season is that no one is playing over their heads. What the team has been doing over the first seven games is sustainable over a season if there aren't a lot of key injuries.
Here's a joke for mfpark. I put it in this section since although not a Mets joke it is about another baseball team you follow. And in any event it's funny. So let's laugh as we hope for a sweep of something that hasn't been done since 2015.
An explosion last week killed a wild-living navy boiler man and he found himself in hell. Being used to stoking fires and extremely hot temperatures, he found hell actually quite comfortable.
When Satan went to check out the new arrival, he found him sitting in his room smiling.
“You like this?” Satan asked.
“Yes, sir,” said the sailor, “this feels like a spring day to me.”
Not wanting the new guy to be too comfortable, Satan turned up the heat a bit. When he went back the next day to see how his new arrival was doing, the sailor was still happy; he hadn’t even broken a sweat.
“I like this kind of weather,” he told Satan.
For the next few days, Satan turned up the heat more and more, but each day the Sailor looked as comfortable as ever. By Sunday, Satan decided to try something different. Rather than turn up the heat even more, he turned it off and turned on the air conditioning. Icicles formed in the sailor’s room! When he checked on the guy, the room was icy and he was shivering, but he had a grin from ear to ear, bigger than ever.
Satan was exasperated! “Why are YOU so happy?” he demanded from the sailor. “It’s FREEZING in here!”
“Well, I’m from Boston,” said the sailor, “and evidently the Red Sox just won the World Series!”
It is getting late for me, but after 10 this is a fun game. Lugo may have found a good gig.
Well all right! They got the sweep so I'll indulge in a single surreptitious fist pump and a subtle smirk.
Off to Miami. Thor and deGrom to start things up.
That's funny, Wendy from Maplewood.
But even funnier is that when I look up the list of World Series winning teams since 2000 I see the Red Sox listed three times and the Mets? Well, at least they made it to the big show twice in that span.
I may root for the Mets in the NL, but my heart remains with Beantown.
That was a great game last night. The Mets keep doing all the little things right, which is a big difference from the last few years. Although they are an old and relatively slow team, they are running the bases really well and with a lot of intelligence. I hear that Calloway and his staff emphasized this during Spring Training and if so it really shows.
All the highlight reels and comments talk about Agon's granny, or Calloway's smart move to have Lugo walk two to load the bases, or Cespedes' blooper (looks like he broke the bat on an inside pitch but still muscled it out of the infield, on a day when he had the flu and looked overmatched). But none I have seen focus on Rosario executing a perfect bunt in the 12th to move Lagares to second so he could score on the Cespedes flare.
That small ball is relatively new for the Mets and I credit Calloway for making it a real focus so far this year. So far, five percent of the season in, the Mets are taking the extra base when it is there, hitting behind runners, and doing the little things that can make a big difference over a full season.
Most importantly the team is believing in itself.
Hey Wendy, is your dig at the Red Sox because they are the only team in baseball with a better winning percentage than the Mets so far? If we are lucky we can trade gibes in October.
mfpark, not a dig at the Red Sox at all. It actually was a homage to them. In fact, except for 1986, I always rooted for the Sox to end their curse and took the Sox over the Yankees (and the spouse is a Yankee fan, albeit not as avid a one as I am for the Mets and that's why the son became the Mets fan he is).
so far the big differences for the Mets from last year are the team's OBP, which sits at .358, 3rd in all of MLB (last year they were 18th). And obviously the team is getting much better pitching overall. I'm convinced the pitching improvement is due largely to much better infield defense. I'm interested to see what the fielding metrics have to say about that. The defensive measures aren't perfect, but the Mets' stats last year were so extremely bad that a directional improvement would be an indication of something meaningful.
Two concerns at this point -- the Mets pitchers are continuing their habit of letting baserunners go wild on them. In an era when teams don't attempt a lot of SBs, the Mets are giving up an average of just over one per game. And Matz and Syndergaard have been the main culprits. The other concern is Matt Harvey. It's only two starts, but last night started out with the Nats hitting everything very hard, even the outs. The first inning looked like one of his '17 starts. But the weather so far has been so brutal, it's hard to know how it has been affecting Harvey and all the starters. Syndergaard hasn't been sharp, but one of his games was played in 40 MPH wind. Harvey had a very cold night last night, and very cold misty rain in his first start. Really looking forward to seeing how Syndergaard looks tonight pitching in FL.
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As long as I get credit for continued success, I'll take the blame for a 2-14 run. Enough said.