2019 Mets Opening Weekend: The Sweet Sounds of Baseball on the Radio

I always feel like everyone needs spring training. 

Photo via
https://wtop.com (AP PHOTO/NICK WASS)

The players need it, the manager needs it, the umpires need it,  the SNY truck needs it...and us fans? We need it too. We have to work that muscle in again, what baseball feels like, what baseball looks like, how it paces, how it goes. You would think by now with as many games as we die-hards take in year in and year out, we'd be so familiar with it, especially considering it is on 24/7/365 in this day and age. Still, I think one has to feel it out year in and year out and sidle back on into the rhythm, the play and that sense in your brain.

This day and age for me personally, however, I feel so overwhelmed by everything in my life that I haven't had time to just sit, relax and watch a ballgame, much less listen to a spring game on the radio. I am both in a heightened state of being overwhelmed yet finally am practicing, or at least attempting, to train myself to take it easy, take everything step-by-step, go easy on myself while holding myself accountable. I'm trying to both train new muscles and work out older muscles I've hardly used over the last few years, writing included. Whether it is our physical strength or theoretical muscles, we all need training to get ourselves to where we need to be. You generally don't just show up "In The Best Shape of (Your) Life," without having gotten to that point by doing what they say you need to do to get to that place on the corner of 57th and 7th: Practice.

When it comes to the sounds of baseball on the radio, however, they sidle on in so eloquently and naturally to compliment the sounds of the city of the ballteam we all so adore. On Opening Day, though the "City" was the one with Jersey in its name, I had the game on the old fashioned way with the AM dial...yes, THAT frequency set-up...tuned into the new home of the 2019 New York Mets, WCBS 880. All of a sudden, I could breathe. Combined with the warming temperatures and sunny disposition of the tri-state that day, I didn't feel I had needed ear training to appreciate the feeling of baseball being back in my life. I had just gotten right back on the bike after all this time.

All weekend, it was how I took in this new incarnation of the New York Mets. Part of the beauty of listening to the game is that you imagine what is going on visually based on how smoothly the announcers, in our case Howie Rose and Wayne Randazzo in his first year officially as Howie's right-hand man, describe the scene to our ears and brains. Part of listening to the game is the anticipation of seeing the moments visually later on in your day. In today's media landscape, us fans can see the highlight of what we heard in a matter of moments if we so choose. My job, however, renders me unable to take my eyes off the road (as, really, is everybody's job while driving...) so I must wait till I am not working Lyft to take it all in at once.

Here are some things I liked seeing from our team this first weekend of baseball in 2019:

• The Mets MO is winning on Opening Day. They get their fans' hopes up, but ironically have never won the World Series thereafter in seasons they win the first game of the year (a trend I hope they change this year.) There are many incarnations of Mets teams that have won on Opening Day, so we are trained to take the results with a grain of salt. In the moment, however, it is nice when the plan comes together TO A TEE: get a couple runs for your ace, play crisp defense and have your bullpen hold the lead. The Mets took advantage of a HR prone Max Scherzer (he gave up 23 of them last year, folks) got an insurance run late and did what they hardly could do in 2018 for our horse: give him a W.
• The Mets offensive approach looks much more professionally sound than in recent past seasons. They have a clear idea of what they want to do up there and are executing it so far. They are laying off some junk a good amount of the time, taking what the pitcher gives them and gliding the ball the other way. Players like Jeff McNeil and rookie Pete Alonso are doing a great job, with some tough pitches, of getting the barrel on the ball and making solid contact. All good so far, keep it up.
• They showed resilience and resolve to take advantage of a so far weak Nationals bullpen and even though lose the last game, gave themselves a chance to win...they've given themselves a chance in every single game they've played so far. No way, obviously, to go 162-0, but if you continue to put yourself in positions to win, you will do so more often than not. Keep executing, fellas.

It is so cliché of me to say, but I have so much else on my mind regarding muscles I need to train and retrain that when Mets baseball comes along, whether its just listening to the game to relax me while I attend to other stuff or producing the podcasts talking about the sport and team we love, I'm able to put all my troubles aside and just smile and laugh about it, even when we're complaining about them. Even though listening to the game feels like the first day I rode that bike perfectly back in the day, baseball and its role as a pleasant distraction is a muscle I was sorely in need of retraining. I think I'm well on my way.

We at A Metsian Podcast with Sam, Rich and Mike have been lucky enough to generally get together on Thursdays and Opening Day was no exception, with Faith and Fear in Flushing's Greg Prince joining us to discuss the new edition to the New York Metropolitan history books.

I was also lucky enough to talk Mets, burgers and BBQ with Metstradamus himself, John Coppinger, on his Burgerball podcast, on-location from the Barnwood Restaurant parking lot as I ciphered off their WiFi which I paid them back for with the purchase of a pulled pork sandwich afterwards. Along with plugging a burger I had had the night before at Rathbone's on 88th and 2nd in Manhattan, this was a fun time I highly recommend you take in. 

Welcome back my friends, to the show that never ends. Though that isn't the song I'm going to go with to close us off. As I'm trying to train and retrain my physical and mental muscles, I'm going to go with a song I keep going back to lately: Mind Power by James Brown.

FLEX. THAT. MUSCLE.

LET'S. GO. METS.