The Winning Streak Has To Start Somewhere

It is easy to be cynical when the Mets win their first game in 8 days, especially when going into the Citi Field leg of the Yankees series. Two things were good, at least, about that isolated one game: The offense didn't completely fizzle out late after taking an early lead, and the game wasn't blown in the 9th inning.

Jim McIsaac/Getty Images
Photo via New York Times

The thing is, if they are ever to win two in a row again, the winning streak has got to start somewhere (insert "duh" gif here.)

I like it when the Mets win, even when the more they lose, the more fervor gets churned about how much the Wilpons suck at running a baseball team. I'm not one for tanking (even if the result is a draft pick of glorious nature down the road.) I want miracles. I want Amazin' times. I glitch, though, when I utter, "Amazin'," because the nickname was arrived at in an ironic state, referring to the Amazin' Mets of 1962.

By 1969, however, Amazin' was literally that, as we recollected on this past weekend. That is how quickly things can change.

The "They" everyone talks about like to say, "Success is luck and preparation intersecting" or however you want to phrase it yourself. It would seem, cynically enough, that any success under the
Wilpons, whether it is one isolated game or years like 2015 and 2016, is more luck than preparation. I'm sick of them proving us right, but as hard as it is to watch the nature of 2017, '18 and '19 after two great years in a row, I would never trade the joy and glow the memories of those two years have provided me. As much as we can sometimes laugh off the awful nature of the way things have gone, I'd still rather they figure out how to prepare to string together a bunch of 2015's and 2016's in a row.

The winning streak has to start somewhere...

BEAT. THE. YANKEES.

LET'S. GO. METS.

The Dawn

I headed into this morning, as I have done all the late nights I finish with work recently, tired and just wanting to go home as I gear up for vacation this weekend. I didn't want to write, and if I were to write about the Mets soon, it would be when I woke up near or an hour before midday, and write then, since they next play at 7 tonight. I'd even watch all I missed with my eyes that my ears picked up, to see what exactly happened in the almost calamitous 9th inning, digest it, go to sleep and write tomorrow.

But then I read Greg Prince Pledge Allegiance.

And I feel I don't need to write too much, and just let him speak for all of us.

 Mandatory Credit: Evan Habeeb-USA TODAY Sports

It is strange that the last 2 posts I have written were inspired by the folks of Faith and Fear in Flushing, but Greg, in these wee pre-dawn hours, alerted me and us to the fact the 9th inning allowed for the "echoes" of history with a 5-3 win, the same score as the Mets 1st clinching World Series Victory. It didn't register with me the first time around, even if a lot of the talk on both the radio and TV was about the 1969 matchup between the two teams facing each other, the New York Metropolitans and the Baltimore Orioles. So, I appreciate Greg bringing it to my attention.

And I appreciate being on the dawn of the rest of this season. I have not written nearly as often as past years, especially my inaugural season of 2012, when I'm pretty sure I wrote every day. Greg's piece is short and sweet, and just what that game needed from Faith and Fear in Flushing's perspective. I'm sure Greg was tired when he published the article at 2:55am, but he still got it done. So, I thank you, Greg, for reminding me that it doesn't matter how much you write, just as long as you're writing everyday.

KEEP. ON. PUSHIN'. as I like to say these days...

And

LET'S. GO. METS.

The Miracles

Once upon a time, there was a team called the Miracle Mets, and they shocked EVERYBODY with their meteoric rise to the top of the baseball world, especially their fans. Sure...they had seen progress happening slowly over time, but nobody expected THAT that quickly.

The Mets... 

The Moon...

1969. 

It all made sense.

"Oh, I just can't beLIEVE it. It's been a year of Miracles, and it's marvelous. Really, really marvelous."

--Joan Hodges 

This franchise is built on Miracles, and won their next World Series with the MIRACLE of baseball Miracles, one could argue (though a stupid RED team tried to 1-up our Metsies...) 

The time when Marty MetFly raced for the lightening unsure whether he'd make it in time...

It's a Miracle when certain things happen. 

And last night was a Miracle.

It was a Miracle this offense came back after being down 2-1 somewhere in the last 3 innings. On the Road.

It was a Miracle when Eric Campbell, in his 8th Pinch Hit At Bat of the year, got his 1st Pinch Hit to put the Mets ahead 3-2.

It's a Miracle when anybody BUT the Mets make errors, and it's a Miracle when the Mets capitalize on it.

It was a Miracle this happened in the 9th inning, and it was a Miracle Kevin Plawecki got all the way to 3rd on the play.

And it was an ABSOLUTE MIRACLE this offense could muster up the strength to tack on not 1, not 2, not 3 but FOUR insurance runs.

Yes you could say that Washington's ranks weren't necessarily at top order on the mound throughout the night, but we know this offense can easily let Miracles happen on the other side of things.

That's the stuff of Miracles, and that's the stuff of this team.

It's their brand. And the Wilpons own it.

It's a Miracle we're even this close this far into the season with those clowns involved.

So, even if these Miracles play into the Wilpons' team's brand...It's up to THEM to give the Miracles better chances of happening.

Come on, dudes. Get it done.

Make Miracles happen.

LET'S. GO. METS.

Today's Mets Legacy - Good Afternoon & Thank You for Coming

For a recap of a wacky 11-4 loss to the Cardinals, head on over to Rising Apple.


Today's Mets Legacy Photo is of the scoreboard at the end of the 11-10 Opening Day loss to Montréal on April 8, 1969.

DRINK REINGOLD.
LET'S. GO. METS.

Thanks for reading! Follow me on Twitter @convertedmetfan. And for Rising Apple twitter updates, click here.

Happy 43rd: The Unnamed Editorial

I'm workin' on a Rising Apple "This Date" about Game 5 of the 1969 World Series, a post that I got a little behind. I have a digital subscription to the New York Times, only so I can get their vast amount of articles in the archives, including basically every article written about the World Series Victory in the 2 days after. I found an anonymous piece that says what most fans must have been feeling as it sank in that the Mets were World Champions (I believe it is quoted in Episode 8 of Baseball.)

(Here was the day's political endorsement.)

 

LET'S. GO. METS.

Thanks for reading! Follow me on Twitter @convertedmetfan. And for Rising Apple twitter updates, click here.