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Greg Prince and Jason Fry
Faith and Fear in Flushing made its debut on Feb. 16, 2005, the brainchild of two longtime friends and lifelong Met fans.

Greg Prince discovered the Mets when he was 6, during the magical summer of 1969. He is a Long Island-based writer, editor and communications consultant. Contact him here.

Jason Fry is a Brooklyn writer whose first memories include his mom leaping up and down cheering for Rusty Staub. Check out his other writing here.

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Things That Look Good on the Mets

1. Five consecutive wins (after holding off the Nationals in Washington)

2. Climbing almost out of last place (a half-game behind the Nats, one behind the Braves)

3. Having the best last place record in baseball (a dubious distinction, but ya gotta start somewhere after digging yourself a 5-13 hole)

4. Jason Bay batting fifth (that’s the Jason Bay from before 2010, apparently, my instinctive chant of “Hey, hey, Jason Bay, how many Mets did you strand today?” every time he shows his face notwithstanding)

5. Carlos Beltran relatively unencumbered in the field and on the basepaths (tripling and everything — life begins anew at 34)

6. Daniel Murphy in the two-hole (and at second base, even allowing for the likelihood of sudden Bonehead Murphy reappearances)

7. Josh Thole with his confidence and his stroke (I’ve taken to calling him Jock Thole, because he so looks like the earnest kid on the high school baseball team who wouldn’t join in the picking on of the schlubby kid in gym class)

8. Jason Pridie getting comfortable (his walkup music in my mind is “Funky Céilí” by Black 47, specifically the moment at the beginning when lead singer Larry Kirwan is calling out achingly for “BRIDIE!” which is close enough to “PRIDIE!” for my purposes)

9. Chris Young handling a bat (maybe he’s not back up to speed on the mound, but what a gorgeous safety squeeze from our recent 1.000 hitter)

10. Ike Davis with a glove (averting looming disaster on the final play Tuesday night when he stepped off the bag to corral David Wright’s nearly errant throw and applied a tag on the last National baserunner of the night)

11. Heretofore unsung relief pitchers (Ryota Igarashi flummoxed Jayson Werth, Taylor Buchholz plugged two solid innings…it’s like having an entire bullpen!)

12. The continued presence of Dillon Gee on the 25-man roster (because he earned it, and because demoting the thus far ineffective D.J. Carrasco imbues the old saw about “no scholarships” with real fiber — my goodness, I love the informed impatience of the new regime)

13. Not hearing Terry Collins mention how close we were to winning (because we won — teams that win don’t much mention how they nearly lost)

14. Human-scale camera angles at Nationals Park (no more D.C. vertigo on SNY — who’d we pay off?)

15. Black jerseys (four straight in those tiresomely derided ebony tops, five straight with some shade of the vintage Mets In Black look…when the Mets win dressed something like Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones, then baby, black is beautiful)

16. Brad Emaus’s listing among Mets you can punch out on your just-released All-Star ballot (which is actually pretty dim of MLB to have authorized considering Brad Emaus is a fading Met memory who is currently adding “organizational depth” to the Rockies at Colorado Springs, but when you win five in a row, stuff that normally bothers you strikes you as mostly amusing)

10 comments to Things That Look Good on the Mets

  • Inside Pitcher

    15. Black jerseys

    Black is beautiful, baby!

  • 9th string catcher

    Vote Eamus! Perhaps that will send a message to the All-Star committee. Not sure if putting Gee in the bullpen is such a good idea, but then again, kind of like him as the sword of Damacles hanging over the other starters’ heads. This year’s marketing slogan should be: “Mets 2011 – Production or banishment to Buffalo”.

    • That he was about to be sent down reminded me of Jae Seo pitching seven innings of one-hit ball in May 2005 and then getting farmed out because he was scheduled to be. It made some degree of roster sense at the time, but it was also, “What, you can’t make room for a guy who gave up only one hit in seven innings?” I would hope that if Gee goes unused too long (and somebody at Buffalo is showing something) they don’t let him rot, but for now, we can use whatever’s working well.

  • […] Prince lists 16 Things that Look Good for the Mets. Let’s stay positive while we still can. Around the […]

  • I really like having our heads (almost) above water.

  • Florida Met Fan Rich

    Lets put the Nats in the basement tonight! That was a great game when you give up 3 HR’s and Win!

    This ia a teams that we need to continue to beat!

    LETS GO METS!

  • Just realized some good news about this year’s schedule.

    After this upcoming weekend, the Mets do NOT go back to Philly until the middle of August, then NOT AGAIN!

    If things are still interesting come September…ya nevah know…

  • ShalomMetsJets

    Just got the book and discovered the site. I like the list, but am not as upset at the roster juggling that’s been going on. The Mets are really in an extended spring training mode. Management has apparently made what I think is the right decision to blow this thing up and start over, and the roster shuffling is really an evaluation of the talent to see who will stay and who will go, and what kind of talent can be gotten in return for those who will be leaving.

    In any event, I survived the late 70 (the era before Joe Torre became a genius), and I’ll survive this too.

  • Joe D.

    And Saturday’s afternoon game was NOT on Channel 5 – so we did not have to listen to Tim McCarver badmouthing us on something!

    • The Bard

      Last Mets game McCarver called for Fox, he actually said that the last time the Mets made the playoffs was “in 2000.”

      The statement went uncorrected by the guys in the production wagon for half an inning. Although we all know he is a disaster, and was a particular disaster announcing the 2006 NLCS, he did actually sit through all 7 games on live television.

      Compare that to Gary Cohen, who’s Bard worthy turn of phrase for Endy’s catch still stays with me — and is worth repeating any time we have to think about McCarver…

      Yes: “He went to the apex of his leap, and caught it in the webbing of his glove, with his elbow up against the fence.”

      No: “That pitch wasn’t down and in, that pitch was down and up.”