- Faith and Fear in Flushing - https://www.faithandfearinflushing.com -

The Unanticipated Anticipation

I thought I’d be excited to be going to the first Mets’ postseason game ever at Citi Field. I am, but I have to confess that element of this Met October journey — our ballpark’s first BIG moment — is not quite registering with me.

Utleygate is all I’ve been thinking about Metwise since Saturday night. Since we last spoke, the vile one has been suspended for two games; he has appealed (though he appeals to none of us); his appeal will have to wait until his conflict-of-interest representatives at the MLBPA can get their act together (because there’s no compelling interest in expediting the process ASAP?); he will be disgustingly eligible for Game Three (which means he has to stand in the batter’s box, probably); and Matt Reynolds [1] has replaced Ruben Tejada [2] on the roster if not yet in our hearts.

Matt Reynolds has never played in a major league baseball game, but he did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night. And he did a hit home run last March to win an exhibition game started by Matt Harvey [3]. So having him around from a karma perspective can’t hurt. Whether it helps from a baseball perspective, we’ll see.

Of Matts who will be cheered when the Mets are introduced tonight (after the Dodgers are reminded of their shortcomings as people and players), it’s not Matt Reynolds who be carrying the weight of the franchise on his shoulders. This Gotham-Dark Knight stuff has a chance to actually be activated tonight. Matt Harvey: you, baby, you. We were so pumped when you came back that afternoon in Port St. Lucie, then that gray day in Washington, then on the first night of 2015 in Flushing. It was all leading here.

Matt Harvey. The playoffs. The Mets. Citi Field. Just like we drew it up in our dreams, save for the little matter of Utley breaking Tejada’s fibula and 43,000 of us preferring to eschew rally towels for bloody shirts. That was a twist we didn’t anticipate.

But anticipate is what we do hours ahead of Harvey’s first pitch, which hopefully comes in high and tight at somebody. And then a lot of swings and misses in the tops of innings, with a ton of contact in their bottoms.

Which is to say let’s kick the Dodgers’ asses tonight in every way imaginable.

Also, good luck later today to R.A. Dickey [4], starting his first postseason game at Arlington for Toronto. Not how we dreamt or drew it up circa 2012, but times change. Time for tonight’s game at Citi Field changed to 8:37 from 8:07 because the Blue Jays beat the Rangers yesterday (go make sense of that sentence if you’re not attuned to the strange ways of Major League Baseball), but if it gives R.A. a shot at a long-awaited moment, we’ll put up with the extra half-hour wait.

Not that I can wait one minute more.