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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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The Season Thus Far

As of tonight’s off night, per the current non-operative schedule, the 2020 Mets would have played eight games already. They were slated for nine, but the second of them, on Saturday, March 28, would have been rained out. I can’t prove that — I can’t prove anything where the 2020 Mets are concerned — but it rained all day in New York two Saturdays ago, and not even the large gate attached to a Pete Alonso Bobblehead Day seemed likely to pull the tarp from Citi Field’s diamond. In context, the rainout would have caused consternation and chaos in modest doses. Context ain’t what it used to be.

So let’s say the Mets would have played eight games by now. Let’s figure BobblePete would have found a makeup day to nod agreeably. Let’s assume, which you can never do in normal times, whatever those are, that the pitching would have been pushed back to a point, meaning the optimal utility of Jacob deGrom, whose Bobblehead Day dawned dry enough to play on March 29, didn’t get leapt over during the season’s second week, which, if you’re not scoring at home (though you’re likely doing everything else there), was just last week. I know, I know; who can tell anymore?

DeGrom in the Opener. Stroman that succeeding Sunday, which was three days later. Then Porcello, Matz and I gotta believe deGrom again, because you don’t want him sitting and waiting for a week. Wacha in Washington for their disgusting flag-raising and so forth. Then it’s another day off, followed by Stroman on Saturday, going on five days’ rest and, I guess, Porcello Sunday, a.k.a. yesterday. We arrive in Houston, packing righteous indignation and who to pitch? You can use deGrom on proper rest tomorrow or you can keep Matz from going altogether stale.

You’d use deGrom, right?

I don’t know who Rojas — and the calls Rojas would have gotten from Van Wagenen that Rojas would already be getting a little edgy from — would have chosen. I don’t know what would have happened in the eight games the Mets would have played by now. Without indulging in the well-meaning simulations out there that I can’t bear to look at, I have a hunch the Mets would be somewhere between 3-5 and 5-3 after eight games. It’s just a hunch. The Mets haven’t been 5-3 after eight games since 2017, 3-5 since 2016 or 4-4 since way back in 2011 (I’ve lived long enough that 2011 now qualifies as “way back”). It just feels right that these Mets would be settling in somewhere between a little better than .500 and a little worse than .500.

I could be wrong. I could be absolutely wrong. The Mets were 7-1 two years ago, 6-2 last year. They’ve never been 8-0, but there are six instances of them being 2-6 (most recently way back in 2010) and three times when all they had was one or zero wins. But I’m a little too hypothetically optimistic to think they’re as bad as they were in 1962, 1963, 1964 or, for that matter, 2010. Just call me wide-eyed. Or Zoom me any adjective you like.

Scenarios:

The Mets are 3-5. We are healthily panicked, just ill at ease enough to fit the circumstances. Three wins and five losses after eight games is not a good look. We are reminding ourselves multiple times a day that there are still 154 games remaining, and even if somebody among Washington, Atlanta, Philadelphia and Miami (hey, you never know) is off to a 7-1 launch, well, there are still 154 games remaining. After losing five of eight to start the season, we are trying to not doubt Luis. We are trying to not doubt whichever element of the staff, starting or relieving, we deem culpable for 3-5. We’ve probably called for and will receive by tomorrow night some change to the batting order and maybe somebody who’s been mostly glued to the bench entering the lineup. Just a scheduled off day for Cano, Luis will say. Just letting Amed clear his head, maybe. Say, how’s Conforto’s oblique, anyway?

The Mets are 4-4. We’re not thrilled, but we’re not overtly hostile. Four wins and four losses after eight games is what our record says it is. It’s OK. It’s not great, because we’ve already experienced the agony of defeat four times, and that’s three times too many. Jason or I wrote that first “so we won’t go 161-1” column and we all ingested easily enough the reality that there are a third you win, a third you lose, et al. But a team we fancied jumping up to immediate playoff contention muddling along doesn’t strike us as a an adequate break from the blocks. Somehow 4-4, doesn’t feel 125 percentage points better than 3-5. Not much of a sample size there from to which to judge, of course. Then again, we have zero sample size in actual 2020, so I’d take 4-4 over 0-0 ASAP as long as nobody spreads or catches anything from it.

The Mets are 5-3. That’s not bad. That’s more than not bad. But if we’re 5-3, why aren’t we 6-2? You know if McNeil had gotten that base hit with the sacks full, we’d be 6-2. You know Alonso is gonna finally belt one and more will follow once he loosens up, and it’s pretty good that we’re pretty good with the Polar Bear obviously trying a little too hard. Familia’s weight loss has made a difference. Brach may be the secret weapon. And what about that running grab Marisnick made? Luis putting him in for defense really paid off. Still, it feels like they could be better than 5-3. But we shouldn’t be complaining. It’s just eight games.

If only.

11 comments to The Season Thus Far

  • eric1973

    Dollars to Burritos, bet Familia has put all that weight back on by now.

  • eric1973

    Yeah, I’m one to talk. Me and my GF are trying to keep our local pizza shop in business during all this, and all I’ve been eating is pizza, and meatball parmagiana heroes. She does not partake as much, and I do make a concession by eating her salads, they’re not that bad.

    Man, I’m starving for one right now, and not the salad.

  • open the gates

    Two silver linings to the non-season thus far:

    1) If we have to look back for a longer time at the last moment of Mets action, we could do a lot worse than Dom Smith dancing around the bases after walking off the season. I mean, imagine if the delayed season came after the Kenny Rogers game. Or the T#m Gl@v!ne game. Or our future former manager looking at Strike Three. I mean, as last and lasting impressions go, we should count our blessings.

    2) Other than Noah Syndergaard (what can I say, they’re still the Mets), there have been absolutely no injuries yet this season. And given the national shutdown, it’s rather unlikely that any Mets will be hurt in freak taxicab accidents, or will slice off any fingers in freak boating accidents, or will fracture their ankles in freak stepping-off-the-sidewalk accidents, or will reinjure their feet in freak pig- wrestling accidents, or…

    OK, now I’m depressed.

    • 1) Ball four with the bases loaded notwithstanding, I could have lived with 1999 — even Game Six of the NLCS — as my immediate precedent for years if necessary.

      2) Don’t discount the possibility of a Met adjusting his camera’s video settings and spraining something.

  • Daniel Hall

    Hah. I indeed got a rainout on the 28th while playing through the Mets season in OOTP Baseball. However, since the developers are German and we value order above everything, OOTP immediately rescheduled the game for a Sunday double-header. :-P For the statisticians out there, my Mets are 6-5 as of now (5-4 as of this post going up), Pete’s got four homers, and Jake’s got one measly win.

    And boy, did we ever get to complain about the schedule? The Mets weren’t up to face a charity team (the Fish) until the 21st. Everything else was playoff teams, division winners, and champs of recent minting…

    And then there’s my longtime OOTP save where my team finds themselves in a 1973 Mets scenario, rallying from 16 games under .500 to 66-69 and two games out of first place in a ridiculously inept division. I need a happy end for that one, badly.

    I ramble on, because it’s all the baseball (and, by extension, joy) that I got left…

  • MikeS

    Just starting listening to Gary, Keith and Ron call a sim game, Mets -Astros, using Mlb The Show. It’s on YouTube. It’s great to hear GKR do a game even if I feel rod serling lurking around the corner.

  • chuck

    OT, but SNY has been replaying all of the Mets’ “Yearbook” shows. I took a perverse interest in 1977. I didn’t think it would be possible to hate Joe Torre more than I already do. And the propping up of Steve Henderson was nothing short of embarrassing.

    I remember why I stopped watching them until 1984.

  • Tim Bergan

    I just started reading your “Amazin Mets” book. I finished the “Fear and Faith In Flushing” book a few weeks back. I’ve been on this major Mets reading tear lately. I’m reading Piazzas autobiography right now. I just ordered your book on Piazzas time with the Mets tonight.
    The point I’m finally circling around to is I just wanted to spend a minute letting you know that youre writing has helped reinvigorate my love for the Mets. I always loved em, always rooted for em since I was about 13 or so. But you really drive the nail home and remind me why I love my team so much. I just wanted to thank you for that. I was reading “Amazin Mets” and was struck with the thought, “man I wonder if every franchise has this dedicated an individual that writes heartfelt books about their fandom. Every fan of a franchise should be this lucky.” Anyways that’s all I wanted to say. Thank you for your literature man.