The Real Met Gala

Thanks, Gare. Like you said, it’s midnight in Manhattan, and this is no time to get cute, yet as we know, every first Monday night of May marks the return of the Met Gala to Manhattan, and whenever the Mets are playing at midnight Eastern Time on that same night, the game is stopped, wherever it’s taking place, in this case Arizona, and the Mets stage their own red carpet walk. Here at Chase Field, it’s more of a Sedona Red carpet, with accents of teal and purple, a nod to former Met skipper Buck Showalter’s influence on the founding of the Diamondbacks franchise in the late ’90s.

And I have to say, Gary and Keith, that after dressing as a Viking when we were in Minnesota, and then visiting the Continent, as we sophisticates call it, during my week off, I have a new appreciation for fashion and am delighted you guys are giving me a chance to show it off.

The theme of this year’s Mobile Met Gala is Stealth Diego, a title chosen to reflect that although the Mets are playing this game in Phoenix, technically the Mountain Time Zone, it might as well be a late night in California. That’s certainly how some of our more sleepy SNY viewers are processing it. For them, it might as well be the 1954 Broadway musical, The Pajama Game, itself a show with something of a fashion motif.

First to stroll by on the carpet is current Met manager Carlos Mendoza, wearing a fresh take on the classic parochial school uniform, very much accenting plaids. This is Mendy’s nod to Mary Katherine Gallagher, the Molly Shannon “superstar!” character. The connection, we’re told, is Mendy’s recurring dugout pose with his arms folded ever tighter, his thumbs burrowing into his armpits. Mary Katherine, you’ll recall, had a bit with her thumbs as well, but I don’t think Carlos is going to do any sniffing, unless it’s of victory.

Next up, Pete Alonso, and Pete’s not surprising anybody with his white tails and top hat, very much the Polar Bear, an enormous animal with enormous statistics, enhanced most recently by what could be called a two-run “moonshot” in the fourth inning had the roof of Chase Field been open. Either way, Pete’s blast, like his tuxedo, was clearly puttin’ on the ritz.

Coming along behind Pete, in blood red, is Griffin Canning, making an ironic comment on how many Mets fans viewed Griffin as a “tomato can” to be knocked around, yet, as we see, guys, he’s the one who’s been canning batters’ hopes all year. That includes five-plus innings of one-run ball in the desert tonight.

Sporting bristle-yellow, it’s Huascar Brazoban. The idea here, guys, is Huascar whisks away potential threats when he comes into a game, and sure enough, the Mets’ most dependable middle reliever thus far this season has done it again in this game with two scoreless innings of shutdown bullpen work.

Will you look at who’s entering the scene for the first time in a year? It’s Dedniel Nuñez, about whom everything was sharp the last time we remember seeing him. The accessory that really catches your eye, Gary and Keith, is Dedniel’s walking stick. Unfortunately, Nuñez, in his first outing of 2025, seems to like his walking stick a bit too much, which we noticed in the eighth inning when he walked three consecutive Diamondbacks on full counts to load the bases. Not as sharp as Dedniel wanted to appear tonight.

You know, none of this haute couture — and you know I’m pronouncing it correctly, because I recently visited Europe — would be possible without the dedicated behind-the-scenes personnel who put it all together, the fashion world’s equivalent of our camera operators and the folks manning director John DeMarsico’s truck. Here, a vested Tyrone Taylor shows his respect, of course, for the tailors of the business, as he weaves a fantastic play in center field to keep a Diamondback rally in check. Tyrone grabs a ball off the wall, gets it back into the infield, and limits the damage, much as any skilled craftsman with a needle and thread would after a rollicking night on the town. Three runs in all score in the Arizona eighth off Nuñez and Reed Garrett, but it could have been much worse. It looked as if the sky was gonna fall in on the Mets there, but thank heaven for Tyrone Taylor…and the roof being closed.

Oh, this is an interesting fabric being put through its paces by Met closer Edwin Diaz, extra absorbent for the unnecessary angst he brings to virtually every outing. Keeping with the theme, Edwin allows the first runner he faces to reach base — it’s scored an E3, but Edwin didn’t exactly cover the bag in glory — and that runner, as almost all runners Edwin puts on do, takes off for second shortly thereafter.

This version of the Met Gala has the imprint of a corporate sponsor this year, Pillsbury, which we see as Francisco Alvarez pays homage to the Pillsbury Doughboy in an all-white outfit topped with chef’s hat. Francisco told me before the game he was going to wear it so any baserunners tempted to steal would be intimidated by his excellent “pop time,” and sure enough, Alvarez was up with a throw as soon as Diaz’s first runner took off in the ninth. I’d say Pillsbury got its money’s worth, as the image the catcher presents is certainly “Poppin’ Fresh”.

Style is no stranger to the area around second base when Francisco Lindor moves over from shortstop to take a throw from either Alvarez or Luis Torrens. Tonight, guys, Lindor makes an incredible grab of his fellow Francisco’s throw and burnishes it with an improbable tag to record the first out of the ninth inning. MLB is so impressed, they’re gonna look at it again in Manhattan after midnight, and, yup, it’s definitely an out. Appropriate that Lindor’s outfit includes a cape, as he is, per usual, a superhero for these Mets. He put the Mets well ahead in the seventh with a three-run homer, and now he has saved them in a nick of time with very fancy defense in the ninth. Diaz fomenting unnecessary angst and Mendoza’s tight embrace of his own upper torso are no match for the super and superb skills of Lindor, a player who always models excellence on the baseball diamond.

Guys, some of what could go wrong did go wrong here at Chase Field tonight, but this Met game indeed turned into a Met Gala all its own, with the Mets topping the Diamondbacks, 5-4, in this, the franchise’s 10,000th regular-season contest played to a decision. The Mets’ all-time record is now 4,839 wins and 5,161 losses, along with eight ties, the last of them coming in 1981.

Hopefully our viewers back home thought this milestone game and accompanying fashion show was worth staying awake through on a late Monday night turned Tuesday morning. Back to you, Gare.