“It’s great to be young and a New York Giant,” second baseman Larry Doyle declared to Damon Runyon in 1911, the year Doyle turned 25, the season the Giants won the first of three consecutive National League pennants. More than a century later, you could hear an echo of Laughing Larry in the earnest sentiments Jonah Tong expressed into Michelle Margaux’s SNY microphone:
“I love being a Met. It’s truly one of the coolest things I’ve ever done in my entire life.”
It’s great to be young and a National Leaguer in New York…
Tong, at the time, was 22 and dressed as a Christmas elf, helping out at the annual holiday party the New York Mets host for area kids. Perhaps that, too, is truly one of the coolest things he’s done in his entire life. Ballplayers get more done before they’re 23 than a lot of us do before we turn 63, which, incidentally, is what I’m doing today.
…whatever the uniform.
Young Jonah spoke his truth in late 2025, following what we’ll call his first rookie season. He didn’t throw enough innings to use up his freshman eligibility, so he’ll get to be a rookie again in 2026. So will his fellow elves/phenoms Nolan McLean and Brandon Sproat. Sproat and Tong showed flashes of potential, maybe glimpses of brilliance as they answered an unexpected call to the majors. McLean landed ahead of them, chronologically and developmentally, looking like a full-grown ace for the bulk of his 48 frames in the bigs. Fifty would have made him a sophomore next year. We get to get excited about his and his prospective rotationmates’ breaking through all over again in a few months.
McLean, Sproat, and Tong — Generation MST3K to me — couldn’t do enough in their initial MLB go-round after responding to the Mets’ SOS to keep the team from being AWOL during the NLWCS and any further postseason alphabet soup action. Yeah, as if it was their fault. The sneak peek they gave us of their evident talent and gestating poise was sufficient vis-à-vis our anticipation of getting acquainted with them. The Mets thought enough of the trio’s sample size to have had them support Clay Holmes when Holmes dressed up as Santa Claus.
I should have learned, en route to turning 63, not to make assumptions based on past experience, but I can’t help but think introducing 32-year-old Clay Holmes into a rumination on youthful Nolan McLean, Brandon Sproat, and Jonah Tong will someday resonate like remembering that when the Mets had Ron Darling, Walt Terrell, and Dwight Gooden ready to go in 1984 (with Sid Fernandez waiting in the wings), a soon-to-be-released Mike Torrez was their Opening Day starter. Then again, Clay Holmes was our Opening Day starter last year, and pitched pretty well the whole season, give or take some dips. The whole team took some dips, which explains why quite a few Met veterans who could have donned the Santa suit were no longer available for Citi Field events this December.
We love old players when we have come to terms with their careers. Presently, we don’t have any of those kinds of sages under contract, at least not any we know well. We love young players when we are able to imagine their careers — like we do with these kid pitchers and like we have lately with a few position players (Alvarez, Baty, Vientos) currently approaching their respective make-or-break junctures. The players who have ceased being young but are not yet old require some discernment. The Mets discerned they’d be better off going forward without four key players who’d reached their early thirties. That’s baseball middle-age. The ticking of the actuarial clock may not be precisely why Brandon Nimmo, Edwin Diaz, Pete Alonso, and Jeff McNeil weren’t dropping by Mets-run holiday parties in 2025’s waning weeks, but they were here for a long time, and now they’re not.
Get ready, ’cause here they come (again).
Here now and for the foreseeable future (which comes with the caveat that you never know what lies ahead) are McLean, 24; Sproat, 25; and Tong, 22. At the moment, we are Dorothy Boyd to their Jerry Maguire.
We love them!
We love them for the Mets we want them to be.
We love them for the Mets they almost are.
With the Mets idle since the end of September, I’ve occupied myself watching the Giants mostly lose football games and the Nets beginning to occasionally win basketball games. The Giants were effectively eliminated from playoff contention that October Sunday they converted a 26-8 fourth quarter lead at Denver into a 33-32 loss. The Nets commenced their season at 1-11, pretty much torpedoing any thoughts that April will deal me any roundball/hardball conflicts. Yet Brooklyn has gone 9-9 in their past eighteen, buoyed by a couple of capable rookies, Egor Dëmin and Danny Wolf. And the Giants finally won a game the other day, which doesn’t help their draft position, but added to the sense that their first-year quarterback Jaxson Dart, who’s the reason (besides ingrained habit) that I keep tuning in, won’t need replacing under center. Dart can be a real QB. Dëmin and Wolf and the other youngsters among the Flatbush 5 first-round draft class are making the Nets, until further notice, into a real team. It’s real beautiful to watch kids grow up as pros.
McLean, Sproat, and Tong started getting the hang of that in 2025. It was only the beginning of what we want to feel forever, forever being a malleable concept to a Mets fan who’s been around, a Mets fan who keeps coming back for the raising of hopes regardless of prior results. In 2025, I kept waiting for the Mets to sweep me off my feet, but apparently they lacked upper-body strength. Still, there was something about those arms. Those arms (and ingrained habit) will keep me coming back.
I may be old enough to know better than to fall in love with the next fledgling youth movement, but I’m also old enough to know it’s not much fun getting older without a few Met futures to anticipate. It’s truly one of the coolest things I’ve ever done in my entire life…which must be why I keep doing it.
The “young pitchers coming up who will lead us to the promised land” thing comes up fairly regularly. I was young enough to fully buy into the Gen K hype.
Next came Harvey, DeGrom, Matz, Syndergaard and Wheeler. I wasn’t as fully on board with them – enough decades as a Mets fan had taught me a healthy (or maybe unhealthy) skepticism for The Next Anointed Savior(s). DeGrom and Wheeler certainly came through but now for other teams. And we still haven’t gotten the trophy.
This edition? McLean sure looks like The Real Deal. I think Sproat is more likely to be a 3-4 starter than an ace but those guys are valuable too. He needs to start in Triple A and come up with a pitch mix to get lefties out. Hopefully he can help by midseason.
I’m high on Tong. Think he has nasty stuff and I REALLY don’t want to see him traded. Absent getting us someone like Skubal he needs to stay a Met. But he wasn’t ready to be called up last year, not even close. You can’t be a major league starter with just 2 reliable pitches. We saw it last year where when one of the two wasn’t working he went to the other exclusively and got lit up. Get a slider or curve that works – preferably both – to go with the change and the heat. But I want us to keep him. If his arm doesn’t fall off I think he could be really good.
Do I like all three? Yup. But we’ve been here before. But part of the fun part of being a fan is finding out what happens next. At least it’s supposed to be fun . . .
Happy birthday! And thanks for writing.
Thanks, Curt. Here’s to setting ourselves up again. You never know when we won’t be let down.
As an “older fan” I can remember the angst after the 1983 season when Cashen blundered and lost Tom Seaver to the CWS in the compensation pool. Seaver won 31 games with the Sox in 84 and 85. Put those wins in the column for the Mets those two years and history might look a lot different.
Just part of the angst as a long-suffering fan. Like Curt, I want to believe in the youth movement, but experience has taught me to be cautious. In general, I support the concept of building from within, which when augmented with some savvy veteran pickups, can lead to sustainable success. Just now however, I am not completely sold on the youngsters.
You’ve heard this before (so many times before), but the Mets are undefeated on your birthday. Quite the honor!
/smileyfaceemoji
Happy Birthday Greg!
Also as an older fan, I’m more skeptical about the future of McLean, Sprost and Tong. Let us not forget Christian ‘Great’ Scott (not to be confused with Mike ‘Scuff’ Scott.
I’m hoping for the best but while we had a Mike Torres back in the 80’s, Bartolo in 10’s, not sure Holmes, Manea or Peterson (yes now a vet) will be the surrogate father figure these kids need. Wonder Boy has not brought in any ‘ace’ type starter we clearly need and apparently not interested in doing so. With the team decimated, it is not right to put too much on any of their shoulders. I am inclined to not want any big freexagents or trading of young prospects/suspects for 2026. Bring your kids to see our kids.
Thanks, Ed. May Christian Scott earn himself an elf suit by almost this time next year.
Happy birthday!
Thanks!
Happy birthday Greg! We’re all beginning a new year. Thanks for making Met-sanity tolerable all year long.
Thanks, Seth. May we all find sanity soon (or, better yet, rational exuberance).
McLean, Sproat, and Tong — Generation MST3K to me
BASEBALL SIGN
Happy Birthday, Greg.
Can’t wait for David Stearns’s version of invention exchange.
Thank you.
happy birthday greg and a happy new year to all.
i have low expectations for the 26 mets.
may they clear that low bar and then some…
and who knows? maybe tap into that intangible magic that appears when we least expect it…which i just jinxed ;0]
Thanks Mike. Let’s get those hopes in gear and see where they take us.
Happy Belated, Greg!
Guess I was too consumed with Russ Tamblyn’s 91st on DEC30 (which I am sure you can appreciate as well!), after just finishing his fantastic book!
And many more to come, for you and for Russ!
Belated Birthday wishes, Greg. Welcome deep into your (and mine, too!) sixth decade of Met fandom.
In one of your earlier columns this gloomy winter, you stated that you are reaching the point where you almost wanted the Mets to win a championship more for younger fans than for yourself. I’ve felt that way for a few years now. I feel that as wonderful as a World Series title would be for me, I would enjoy watching my husband ( a new, if not young, Mets fan) enjoy it more.
I feel that I cannot ask more of my twin sporting obsessions, the Mets and my beloved Alma mater the University of Michigan, than two miraculous World Series titles ( and all the other incredible Mets moments before and since) and two national college football championships, two national NCAA hockey titles, and one NCAA basketball title ( in 1989, a story in and of itself).I’ve also witnessed several of the championships in person, which is an incredible high as a fan.
( I have to admit that this sentiment was put to the test during the afternoon of December 10, when my lamenting the melancholy departure of Pete Alonso was interrupted by screaming bulletins flashing across my phone about the mess in Ann Arbor. There were a few days there when I could not work up even a modicum of enthusiasm for either of my teams, but it passed.)
As for the Mets, when Pete signed with the Mets last winter, I bought my husband his requested Alonso jersey ( although it wound up as a Valentine’s Day gift rather than Chanukah). A few days ago he asked me what to do with that jersey, which he wore many days over the summer. I told him he could still wear it to CitiField, as this is how Mets fans have historically expressed their displeasure with bone-headed front office moves. Or he could put it away, because in addition to trading, cutting and letting walk away home-grown favorites, the Mets have a time-honored tradition of welcoming those same players back for a Long Goodbye at the ends of their careers. Very occasionally one of these moves hits pay dirt, like Lee Mazilli in 1986. Of our four lost players in the will-not-be-missed year of 2025, I’d bet on Pete to be the One Who Comes Back, as I do not believe that story is over. Of course, should it occur, it will be bittersweet, but that is the life of a Mets fan.
In the meantime, I root for the Bills, in accordance with unspoken but understood marital vow we took 15 years ago – we root as a team for our teams. ( The only time that was a problem was during the second year of our marriage, during which his alma mater, Syracuse, met Michigan in the Final Four. For younger couples who love sports, I highly recommend two TV’s, LOL). The Bills are a very likable team and its fan base is at least as haunted, if not more, than our own; and there is no city anywhere that is more deserving of a title to call its own than Buffalo. They are a wildcard team this year, but the Chiefs and Mahomes are at last out of the playoffs, and it’s almost like those years when the Braves aren’t in the playoffs. It allows hope to live just below the surface. Mets fans have been rewarded richly during the 60 seasons I have rooted for them, and if the Bills can finally break through this time, I suspect my husband and all of my friends in Buffalo will feel just exactly like Red Sox fans in 2004 and Cubs fans in 2016.