We have nothing to Fear but the Mets and the Phillies themselves. Since both teams now have a magic number, that also means we have nothing to count down.

Have Faith anyway this weekend. As a very smart man recently said:

If I’m wrong, we all have six months to not root for them.

Let’s Go Mets.

[Illustration by Jim Haines…who […]

The magic number is still 4. That’s also how many games are left in this season. So do we really still have have a magic number? Or have the Mets, in the best tradition of Doug Henning, made it disappear?

If you can call an eleven-inning 7-6 nailbiter a matter of gliding, then the Mets’ magic number glided to 5 on Sunday. Ed Charles, a.k.a. The Glider and No. 5 on your Miracle Mets, would likely approve.

Hey, who wasn’t happy when the Nationals beat the Phillies Sunday? It reduced our magic number from Jose Reyes’ 7 to Ruben Gotay’s 6.

When we were in Milwaukee before Labor Day (that’s me, not Jose, in our hotel room), I Reyes-presented as best I could. One cineplex ticket-taker was hip, greeting us with “Jose Reyes the roof!” Maybe I should have replied in solidarity, “Can’t Hardy wait” to prove I was down with the local shortstop, but we […]

I have to admit that I find it hard to believe we still have a magic number, but by continuing to hold first place, we do. And it even got smaller Friday night! By not losing to the Marlins (also known as winning), it got down to 8, and when we get down to 8 […]

Sorry, no number tonight.

It was 9 years ago that the Mets last called Channel 9 home. It has taken what seems like 9 eons to push the magic number down to 9, but with…WHO?…Yadier Molina driving in the winning run, the Cardinals beat the Phillies and the numeral of numerals dropped to your place for Joe Franklin, The Million […]

Our current shortstop contributed in a big way to the reactivated magic number countdown ticking to 10. Jose Reyes’ predecessor (we’re not counting Rey Sanchez, are we?) contributed mightily to a playoff drive of his own back in the day. Rey Ordoñez, No. 10 on his back, No. 1 with the glove and No. 0 […]