By William Coppola/ Contributing Columnist Bronx Chronicle
Something special is happening in Queens NY. The NY Mets are making all of the doubters, including yours truly, look like fools. Lets face it, we haven’t had a ton of positive things to talk about with this team for the better part of the season yet we find the Mets now in the midst of a 18-6 run since the All-Star break.
When we look back at all those blown leads in the first half, it makes us cringe at where they would be today in not only the National League East but in the wild card standings. If they only blew half of these games in the first half they would probably be the leader in the wild card by as many as four games. Maybe even more as they are now only two games back after a stellar performance from Zack Wheeler Tuesday night at Citi Field.
His eight innings of shutout ball in a 5-0 win over the AAA team from Miami was outstanding.
I have to question the hysteria that ensues every year now over a team that is ten games under .500 at the All-Star break as the Mets found themselves, being labeled as a seller at that point in the season.
Who decided that the comeback run is a thing of the past? In 1969 the Mets were in third place, 10 games back of the Cubs and Cardinals, on August 14 but they won 14 of their last 17 games during August, and 24 of their 32 games during September and October, to surge past the Cubs, finishing 100–62, eight games ahead of the Cubs.
It can happen. It has happened throughout the years. Teams get hot. If todays thinking of throwing in the towel was the norm in 1969, we would have been talking about…. no, demanding they trade Tom Seaver or Jerry Koosman for a bunch of prospects.
Granted there are still 48 games left in the season for the Mets and anything can happen. Injuries, slumps, running out of smash burgers at the Shake Shack or some other unforeseen disaster but the fact of the matter is that the Mets have come through all the blown leads and horrible losses and have shown all of us that they are not losers. They are a tough group of professionals that are showing us that they want to win.
Can they repeat the comeback of the miracle 1969 team on the 50th anniversary of the greatest year in the history of this franchise? Even if they don’t, they are giving their fans a lot to cheer about with this amazing run. If they could manage to make it to the wild card round in the playoffs they would hands down have the best pitching staff in the post season and as much as the game has become so dominated by analytics and numbers, good pitching in a short series always wins.
For now though, sit back and enjoy the ride Mets fans. Your season has now become as Casey Stengel would say: “Amazing.”
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