The last two instances of the Baseball Equinox, marking the spot when we sit equidistant between the final out of last season and the scheduled first pitch of next season, were rendered inoperative in retrospect once COVID had its way with them. The opening of the entire 2020 baseball season was pushed back to July and the Mets had their first three games of 2021 postponed when too many Nationals tested positive. We can do the math, but we can’t control the science.
But, if you choose to believe that lockouts will be settled and variants will be tamed, this year’s Baseball Equinox arrives in our midst on Saturday, January 1, 2022, at 3:28:30 AM Eastern Standard Time. If you are in the greater New York Metropolitan Area, you’re forgiven in advance for possibly sleeping through it. But maybe you’re the type who saves it all up for New Year’s Eve and you’ll be partying deep into the morning. Or, if you’re like me, you’ll be digging on the WLNY 10/55 Odd Couple marathon (Felix and Oscar will be finishing their stint as mismatched hospital roommates just before 3:30 AM).
If you’re in another time zone in the Continental U.S., you stand a better chance of still being up when the enticing promise of the 2022 season becomes temporally closer than the lingering disappointment of the one from 2021. And if you’re in Hawaii —perhaps hanging with Benny Agbayani or Sid Fernandez as one imagines all Hawaiian Mets fans might — by all means, make the Equinox a part of your extended countdown to midnight.
Offer good in all fifty states and the District of Columbia.
Wow, actually something to look forward to. I’m in PST, so I will raise a glass in honor of getting farther away from 2021.
And a very decent 08:28 uk time. All booked for Opening Week so am hoping it will start on time.
At 3:28am I’m only likely to be awake if a cat wants something, at which point they’re just kicked out of the room, so start the celebration without me if I’m not there on time. I’ll get caught up later.
wow, nearly half-way there already!
and fitting :
while watering one of my potted treelings – inside for the “winter” (it’s still predominantly mud season upstate) – i noticed that it’s **already** starting to sprout growth. the days are getting longer and spring training is coming.
with the lockout continuing we’re able to really take in (and take in…) where we’re at roster-wise.
all questions mark aside, we now have a top-shelf major league skipper, who appears also to be a top-shelf sort of individual.
a reason to be cheerful.
wishing all a happy and healthy new year, and an enjoyable 2nd half of the off-season.
Well, the great thing about baseball equinoxes (equina? equinae?) is that the next season almost always looks great in anticipation, no matter how dismal the previous season was. And no matter how glorious.
Speaking of 1986, I’m betting that most Met fans saw the upcoming 1987 roster as basically the same champs minus Ray Knight and plus Kevin McReynolds, in other words even better. (Yeah, I know, Kevin Mitchell, but he was a rookie and not even a regular starter most of the ’86 season, and anyone who says they just knew that Mitchell would have an outstanding career and that K-Mac would peak the following year and then decline precipitously is, shall we say, redefining the term “Monday morning quarterbacking.” But I digress.) The point I’m trying to make is that even after a monster season like ’86, the next year often looks better on paper, before the actual games are played. Of course, it would be hard for ’22 to be much worse than ’21. So here’s to a happy new year to Steve Cohen and the gang. If they’re having a good year, it means we’re probably having a good year too.
There was somewhat of a sense of foreboding, since Knight was World Series MVP and a big part of the personality of the 86 team. I feared the team would be different when he didn’t return.
Where did you find the episode rundown on the Odd Couple marathon?
Google WLNY schedule and you, too, shall be on the road to enlightenment.