Never at a Loss

Is it too soon to say we’re living in a golden age of Mets baseball? How about one that is thus far untarnished?

By winning in Miami on Saturday behind Tylor Megill (starting in place of Justin Verlander), Mark Canha (homering like he’s Pete Alonso) and a bullpen cast of thousands (none of them presented by Kwikset), the Mets upped their record to 2-1. Unless you’re contesting a best-of-three playoff series, that’s a pretty inconclusive sample size, but had the Mets lost and fallen to 1-2, well, we would’ve been 1-2, a record easily recognized as under .500.

In case you’ve forgotten, you don’t wanna fall there.

If you’ve forgotten, it’s because it’s been a while. From Game 1 to Game 162 of 2022, we were never below .500. We were never as low as .500. It was the third regular season in Mets history when the ballclub could boast day-in, day-out of a record that was nothing but winning. That may not be what a ballclub boasts about first and foremost — the other Mets teams to achieve 162 consecutive daily winning records did it in 1985 and 2007, and neither of them gets the slightest banner shoutout above right field in Promenade — yet the rarity can’t help but get a curious fan’s attention.

You can have a really good ballclub, the best the franchise has ever had, yet it doesn’t mean that particular ballclub can ask the DJ to spin “All We Do Is Win”. Witness the 2-3 Mets of 1986, who stumbled a few feet out of the gate. True, they picked themselves up, dusted themselves off, started all over again, and never stopped. But 2-3 was 2-3. They are forever champions, but they weren’t forever winning. The first week or two is most treacherous for the team that wishes to never feel statistically inadequate. All it takes is 0-1, 1-2, 2-3, and there goes your non-losing record.

There’s plenty of time to straighten out. The not how you start/how you finish quotient hasn’t yet been disproven for long-term purposes. But who wants to spend even a day under .500? Who wants to look in the mirror of the standings and see doubt staring them back in the face? You knew the 2-3 Mets of 1986 were better than that. Except for their record. And if their record reflected who they were, how the hell was this happening? How the hell do you know 2-3 won’t become 2-4 or that 2-4 won’t become something that plunges until it lands south of 81-81? No matter that you know better, Panic Citi can seem particularly inviting in the inaugural days of a new season.

Thirty-seven years ago, an eleven-game winning streak commenced, and you know the rest, but that very brief stumble dents 1986’s historical stature within the context of this particular feature. This particular feature is devoted to Mets teams that have maintained a daily record of .500 or better across season lines for more than 162 consecutive games. At the moment — for the last 165 moments, actually — we’ve been rooting for one of them. Never as low as .500 last year. Thus far this year, not a day under .500 (albeit across three games). Suddenly, we modern Mets fans are enjoying an era that ranks eighth when measured by Not Losing Streak.

The top seven? Aren’t you glad you asked?

1. September 24, 2005 to April 5, 2008: 337 Games
Try to forget that somewhere in the midst of this run, a third strike was taken to end an NLCS (we’re not counting postseason) and a seven-game lead evaporated with seventeen games to play (you have to be doing pretty well to have a lead to blow late). The Mets rose to 77-77 at the tail end of a season of playing footsie with .500 for the bulk of Willie Randolph’s first year as manager. They were never any “worse” than 1-1 in his second year. They never even dipped to .500 in his third year. After a 2-2 start to 2008, Rando’s Commandoes slipped and slid a bit too much to slough off the finish in ’07 as just one of those horrific things. Willie tried to remain calm, reasoning to reporters he’d been a winner all his life. For the heart of his Met tenure, if you’re not a stickler for details, he wasn’t wrong.

2. April 4, 1984 to April 13, 1986: 327 Games
Davey Johnson’s Mets traveled to Cincinnati for the traditional National League opener and indicated their tradition of not competing — just as they hadn’t under Joe Frazier, Joe Torre, George Bamberger and Frank Howard between 1977 and 1983 — might proceed unabated. They got stomped by the Reds, fell to 0-1, and gave little hint that 1984 would be materially different from the preceding seven years of famine. But they won their second game. And their third game. And kept winning through their seventh game. And, with Davey’s confidence infecting every Met in sight, they never had a losing record at any juncture of 1984 after Opening Day. And they never descended to .500 after starting 1985 5-0. And two wins to kick off 1986 seemed to augur 162-0 was realistic. Two losses occurred. Then a third. That was the 2-3. We already know they picked up on the “And…” theme thereafter. But there was a hiccup. The best cure is holding your breath and waiting for the season to unfurl in earnest.

3. May 10, 1997 to September 27, 1998: 289 Games
Bobby Valentine inherited a crummy team in August of 1996 and they stayed quite crummy in early 1997. Bobby V needed a few weeks to fully shake the crumbs away in his first full season at the helm (he did run a restaurant, after all, so he understood something about busing tables). The franchise weighed down by a daily record that gurgled under .500 almost without pause from August 1991 to April 1997 learned to love Valentine’s days. The romance could be stormy, but the relationship proved mutually beneficial. One weekend in St. Louis, we hit .500 and snuck above it before leaving town. We wouldn’t look below the break-even point for the rest of that year or the whole of the next year, including the portion of 1998 that predated the acquisition of Mike Piazza. Piazza would lift Bobby V’s Mets to another strata. Not high enough to grab a Wild Card that was within reach in September, but learning to elevate fully has been known to take time.

4. June 13, 1970 to August 13, 1971: 221 Games
The defending world champions could not be stopped! Oh wait, they could. It didn’t make sense to watch the infallible 1969 Mets turn into the ordinary 1970 Mets, yet there they were, during the first third of their title defense, legitimately scuffling, not taking off from their .500 plateau until 29-29 became 30-29. Not that they really rose high above it the rest of the way, but at least Mets fans weren’t left thinking 1969 was altogether a dream. Gil Hodges had his club readier to contend as 1971 got rolling, though that group, too, eventually sputtered, if not until summer. Neither the ’70 nor ’71 editions matched the magic of ’69, but they did confirm the Mets now existed as a consistently reliable enterprise rather than a one-year wonder. Your expectations might not be validated every season, but you knew you weren’t deluded to have expectations.

4. June 13, 1990 to August 15, 1991: 221 Games
When Bud Harrleson took over for Davey Johnson, the Mets might as well have been wearing one of those t-shirts Bart Simpson was making so popular: Underachiever and Proud of It. Maybe not a lot of Met pride, but definitely far too much not living up to the talent in the room. Harrelson, who studied under Hodges two decades before, seemed to bring out the best in his Mets as Gil had brought out the best in Buddy & Co. The right manager at the right time spurred the Mets to a surge that had them blow past .500 and duel the Pirates almost to the wire. Come 1991, they kept up their end of the bargain as best as they could until the remnants of their post-1986 powerhouse flickered and went dark.

6. April 18, 1986 to May 8, 1987: 183 Games
The part where the Mets cease being 2-3 and commence to going 108-54 pretty much explains the 1986 portion of this stretch. In 1987, the Mets appeared sluggish, but despite some noticeable absences from the previous October (no Doc until June, no McDowell until May, no Mitchell or Knight at all), their innate awesomeness kept them no worse than treading won-lost water for more than a month. They were bound to take a dip below .500. The shock of a team that could do no wrong going somewhat awry was rough to reckon. We remember the 1987 Mets for not coming through in September. If we think back to how they limped along early, it’s a miracle they made it to September. The innate awesomeness remained evident. It just wasn’t enough to carry the day, let alone the year.

7. April 21, 1972 to May 5, 1973: 177 Games
Before Yogi Berra added an extra layer to his legend by leading the Mets from nowhere to the World Series — also before Yogi wore the onus of not starting George Stone in Game Six of that Fall Classic — he faced an impossible task. He had to follow Gil Hodges directly after Gil Hodges died. He did a helluva job, getting the Mets over .500 to stay almost immediately in 1972, not letting them fall under .500 despite the injuries that piled up, and pushing them successfully into the next season, where they looked fine until they didn’t…until they did, of course.

8. April 7, 2022 to Present: 165 Games and Preferably Counting Into Perpetuity
One assumes Buck Showalter, if he’s aware of it, isn’t particularly impressed by this streak of never having let his Met team settle below .500 for even a day during his tenure. Buck is always looking ahead. Or so it looks from here. Still, not bad having a non-losing record “forever” in Flushing, with “forever” a perilous eternity if the Mets don’t win today, Sunday, because if they don’t, they’ll have to win in Milwaukee on Monday, or the streak ends at 166 games…which Buck won’t care about, because he understands that what gets remembered most is not a 22-23 record on June 1, 1969, or a 2-3 record on April 14, 1986. The 2023 season won’t be distinguished by a brief interval in April. The 2023 season is built to endure. Nevertheless, even as early as the first week of April, it’s really nice to not lose more than you win.

So keep that up please.