An ideal off day for Mets fans includes each of the three teams slightly ahead of our team in the Wild Card standings losing. Take what happened Thursday: the Padres lost; the Diamondbacks lost; the Braves lost. That last one is especially delicious, as it dropped Atlanta into a tie with us for the last playoff spot, so now we’ve got only two teams slightly ahead of us.
Next time the Mets are scheduled to be off will be this coming Thursday, September 12. None of the National League Wild Card contenders will be playing, so, naturally, you’re wondering how you’re going to fill the void in your life.
Fortunately, I have a suggestion.
Should you be in the general vicinity of Levittown on Long Island at 3:30 PM, you are cordially invited to the Levittown Public Library to a program the folks there titled Mets Talk With Greg Prince. It will be a chat about rooting, writing and reading baseball, and you won’t have to hear just me talk. Joining me to add some excellent albeit non-Met insights on the subject(s) will be my friend and fellow Long Islander Gary Mintz. Gary recently published a most charming memoir called Baseball From 3,000 Miles Away about devoting his life to being a San Francisco Giants fan on the most inconvenient of American coasts for that sort of thing. I’ve gotten to know Gary through our shared affection for the legacy of our dear, departed New York Giants, a history that comes alive just about every week through the Zoom sessions Gary organizes as president of the New York Giants Preservation Society.
I root for the National League team that came to be in New York. He pulls for the team that stayed the Giants. Between us, we have this continent covered.
We’ll each get into our love of the game, our passions for our respective ballclubs, and why baseball is such a good fit for the printed/pixelated page. It may not be as stirring as an actual ballgame with postseason stakes, but I believe you’ll come away from it deciding it was better than nothing.
Levittown Public Library is located at 1 Bluegrass Lane, a bit south of Hempstead Turnpike. More information on the program is here. Hope to see you Thursday.
“now we’ve got only two teams slightly ahead of us”
At 64 losses to their 62 losses, the Mets are practically tied in the loss column with either the Diamondbacks or Padres because one of them is guaranteed at least 2 losses in their season-ending series. The Mets own the tie-breaker with both. The tie-breaker with the Braves, with the season series at 5-5, will be decided in Atlanta.
That’s two and half weeks of play-in baseball down the road, of course, and the Mets still need to pair those 2 guaranteed losses with wins. Tonight’s opponent, the Reds, just swept the Astros. Any hope for the Reds of climbing back into the wildcard race depends on beating the 3rd wildcard holder in the midst of a hot streak. They probably need to sweep the Mets.
I believe I have actually been to the Levittown Public Library, but many years ago.
“That last one is especially delicious, as it dropped Atlanta into a tie with us for the last playoff spot, so now we’ve got only two teams slightly ahead of us.”
I was searching for something to watch after 9 last night and did something I almost never do – watch a game the Mets aren’t in.* Or rather I watched the game from the bottom of the 7th on. Yes, I sometimes take joy in someone else’s pain, in this case Braves fans.
Unfortunately blackout rules apply to teams near me playing on the road (I believe this is new) so I won’t see any of the series this weekend as it happens.
*My MLBtv sub is Mets-only but evidently Atlanta-Colorado was the free game of the night.