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.
[1]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 [2] 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.
[3]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 [4] is located at 1 Bluegrass Lane, a bit south of Hempstead Turnpike. More information on the program is here [5]. Hope to see you Thursday.