Elimination Day is a bit like Rosh Hashanah. You never know when exactly it’s going to show up on the calendar, yet it always fits the description of High Holy. This year, Elimination Day — no need to layer it with qualifiers, as there is only one elimination we as a Sheadenfreudic people celebrate perennially and heartily — appeared on Halloween Eve. Perfect timing, given all the sweets within easy reach for those who indulge. Treat yourself to a fun-size bar today. All the bars will be fun this weekend. No Yankee games will be on.
Twenty-six American Leaguers dressed as fundamentally sound baseball players. Their costumes weren’t very convincing. Working the other side of the street, the National League champions pretended they had adequate pitching depth, and here they are, flying all the candy back home.
Congratulations to the Los Angeles Dodgers, a team we might have forgotten to congratulate the last time they completed a series of baseball games. Where were our manners? Not every postseason set-to hits the same. The Dodgers hit plenty all October. We didn’t care for some of it. Personally, I relished the last waves of it.
METS FANS FOR FREDDIE FREEMAN is never going to be a prize-grabbing Banner Day entrant, but you never know who you’re going to wind up rooting for when fall baseball goes on without your direct participation. Let’s just say the New York Liberty had a wonderful ticker-tape parade recently, and I saw no reason for anybody to immediately follow in their confettied tire tracks.
As bases went uncovered, balls clanked off gloves, and fans were escorted out by security, thoughts turned to the National League Runners-Up. This was the third time the senior circuit representative’s road to ultimate reward ran through the New York Mets via the NLCS. The Dodgers in 1988. The Cardinals in 2006. The Dodgers in 2024. I ostentatiously avoided most of those first two World Series. That should be us there, not them. This time, I was less allergic from that standpoint. Maybe because the Series That Was started in Dodger Stadium and the Series That Could Have Been would have started in Yankee Stadium, I didn’t stare out at Game One introductions and mentally insert our guys on the field. We would hosted Games Three, Four and, if we hadn’t swept, Five. Hypotheticals didn’t tempt me much. After the way we got clobbered in our four losses to L.A., I wasn’t telling myself the worthiest team didn’t win.
When the World Series was over, of course I was delighted by the outcome locally, but I also didn’t mind who was putting on the commemorative t-shirts. The Dodgers loaded up in the offseason, withstood a torrent of injuries, showed themselves to be better and better with each round, and no longer include Chase Utley in their ranks. Instead of that could have been us, I believed after the final out of 2024, that can BE us, as in 2025. I haven’t felt so enthusiastic on our behalf watching somebody else celebrate in a long time.
Maybe that’s the real treat to take away from this postseason. In the meantime, grab yourself another Snickers. Or just snicker.
I am also enjoying the fact that the Mets were a tougher opponent for LA than the Other Guys (6 game series vs 5); throw in the regular season sweep and the only honest conclusion is that we were the better NY team this year.
The 2024 NLCS was the first ever Mets playoff series where I thought, “yeah, they were just better than us.” Every other playoff loss we’ve had, I rue thinking we could’ve won it if a ball had just bounced one way instead of the other. Not that one.
I will take solace in the Yankees’ poor fundamentals FINALLY coming back to bite them at the worst possible time, and knowing that their fans will have to live with that loss forever. And reminding them that we swept them this year and knew they were frauds all along. LOLYanks, from here to eternity.
Here’s to it being US in 2025!