As a Mets Fan, I Live in Constant Unknowns - Topic: Baseball

Let's Go Mets!

I've been screaming those 3 words, since the 1973 World Series

I could have easily become an Oakland A's fan, as I fell in love with the New York Mets, but being that I was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York; becoming a Mets fan was a no-brainer.
They were the two teams battling for the championship, at the time and I have a very vivid memory of both teams with Tom Terrific on the mound for the Mets.

It just happened to be my first experience watching baseball and my cousin a few years older than me was a Mets fan, so it makes sense that I would have become a Mets fan.

Living in New York and not being a Yankees fan is blasphemous for many, but I live and die with my Metropolitans.

When spring training rolls around, just like most baseball fans; we are optimistic about our team's chances. Unfortunately, I've had to endure a lot more very bad seasons being a Mets fan than many other fans out there.

I'm sure there is an argument there to be had, regarding whose team has sucked the most and longer.

The last time we won the World Series was in 1986 and prior to that, there were some very lean years; but thankfully from my first game rooting for the Mets (although they lost that World Series) it only took 13 years for me to experience the elation of my favorite baseball team - winning it all.

But now, it's been 36 LONG YEARS and except for a few "close but no cigar" seasons; there has been very little joy being a Mets fan:

There were some seasons where we had a solid chance to win, but being a model of consistency and avoiding catastrophic era's of horrible play and teams, is truly draining for fanatics; who take any sport seriously.

Have a great season or two and then reverting back to being real bad for many years, does not bode well for an organization; but we were stuck with below average ownership that pretty much left a stench as they FINALLY sold the team to one of their investors Steven Cohen who happens to be a billionaire and a METS FAN!!!

So there is still hope for us Mets fans yet.

But it's the New York Mets, so we have take everything with a grain of salt.

Unfortunately, we've been through some harrowing experiences as Mets fans with potential team make-ups that surely looked promising and be disappointed by the results; when the season ended and we experienced, yet another season without any postseason play.

We have a new Manager in Buck Showalter who has done a great job with previous teams, but never has won a championship as a Manager. With that said, all his teams became a lot better with Buck at the helm. He's an old school guy with the open mind to assimilate to the new analytic trend baseball organization's now employ within their system. Most teams at least.

Again, cautious optimism is the magic word.

The lineup should be potent, but can Francisco Lindor rebound from his first below average season as a Met and after signing for a humongous contract for over 300 million dollars. The guy is still young, exciting to watch and I really don't want to feel cheated; by Lindor not playing up to the level he did with Cleveland for most of his career. The guy is a beast of a player and I'm really hoping for all good things in year two of his Mets contract.

I believe we will score plenty of runs and will have more speed with the addition of Starling Marte and should definitely be better defensively.

Ultimately, better health for the Mets' pitchers, a much more consistent bullpen and not collectively getting into prolong hitting slumps as a team,
should keep them in contention all season and with a 12 team playoff set-up now in place - they have a chance to get into the tournament.

This team has a lot of question marks and most teams do, but it's the Mets and for some reason our questions marks turns into drama and I've seen them crash and burn, too many times to count.

The fragility of the Mets' pitching staff, is well documented and they added a huge piece to that rotation - none other than Mad Max - Max Scherzer and although, he's had some injury issues - they guy is a lock for the Hall of Fame and you add him to the rotation that already has another future Hall of Famer and a few other key guys that have had flashes of being above average pitchers is exciting.

I mean if the rotation can stay healthy, if they can pitch further into games and shorten the bullpen work; while having the confidence, that the offense will always keep them in games, can make for less of unknowns to being confident that they will crush the competition.

I'll be sharing this post on LISTNERDS

IMAGE SOURCES:

CANVA.COM
IMGBIN.COM

and linked sources throughout the post for players, teams, etc.