#133 - The Lost Boys of Summer
The Mets and Yankees are foundering. New York baseball just couldn’t match expectations this summer. There were high hopes for both teams in April, but by mid-June it was apparent that neither had “it.” For me, I kind of knew the Mets season was over before it began. When their star closer, Edwin Diaz, struck out the side to bring victory to team Puerto Rico over their Caribbean rivals the Dominican Republic and then promptly tore his patellar tendon in celebration.
The self-loathing Mets fan in me knew that this was a harbinger of more bad baseball.
Meanwhile the Yankees also have trotted out a lineup that on paper should be competitive. However, after losing their powerhouse ($360 mil) bat in Aaron Judge for a good portion of the season, the other bats just couldn't step up to the plate.
Feels like football is taking over more headlines in August in New York, something usually reserved for late September in this town. I like football too, but I always take pride that New York is a baseball town first. Real New Yorkers care about baseball because it tethers us to the rhythm of the city. At times invigorating and full of suspense, at others tedious and frustrating. New Yorkers know who’s up, who is down, and can all point figures at who is to blame for the mess at hand.
There is something beautiful in a lost season. The teams can represent a moment of introspection for their fans and consider what it is they want out of the team.
When the Mets decided to cut bait on the season and trade off their star players for future prospects, it was a gamble where the payoff is unknown, but a promise that there might be a future next year (or the year after that). A spiritual successor to the Brooklyn Dodger fans perennial cry of “wait ‘til next year.”
The Yankees management bet on the present and role with the roster they have in the hopes that they might learn to hit again. So far the bet hasn’t paid off and it seems the Bleacher Creature natives are getting restless.
All is not lost for either team though. Neither are mathematically eliminated and though the prospects are grim, we still have a month and a half of regular season baseball to go. We can still go to games and spend time with fellow fans commiserating and projecting ideas about what is to come next for our teams. A lot can happen in that time and maybe we should reflect on our own use of that time. While our teams struggle, we can struggle in parallel with them to tackle the innumerable problems we face. Migrant crises, housing crises, climate crises. Our struggles are a bit more stark than the outcome of a baseball season, but they are all long term problems with no intermediate solution, but a solution must come, just as next season will come.
Who knows miracles have happened and solutions have appeared from unsuspecting places before. Perhaps that is what we are due. Likely? No. Possible? Who’s to say.
Thank you for reading. If you have any thoughts or solutions to the Mets, Yankees, Migrant, Housing, or Climate crises please send them my way. I’m all ears.