{"id":95608,"date":"2025-09-01T09:27:05","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T09:27:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=95608"},"modified":"2025-09-01T09:27:05","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T09:27:05","slug":"may-met-augustitude-be-forgot-faith-and-fear-in-flushing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=95608","title":{"rendered":"May Met Augustitude be Forgot \u00ab Faith and Fear in Flushing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Curtain<\/p>\n

The trumpeter who scores the postgame scurry to the 7 on Mets Plaza made an interesting musical choice in the minutes following the fresh 5-1 loss the Marlins had inflicted upon the Mets inside Citi Field. He played \u201cAuld Lang Syne,\u201d a number usually reserved for December 31 rather than August 31. I wondered if the wistful tune struck him as appropriate as we were bidding goodbye to summer on this late Sunday afternoon, or because the Mets have been dropping the ball with such force that they might be called on to re-enact their core incompetency in Times Square come New Year\u2019s Eve.<\/p>\n

Or maybe the trumpeter knows only so many songs and this was one of them. What the hell, the Mets played four games versus Miami as August ended, and they won only one of them. Not Sunday\u2019s certainly. They took on Sandy Alcantara, and Sandy Alcantara reminded us he is still Sandy Alcantara, even if Kodai Senga<\/strong> resembled nothing remotely akin to Kodai Senga. We have our images of previously successful starting pitchers. Senga of the second half of 2025 is not to be mistaken for the Senga of yore\u2026and his yore wasn\u2019t that long ago.<\/p>\n

The Met of the game was clearly Brandon Waddell<\/strong>. He\u2019s been a Met multiple times this year but wasn\u2019t the day before. He was called up to replace Chris Devenski<\/strong>, who could have said the exact same thing about his perpetually slippery job status 24 hours prior. Chris did a heckuva job in reclamation relief on Saturday, just as Brandon did on Sunday. One assumes that even with roster expansion Monday, Waddell will be optioned to cool his heels and rest his arm alongside Devenski in Syracuse. One wonders why it\u2019s inevitably the relievers who \u201crescue\u201d the bullpen who are sent down rather than the imploded starters they relieve. One wonders a lot with this club and should probably assume nothing.<\/p>\n

Despite encompassing a couple of massive milestone moments \u2014 Alonso slugging his way past Strawberry; McLean and Tong emerging in our midst\u2014 the month that just ended cannot be considered splendid. Au revoir<\/i>, then, to the last wisps of summer in Flushing, and welcome to September and the clean slate it promises. Don\u2019t muck it up with too much Augustitude, if you don\u2019t mind, Mets. All the months of this season have blurred into a kind of high-functioning futility that somehow still has this team in pretty decent position to make the playoffs. They\u2019re trying to fall out before fall officially hits, but they\u2019re really not that bad. They\u2019re really not that good, either.<\/p>\n

They are, on a record-to-record basis through 137 games, exactly what the Mets of a year ago were: 73-64. That would be neither here nor there, except for knowing that this marks the first interval of the schedule since the 2025 Mets were 0-1 that they\u2019ve posted exactly as many wins and losses as their immediate predecessors. And that<\/i> would be no big whoop, except the 2024 Mets molded themselves into spunky upstarts who captured a playoff berth and all of our hearts, while the 2025 Mets were supposed to skip the spunk and act as juggernauts from March onward. The last edition famously started 22-33 before turning it around. It\u2019s \u201cfamous\u201d rather than infamous because of what happened after 22-33. The contemporary bunch infamously started 45-24 before seeking new depths. Infamy can still be chased from the 2025 narrative, but suddenly it\u2019s September and the rewrite desk is working on a tight deadline.<\/p>\n

At this precise juncture of 2024, the Mets had won four consecutive games and were about to win five more. If the current squad doesn\u2019t go undefeated from today through Saturday, the 2024 Mets will pass them. I understand that\u2019s not who the 2025 Mets are competing with in the actual standings, but it indicates something\u2019s historically awry \u2014 perhaps that ever since our juggernaut got towed in the middle of June, we haven\u2019t been able to free it from the impound lot for more than a spin.<\/p>\n

I make it my business to track things like Mets\u2019 records after 137 games of every season they\u2019ve ever played, which made me the ideal companion Sunday for Mark Simon, with whom I take in a game annually. Mark\u2019s something of a baseball renaissance man, with his latest credit being the profiling of the broadcasting McCarthys, Tom and Pat, for a Tri-State Area college alumni magazine. But if you want to know my super-seamhead friend for anything, know him as the reigning SABR trivia champion, a title he wrested in Texas this summer. He didn\u2019t wear the belt to Citi Field. He didn\u2019t have to.<\/p>\n

Our<\/i> Mets-Marlins game was different from the one with which the other 43,300 on hand were burdened. In the top of the third inning, we dug into our quizzing satchels and pulled out the questions that we would deploy to preoccupy each other until shortly before the seventh-inning stretch. The first question could have been, \u201cWhat baseball game, already in progress, will require a lengthy distraction?\u201d We would have accepted, \u201cthis one\u201d; \u201cthe Mets-Marlins game of August 31, 2025\u201d; or \u201cwhat Mets game lately doesn\u2019t?\u201d That gimme aside, the object of our trivia challenge isn\u2019t to stump one another, but tease out answers nobody should know by dropping hints that nobody should grasp.<\/p>\n

But we do.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a highly selective partial honor roll of past Mets who came up in the course of our questioning and answering:<\/p>\n

Dave Mlicki<\/b> \u2014 but not for the first thing you think of when you think of Dave Mlicki.<\/p>\n

Joel Youngblood<\/b> \u2014 but not for the \u201cone thing\u201d everybody associates with Joel Youngblood.<\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

No, not that.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Doc Medich<\/b> \u2014 the pitcher identified via the clue that was essentially \u201che was a Met for no reason\u201d.<\/p>\n

Rick Cerone<\/b> \u2014 the catcher identified via the clue that was essentially \u201che hit a dramatic home run once,\u201d though the question had nothing to do with his being a catcher or hitting a home run.<\/p>\n

Kevin Bass<\/b> \u2014 the outfielder identified via the clue that was specifically \u201cmimicry\u201d.<\/p>\n

Jim Hickman<\/b> \u2014 who was answered by our seat neighbor who drifted into enjoying our game more than he was the one the Mets were losing to the Marlins. Maybe they should have lent us one of Alec Bohm\u2019s parabolic mics and let more of the stadium eavesdrop.<\/p>\n

Batista<\/b> \u2014 this is a trick answer, derived from each of us having seen, in different parts of the ballpark before we met up, a guy wearing a jersey that read BATISTA 14 on the back, and as each of us knows, Miguel Batista sure as hell didn\u2019t wear 14 when he pitched for the Mets in 2011 and 2012. We made a pact to stop Mr. BATISTA 14 if we ran into him on the way out and ask what\u2019s up with that? (Alas, neither of us saw him again.)<\/p>\n

Jay Bruce<\/b> \u2014my \u201chow soon they forget\u201d Met.<\/p>\n

Bobby Parnell<\/b> \u2014 Mark\u2019s \u201chow soon they forget\u201d Met, though to be fair, Parnell isn\u2019t quite as recent as Bruce.<\/p>\n

Robinson Chrinos<\/b> \u2014 not technically a correct answer, but his inclusion as an addendum to a series of correct answers seemed to tickle Mark more than any other name that came up all day.<\/p>\n

We do some version of this every year, and it always tickles both of us no end. Between dealing questions, hints, and answers, we do manage to intermittently look up at the game in front of us. Its<\/i> ability to tickle varies. The non-quizzing portion of Sunday\u2019s game didn\u2019t inspire much tickle on the current Met front. Moral of the story? Always pack your quizzing satchel, whatever the month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The trumpeter who scores the postgame scurry to the 7 on Mets Plaza made an interesting musical choice in the minutes following the fresh 5-1 loss the Marlins had inflicted upon the Mets inside Citi Field. He played \u201cAuld Lang Syne,\u201d a number usually reserved for December 31 rather than August 31. I wondered if the wistful tune struck him as appropriate as we were bidding goodbye to summer on this late Sunday afternoon, or because the Mets have been dropping the ball with such force that they might be called on to re-enact their core incompetency in Times Square come New Year\u2019s Eve.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":95609,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"\nMay Met Augustitude be Forgot \u00ab Faith and Fear in Flushing - News 365<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=95608\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"May Met Augustitude be Forgot \u00ab Faith and Fear in Flushing - News 365\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The trumpeter who scores the postgame scurry to the 7 on Mets Plaza made an interesting musical choice in the minutes following the fresh 5-1 loss the Marlins had inflicted upon the Mets inside Citi Field. 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