No. 90, Defensive End, for the New York Mets…
Now that he’s signed and assuming he’s sound, Chris Young will become the first Young — not counting former Cy Youngs — to tip his cap to applause at a Mets Home Opener since Anthony Young did so...
View ArticleFifths With Potential
February 5: Super Bowl XLVI, as you have no doubt heard. As you may have also heard, Go New York Football Giants (specificity never hurts). April 5: Opening Day, Braves at Mets. Only two months away...
View ArticleYou Can Go Now, Winter
Oh, it’s time to start livin’ Time to take a little from this world we’re given Time to take time ’Cause spring will turn to fall In just no time at all…. —Berthe, from Pippin “Hey Greg.” “Hey Winter.”...
View ArticleTime Jump
“And possibly…everybody’ll say, ‘Well, OK, let’s project the positive side of life again,’ you know? The world’s been goin’ on a long time, right? It’s probably gonna go on a long time.” —John Lennon...
View ArticleThe New New Breed
Before I became a father, one of my many reasons for not wanting to take that step was that I thought parenthood meant life would be static. You had a kid and disappeared, sitting at home waiting for...
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Fandom in the Shadows
Every baseball fan worth her salt knows it’s one of the fundamental rules of fandom: You extrapolate from Opening Day at your peril. Collin Cowgill‘s grand slam on Opening Day 2013 didn’t kickstart a...
View ArticleA Sense of Occasion
I’ve been a baseball fan a very long time, but once a year, depending on the circumstances, I’m talked to like I’ve just discovered the game. Ironically, it didn’t happen when I was relatively new to...
View ArticleTime Passages
I’ll let you in on a little secret about the endless period between baseball seasons: It does end. Who knew? I’m not sorry to see the stretch that commenced with the last out of the last Met season and...
View ArticleWrighthood
Welcome to FAFIF Turns Ten, a milestone-anniversary series in which we consider anew some of the topics that defined Mets baseball during our first decade of blogging. In this seventh of ten...
View ArticleThe New Old Normal
I’m getting old. It happens to everybody, to their astonishment. I’ll be 46 in a month — which isn’t ancient if you’re 56 or 66 or north of there but unfathomable at 16 or 26. A funny thing about age,...
View ArticleThey Start Seasons, Don’t They?
Spring what now? Spring Training? Never heard of it. If, in fact, it existed, it has completely ceased to matter. The Mets, I seem to vaguely recall, introduced the phrase “winless streak” to the...
View ArticleAn Invitation Best Refused
It wasn’t exactly on my bucket list — unless you’re redefining the term to mean “stuff that makes me want to puke when I think about enduring it” — but I can now say I’ve been through an Opening Day...
View ArticleMets Versus St. Louis
While you’re waiting for 2018 to commence in earnest, or should you find yourself jonesing for compelling content amid the plethora of upcoming off days (why have off days when we just had an...
View ArticleAnd Now, the Start is Near
Pitchers and catchers reported to Mets camp on February 12. Position players, if they weren’t already on hand, checked in on February 17. The first full-squad workout under the auspices of new manager...
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Steps Along the Road
So. I pretty much took the winter off. I was busy with my other dorky obsession, writing books related to this oddball space-fantasy movie you might have heard of. But that’s an excuse. I was weirdly...
View ArticleTime Continues After Opening Day
The second chapter of the perfect season completed itself Saturday, confirming that every good vibe we felt on Thursday was accurate. The Mets are 2-0 after beating St. Louis at Citi Field, 6-2....
View ArticleThe 25-Thought Roster
1. Welcome aboard the first active roster of 2019 to the eight Mets who have never been Mets before: Robinson Cano, Edwin Diaz, Wilson Ramos, Keon Broxton, J.D. Davis, Justin Wilson, Luis Avilan and...
View ArticleButterflies Are Free
The Mets have lost on Opening Day three times in this decade: 2011, 2014 and 2016. None of those defeats was pleasant in the moment, but with hindsight we should appreciate that they unfolded as they...
View ArticleEvery Mets Opening Win Ranked
There is no such thing as a bad Opening Day win. More to the point, there’s no such thing as an Opening Day win that’s “worse” than any other. I guess that’s all self-evident, but there’s nothing...
View ArticleFor Pete’s Sake
Without a baseball season starting, we don’t know precisely what we’ll be missing. Some things, however, we do know. We do know our familiar rhythms will be off from being on collective hiatus, as what...
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