We recently saw the week of the Arizona Diamondbacks play out. It was not that special of a week, just a really bad team winning against some good teams. It isn’t normal but not exactly extraordinary. The New York Mets must have seen the week of Arizona and thought, “we can do better.” In typical Mets fashion, they did just that. It had everything in it; sparring with the public, arrests, crazy baseball. Being a Mets fan can not be an easy ride, and the last seven days symbolize every last bit of that.
August B(l)oos
New York has been a commanding force all season in the National League East. For a three-month period, no other team was atop the division. The Mets entered August trying to stay away from a collapse that the franchise has become known for. In vintage Mets fashion, they collapsed. After they beat the Washington Nationals in late August following the jersey retirement of former pitcher and World Series champion Jerry Koosman, the Mets were 7-19 in the month. The team had completely surrendered their divisional lead and now sat in third place. Behind the Atlanta Braves and Philidelphia Phillies.
The Mets were able to take the series on the 29th, but during it, fans and the media noticed players like trade deadline acquisition Javier Baez, star shortstop Francisco Lindor, and Kevin Pillar celebrating with a thumbs down after hits. Celebrations like this happen from just about every team in baseball. The crosstown New York Yankees had this same thing in 2017 after a Mets fan gave future Met Todd Frazier a thumbs down. After the game, Baez was asked about this, and he certainly gave an answer.
To paraphrase Baez, he said that since the fans had been ruthlessly booing the team during this tough stretch, the team was going to boo the fans when they had success. What? That’s not how this works. Of course, there was immediate outrage from the fanbase and the baseball world. Both Baez, since he is new to the team and will be a highly-coveted free agent this winter, and Lindor, the $341 million man, were heavily scrutinized. Team President Sandy Alderson even condemned the team’s actions and encouraged the fans to boo in a statement.
GM Failure No. 2
The Mets’ controversies of the 2021 season started in the offseason. They had hired a new general manager in Jared Porter and shortly after dismissed after a whole inappropriate fiasco. That led to the rise of Zack Scott in the role, under Alderson’s supervision. Scott has had a pretty normal season as general manager, except for a trade deadline that most fans have not been happy about. Right as the dust was settling on “boogate”, Scott made things worse. He was arrested for a DUI, right after leaving a fundraiser party at team owner Steve Cohen’s house. As of now, Scott is currently on administrative leave by the team.
Hot Streak
Moving back in time a bit, the Mets’ first game after the public relations disaster that was the booing was a makeup against the Marlins. The Marlins are bad enough that the Mets should beat them, and they did. Importantly, the winning run was scored on a hustle play by Baez himself. This was game one of a doubleheader. The Mets won the second. In addition to the ensuing two games being wins. At the time of this writing, they have a doubleheader versus Washington. With the Braves scuffling, the Mets are now four games out of the division. Can they actually do it? We will see. If so, the 2021 Mets will be as wild as just about other Mets team.
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