My favorite part of Friday’s Opening Day festivities was seeing Rusty Staub, John Franco, and Edgardo Alfonzo raise the 2015 National League championship flag. Memorable Mets who were part of memorable teams that got to the World Series, only to fall short of a title. 1973 and 2000 will never be confused with 1969 and 1986, but they should be celebrated all the same.
I’m glad the Mets’ ring ceremony was held privately on Thursday. Rings are associated with championships. But winning the pennant means winning the league and getting to the World Series, and that’s what the Mets did for just the second time in 29 years.
Of course I hope that 2015 is merely a prelude to a title in 2016. But even if it does, 2015 can still be celebrated as an important steppingstone along the way, as 1984 is remembered for Dwight Gooden’s debut and the Mets winning 90 games after seven straight losing seasons.
That’s what’s weird about 2015 – it was also a steppingstone season where the Mets won 90 games after years of losing (six straight in this case) – only the Mets stepped all the way to the World Series.
It’s also easier to remember 2015 fondly with Yoenis Cespedes back in the fold. Had Cespedes not returned and not been replaced, 2015 might have been looked back on bitterly as a steppingstone that led nowhere. Now the Mets still have the makings of a championship team.
I have to say I also enjoyed seeing the Phillies introduced yesterday. At least I think they were the Phillies – I hardly knew who most of them were. Could the regular players have gone out on strike and these were the replacement scabs? No, the Phillies have simply slashed their payroll from about $180M in 2014 to about $89M this season.
And that $89M included $25M to largely washed-up Ryan Howard and $13M to Matt Harrison, who was acquired from the Rangers in the Cole Hamels deal to help offset Hamels’ salary and will probably not pitch this season. No wonder that lineup looked so pathetic, particularly with Maikel Franco out after getting hit in the arm with a pitch. The Mets were not that competitive in the years before 2015, but at least they did not try to tank.
When Bartolo Colon signed a two-year deal with the Mets in 2014, he appeared to be the ultimate steppingstone pitcher, an almost 41-year-old placeholder for the soon-to-arrive great young pitchers. But the Mets re-signed Colon, who turns 43 in May, and he huge cheers during the Opening Day introductions and going tonight for his 219th career victory, which would tie him with Pedro Martinez for second place among all Dominican-born pitchers behind Juan Marichal’s 246. That’s some pretty good Hall of Fame company.
Colon is scheduled to leave the rotation once Zack Wheeler returns, but that presumes no starter injuries during the season. Jacob deGrom already has an injured lat and Wheeler’s timetable may be pushed back with him now needed minor followup surgery for a stitch that did not dissolve. Let’s hope these are minor issues, but it remains interesting to think of Colon as the insurance policy to the Mets’ young fireballers.
Everyone says the Cubs are the team to beat this year, but they’ve already lost Kyle Schwarber for the season. And Starlin Castro is off to a good start with the Yankees. Will the Cubs regret trading him?
The pundits may favor the Cubs, but as we were happily reminded yesterday, the defending NL champions are the Mets.
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