Flex’s blog

It was simply glorious to watch last night. The night that the New York Mets finally clinched the National League East title. Yes it took them four tries at clinching it - after having been swept by the lowly Pirates over the weekend in Pittsburgh. But for those of you that remember the 1986 Mets, it was all too strangely familiar. The ‘86 Mets had to simply win one game to clinch the title but they too lost a slew of games only to come back to Shea to win it against the Cubs. So we fast forward in time and we find ourselves the 2006 Mets at Shea Stadium playing the NL Wild Card contending Florida Marlins. In one hand we have the Marlins desperately trying to remain relevant in the race while in the other hand we have the Mets simply trying to win one more game.

It was as if the stars had all aligned perfectly last night. Sure not all obvious pieces were in place. We had Steve Traschel on the mound for the Mets - the winniest pitcher for the Mets this year with one of the highest ERAs in the Majors for someone with that kind of Win-Loss ratio. We had the full starting lineup playing for the Mets and most importantly, the Mets were playing at Shea - in front of a home crowd that contained 10,000 more fans than was expected at the start of Sunday.

The rest of course is history. Traschel pitched a gem of a game. Valentine hit two homers for the Mets and Billy Wagner closed things up with a flawless ninth. Then the celebration began and memories of past and present came colliding. One couldn’t help but remember the history of the ‘86 Mets and their incredible climb through the playoffs and into the famous World Series against the Red Sox.

So it was fitting for me to reminisce about the 86 Mets and to think about where these 06 Mets could go if all the stars were to align correctly. Of course there’s still a lot to go through before the Mets can even think about the World Series. There’s a notion of playing against either Los Angeles, San Diego, St. Louis, or heck - even the Phillies. Sure the records aren’t as good as the Mets, but the competition will be there - especially in a five or seven game series. There’s many games that need to be won and many moments won by a simple pitch or a swing of the bat.

Hence.. that’s playoff baseball folks and that’s what the Mets now have to look forward to. This was no sure thing of course - the Mets starting pitching staff has been in shambles on and off all year long but it’s been all about the bullpen and the offense. Timely hitting; big home runs; and a lights out bullpen helps!

So I end this posting with a simple thought. Could there be a Subway Series in the making here? Yep.. there very well could be. But like the Mets, the Yankees will have to go through a number of hot teams to get to the World Series - namely Oakland, Detroit, Minnesota or possibly the White Sox. Again.. if the stars all align correctly.

For one night though - these were the Amazin Mets again and for one night, I thought about the ‘86 Mets and what they did.

Now.. let’s see the front and back page covers of the New York papers today

New York Daily News

New York Post

Newsday

NY Times Pictures