This can't be a dream because I'm wide awake

As soon as the Mets finished off their NLCS sweep of the Cubs, I headed to Modell's to pick up some new shirts.  I arrived only a few minutes after the last out, around midnight, to find a line of a few hundred like-minded had already formed.  An hour later, I was back home, still too wired to even think of going to bed.  Instead, I started on Facebook what I thought would be a short post.  But when you are a combination of giddy, punch drunk, and sleep deprived (I was at 3 of the 4 Citifield playoff games, missing only Game 1 of the LCS for my brother-in-law's wedding), short posts turn into this...

I'm not even sure what to say at this point. As passionate a Mets fan as I have been over the years, I don't think I've ever been more emotionally invested in a team than this year's group. The 23 games I went to in the regular season could've easily been 33,43,53. 1986 is a distant memory. I was a senior in HS. The team was a collection of arrogant SOBs, and by early summer it was almost a foregone conclusion that we would win the World Series. Sure they made us sweat t out, but that only made their win all that much sweeter. Then there was the heartbreak of 1988, being 1 out away from going up 3-1 on the Dodgers in the NLCS only to see Mike Scioscia hit a game-tying HR off Doc Gooden and eventually losing in 7 games. 1999 and 2000 brought life back into the fan base and the franchise, and to this day Mets fan swear if Benetiez hadn't blown the save in Game 1 of the Subway Series, we would've beat the Yanks. But these are the Mets, a franchise that can never sustain excellence, so once again we had to endure a few years of futility. A few years of Art Howe. 2006. Time for us to rise again. Runaway with the NL East. Not quite 1986, but pretty damn good. Steam roll the Dodgers in the LDS. Home field advantage in the LCS against a rather mediocre Cardinals team. Game 7. The Endy Chavez catch that had me so excited I turned and gave Joe Roccaro a big kiss on his cheek. Fate. Destiny. A sign from the gods that we would once again be going to the WS. Only baseball is a cruel game. As former commissioner Bart Giamatti once said, "It's a game designed to break your heart." 1 Adam Wainwright curveball later and mine and 55,000+ other hearts at Shea Stadium were broken that night. Ok, we'll get'em next year. This team is no one-hit wonder. 2007. 7 game lead with 17 to play. No one has ever blown a lead like that. But again...it's a game designed to break your heart. 2008. Not quite the same September lead, but a lead nonetheless. Once again gone. Need a win the last day of the season. The last regular season game to be played at Shea Stadium. No way this building closes like this. No way we shut the doors on our beloved Shea (don't you call it a dump, only those of us who bleed orange and blue have earned the right to call it a dump, and only in the most loving way possible) with a loss. We can't possibly have our hearts broken for a 3rd year in a row, right? The game's not that cruel, right Bart? Then 6 years of futility. 6 years of Mets fans wishing for a September collapse because at least it meant we had a shot at something. The phrase "meaningful games" in September becomes a running joke, only it's not so funny. And each year our beautiful new park sees fewer and fewer people. But we are still there. The ones who know what Mike Bordick and Bubba Trammell did in back to back Mets games. The ones who know the players the Mets got when they traded away the Franchise. The ones who know why the sound of a cowbell puts a smile on so many faces. The ones who know names like Nino Espinosa, and Bruce Boisclair, and Gil Flores. And then one glorious night, the 2013 All-Star Game, we take center stage. And the man who can lead us back to the promised land, the Dark Knight, takes his place on the mound. And while we know 2013 isn't quite our time yet, it soon will be. Wait, Bart, did you say something? No, baseball isn't THAT cruel. Harvey can't be hurt. He's Gotham's Dark Knight. And so 2014 is over before it even starts and it becomes much like 2013, and 2012, and 2011, and on and on. We are a joke. A laughingstock. Lovable losers? Sorry, the Cubs have laid claim to that title. We're just losers. But spring is a season of rebirth, a time when every baseball fan thinks, "This is the year for my team." 11 wins in a row in April? Maybe this year is different. Maybe it's not. Why is it taking Wright so long to come back from a hamstring injury? What? He's got spinal what? Who are we batting clean-up? John Mayberry Jr? Didn't we sign him to be a 4th OF and pinch hitter. What's his average? WHAT??????? A post softball game meal at Croxsley's. Hey guys, Mets made a deal. Wow, Carlos Gomez! That's not a bad trade. Sorry to see Wheeler go, and Flores. Wait, is Flores crying? No, why would you have a guy who's crying out in the field. Holy s#$t, he is crying! The trade's off? Are you kidding me??? Just when you think this franchise can't become anymore of a joke, it does. Another lost season. Maybe we'll play .500 ball. What's that you say? They made a few trades? Kelly Johnson, Juan Uribe, Tyler Clippard. Nice supporting pieces, but not the kind of guys to put us over the top. No, we need someone big, and it seems like the New York Mets don't pull off big trades anymore. But they pull off perhaps the most important trade in franchise history. Cespedes and the pitching staff put the team on their collective backs, and we have perhaps the most amazing 2 months of regular season games in our history. And suddenly what seemed improbable becomes possible. 2015 NL East Champs!! Bring on the Dodgers. 2 possible Cy Young Award winners? We don't care. We'll beat them both. Have a game stolen from us by a dirty slide and an even worse call by the umps? So what. ‪#‎WinforReuben‬. Those lovable losers, the Cubs? Guess what? They stand between us and the WS. No problem. See, not only do we have of the best young pitchers in all of baseball, we have a 2nd baseman named Daniel Murphy? Murphy? Yeah, I've heard of him. Decent player. Gets a fair amount of hits. Makes contact. Plays with a lot of heart. Makes some bonehead plays from time to time. Isn't he the one who missed Opening Day to be at his son's birth? Not much of a power hitter though is he? But remember, baseball is a cruel game. Only this time, it's not we Mets fans saying that. For 9 glorious games so far, Murphy has become an answer to a trivia question. The kind of player that someday my boys will say to their kids, "I remember what Murphy did in the 2015 playoffs" which brings us to where we are now....4 wins away from what would be one of the sweetest World Series victories ever. It's okay Mets fans. Dare to dream. ‪#‎LGM‬

Mid-season assessment

Of course, the All-Star Game break isn't really the mid-season break.  Having played their 95th game today, the Mets passed that point about two weeks ago.  Still, now's as good a time as any to look back at my post (the one entitled "Baseball's back and so am I") where I listed 10 things that had to go right in order for the Mets to reach Sandy Alderson's goal of 90 wins.  At 45-50, the Mets have their work count out for them.  They'd have to go 45-22 the remainder of the way, which is a .672 winning percentage.  How good is a .672 winning percentage?  Do that over a full season and you win 109 games.  Even hitting my preseason prediction of 82 will be tough, although if this most recent homestand is an indication of how they'll do the rest of the way, then maybe they do have a shot at both 82 and 90 wins.

1. Stay healthy.  While they haven't been decimated with injuries like the Rangers have, they've had their fair share.  Juan Lagares, one of their best hitters, has had 2 separate stints on the DL.  Dillon Gee, arguably their best pitcher, missed nearly 2 months.  Eric Young had a stint on the DL, and Jon Niese currently resides there.  David Wright avoided the DL with rest, but missed a week of games, although in his case, the time off seems to have done him good.

2.  Bartolo Colon  I said we needed 30-34 starts from him and at least 14 wins.  So far he's on pace for both of them.  He's been very good occasionally, adequate most of the time, and he's eating up innings.  I think how the Mets do on their first post-ASG road trip will determine if he's still here after the trading deadline.

3.  Ike Davis   Wow, did I blow this one big time.  I basically said that Ike had to be the Ike from the 2nd half of 2012.  I really thought he would claim the 1B job in April since neither he nor Lucas Duda were able to claim it during spring training.  However, after a somewhat slow start, Duda is doing what I thought Ike needed to do for us to win 90 games.  He's on pace for about 80-85 RBI.  Throw in a good hot streak, and maybe he'll get to 90.

4.  Curtis Granderson  I said Granderson needs to be Granderson.  Throw out that horrendous April, and he's been what you'd expect from him, although I'm surprised at how weak his arm is.  I guess playing in that small RF at Yankee Stadium, that never got exposed. 

5.  Zach Wheeler   Wheeler has not made that giant leap forward this year like Matt Harvey did last year.  He's shown flashes of brilliance, but he hasn't even come close to dominating the way Harvey did last year.  I think if he remains part of the Mets long term plans, he'll be a really dependable #3 starter.

6.  Travis d'Arnaud  Three weeks ago, this is another one of the 10 things that had absolutely no chance of being accurate, and given that there are only 67 games left, d'Arnaud has some work to do if he's going to hit some of the goals I thought he'd need to hit for us to win 90 games.  I was hoping for .275, 10HR, 20+ 2B, and 60RBI.  He's got a shot at the HR and 2B, but unless he REALLY catches fire, I doubt he'll get his average up to .275 or come anywhere near 60RBI.  But....since his stint in Las Vegas, he has shown he belongs here.

7.  Dillon Gee   Gee has done what I said he needed to do, but unfortunately missed too much time with an injury.  I'd like to say if he hadn't gone on the DL we'd at least be a .500 team now, but the truth is, our record isn't 45-50 due to starting pitching.  Chalk that up to our lack of clutch hitting.

8.  Innings from our #5 starter.  I'm not sure who the Mets consider their #5 starter, Jacob de Grom or Dice-K, but they've both given them innings.  de Grom has pitched 6+ innings in 8 of his 12 starts, and Dice-K in 5 of his 8 (I'm not counting the one start he left after 1 inning due to a stomach bug).

9.  A rookie pitcher needs to step up and contribute   I, along with nearly every other Mets fan, was hoping that rookie would be Noah Syndergaard.  It hasn't quite worked out that way. But Jacob de Grom has come up and pitched much better than his record of 3-5 would indicate.

10.  David Wright   My comment back in March was that we didn't sign David for 8 years to be an 80RBI guy.  Well, he's on pace for about 80-85 RBI, and only 14 HR.  If he can get hot, there's no doubt he can get his average up over .300 (.285 at the ASG break), but I think once again he'll fall short of 90 RBI.

Biggest surprises: Bobby Abreu (who saw that coming), Eric Campbell, Jacob de Grom, Jenrry Mejia as a closer

Biggest disappointments: Chris Young, Travis d'Arnaud before his demotion, everyone with the bases loaded

Buddy Carlyle, the 1000th player in Mets history...or maybe not.

So on Opening Day 2012, I noticed in the Mets yearbook that it said 918 players had appeared in at least 1 game for the Mets. Each player was listed alphabetically, and a total was given for each letter of the alphabet. There had been 40 A names, 88 B and so on. There were no Q names yet as Omar Quintanilla would make his debut later in 2012.  It got me wondering as to who their 1000th player would be and when he would play, so I started keeping track of guys making their Mets debuts just for fun.

When the 2013 yearbook came out, they didn't list a grand total, but still had a number after each letter of the alphabet. I added those numbers up to double-check my list. I had it at 941 as 23 players (including notables like Matt Harvey and such legends as Jack Egbert, Justin Hampson, and Fred Lewis) made their debut in 2012, but the yearbook total was 961, so I adjusted accordingly, figuring the 918 a year earlier was a typo (and if you add up the 2012 totals for each letter, it came to 938).

At the start of this season according to my count, which I double-checked against the numbers in the 2014 yearbook, the number was at 989.  Once again, no grand total was given, but I added up the letter totals 3 or 4 times and kept getting 989. 28 players had made their Mets debut in 2013, from "faces of the future" Zack Wheeler and Travis d'Arnaud to the forgettable Sean Henn and Aaron Laffey.

With 11 more to go, it was clear 2014 would be the year we'd reach the historic milestone. Would #1000 be one of our great prospects like Rafael Montero, Jacob de Grom, or Noah Syndergaard, or another "all but forgotten except to the most die-hard of fans" player like Gary Rajsich (1982-1983), Jorge Fabregas (1998), and Mario Diaz (1990), who should not be confused with Victor Diaz (2004-2006) or Carlos Diaz (1982-1983)?  10 more players had made their Mets debut this season prior to yesterday's game.  We were getting close! However, unless someone got hurt or we made a trade, it looked like we'd be stuck at 999 for awhile, which turned out to be de Grom, or so I thought.

But then Friday night's 14-inning marathon depleted our bullpen, and up came journeyman pitcher Buddy Carlyle, who last appeared in the majors in 2011, for Saturday's game. Might he be the one? With de Grom cruising early, it looked like we'd have no need for the bullpen. Too bad since I was down in Philly for the game as part of the raucous The 7 Line outing and it would be cool to witness "history". Then the Phillies tied it up and the parade of relievers started: Edgin, Dice K, Rice, Familia. They had all pitched the night before. Wasn't Carlyle brought up to give these guys a break? Why wasn't Terry Collins bringing him in?

Then the bottom of the 11th arrives and who jogs in from the Mets bullpen? Buddy Carlyle, the 1000th player in Mets history!!!! I was so excited. I sent out tweets, tagging the Mets, SNY TV, and Kevin Burkhardt in them. When he managed to pitch 3 innings in relief and get the win, I didn't care that the historic #1000 wasn't someone like Syndergaard. Buddy had earned the honor! Then I waited for the Mets to tweet about this historic milestone. It never came. How could that be? In a sport that like no other is all about stats, surely this couldn't have gone unnoticed. After all, 30 seconds after his hit on a 3-0 count Friday night, SNY was telling us it was only Duda's 2nd hit ever on a 3-0 count. Maybe Howie or Josh mentioned it on the radio. Maybe my tweet caused KB to mention it on the PIX11 broadcast. But as far as I knew, in the words of Yukon Corneilus,"Nothing!" Nothing in the papers today. Nothing at mets.com.

Had I been wrong? That couldn't be. I had been so careful, checking and re-checking my numbers against what was published in the Mets yearbooks. So I decided to email Anthony DiComo, who writes most of the articles at mets.com, to let him know of the event that I was pretty sure had taken place and the rest of the world had missed. I got a pretty quick reply from Anthony. Intrigued by what I had written, he had done some quick research and according to the Mets media guide, the count at the start of the year was 988, making Buddy #999.  I shared with him the numbers for each letter of the alphabet from the 2014 yearbook to show him why we began the year with 989, but in doing so discovered something I hadn't noticed in 2+ years.  It had said we had 39 O players in the 2012 Yearbook but then Garret Olson played for us in 2012, so it's been 40 in the 2013 and 2014 yearbooks. I looked at the list, which included the likes of Charlie O'Brien, Jesse Orosco, and John Olerud. It seemed awfully short. "That can't be 40 names," I thought. Sure enough, it was only 20. And just like that, my moment of glory was gone, snatched away like the kid who thinks he has a date to the prom only to find out she's decided to go with someone else. Buddy as it turns out ended up being #979. The 1-player discrepancy between the number I thought it should be (1000-20 less O players) and what Anthony had discovered lay in the letter V. After seeing the error with the O players, I had counted all the names (not easy on my 44 year old eyes as I'm not yet ready to admit I need glasses!!!!) and compared the total number listed. The yearbook said we had 21 V players, but there were only 20 names listed. Anthony confirmed for me through the Mets PR department that our total now stands at 979.

So it looks like we'll have to wait awhile longer for the 1000th player in Mets history. But that's okay. If nothing else, we Mets fans are a patient bunch :-)