If Not Us, Who? If Not Now, When?
Was inspired by my kid's moving-up ceremony last week. Enjoy...
My youngest daughter graduated from John F. Kennedy Elementary School on Long Island last week. Yay.
During their moving-up ceremony, the principal quoted the 35th president of the United States and school’s namesake, and, naturally, I thought of the New York Mets.
“If not us, who?” she said. “If not now, when?”
That quote is actually derived from Hillel the Elder, a Jewish religious leader whose life spanned the Before Common and Common Eras over 2,000 years ago — also the architect of The Golden Rule; banger after banger, this guy — but that’s beside the point.
I interpret the quote as a call to action. A plea for every invested soul to do their part in seizing the opportunity in front of them. If everyone does their respective jobs, nothing’s outside the realm of possibility.
These Metropolitans have embodied the spirit of those words — and then some — over the first three months of the season. Get knocked down, get up again, repeat the process.
A string of injuries (pushing a couple of dozen at this point) and the second-least productive offense in the majors (3.60 runs per game; PIT, 3.53 RPG) — they kinda go hand-in-hand, but whatever — could have cast this group into competitive exile until 2022.
Not to be. And it’s been incredible to watch unfold.
The journey’s only halfway complete (almost; 75 games in) but there aren’t many of us who could have predicted the Mets would be in the position they are — three games up in the NL East — as June wraps up.
Without the next-level pitching performances that this team has received — from Jacob deGrom, Marcus Stroman, and Taijuan Walker, down to David Peterson and, most recently, Tylor Megill — as well as the Voltron relief corps that, slowly but surely, is coming together once again, we wouldn’t be having this discussion.
The Mets’ defense has been spectacular (28 team defensive runs saved is seventh in MLB, 2.7 ultimate zone rating per 150 games is eighth; per FanGraphs), anchored by Francisco Lindor’s +10 outs above average at shortstop, fourth-most by any position player in baseball.
Has the offense underperformed? Absolutely. And it’s a shame that three-game division lead isn’t a half-dozen or so, because it certainly could have been under different circumstances. Though, there’s plenty of time to right that ship.
Keeping in mind that the Mets were without like 60 percent of their starting lineup for a while, trotting out some less-than-household names over that span, things couldn’t have gone much better leading up until this point.
Treading water was all this team was tasked with doing over the last two months. Stay in the mix until the cavalry returns. That process has nearly run its course and the Metsies are still right in the thick of it.
Waiting out the returns of Michael Conforto, Jeff McNeil, Brandon Nimmo, and J.D. Davis while staying relevant took a special frame of mind.
Working through the inevitable adjustment period that they’re in now, then hopefully finding and riding that wave through the summer will take an even greater level of resiliency and diligence.
Sometimes picking your spots takes time. And lots of patience.
Take Tuesday night, for example. Charlie Morton trivialized the Mets’ bats for six innings, carrying over the success he’s found against them all season through another pristine outing. Then, without much warning at all, the Mets struck.
You sly foxes… You just can’t count these guys out.
If we’ve learned anything from this particular group over the last 12 weeks, that’s it. And they’ve done this type of thing more than a few times already.
McCann expanded on this enlivening mindset after the Mets’ 4-3 series-opening win over Atlanta on Tuesday. Special stuff.
“I think it’s a total buy-in from everybody. It’s not just one guy that comes up with the big hits over and over. It’s a whole team effort,” McCann said. “We truly believe in each other and we truly believe that any given day, any guy can get the job done. And we pull for each other.”
So, really… Why not us? Why not now? LFGM.
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