Mets' Resiliency Speaks Volumes
No matter the size of the mountain, this team just keeps climbing
Well, that was some night. Scratch that. The first six-plus weeks of the 2021 season have been absolutely beyond the pale so far for the New York Mets.
But, despite gut punch after gut punch, this team is still swinging. That doesn’t fall on deaf ears.
Life or death situations are few and far between on the diamond. The Mets watched that exact scenario play out on Monday, leaving their teammate in the crosshairs, and still completed their objective.
If this team has the basic survival instincts to overcome the adversity they faced on Monday night in Atlanta, I wouldn’t put anything past this group as far as facing the challenges they’ve been dealt on the injury front head-on.
Kevin Pillar taking at 94.5 MPH four-seamer to the beak shook every interested party who had the extreme displeasure of watching it in real-time down to their core.
We had pits in our stomachs watching from home. The Mets had to push on immediately after watching one of their own go down in one of the most awfully imaginable ways possible on the diamond.
Clearly, that’s easier said than done, if possible at all. But this team pulled it off. Talk about staying focused on the task at hand. Geez.
The imaginary parallels of actual combat and athletic competition are conjured often in the realm of sports journalism/entertainment.
Most of the time, it’s eyewash. Last night, this team watched their brother go down in battle and had no choice but to trudge on.
Lucratively compensated baseball players playing baseball after an injury isn’t war-hero-level stuff, but what happened on Monday is about as close as you can get to finding a common ground between the two.
Again, there is no parallel between the two situations, occupations, lifestyle, compensation, etc of a professional soldier and a professional athlete. But the sort of dedication to one’s craft is one and the same. Get the job done at all costs.
And in Pillar’s case, that cost could have been dear. There’s no telling what happens if that heater is a little higher or a little tighter. Honestly don’t even want to think about it.
The Mets shaking off that trauma — all umpteen layers of it — and picking up a win, under those circumstances, speaks volumes to the resilience of this group.
Say what you will about the ups and downs they’ve faced on the field this season — there have been many; certainly, more than six weeks in April/May would normally encompass — the Mets have answered the bell at every turn.
Moving forward, with virtually their entire 40-man roster sapped of available positional players and Taijuan Walker (left-side tightness) being added to the Mets’ crowded injured list, this climb will continue on an uphill trajectory for a while.
Even if Michael Conforto (right hamstring strain) and Pillar (multiple nasal fractures) are shelved for the foreseeable future and the team swings a trade to fill the gap, there’s going to be an adjustment period before getting things truly back on track.
Ebbs and flows, my friends. Catch the wave and enjoy the ride.
Edit: “Eyewash” was incorrectly attributed and edited. Lindsey Adler’s 2020 story for The Athletic was the origin of the reference.
Subscribe to the free email list or become a paid subscriber below!
Never any paywalls. Once it leaves my head, it’s yours. But if you want to pay me for my work, it’s greatly appreciated.