Flashback to opening week: Ecstasy! The Mets have Duda, Wright, and a shiny new second baseman who doesn’t field like a Little Leaguer in the infield. Their starting aces—deGrom, Syndergaard, Harvey and Matz—are almost universally revered throughout baseball. The return of Zach Wheeler is imminent, or at least Zach Wheeler has been sighted more times […]
Author: Sara Novic
Asdrubal Cabrera Unleashes The War Elephants
Recently, I’ve been spending a bit too much time on baby-naming websites. I’m not expecting, nor do I have the dreaded Baby Fever, though one of the many pleasures of womanhood is that my mother calls weekly to “reassure” me that the family doesn’t care if I skip the nuptials and get knocked up, so […]
Last Men Standing: The Mets’ Bullpen
So it’s official—Steven Matz was placed on the disabled list Monday, making him the latest casualty in the Mets’ “dropping like flies” worst-case-scenario played out before our eyes. The good news is that Matz’s official diagnosis was “shoulder tightness” with no structural damage to the shoulder or arm, and with the DL-listing retroactive to August […]
Last Train to Shea: Clarence Coleman and 1962’s Best Losers
Clarence “Choo Choo” Coleman, catcher for the Mets in their first regular season, died this Monday, August 15. It was the same day, in 1962, that Coleman pinch hit a home run against the Phillies to make the extra innings game (which still ended in an 8-7 loss) just a little more interesting. Coleman’s niece, […]
Our Fans Are Cooler Than Your Fans
I was in the mountains of Vermont last Monday when award-winning violinist and conductor Itzhak Perlman made headlines with his rendition of the National Anthem and kickoff to the Subway Series; when I returned to internetland I was pleasantly surprised to be greeted by footage and photos of Perlman in a Mets jersey (number 70, […]
No No-Hitters (Or How The Mets are Statistical Unicorns)
Two Sundays ago my grandma took my dad to the Mets game in Philadelphia. It had been his birthday present, booked months in advance, and by the time the day arrived even I was looking forward to them going (the hype was out of control). I was a little worried the outcome would be depressing, […]
Baseball Magic, or Why Designated Hitters Are Silly
It’s been a bit hard watching the Mets these last few weeks—the team looks disjointed, still struggling through injuries and the parade subsequent call-ups. It’s harder still, I imagine, to play like a cohesive unit when the team’s very members are constantly in flux. But despite the loss of Harvey, the Mets’ pitching staff has […]
What Is Baseball For? Jose Reyes, MLB, and America’s Pastime
I’ve written for the internet a fair bit—fiction, memoir, literary criticism, theater and movie reviews, controversial takes on religion, disability, and politics—but nothing has attracted trolls like quite like my sportswriting. I’ve been attacked for calling a player’s .168 batting average “lackluster,” for being too optimistic about the Mets, for not writing an article about […]
Meet the Mets: Rounds 31-40
Picture this: 1988, round 62 of the MLB Draft, and the Dodgers’ last pick of the year is used on an iffy first baseman rumored to be chosen as a favor to the manager, who was friends with the prospect’s father. Though powerful, the player was defensively weak, and there was some question about whether […]
Meet the Mets: Draft Picks 21-30
The back end of the draft is an interesting place—as I researched this week I found myself wondering how some of these players hadn’t been snatched up earlier, while others were less obviously appealing. Of course six of these 10 picks are either fresh out of high school or still students, so there is both […]