And so spring and Spring Training could not come too soon.
Cue the Ken Burns music and read the next paragraph in a deep baritone voiceover.
Spring training, like spring itself, is a time of renewal and rebirth; a time when even the lowliest team has hope for the season ahead. Critical trades and free agent signings over the winter have bolstered the team's weaknesses. Players coming off injury-plagued seasons are returning in the best shape of their careers. Hitters have corrected the flaws in their swing and pitchers have discovered devastating new pitches.
It may be hackneyed and trite, but I buy it every year.
As a Met fan, for most of the last decade or three, after enduring yet another dismal season filled with heartbreaking losses, underachieving performances, devastating injuries, and mind-boggling player moves or non-moves, I would nevertheless approach Spring Training with a naïve optimism that would endure at least until Opening Day.
I would then delude myself through much of a hopeless baseball season that my team could pull it together and make a run for the playoffs down the stretch. I refused to face reality until sometime in August, when forced to accept the inevitability of a losing season, I would be stuck watching a team play uninspiring baseball for the last month or so, with little to root for other than spoiling another team's playoff run and the individual achievements of favorite players. With a team going nowhere, much of the luster and lyricism of the game was lost -- at least until the spring, when it all began again.
And here we are. But, unfortunately, with a couple of notable exceptions, the Mets seem determined to bring back the same team that was so disappointing last year when things fell apart a whole lot earlier than August. Only two years removed from a World Series appearance, the 2017 squad regressed to the mean -- back to their usual combination of bad luck, baffling injuries, poor management and complacent ownership. In contrast to their rival in the Bronx, the Mets refuse to act like a major market team that spends money for players that could put them over the top. Instead, they hope to placate the fans by doing just enough to make the team competitive so that if everyone stays healthy and they get a little lucky, they can squeak into the playoffs -- never mind that they never stay healthy and they haven't been lucky since 1986.
But wait -- there is no room for skepticism. It's Spring Training. The Mets' great young pitchers, most of whom were hurt last year, are all feeling good and are ready to blow away hitters. Yoenis Cepsesdes, their one true superstar, also back from injuries, is primed for a stellar year. Budding star, Michael Conforto, is healing well from surgery and should be back and better than ever early in the season. They have an exciting phenom at shortstop in Amed Rosario and a recently-signed slugger Todd Frazier to play third and hit homers. Overmatched and overweight Dominic Smith is in the best shape of his life. Juan Lagares has a new swing and catcher Travis D'Arnaud has (again) figured out the flaw in his. And, finally, there's a new manager, Mickey Calloway, who brings badly needed confidence, energy and baseball acumen.
If only most of this turns out to be true, the Mets could have a magical year.
As for the fate of the country? If we protest, organize and mobilize, and if we continue to protect our precious institutions, as the late, great Joaquin Andujar described both America and baseball "in one word: you never know."
Follow Fair and Unbalanced on Twitter @FairUnbalanced1 and on Facebook
0 comments :
Post a Comment