David Lennon
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist and author who has been a staff writer at Newsday since 1991.
There is a major difference between being ahead of schedule and arriving at the destination. The Mets and Cubs, on the eve of this NLCS, find themselves in that middle ground. They've made it to baseball's Final Four, further than all but a handful of dreamers predicted, but remain eight wins away from a World Series ring.
Impressive? Sure. Both teams showed what elite young talent is capable of doing by taking the training wheels off early.