Before this season began, I predicted the Mets would win 87 games and nab the second Wild Card. I truly believed they were capable of exceeding that win total, but I still had to pinch myself this morning when I woke up on the day of the team’s first preseason game in nine years.
It’s been an incredibly long nine years, one whose prologue was a crushing end to the 2006 season when one swing of the bat could’ve propelled the Mets into the World Series. What followed was an epic collapse, a smaller collapse, and five years of terrible baseball when it seemed that Mets fans were crazy to have any hope left.