Why the Mets Are the Best Team in Baseball

As I write this, the Mets have, by the skin of their teeth, made it through to the post season. They are barely in there, it is said, almost by a lucky streak to be the last wildcard. Now they face the Milwaukee Brewers, the champions of the National League Central Division.

The six champions of the six different divisions will begin the playoffs by getting rid of the wild card teams, best versus worst.

Indeed, in an article about who to bet on in the post season to win the World Series, the Mets have the longest odds. The team most likely not to succeed.

Anything can happen on any given day, so I don’t know how this is going to turn out, but I am here to tell you that the media and the fans have got this all wrong. The fact is, the Mets are currently the best team in baseball. They’ve won game after game for four months. And no team, not the Yankees, the Dodgers or the Phillies, or any other team has won more games and lost fewer than the Mets during this period.

It’s been 100 games. Two thirds of the season. Forget the shambles at the start. They’ve won 63 of the 100.

You can look all this up. I did. The Mets are the powerhouse. And it’s right there in the baseball statistics.

What has caused it? Some say it is due to the discipline, thoughtfulness, enthusiasm and encouragement of David Stearns, the new President of Baseball Operations for the New York Mets. Others say it is particular players — think Lindor, Alonso, Diaz, Nimmo.

Or there could be another reason.

Many of us fans believe that we can affect the outcome of a baseball game. We wear a particular shirt. Or we win if we don’t watch the ninth inning.

I write a column every week. Fact is that this past spring, I devoted one entire column to explaining why, after a half century rooting for the Mets, I would now cease doing that and instead root for the Yankees. The Mets were just so bad, I couldn’t take it anymore. Furthermore, the Yankees had just signed up a local boy from Eastern Long Island (Marcus Stroman) to be one of their starting pitchers.

And what happened? As soon as I left, slamming the door in disgust behind me, the Mets went off on this astounding four-month winning streak that took them into the playoffs. And now I’m back and knocking on the door.

No, maybe I shouldn’t do that. Could jinx it.

By the way, the Mets hold the record for having the worst win-loss record in the modern era. The team was founded in 1962 as an “expansion team” and how it was populated with athletes at that time was that each team would give the Mets their worst players, saying that was all they could spare.

For a manager that first year, the management hired Casey Stengel, an excellent manager in his time but now retired. He did the best he could. They won 40 of 160 games. And he famously commented, “Can’t anybody play this game?” as they stumbled through to very last place that year.