Chris Scopo isn’t positive what heaven is like however he says he’s fairly positive that Steve Cohen will likely be there. But when the 35-year-old comedian was getting ready to do a present on the Saratoga Comedy Club on Dec. 2, the night time Jacob deGrom signed a contract with the Texas Rangers, he felt like he was in hell.
Danielle Sepulveres, a 41-year-old freelance leisure and tradition author who grew up round Yankees followers, occurred to be awake the night time the Mets made a take care of Carlos Correa for a 12-year, $315 million contract. For a minute, she thought she was nonetheless dreaming.
“I was just basically waiting for everyone else on Messenger to wake up four hours later to be like, ‘Guys, god, did you see that?’”
Life as a Mets fan isn’t uneventful. But this specific offseason has featured highs and lows much more excessive than common between deGrom bolting and the Mets bringing in a star-studded free agent class, headlined by reigning Cy Young Award winner Justin Verlander and marquee shortstop Correa.
But it’s the Mets, so nothing is ever simple. The membership has hit a snag in its negotiations with Correa after discovering one thing regarding together with his surgically-repaired proper ankle. Three weeks after the Mets struck a late-night take care of Correa and his representatives, the contract nonetheless has not been finalized.
So it begs the query, are Mets followers OK proper now? The reply is usually sure, however a tiger can’t change its stripes and a Mets fan can’t all the time change the propensity for panic.
“I don’t think the majority of fans know how to live in this reality,” mentioned Rich MacLeod, a 32-year-old artistic director and a lifelong Mets fan from Connecticut. “I think there are two extremes to it. There are the Mets fans who cannot admit to themselves that it’s different than it used to be. And then it’s like the opposite side, every time they sign another Mets fan is like, ‘Why don’t we sign the next best guy? That has become somewhat Yankee fan-like without as much arrogance of having been doing it for like 30 years.”
Mets followers are a special breed. They are inclined to revel within the distress of a franchise that has a historical past of being fairly depressing they usually’re self-aware sufficient to confess it. They commiserate on Twitter as a result of distress loves firm. They begin every season with excessive hopes and a loaded roster, solely to observe the celebs get injured and obscure substitute gamers take their locations. The hopes fade every summer time because the Mets find yourself getting walloped by 20 runs in Washington.
But they all the time handle to seek out humor within the state of affairs.
The SNY broadcast group of Gary Cohen, Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling studying random pages of the media information throughout a disastrous loss? It’s comedy gold. Obscure gamers on the roster like Johneshwy Fargas, Sean Green (to not be confused with Shawn Green), Trot Nixon for the ultimate 11 video games of his profession and 27 video games of Nori Aoki in a 12 months through which the Mets had World Series aspirations.
This doesn’t even start to cowl the busts who got here to Queens on large contracts and didn’t dwell as much as them. Though beneath the possession of the Wilpon household, these large contracts have been few and much between. The offseason expectations in earlier years?
“Todd Frazier,” Scopo mentioned. “He’s a nice guy but he stunk with the Mets. And he came from the Yankees, so he had the stench of the Yankees on him as well.”
The Mets would wait out the market to seek out past-their-prime gamers to try to complement the few homegrown stars like third baseman David Wright and deGrom. So when deGrom spurned the Mets for the Texas Rangers shortly earlier than the Winter Meetings in December, it stung. Fans took it considerably personally.
“We watched him grow up on the field, Sepulveres said. “He was the shy, long-haired guy who just became the phenom.”
Scopo, who was born and raised in Middle Village, Queens, all the time knew there was a risk of deGrom going elsewhere, which is why he named his canine Seaver as an alternative of Jake or deGrom. It was not possible to not consider him in a special uniform after he introduced his intention to decide out of the ultimate years of his contract with the Mets, although there was all the time hope he would keep.
Mets followers are significantly good at holding on to hope.
“My heart sank into my stomach,” Scopo mentioned. “And then I had to go do comedy for 200 people knowing that my favorite player is gone.”
But there was nonetheless a way of optimism as a result of the Mets are not run by the Wilpons. The finances has blown up. The sport is being modified by a Mets fan who has the cash it takes to vary it.
“These last couple offseasons, it’s weird because I’m excited, and it feels so awesome and so fun,” Sepulveres mentioned. “And I’m also afraid.”
There is extra pleasure across the Mets proper now than ever earlier than, however these followers have been burned time and time once more. Some of these scars could by no means go away. A brand new technology of followers is perhaps introduced up with profitable methods however the present group? They know higher than to get too excited.
“I think that that’s kind of in the DNA. I don’t know that that ever fully goes away,” MacLeod mentioned. “But because of all the moves they’ve made, if they do get Correa, I think it’s going to be a very unique situation where you have a fan base that’s essentially celebrating a free agent signing twice. I think it’d be like half relief, and then full excitement and then realizing, OK, now it’s real.”
But even with out Corrrea, the unthinkable lastly appears doable. The Mets will likely be one of many favorites to win the National League and it lastly appears as if they’ve a workforce able to residing as much as the expectations. Correa or not, Mets followers are doing simply nice. At least for now, as a result of the World Series nonetheless looks as if a really actual risk for 2023.
“I dream about it,” Scopo mentioned. “I automatically cry. I start tearing up at the thought of watching it with my dad because I have to watch it with my dad. I’ve dreamed about it my whole life.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com