1969 - Richard Nixon was the new President, the Beatles gave their last public performance, and we sent a man to the moon.
1986 - Ronald Reagan had been our President for five years already, Top Gun was the highest grossing film at over $170 million, and the Challenger Space Shuttle disaster happened.
What will forever connect these two years for me is that they are years in which the New York Mets were World Series Champions. The only years. As in, the Mets, in their more-than-half-a-century existence, have two seasons where they won the last baseball game of the year. The phrase "long-suffering Mets fan" has all the merits in the world. I've only been alive to see the Mets play in one World Series they lost to the Yankees. I was six.
Perhaps the only decent memory I have of the lovable losers is 2006, a year that had the highest highs of clinching a division title and making it to the NLCS, and the lowest low of Carlos Beltran doing this:
In '07 and '08, the Mets were less known as the juggernaut 100 game winner of '06 and more as perennial choke artists who let playoff berths slip through their fingers. In other words, once again the same 'ol Mets.
One new stadium and one Ponzi scheme involving the owners later and the Mets have somehow found themselves back in the thralls of playing meaningful baseball games in September. After entering the 2015 season with nearly every baseball pundit selecting the division opponent Washington Nationals to not only run away with the NL East but likely make it to the World Series, Mets fans looked at the Wild Card as their only chance of making the playoffs.
That all changed in the span of one week in late July.
Mets' shortstop Wilmer Flores, still quite young and with the team since he was 16, was reportedly traded in the middle of a game the team was losing. He was kept in the game while simultaneously being told by the thousands of fans that he was traded for difference-making centerfielder and former Met himself Carlos Gomez. Flores became immediately emotional when he heard conflicting things from people in the dugout and people in the stands, and was shown on camera visibly crying while playing in the top of the eighth.
After the game it was confirmed by GM Sandy Alderson that the trade had not gone through, unleashing a firestorm of criticism on the mistreatment of Flores.
Asked official involved with Gomez trade why Flores is still in game. Reply: “No deal is done. The entire world has jumped the gun.”
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) July 30, 2015Was told players agreed upon in #Mets deal with #Brewers. Gomez for Wilmer/Wheeler. Alderson says now no deal.
— Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) July 30, 2015Sources: #Mets backed out of trade due to concern over hip issue with #Brewers’ Gomez.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) July 30, 2015It was only a couple of days later the Mets made a deadline deal to acquire outfielder Yoenis Cespedes without having to deal Flores. Since coming to the Mets, Cespedes has 16 home runs and 41 RBI in 40 games. But that isn't the story here.
This story is about how the "Week of Flores" changed the Mets' season for good. Flores said he wanted to be a Met forever after the trade that never happened. He had been serviceable throughout the season, but didn't quite have "superstar" written in his DNA. That all changed a couple days after the world found out there was crying in baseball with this shot heard round the world.
The Mets never quite looked back after this moment, as they turned a 3 game hole behind the Nationals into what is currently an 8.5 game lead in the division with only a handful of games left in the season.
With the strengths of young power pitching and a resurgent offense, the Mets have never been better to watch in my lifetime. Though there still is an infinite amount of obstacles to the Mets winning the final game in the baseball season, the sport in Queens, NY has once again become beautiful. It's good to be a Mets fan.
