{"id":357508,"date":"2026-09-26T10:14:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T10:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/357508\/"},"modified":"2026-09-26T10:14:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T10:14:09","slug":"despite-a-bad-season-believe-in-the-mets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/357508\/","title":{"rendered":"Despite a bad season, believe in the Mets"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Mets began this season with high hopes<\/a>. Juan Soto was finally looking comfortable in Queens, Freddy Peralta and Luke Weaver were added to an already promising pitching staff, and exciting pickups like Bo Bichette and Jorge Polanco were acquired in the offseason. Despite failing to bring back Pete Alonso and Edwin Diaz, there was a feeling amongst Mets loyals that the team would redeem themselves from the epic tank we\u2019d witnessed last year.<\/p>\n

But the season is ending and the Mets are at the bottom of their division<\/a>, long ago eliminated from any chance of the playoffs starting next week. Even with these facts, in what might be the epitome of Mets fandom, I still see glimmers of hope.<\/p>\n

I became a Mets fan in the era of Carlo Beltran, David Wright, and Johan Santana. My father, born and raised in Port Washington, L.I., took the LIRR to Shea when the Mets franchise began. Despite growing up in Milwaukee, I saw an opportunity and seized it; the Mets became The Thing for me and my father. Every birthday card (Have an Amazin\u2019 Day, Dad! ) was written in orange and blue. When the Mets lost in 2006 to the Cardinals in the NLCS<\/a>, it was my father who comforted me, reminding me that there\u2019s always next year.<\/p>\n

I have now lived in New York City for 12 years. I attended opening day this past March. I saw the Mets pummel ace Paul Skenes, so much so that he was pulled in the first inning. It\u2019s a completely different offense! I texted my father, who still lives in Milwaukee. They can hit! We were convinced the team had turned the page. To our dismay, it only went downhill from there.<\/p>\n

As the Mets went on subsequent losing streaks in June and July, my father and I continued to talk regularly. I\u2019d wake up to texts at 7 in the morning discussing whether the manager should be fired (he eventually was,) theories about why we were so bad, quotes from Gary, Keith and Ron, and, of course, Mets memes.<\/p>\n

There were seasons that I distanced myself from the team, especially in the years after my mother died (2011-2014) and I was angry at Dad. Despite his attempts to connect with me about baseball, I refused to watch.<\/p>\n

In 2017, though, I began my freshman year at Barnard College, and the proximity to Citi Field and comfortable distance from home helped. I started watching more Mets games. Once again, the Amazin\u2019s became a connecting point for me and my father.<\/p>\n

During a visit to Milwaukee last month, my dad and I realized the Mets would be playing the White Sox<\/a>. On a whim, we traveled 90 miles to see the team play. \u201cI would never have done this without you,\u201d my dad said to me on the train ride there. We left the game with a win and a renewed sense that we still had a chance at the playoffs.<\/p>\n

We could certainly call this summer a disappointment, but to write it off as a failure would leave out important stories. There are glimmers to root for: Carson Benge\u2019s stellar rookie year, Louis Torren\u2019s elite catching skills, and Jeffrey Yan\u2019s strike-out celebration, to name a few.<\/p>\n

Sure, our record is grim. But, for better or worse, the Mets have always taught me to believe. So here\u2019s to hoping for a better record and postseason push next year. Even without a shot at the playoffs, my Dad and I will still be texting and cheering them on.<\/p>\n

Fendrich\u00a0writes about chronic health issues and the Mets (which often are one in the same).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Mets began this season with high hopes. Juan Soto was finally looking comfortable in Queens, Freddy Peralta…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":357509,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,299,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-357508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-opinion","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}