NEWSLETTER
The Chicago Cubs very well may lose the next two days to the New York Mets. Last night’s win does not a special week make.
But given the longstanding antipathy there, I can’t help but feel a little extra happiness when the Cubs beat a loaded Mets team as they are trying to hold off a charging Atlanta Braves team in the NL East (1.5 games back). I don’t have the personal connection that goes way back to 1969, but I certainly found a way to hate the Mets during the 2015 NLCS when they took out the Cubs. I also remember that series back in 2004 that finished the Cubs off (curse you, Victor Diaz!). I also hated the way their fans and the organization treated Javy Báez last year.
I just don’t like the Mets. I like some of their players. I like some of their fans. But overall, I have no interest in seeing the organization succeed.
That feeling was made all the more strong at this year’s trade deadline, when the Mets – seemingly a perfect fit in so many ways to trade with the Cubs – decided to go the cheap route, perhaps feeling burned by last year’s Báez-Pete-Crow-Armstrong swap. It was a cowardly move that potentially hurt the Cubs (long-term TBD), but it also just bothered me as a baseball fan. When you have a roster like the Mets, with so much concentrated talent and older impact pitching, and a huge lead in your division like they did at the time, that’s when you put the foot on the gas and really make significant additions for the postseason. The Mets didn’t, and it made me so annoyed.
It also made me petty, wanting to see the Mets fail this year specifically due to whatever moves they did or did not make at the Trade Deadline do not work out. For example, their low-trade-cost bat acquisition, Darin Ruf, failing last night with the bases loaded and the Mets having a chance to come back. (Ruff is now hitting .137/.179/.196/7 wRC+ since the deadline.)
So you can understand, then, why seeing this sentiment last night put a devil’s grin on my face:
Yes. Exactly that. I said it right after the Trade Deadline passed, and I’m loving it today: I hope the Mets lose the division and then in the postseason because they were cowards.
Enjoy more morning petty:
