Let’s face it, we could all use a little happiness in our lives right now.
So let’s travel back to a more hopeful time, when a Mets team that had been left for dead brought the magic back to Flushing.
In late July, with his club on a five-game win streak, rookie sensation Pete Alonso let the fans know that the Mets were gaining confidence.
Alonso tweeted out a long-form message thanking the fans for their support and urging them to flock to the ballpark for the remaining months of the season.
“The boys are hot,” wrote Alonso, a sentiment that struck a chord with the Flushing Faithful. The hot boy summer that ensued brought an unexpected wave of baseball euphoria to Queens.
Bask in the most glorious moments of that summer, when the Mets proved their resilience time and time again.
Sweet, Sweet Revenge
The Mets’ hot streak began with a dish best served cold (I’m talking about revenge, of course).
Chris Paddack and Pete Alonso had the pettiest feud of the 2019 MLB season. It all started when Alonso was named National League Rookie of the Month for April. Paddack, who pitched to a minuscule 1.91 ERA in the season’s first month, was none too pleased at being passed up for the honor.
Before their first meeting at Petco Park in early May, Paddack made it clear that he felt slighted. “Does he deserve (the Rookie of the Month honor)? Absolutely. But I’m coming for him. We’ll see Monday who the top dog is,” Paddack told reporters.
Paddack got the better of the Polar Bear in their first encounter, holding him hitless in three at-bats, including two swinging strikeouts.
But while Paddack kept the Mets in check that night, the Amazin’s enacted their revenge months later.
It was all part of the magic of hot boy summer.
Paddack’s next start against the Mets came on July 23rd at Citi Field. The Mets were playing well in the early stages of the second half, but had dropped three of four in their most recent series in San Francisco. A six-game homestand against two NL bottom feeders — the Padres and the Pirates — was just what the doctor ordered.
Back in their home ballpark and surrounded by a swarm of energized fans, the Mets finally broke through against Chris Paddack. Surprisingly, it wasn’t Pete Alonso’s bat that did the talking.
That night, 36-year-old Robinson Canó flashed the effortless power swing that had once made him a celebrated superstar. Canó crushed two home runs off Paddack and one off reliever Logan Allen, giving him the first three-homer game of his 15-season career. The veteran second baseman also joined Kirk Nieuwenhuis and Lucas Duda as the only Mets with three home runs in a home game.
Canó’s clouts ignited a staggering run of 16 wins in 18 games for the Mets, transforming them from likeable underachievers to legitimate postseason contenders in the span of two weeks.
Shirtless Surprises
When I think of the 2019 Mets, there’s a particular image that comes to mind.
This picture was taken in the aftermath of the exhilarating comeback win against the Nationals on August 9th, and it captures everything I loved about this Mets squad.
A shirtless Michael Conforto stands in shallow center-field, hands over his head like he’s going through an airport body scanner. He’s flanked on both sides by exuberant teammates like Jeff McNeil and Marcus Stroman, still caught up in the ecstasy of the moment.
Conforto, whose nickname is Scooter, is approached by the injured Dominic Smith on a scooter. It’s not visible in the picture, but Smith’s scooter has a license plate that reads “LFGM” in reference to Pete Alonso’s social-media mantra. The fans visible in the background are giving the players a standing ovation for their efforts.
If that imagery and symbolism doesn’t get your engine running, then I’m not sure you’re really a Mets fan. As shown in the photo, the 2019 Mets had a deep fraternal bond that kept them from fading into irrelevance in the second half.
The jersey-ripping theatrics that accompanied the team’s walk-off wins last summer began on that night in August. The game was an instant classic, from Marcus Stroman’s adrenaline-soaked Citi Field debut, to Todd Frazier’s three-run shot that tied the game, to the Conforto hit that ended it.
Fortunately for the Flushing Faithful, there were more celebrations to come. J.D. Davis played the hero with a walk-off single against the Indians on August 21st, leading to a classic post-game interview in which he praised his club’s “New York swagger.” And the man who started the jersey-ripping trend, Pete Alonso, had his jersey removed after he drew a walk-off walk against the Phillies in early September.
The images of shirtless walk-off heroes turned the female fans into the Blushing Faithful. These photos remain joyous reminders of an exhilarating summer in Queens.
Puppy Power
“I’M GETTING A PUPPY!”
For Jeff McNeil and his dog Willow, it was love at first sight.
McNeil met the cuddly canine at Citi Field in July as part of a pre-game event sponsored by the North Shore Animal League.
At the time, McNeil was hitting .341 with nine home runs over 87 games. But he homered on the day he met the pup, and would homer four more times in his next nine contests. Said McNeil, “If my wife wants more homers, we may have to get a puppy.”
McNeil got his wish. The super utilityman and his wife Tatiana officially adopted the pup soon after that first meeting, naming it Willow after the street they were married on.
Willow is no longer a puppy; she’s since grown into quite a massive dog. Fortunately for the McNeils, she gets along well with Mac, the cat that the couple adopted in December. The two pets share a beautiful bond, as well as an Instagram page (@misswillowmcneil)!
As for Jeff McNeil’s home run tear, it didn’t end after he added Willow to the family. Though his average dipped in the second half of the season, McNeil slugged .591 from August 1st onward.
So hot boy summer was also a hot Squirrel summer.
Charging Buffalo
The Mets could not have enjoyed such a thrilling second half without the contributions of catcher Wilson Ramos.
Despite solid numbers with runners in scoring position, Ramos had mostly fallen short of expectations in his first season with the Mets. Then, at the start of August, the backstop flipped the switch and began to resemble the player that won a Silver Slugger award in 2016.
Ramos hit safely in 26 straight games from August 3rd to September 3rd. During that stretch, he batted .430 with 18 RBIs and a .590 slugging percentage. The streak was tied for the second-longest hitting streak in Mets history, and was the longest hit streak of the 2019 season by a wide margin. Believe it or not, it was also the longest hit streak ever produced by a Venezuelan-born player.
What I find most astounding about Ramos’s run, however, is that he extended it as a pinch hitter three times. Talk about coming up clutch!
deGromination
I would be remiss to discuss the 2019 Mets and not mention the team’s ace, Jacob deGrom. Fresh off his 2018 Cy Young victory, deGrom got off to an uncharacteristically shaky start in 2019. A few rain delays early in the season disrupted deGrom’s rhythm and left him with a lackluster 4.85 ERA through the end of April.
Just when it appeared that deGrom had no chance of securing a second straight Cy Young, he found his groove and resumed his typical deGromination. The righty was lights out after the All-Star break, pitching to a 1.44 ERA in the second half and ending the season on a 23-inning scoreless streak.
He was so good that he even made the hideous all-white jerseys from Players Weekend look cool (well, relatively speaking). On August 23rd against the Braves, deGrom fanned 13 batters over seven innings of one-run ball. He also held his own at the plate by smacking an opposite-field solo homer for his team’s only run of the game.
DeGrom’s sensational play during the Mets’ late-season run helped him overtake Hyun-jin Ryu in NL Cy Young voting.
Searle’s Final Say
The 2019 Mets will always hold a special place in my heart. The team was on the verge of obscurity, but they roared back with a spirited vengeance. What I remember most about the season, however, is how the fans responded to Pete Alonso’s message and brought postseason energy to regular season baseball at Citi Field.
