No, this isn’t The Onion: the New York Mets have actually taken the National League East division title and secured their spot at the upcoming MLB playoffs.
Led by Dominican-American starting pitcher Bartolo Colón, the long-desired pass came after defeating the Cincinnati Reds 10-2 last Saturday.
And just how surprising is this? The Mets had not won their division title since 2006, and before that it was 1988, when the Soviet Union still existed and Pablo Escobar was not a fugitive. Let’s just say a lot of things have happened since then.
But what happened this season that has the Mets heading to the playoffs? After the pre-season games, 4 out of 6 Grantland baseball experts had the Washington Nationals winning the World Series, and all of them had them winning the division. The two other experts had the Miami Marlins winning the World Series. So we can only say that the experts have completely struck out, as the Mets have just won the division that includes both Washington and Miami.
The Mets’ regional title is also more impressive due to the fact that they were a mediocre team until halfway through the season, but that’s when the Cuban factor was introduced. The Mets signed Cuban outfielder Yoenis Céspedes from the Detroit Tigers and the caribeño gave the New York team the boost they desperately needed.
So for now we can only say the Mets are in the playoffs, but maybe in a little more than a month from now we’ll be saying that the Mets have won their first World Series since 1986.