new york mets

The New York Mets may be preparing for a playoff run in 2022, but outfielder Starling Marte has an eye on next season, and he's been recruiting players online.

The results are in on one of the Capital Region's biggest sports debates: which sports franchise do Albany fans love the most? We finally have answers.

The New York Mets by not winning the National League East have an extremely difficult road to reach the World Series.

Conventional wisdom for most New York Mets fans would see right-handed ace Jacob deGrom starting Game 1 of this weekend's Wild Card series. Ace (1A) Max Scherzer would get the nod for Game 2 followed by Chris Bassitt in Game 3, if necessary. These are the precise circumstances owner Steve Cohen and general manager Billy Eppler hired Buck Showalter to manage their baseball team. In most Major League Baseball situations, Buck's been there and a little unconventional wisdom, from his Yankees managerial days, may get the Mets deep into the playoffs.

Tuesday night was "Bark in the Bark" night at Citi Field. Dogs and their loving owners were sprinkled through the stadium for the second-to-last regular season game. One four-legged friend stole fans' hearts and a special home run ball early in the game.

On the same evening that New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge crushed his American League record, and non-steroid era record, 62nd home run, the Bombers' crosstown, National League little brother was making some MLB long-ball history of their own. After winning the first game of the doubleheader, with a whisper of hope of winning the NL East, the New York Mets needed to come out firing on all cylinders and that they did at a historic pace.

The Mets now sit on Monday two games behind the Braves with three games remaining in the regular season. The Mets have nobody to blame but themselves.

Friday night may have been the most important game of the 2022 regular season for the New York Mets, actually I think it is Saturday but we'll get to that later. Manager Buck Showalter re-arranged the pitching rotation to start Jacob deGrom in Game 1 in Atlanta, much like you will expect to see in the upcoming playoffs against whomever the Mets face, in whatever series they are in. However, there was much more on the line for deGrom and Mets owner Steve Cohen.

It's not easy to play college baseball in the northeast. The season officially starts in mid-February. Your home field is usually buried by six inches of icy snow. If you are lucky enough to practice outdoors, every batted ball comes with a nice sting, as the wind brings your eyes to tears. Fun stuff. That's why after tearing up America East pitching in 2022, a former University at Albany baseball star got signed by the New York Mets in July. This week he helped the single-A St. Lucie Mets win a championship.

If Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer can stay healthy the rest of the season, and that’s a big if, the Mets can win the World Series.

Since the turn of the century, there have been some constants in New York sports. The Yankees are most likely to be pretty good and make the playoffs. The Giants will win a Super Bowl every decade or so. The Mets are bad, ok, good and then will collapse and now seem really good. The Jets are terrible and yes, they won on Sunday but have a long way to go before that classification is lifted. I will provide Robert Saleh a receipt for that statement for his files.

In the never ending pursuit to get fans in the stadium faster and more efficiently, the New York Mets joined the Cleveland Browns, among others, and began scanning your face, as you enter Citi Field. Beginning at the start of the 2022 season, billionaire owner of the Metropolitans, Steve Cohen expanded an optional, facial-recognition ticketing program at the entrances of Citi Field. The hopes are that you'll get in the gate faster but some fear that there could be other dangers.