So That's What the Playoffs Are Like, Huh!

You know when you have random thoughts of "I really want to get away" or "We should totally do this"? You know when you pose those types of questions on Facebook and people respond, yet nothing comes of it? Well Saturday afternoon I posed such a question. "Anyone want to go see a Mets game Sunday?" I had some interested responders, and I thought nothing would come of it. But one friend was serious. And thanks to her, and my credit card, we went!

Dusty Baker on TBS

We left Binghamton a little before 3pm. Now, due to traffic (most of which might have been due to the NY Jets game just ending) and a random detour through a New Jersey town (thanks to Rosie, my GPS), it took us over an hour longer than we anticipated to get to Citi Field from Binghamton. Almost four and a half hours to be precise (or as precise as an almost allows).

BUT NONE OF THAT MATTERS!

We were there! We were at a New York Mets playoff home game! Our teams first playoff run in nine years! Excited doesn't even begin to describe it!

Former Mets on TBS:
Gary Sheffield and Pedro Martinez

The crowd was electric. People were chanting, cheering, and anticipating the start of the game. The lineups were announced, with the Chicago Cubs receiving nonstop boos, and our home-team Mets receiving almost all cheers (the lone standout was for Lucas Duda, who received his typical "Duuuuu" chant which sounds like boos, but aren't, but might have been considering his recent struggles, but anyways)! The crowd was ready, the teams were ready, I was ready.

Noah Syndergaard came out throwing gas! 97 on the black to start the game. Ground ball to Murphy, bobbled, but recovered in time for the first out. Crowd roaring, but still holding back like it was waiting for something. Strike three, and more roaring. Single, and it was like air out of a bag. Strike three again, and AC/DC's thunderstruck plays. The crowd on their feet, but still holding back. Still waiting. Then Curtis "Grandy" Granderson comes up to leadoff for the Mets. After falling behind, he hits a single in the hole. Not a single fan has sat down yet. Then the Captain comes up, and David Wright launches a ball over the center fielder's head and one bounces it off the wall. Grandy scores, Wright to second. Crowd jumping and waving. Mets up 1-0.

Travis d'Arnaud bruised the Apple in Game 1

But the place still seemed like it was waiting for something. Or someone. And that someone was now up to the plate, the only player this crowd cared about. Daniel Murphy. The guy who almost single handedly won the NLDS for the Mets, homering off of the two best pitchers in baseball three times. The guy who the night prior, during Game 1 of the NLCS, homered again off of the former Red Sox pitcher, Jon Lester, to help lead the Mets to a Game 1 victory. This guy, Murph, was right on the first pitch fastball from Arrieta. He hooked a slider low and inside right down the line, pulling it foul, feet from the foul pole. He scoffed at Arrieta's fastball outside. And then he did it. He knelt down, struck the curve ball inches from the ground, and hooked it over the wall for a two-run homerun! He did it! Again! Murphy hit a homerun! He tied a franchise playoff record!

The stadium finally erupted to highest decibel, shaking the building to its core! Everyone was jumping, screaming, hugging, embracing friends and strangers alike. You couldn't hear. You couldn't see, aside from a sea of orange and blue waving like a storm over everyone and everything. Daniel Murphy continued not only his hot hitting during the postseason, but he continued to etch his name into the upper echelon of Mets players. A level of fan favoritism usually associated with the likes of Seaver, Gooden, and Piazza. A place Team Captain David Wright has been working his way towards for eleven seasons. Murphy was doing it all in a matter of weeks. And he took a well deserved curtain call to chants of "MVP".

The rest of the game fed off the ferocity of that first inning, with the momentum never leaving the Mets side. Mid-season pick-up, Yoenis Cespedes, drove in the fourth Mets run in the third, and the rest was Thor (Syndergaard). He dropped the hammer on the Cubbies, going five and two-thirds solid innings giving up only one run while striking out nine. The crowd almost never sat down, standing whenever a strikeout was coming, or when a play was made. Orange towels waving nonstop.

When the game was over, the atmosphere was not. Fans couldn't stop talking about the game, the team, the pitching, and Murphy. Everyone left the stadium to a chorus of "Let's Go Mets" and "Daniel Murphy! MVP!". Connections were made throughout the night to people you've never met before. You'll never meet them again, but you'll both remember that night you went to that game. That night your team won.

Experiencing a playoff game is one thing. Experiencing one cheering for a team you've loved your whole life, a team who has gone through such ugly lows, surrounded by thousands of people who have struggled through those lows right along with you and the team, and are now experiencing winning at its finest and most fun, is a whole other feeling. I cannot even begin to put it into words due to the inability to fully describe how the last nine years have felt: Carlos Beltran's called strike three. Two collapses. Two General Managers. Three Managers. Bernie Maddoff. Reyes leaving in the 3rd inning, and leaving the Mets, while winning a batting title. RA Dickey winning the CY Young award while pitching for one of the worst teams in baseball. Castillo's dropped pop up. Jason Bay, Brad Emaus, Chris Young, Oliver Perez. The list is endless, and yet its only nine years of the franchise's entire existence. All of that was forgiven and forgotten for most fans the second they won the division this year. But for me, it wasn't until I was there. Standing, surrounded by thousands of other fans, wearing orange and blue, that I realized this is real. This team is real. They're winning. It won't stop, and we don't want it to.

Let's Go Mets!

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