Baseball is a grind.
With 162 video games played, not just is it physically taxing however psychologically draining pipes. With such a long season, it’s important to have a good time along the method.
For much of the summertime, the 2022 Mets did have a good time. Yes, it’s constantly enjoyable when the group is winning and the Mets did a great deal of that last season. But it was clear the club had a good time playing the video game.
Whether it was Tomas Nido making faces at the electronic camera from the dugout, Edwin Diaz going into the video game from the bullpen with trumpets, or relatively everyone on the group tinkering supervisor Buck Showalter, the Mets were having a good time.
Then, something occurred about midway through the month of September, according to Pete Alonso.
It might have been the long, tough season — one in which the Mets played extraordinary to that point — reaching them, the pressure of keeping their season-long, first-place lead over the rising Atlanta Braves, or something else completely, however it looked like though the Mets stopped having a good time.
“The whole goal is to get to the playoffs after 162 and then capitalize and then obviously compete and win the championship,” Alonso told SNY in an interview airing on Wednesday night’s episode of Mets Hot Stove. “So for us I feel like going down that road, once we kind of got halfway through September, as a team I feel like we didn’t have as much fun as we should’ve.”
Even from an outsider’s viewpoint it appeared that the club lost a bit of that pleasure that originates from playing baseball.
And regardless of not having a single month where they completed listed below .500, the Mets stumbled towards completion throughout what was thought about the softest part of their schedule, losing their department lead in the last week of the season prior to eventually losing to the San Diego Padres in the Wild Card Series.
“We played excellent ball all year long, we were extremely consistent from day one to 162,” Alonso stated. “We didn’t, obviously, end it the way we wanted.”
Perhaps part of the thinking New York lost its stimulate is since losing to the groups you’re expected to beat can be extremely discouraging, particularly at the end of a season. But even when things are spoiling, it’s important to stop and value the good ideas.
“Granted, it’s awesome to work hard and you work so hard all year long and you’re finally right there close to the finish line, I feel like we didn’t enjoy it as much as we should’ve because in baseball you never know when you can capture magic,” Alonso stated. “And I feel like we had it but we didn’t necessarily fully enjoy the success that we had after a long year because playing the way we did is really hard.”
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