The New York Mets were founded in 1962 to replace what was lost, namely the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants. Both Major League Baseball franchises ditched New York and made their new homes in California. Since that 1962 inaugural season, the New York Mets have posted a cumulative regular season record of 4551-4927 (.480%), a losing record. In 60 seasons, the Mets have made the playoffs just nine times, winning the National League Pennant five times and the World Series twice, so when they have made the playoffs, they have had some deep runs. In all of their history, the Mets have made the playoffs in successive seasons only twice. What is the point with all of these stats that read like something off the back of a baseball card? To illustrate that the Mets have been bad for a very long time with blips here or there and then a return to horrendous baseball or at best mediocrity.

In November of 2020, that all changed when the lovable losing Mets were bought by hedge fund billionaire Steve Cohen, a lifelong Mets fan, who vowed to make the Mets perennial contenders. The 2021 season did not go well at all for Cohen’s Mets but the organization finally had a deep-pocketed owner who is not afraid to splash the cash, make hard decisions, and understands that any New York sports team needs to behave like a big-market team and spend like it. Unfortunately for a lot of New Yorkers, being resigned to mediocrity while paying top dollar was something that was all too familiar considering rising cost of living in New York as the quality of services, infrastructure, and many other things continued to worsen.

Of course, a Mets ticket was less expensive than a Yankees ticket but it still cost an arm and a leg to get a hot dog and a beer at Citi Field while watching the Mets get blown out by bottom dwellers in the standings for the most part. There is hope on the horizon the Mets are now spending freely, as evidenced lately with their record-shattering signing of Max Scherzer who will earn approximately $43.3 million annually for three years which is the highest average annual value of any contract in MLB history. They are finally flexing their muscles as the New York sports team that they were always supposed to be. And New York City is getting a new mayor who  actually seems to be competent and ready for the position  and large infrastructure projects are underway all over the Empire State that will transform the region and the nation’s economy as a whole. At long last, the Mets, and it seems, the state of New York, are putting mediocrity in the rearview mirror.