I imagine (and I can only imagine) that rooting for two baseball teams in the same league is like having two lovers. My two loves are the New York Mets and the San Francisco Giants.
I was born in Manhattan and grew up in a northern New Jersey suburb of New York City. I was nine years old when I attended my first Mets game in their inaugural season in 1962 at the Polo Grounds. I suffered through the sixties with that terrible team until the miracle of 1969, when they defeated the Baltimore Orioles in the World Series.
Mets’ Matt Harvey’s last words (photo courtesy Metsmerizedonline)
The Mets lost four games to three to the Oakland A’s in 1973, but then dramatically defeated the Red Sox in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series (the Bill Buckner game) and went on to take Game 7. The Mets have made it to the Fall Classic two more times, but lost to the Yankees in 2000 and to the Kansas City Royals in 2015.
I moved to San Francisco in 1980 and have lived in the Bay Area since. It was only natural that I became a Giants fan. I have experienced the lows–getting swept by the A’s in the 1989 earthquake-interrupted World Series and losing to the Angels in the 2002 World Series (why did you remove Russ Ortiz, Dusty Baker?)–and the highs, winning World Series titles in 2010, 2012, 2014.
I have been to a number of Mets-Giants regular-season games here at Oracle Park. I generally root for the Mets, my first love, although if the Giants win, I am also content. But now they are both vying for the final Wild Card slot, and I don’t know what to do.
The Giants have had a schizophrenic season. Their new president of baseball operations, Buster Posey, signed third baseman Matt Chapman to a long-term contract and added free agent shortstop Willy Adames before the season. That gave the Giants a very solid left side of the infield. Jung Hoo Lee, the Korean center fielder, returned from a 2024 campaign that was lost to injury. Posey also added 42-year-old Justin Verlander to the starting rotation.
San Francisco started out the season well. They were hitting, and eventually the pitching came around, as they challenged the Dodgers for first place. But then the wheels began to fall off. Adames wasn’t hitting for average or power, and Lee wasn’t producing offensively. In fact, the whole team went into a slump. At one point, Chapman, as well as his two backups, Casey Schmitt and Christian Koss, went on the injured list. Verlander pitched well at times, but got almost no run support.
Devers as a Giant (photo, Sports Illustrated)
In mid-June, Posey made a bold move, acquiring Rafael Devers from the Red Sox in a blockbuster trade. But Devers didn’t do much at the plate, and the team kept sliding. As the July 31 trade deadline loomed, Posey had to decide whether to buy or sell. He did the latter, saying so long to popular right fielder Mike Yastrzemski and relief pitchers Tyler Rogers and Camilo Doval.
While some fans felt Posey was giving up on the season, he got some good prospects in return, especially from the Mets for Rogers. And he kept the core of the team together, so he may not have been giving up, after all.
Suddenly, in late August, the Giants started winning. They were 61-68 on August 21. Since then, as of September 5, they have won 11 out of their last 12 games and are four games behind the Mets for the last Wild Card spot. Practically speaking, they are five games behind the Mets because the Mets hold the tiebreaker.
The Giants have suddenly remembered how to hit. Adames has gone on a home-run surge, and Devers is scorching hot. Lee is getting on base as well, and Heliot Ramos, despite playing a shaky left field, is hitting consistently in the leadoff spot. Logan Webb and Robbie Ray, the No. 1 and No. 2 starters, both on the All-Star team, have been consistently good, and Verlander recently had a couple of excellent outings. The team has hit home runs in 18 consecutive games, the longest streak this season in the majors.
The irony for the Mets is that they gave up some excellent prospects in the trade for Tyler Rogers, and one of them, outfielder Drew Gilbert, the Mets’ No. 12 prospect, is already reaping dividends for the Giants. Over his first four starts, he had 10 hits, eight RBIs, six extra-base hits, scored seven runs, and didn’t strike out.
The Mets, meanwhile, have not been playing well. At one time neck-and-neck with the Phillies for first place in their division, they trail the Phils by six games as of September 5. Their only hope appears to be the last Wild Card spot, although the San Diego Padres are playing so poorly they might soon slip below the second Wild Card spot.
So, for whom should I root? It’s tough for me to root against the Mets, but if the Giants were to make the playoffs, it would be astounding. Most had given up the team for dead after the July 31 trade deadline. But manager Bob Melvin, out of options, began to use his young players, like Gilbert and Luis Matos, and things started to click.
Remarkably, if the Giants stay hot and overtake the Mets for the Wild Card spot, they have a real chance at advancing in a best-of-three Wild Card Round and a best-of-five Division Series if Webb, Ray, and Verlander continue to pitch as they have. Great pitching and solid defense win championships, and the Giants have been solid in both regards as of late. Plus, their hitting, to everyone’s surprise, is suddenly off the charts.
It’s not always the team with the best record that advances. It’s the team that’s hot.
So, for a guy who grew up with “Let’s Go Mets!,” it may be time for “Let’s Go Giants!”
