2015 New York Mets

I am not by nature an avid sportsman.  In my teens and twenties I did a bit of solo stuff, like running, biking, and lifting weights.  But I was never a team player.  Despite this, I always enjoyed watching football and still do, to a certain extent, in my forties.  Also, my father was a huge baseball aficionado, and a Mets fan, and I was “forced” to suffer through the late-70s Mets on TV and a whole bunch of games at Shea.

It took a little over 30 years to get that out of my system.

Then, in 2013, finding football a little too stressful (hello Eli Manning / Tom Coughlin New York Giants), I wondered if a return to baseball might be a pleasant thing.

It was.

So I am looking forward to the 2015 MLB season, which starts in three-and-a-half weeks. 

Now, I am under no delusions of the quality of the New York Mets.  But check this out.  In 2013, they went 74-88.  Last year they finished 79-83, +5 compared to the previous season.

I’ve been telling the wife, a dedicated Met-hater / Yankee fan, that I’d consider anything over .500 from this team a victorious season.  Judging by what I’ve read so far, I think they have a decent shot at it this year, though I will concede a lot of variables will have to fall their way.

81-81 would be a +2 improvement over the previous season.  If they continue with the current +5 trend, they’d finish 84-78, not quite good enough for a Wild Card berth but definitely respectable.  Last year there was some pre-season crowing about “90 wins” that ultimately bit them in the backside, and I, like 99 percent of the metropolitan population, believe that still remains a definitive example of too-wishful-thinking.

My very uninformed, totally amateur opinion – I’d like to see ’em finish at least 83-79, with the goal of keeping those losses under 80.