 Excellent photo by Steve Mitchell, USA Today, via Reuters With a great deal of Metsian guilt, I confess that I wandered around the house Wednesday night after the Mets took a 7-0 lead. Time to get some stuff organized. Had to get ready for the Clown Car Thursday night. Have I learned nothing in 53 2/3 seasons of watching this club? Imagine my surprise when I returned to the radio and heard Juan Uribe saying that in baseball you never know. Still, the Mets have won six straight -- and there is talk about David Wright and Michael Cuddyer getting ready to come back. Ummm. That's all I'm saying. Meantime, the summer doldrums keep getting postponed. Already a people's choice for his tears last week, Wilmer Flores evaded a tag Tuesday for a crucial run in Miami. His slide reminded me of the sideways one-and-a-half gainer dive by Mickey Mantle in the 1960 World Series, to avoid Rocky Nelson's tag at first base, one of the great impromptu athletic moves ever seen on a baseball field. Wilmer Flores. Mickey Mantle. Same sentence. Also red-hot is Ron Darling, who has made himself into one of the great baseball broadcasters. Darling spotted his lodge brother, Jon Niese, the on-deck batter, in a direct line with Flores, urgently waving for him to go wide to his right. Everybody is playing up. In the usual August torpor, I have other things I want to write about, but the Mets have won five straight as of Wednesday morning. "Pitching!!!!" Bill Wakefield, the best reliever on the 1964 Mets, says in an e-mail. "Bandwagon!!!" texts the noted women's soccer writer, Laura Vecsey. "Madhouse!!!" writes David Vecsey, our correspondent from the Mets' ballpark Sunday night. David said he felt the season ratchet up in the eighth inning Sunday when Terry Collins let Noah Syndegaard deal with Brian Harper with two outs in the eighth. The kid blew away the kid with 99-mph heat. It is on. I have run out of vapid attempts at profundity. It’s summer. Humidity saps the brain. I have seen family and friends, gone swimming, watered lawns and flowers. We went to Queens for the National Theatre in a movie house.We went to Hicksville for dosa. Mostly, the days and nights are built around the Mets I sold myself to the devil last winter when the snow was piled high and there was nothing on television as usual. Please, I bargained, just make this a good baseball season. The devil has kept his end. The Mets are captivating, even when they lose. This is why baseball is the greatest game. They play every day. This past week has been one of the weirdest stretches I have ever seen. You know all this already. On Wednesday, Wilmer Flores heard rumors from the selfie crowd that he had been traded. Flores cried. The social-media gossip was premature. My son and I texted each other: What’s wrong with Familia? Wait, can they trade Wheeler after surgery? On Thursday, the front office clarified: no trade. On Friday, the Mets got Yoenis Cespedes, but kept Flores. (Gardening note: The Mets now have players named Lawns and Flowers in Spanish. Make of this what you will. Perhaps they will trade for a player named Árboles.) On Friday, Flores ended the game with a homer. My son texted Well, that was obviously going to happen. I have never seen players embrace a teammate so fervently. Ron Darling said the same thing Monday night. On Saturday, Cespedes flailed at sinkers. I worried he would turn into this year’s Foy, this year’s Samuel, this year's Vaughn, this year’s Bay, but he could be the great rent-a-slugger the Mets have ever had. Lucas Duda kept hitting homers. I'm sorry I called him a lug. I was building my Sunday around the dreaded 8 PM game. Then on Sunday morning there was a charity soccer match from Wembley. My Arsenal and Chelsea mates watched – together again! – in Brooklyn. Wenger 1, Mourinho 0. Done and dusted, as somebody once said. Sunday night was insane. Too bad ESPN was doing the game. The great Richard Sandomir critiques the office-temp superficiality of national broadcasts. Must read this. On Monday, Cespedes and Conforto and Colon were magnificent. The Mets are in first place. Can’t write now. Things just getting interesting.  Lawns and Flowers. Mets Won First Four With Cespedes
Ed Martin
8/2/2015 08:17:34 am
Hey, GV, relax, you got a life! Montreal Gazette, full of MLS soccer news, (squeezed in between Hockey, even in July). Drogba, even not ready to play and Villa in NYC, and then Ignacio Piatti scores!
John McDermott
8/2/2015 09:45:00 am
And once again the Not-Really-Very-Special One shows his ego and lack of grace and class. He ostentatiously greeted and congratulated every Arsenal player as they descended from the medal presentation-some of the players were visibly uncomfortable-and then made a show of childishly turning his back just as Arsene Wenger approached. Mourinho might be a very good manager. But he's not such a great man.
Brian Savin
8/3/2015 01:34:16 am
This is just like the old days! I remember (barely) times when I was so excited by a game that the first thing I would do the next morning is open the sports pages and read about it from again from the viewpoint of trusted eyes. Oh boy, it happened! It really did! And there's more! Tell me more! The journalistic retelling is everything to a fan! ....And Sunday's gem was lesson enough to never leave your team when it's caught in a time/space singularity of good cheer. You may have broken the spell and saved your soul, but I hope you didn't screw up tonight's game outcome. Come back before it's too late. Tell us about only the glorious Mets.
Mendel
8/3/2015 06:50:51 pm
After hearing we swept the Nationals, my youngest son yelled “the Mets were never in the playoffs when I was alive.” Later, clad in orange and blue, we carved “Mets” in the sand at the beach in Rishon LeTzion. Its hot this week in Israel and in Flushing too.
Brian Savin
8/4/2015 12:43:18 am
The pleasant journey continued Monday: Mets 12, Marlins 1. However, Duda allowed doubt and was punished by the gods with the golden sombrero foretold for all who waiver in faith.
George Vecsey
8/4/2015 02:00:42 am
Mendel, nice to hear from you. Our-son-the-text-messager was born the day the Mets clinched the division in 1969. That winter I wrote in my book on the Mets (Joy in Mudville) that the Mets had been winners all his life., They have regressed often (the Samuel deal being perhaps the lowest point) but the last four days have been nuts. Nice touch, orange and blue on the beach. Be well, GV
Josh Rubin
8/4/2015 04:13:36 am
I have been hesitant even to comment on this thread out of superstition (kine ayn hora, etc). To be in first place 2/3 of the way through, missing Wright and Wheeler for season, catcher for most of it, it is just more than I would have expected as even an optimistic fan. I like them not just as a bunch of players with a winning record but as a team -- they care about the game and play with a lot of heart. (And I will try not to think about inning counts.)
George Vecsey
8/4/2015 04:48:21 am
Josh, that is true. Actually, the Mets have played for Collins since he came here. I'm not around the team but from I never get the sense that players are going through the motions (even when they were losing). Harvey groused about the rotation and Collins seems to have said, "Tough," or words to that effect. GV 8/4/2015 11:06:26 am
All good stuff. I've liked Collins from the beginning. He is living proof that Leo Durocher's "Nice guys finish last" is a myth.
George Vecsey
8/4/2015 11:49:38 am
Alan, your lips to G-d's ears.,
Josh Rubin
8/5/2015 05:45:51 am
It's a joy to read your running commentary on this stretch of the season. I'll add with respect to Flores that some heartless soul wrote the Daily News to ridicule Flores with Tom Hanks's line, "there's no crying in baseball!" only to be slammed mercilessly the following day. There's a good feeling about what's going on with the team right now that goes beyond a mere winning streak. It is also much more fun to root for a team that is grown, like a garden, than one that is purchased. It's great to see players that I may have seen live a few years back playing A ball in Coney Island doing so well, now.
George Vecsey
8/5/2015 08:19:04 am
Josh, thanks. I agree about most of the pitchers...and Lagares and Tejada and Flores etc. But they have picked up 4 players in a week as part of the July fire sale economy. Cespedes is a summer rental. I hated it when they unloaded Cone to Toronto back when. Still, the players adjust in a heartbeat (most of them)....and so do the fans. Imagine seeing Cespedes walk into the clubhouse. He seems like a good guy, too. Onward. GV
Josh Rubin
8/5/2015 08:20:47 am
I was right. Per WSJ article linked below, 9 current Mets played for the Cyclones at some point. Very unusual since Cyclones are short season league and not everyone passes through this level.
Josh Rubin
8/5/2015 08:23:42 am
Sorry. Our paths crossed, Not meant as a rebuttal. I agree with your points as well.
George Vecsey
8/5/2015 08:35:23 am
Josh, rebuttals are good. I saw Mike Jacobs play the first year of the Cyclones, and followed him afterward., just because. Nine is amazing.
Alan D. Levine
8/5/2015 10:59:07 am
I was there last Wednesday and I was there Sunday. I really believed last Thursday's disaster was karma, the Billy Goat, for trying to trade Flores. I am so happy to say I was wrong. I haven't been so excited about them since the mid-1980s.
George Vecsey
8/7/2015 01:42:46 am
Alan, nice to hear from you. I remember the mid-80's. I had to miss our Jamaica High reunion on a Saturday night in late Oct -- oh, right, the Mookie Game. You think we should avoid planning something for late Oct. this year? G
Alan D. Levine
8/17/2015 11:40:27 am
Before this weekend, I would have said, "Yes." Now, I'm not so sure. But, as someone else in the office said, you never know which team may get very hot in October.
George Vecsey
8/7/2015 01:53:09 am
Cher Kizi200: Merci, mais c'est seul un blog -- l'opinion gratuit, pas des faits. GV 8/7/2015 12:32:01 am
George
George Vecsey
8/7/2015 01:48:45 am
Alan, today's NYT has a Borden feature on Wenger -- 20 years in the same job. Soccer has the least intrusion by coaches/managers during the match. I think there is something to be said for a leader to prowl the sideline to spot trends, bad formations, opportunities, etc., Soccer coaches are far less involved minute by minute than coaches in other team sports -- who call plays, pitches, line changes. I watched Butch van breda Kolff whistle at his players at Hofstra....every play. Great coach. But he was also a soccer player, and you cannot control every pass in that sport. GV
Hansen Alexander
8/7/2015 03:38:25 am
For a while there, I feared Cespedes was the new Roberto Kelly, the outfielder who kept getting traded for no good reason other than he could bring value in return. The Mets should sign him long term when his contract is up. Besides his hitting and fielding, he has one of the better arms in baseball. 12/21/2015 07:53:00 am
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