The 2015 season taught me that my upbringing from the pessimistic Mets school is not a way to live. Old habits die hard, but that run to the pennant after a disheartening first half showed me that things can change on a dime. The C grades earned for Sandy Alderson and Terry Collins turned into A’s by the end of the year. It also helped that Curtis Granderson started hitting, Wilmer Flores got his mojo, the Mets got Yoenis Cespedes, and the bullpen fell into line. Only a cruel stroke of midnight in the final moments of October ruined what could have been a third Mets championship. The Mets are staggering now and they can turn it around, but help is needed from within and without.

Last year I said in the midseason report card that the end may be near for David Wright, and I am afraid I am close to the mark this time. If you watched the end of Don Mattingly’s career in the mid-1990s, it was a lot like this. After years of toiling as a star for a team that never got near the postseason, the organization turns it around but the player is not the same. And it says everything about the team speed that Wright tops the club in steals, with 3. The team has 18 SBs, lowest in the majors, and even worse, a .213 or so average with men in scoring position. The Nationals have really stepped on their neck, with last year’s Mets hero Daniel Murphy being the main difference maker. A 7-1 start to the homestand followed by losing three straight to the Nats to finish the first half (and 6 of 7 to DC) leaves an aftertaste like milk and grapefruit juice.

And now we grade. To be included, players must accrue 50 at bats or 15 innings pitched. This prevents Jose Reyes, Brandon Nimmo, Matt Reynolds, Ty Kelly, Sean Gilmartin, Erik Goeddel, Seth Lugo, and Rafael Montero from getting proper grades. Though I will say the bold experiment of bringing back Reyes is off to a good start, though it is surprising he got 3 home runs before he got 3 steals (or any steals). And Nimmo has shown some moxie. Ironically Nimmo comes up the same time as Finding Nemo II, too. Pixar may have too much pull if they can keep Conforto under the sea.

First-half 2016 Report Card

Jeurys Familia      A        Probably the main reason the Mets are in this thing at all. Dominantly moving his way up all-time Mets closer ladder.

Noah Syndergaard   A        He has thrived even as the Mets do not score for him. Absolute shame he will not pitch in the All-Star Game.

Yoenis Cespedes  A        This guy is the Mets offense: .302/.372/.583, 21-52. Another absolute shame not to have him as starting All-Star.

Bartolo Colon       B+      Big Sexy All-Star. At 43 he is the most reliable starter, in terms of not missing starts and bouncing back after stumbles.

Addison Reed       B+     Mets bullpen has been spotty this year, but Reed has been spot on and is tied with Familia with 43 appearances.

Jacob deGrom      B       Velocity could be paying price for outstanding October, but his ERA is only 0.05 higher than Noah; 91 K’s aren’t bad.

Asdrubel Cabrera  B       He is the best Mets shortstop since Reyes. Has shown power, smarts, and a good glove. Plus a cool name.

Steven Matz        B       Let’s Go Matz is a rookie and is getting rooked. Started 7-1, 2.36; since then 0-4 and Mets scored 5 runs only once.

Hansel Robles      B       Hansel (Hansel?) has pitched long relief, finished 8 games, won 3, and tied with Familia at 42.1 innings. That is a lot.

Kelly Johnson       B       Kind of a surprise, but in less than 60 plate appearances as a Met (0.7), he is third in WAR and has a game-winning HR.

Wilmer Flores       B-      He needs to play every day until he falters, at 1B, 2B, 3B, wherever. HR off Ollie held off Nats sweep. Again.

Jerry Blevins        B-      Top Mets lefty by default, he has gotten big outs and has lowest WHIP in pen (0.947). Makes me nervous, though.

James Loney       B-      At this point he is pure replacement, but has shown good glove and timely hitting on a team that lacks both.

Neil Walker          C+     Just what Mets need: Another streaky player. How Cespedes is thriving batting in front of him says everything about Yo.

Jim Henderson     C+     Back from the baseball dead, he had some really good moments and some really ugly ones before getting hurt.

Michael Conforto   C       Maybe it is just me, but a guy who has been in the minors for weeks and is still third on team in RBI should be in NY.

David Wright        C       “C” is for captain. He came up 164 times before going down and should have a grade: .226/.350/.438 is what it is.

Travis d’Arnaud    C       Has full blown reputation as constantly hurt player and a catcher with a lousy arm. Not sure he is longterm answer.

Curtis Granderson     C      Walks a lot, strikes out even more, but he does have 15 HRs and seems to do better when batting second.

Lucas Duda          C       I may never get over that throw in Game 5, hopefully Lucas will as well as his bad back and his .231/.297/.431 line.

Juan Lagares        C       I don’t know if he has a spot on this team besides defensive replacement. Keeping him in case Cespedes opts out.

Logan Verrett       C-      A true swingman, he has gamely made 6 starts but in them he is 1-4, 5.64, double his ERA out of the bullpen.

Matt Harvey        C-      Final grade for year, sadly. Gave his all last year and deserved better than being booed off mound in last start.

Rene Rivera         C-      Yes, a .187 average is bad, but both arm and pop (3 HR, 13 RBI in 86 PAs) are better than any recent backup.

Kevin Plawicki        D       Rivera has completely outplayed prospect. Will KP ever hit? His catching is not so great, either. He does draw walks.

Antonio Bastardo   D-      A few superb outings with the game on the line is all that is keeping this Bastardo from failing and his ERA under 5.00.

Alejandro d’Aza     F       A complete waste. Same number of at bats as Lagares and is -81/-49/-117 below Juan. Why does he play at all?

Eric Campbell        F       When people ask why did Mets sign Reyes, the answer is: Would you rather see .159/.270/.222 on the roster?

Manager/GM

Terry Collins          B       Has helped keep Mets focused when they could have dropped out. Head scratching decisions, but they play for him.

Sandy Alderson      B+     Grade reflects getting, and keeping, talent in ’15; plus finding affordable fixes. Letting Murph go was a mistake, though.

We are at the point in the year when three new versions of my books are out at the same moment. That’s publishing for you. But here is why all three make a great gift for Father’s Day and graduations—“Dads and Grads” being primo summer book pushes in the publishing world. Ready? Here we go!

One-Year Dynasty

One sentence summary: The story of the 1986 Mets, the most dominant season in team history followed by a pulsating postseason that turned into the franchise touchstone, and culminating with what happened to the organization in the years that followed.

Why buy for Dads: If you are a dad, you either saw this team or heard enough about the ’86 Mets where it’s time to really learn what happened, so that when junior asks why we root for them instead of the Yankees, you’ll have your answer ready: The Yankees win championships in big numbers; the Mets win championships in big ways. “Now eat your vegetables, kid!”

Why buy for Grads: If you are going on to Flushing University, you’ll probably major in Mets. And “1986 Mets: Introduction to Awesomeness” is a 200 level course. In terms of partying though, the ’86 Mets are at a postgrad level.

100 Things Mets Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die (For latest edition, get book with orange letters on front and deGrom on back)

One sentence summary: What, the title wasn’t long and explanatory enough… well, I added lots of new stuff in the third edition about the current team, including Terry Collins, the Fantastic Four staff, updates on last postseason, Mets finances, trades, and Daniel Murphy’s crazy October cracks the top 20 (oh, if only the Mets would have justified this making the top 5).

Why buy for Dads: Dads get asked all kinds of questions about everything by kids, who expect cogent answers. I remember as a youngster watching The Courtship of Eddie’s Father with the Hulk and the kid on the Yankees in The Bad News Bears who wouldn’t throw the ball because he was miffed that his dad, Vic Morrow from Combat, slapped him on the field. What was the question again?

Why buy for Grads: All that fancy book learning and they don’t even know how many different stadiums the Mets have appeared in for a game. Give up? It’s 55. And that’ll be the grade you get on the test if you don’t bone up on everything Mets fans should… you know.

Mets by the Numbers (2nd edition)

One sentence summary: Jon Springer’s mbtn.net site comes to life once more on all things Mets uniform numbers, and the book is even more uniform numbery than before, with all the new numbers and personalities added since the first edition in 2008—edition 2 is still No. 1.

Why buy for Dads: I am just a co-star here, but I will say that I have had some of the best comments from some of the smartest Mets fans about this book. Besides changing every chapter, we added almost all new pictures, thanks mostly to overflowing vaults of Jason Kanarek and Dan Carubia. We have images of Mets from Eddie Kranepool to Bartolo Colon, and numbers are busting out all over.

Why buy for Grads: After studying for 12, 16, or 20-plus years, you may be worn down from all that school reading. This is the perfect book to get you back on track for pleasure reading. The history of the Mets by uniform number, told through stories, uni numbers, and stats. Sit back, relax, and take a number.

Can’t decide which one to buy? Well, buy them all, of course. If you want to buy from me and get an autograph of whatever you want, email me on the site with subject line “Buy Book,” and we’ll get cracking. Or if you want to mail me a copy, I’ll be glad to sign and mail it back. We aims to please.

My son, Ty, not to be confused with new Met Ty Kelly (with #55, not a lot is expected of that Ty), is proud of his papa and loaded my talk on WAMC on youtube, so we are linking up. But we do discuss the relevant topic with Northeast Public Radio host Joe Donahue: “Why does Matt Harvey suck so much?” I think Dan Warthen will be calling me tomorrow to get me to tap into the Dark Knight’s psyche.

The youtube link is here. And it is one dark screen, so try out this link on where you can pick up One-Year Dynasty to keep your eyes busy.

I am doing limited appearances this year for One-Year Dynasty, but please use this as a Save the Date invitation: I will speak at the NATIONAL BASEBALL HALL OF FAME IN COOPERSTOWN ON SATURDAY, AUGUST 20, AT 1 P.M. Even after doing it in 2001 and 2013, it is still an Amazin’ honor, but that’s all there is to say about it right now. So I will tell you about the day-night doubleheader of promotion on May 20.

The daytime portion was at the WAMC Northeast Public Radio in Albany. I wake up to the station every morning, so it was kind of a big thing for me to visit the studio and see the people whose voices I had long heard. I even set up my Twitter account on my phone (if you care, most of my writing and posting is done from my desktop on my, well, desk). When I was in the green room, though, I got just nervous enough to forget to inundate my Twitter peeps with imminent warnings of my on air arrival. But it’s OK. If you missed it live or in the headline, here is the link.

After flipping through a copy of Ansel Adams in Color in the green room, I started re-reading my book as if in the final minutes before an exam for which I knew the material like I’d written the book, so to speak. Joe Donahue is a real pro and made me feel at home and we had a great talk. I then got in my car, drove 50 miles back to work, got off work, got back in the car, and drove to the exact same block for the nighttime book-signing portion at the Low Beat.

Run by Howard Glassman, the Low Beat is a Mets centric location in Yankeesland. His previous bar, Valentine’s, served a similar need in the Capital District. We set up the idea when I saw him at a Brooklyn Cyclones-Tri-City Valley Cats game last August. Nine months later a unique and wonderful day was born. Thanks to Dan Carubia, Arnold Dorman, Howard, Mike and Linda (not sure I got that 100 percent right), and everyone else who came on down. It was fun to pontificate from a barstool with the Mets winning, live music cranking, and a Narragansett at my elbow. Cheers!

There were a lot of nervous moments in the finale of the Mets-Padres series in San Diego. But the one that had me as nervous as any situation was when San Diego native Kevin Mitchell entered the booth and talked with Gary Cohen and Ron Darling.

Mitchell was a Met for one year (and parts of a couple others as a September call-up), but he is still a beloved figure in Mets lore. It was his hit, of course, that kept the impossible rally going during the 10th inning of Game Six of the ’86 World Series. It is a linchpin in any 1986 retelling, as it certainly is for One-Year Dynasty. (Come to think of it, that could also be the name for Mitch’s one-year Mets career before going on to be MVP.)

I got a hold of Mitch a year ago after several failed attempts due to health concerns, which left him unable to move for a time. Finally we talked at length on the phone. It was a remarkable interview, and he set a few things straight. One of them was whether he was in the locker room at Shea, naked from the waist down, making reservations to fly home to his native San Diego as the rally began and he was summoned to pinch hit against Mets prospect turned Red Sox closer Calvin Schiraldi. The story has gone around for years and he once even confirmed it for a writer. Ballplayers and their memories can be fluid. Some remember every detail like it just happened a few hours ago. Others seem to have the ability to boil their entire career into one hell of a story that occurred all in one day. I don’t get a lot of scoops, but this one felt as much like a scope for a 30-year-old event. Yet it would be knocked out of the water if he said on the air that he pinch-hit commando.

I breathed easier when Darling said, “Of course you were on the bench the whole time.” Knew it all along. So did Mitch.

Contrary to urban myth, Mitchell was in the dugout the whole time, pants on, ready to pinch-hit. Where else would he have been? “I’ll tell everybody right now: How in the hell was I able to be on deck and get a base hit? I’m a rookie. What the hell am I going to be doing in the clubhouse?” Mitchell said, denying the oft-told story that he had taken off his pants in the clubhouse in the 10th while making plane reservations for home in San Diego. “Everybody has a story to build up the hype. I’m in a World Series game. And I’m learning something, my first World Series. Mookie Wilson told me, ‘Be prepared to hit.’ . . . Why would I be making a reservation when the Mets pay for your flight to go home? As a rookie? Tell me that.”

As an aside, don’t ask him about cutting off a cat’s head—a myth started by Dwight Gooden and perpetuated even in recent years by Darryl Strawberry. Suffice to say, it’s also false. But do ask Mitchell about his at bat against his former minor league roommate, Calvin Schiraldi.

“That was true,” Mitchell said. “He would always talk about how he’d pitch me. And I took the first pitch for a strike on an inside fastball. [Footnote: It was a foul ball on a checked swing.] He always said that he’d start me off with a fastball inside and then he’d throw me a slider. And he did it. And I looked for the slider on the next pitch and got it.”

[One-Year Dynasty, Chapter 14, 2016, Lyons Press]

But then again I’ve known for 30 years that you could trust Kevin Mitchell to come up big when you needed him most. Glad to see he’s feeling a lot better than he was a year ago.

# #

Going to be in the Albany area on Friday May 20? Or if you weren’t planning to be there, change plans and come on up for Happy Hour on Friday, May 20, at 6 p.m. to the Low Beat. It is the Mets bastion of light in the upstate universe. I’ll be selling One-Year Dynasty and I will also have the new edition of 100 Things Mets Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die. We’ll watch the Mets game and down a couple.

# #

First review of One Year Dynasty goes to Lloyd Carroll. Writing for Queens publication Good Times Magazine, Carroll said, “For those who want to relive ’86 in vivid detail, check out Matt Silverman’s One-Year Dynasty (Lyons Press). Silverman, who has written many books on the Mets, gets the little details down, including how Lenny Dykstra and Roger McDowell appeared on MTV with Martha Quinn. he also gets a few of the Mets to admit the fear they had for Houston Astros pitcher Mike Scott, and some admit they would have lost Game 7 to them if they had to face him in the National League Championship Series for a third time.” And the first reviewer on amazon.com said it was “fantastic.” Well, my ego’s been soothed for a week.

May 1, 2016 is what’s called the publication date for One-Year Dynasty, my new book about the last Mets world champion, 30 years old. Will we ever see another world champion? It may be sooner than we could dream or it could be another 30 years. (God, I hope not.)

I don’t know when the next Mets parade will be, but I do know all about the last one. I believe the 1969 world championship will always be the most important title in club history, but 1986 is the most significant, surely now, because it is the one in the most people’s mindset. Even if they weren’t yet born, there are everyday reminders of what that team did. But how did they really do it, day by day, month by month, when it was actually happening? How did they own New York? What was New York like in the grips of a Mets frenzy? It was the kind that is all the more rabid because it will not last forever—a fever burning hot and then it’s gone. One-Year Dynasty: Inside the Rise and Fall of the 1986 Mets, Baseball’s One-and-Done Champions is for the people who never lost the fever, and those who cam along too late to appreciate that ’86 team.

I looked at dozens of hours of video (thank you, Larry DC), read tons of old newspapers, magazines, books, and dug up other stuff I had forgotten ever existed. And I dug up people who were there, whether playing for the team, managing them, sitting in the press box, or, in the case of Ed Randall, flying over Shea Stadium when the pennant could have gone either way.

It was an incredible season. The Mets were as dominant as any National League team between the birth of the World Series in 1903 and the addition of the wild card and the extra playoff rounds that, frankly, have watered down division titles and made it hard to compare them with teams of the past who, like the 1985 Mets could win 98 game and go home with nothing. Experts on the subject claim the ’86 Mets are still one of the 10 best teams of all time. And yet their victory after being down to their last out in the World Series with no one on base and down by two runs is still the most unlikely comeback ever.

Relive it with Keith and Davey, Wally and Mookie, Bobby O. and Kevin Mitchell, plus fans, writers, bloggers, and dazed Red Sox players and followers. It’s the ’86 Mets. Still coming to your town, they’re going to party it down. Big ’80s, big life.

As I did with Swinging ’73, I place baseball in the context of its times. Everything from the music (Wang Chung, anyone?) to the movies (Bueller, Bueller? Maverick?) to the Pittsburgh Drug Trials to collusion to Geraldo’s debacle of Al Capone’s vault to MTV to the tragedy of what happened to some of the stars and the whole organization in the years to follow, right up until the current resurgence. Everything about the Mets goes back to 1986. Three decades later, they’re still trying to get back to that stage where they own the late innings of late October. That is how a dynasty is formed, even it lasts a year on the field, it is still in the mind.

I am not planning a lot of promotion, at least not initially, except for a signing at the Low Beat in Albany around 6 p.m. on Friday, May 20. I’m glad to send signed copies to people for Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, graduation, and all the days in between. Contact me at the site, if you’d like.

But remember ’86, celebrate ’86. It is the touchstone for Mets fans young and old. It was the Mets painted as big and bold as they can be, backing up the talk, making us sweat, and covering us in the sticky residue of champagne and beer. Maybe the boys stayed too long and loud at the party. But it’s where we come from. It’s our Mets DNA.

Jeff Long of Baseball Prospectus won the fourth annual Greg Spira Award, given to writers under 30 whose pieces on baseball display innovative analysis and reasoning. There have been some pieces that deal with people more than numbers and Long’s BP article sort of dealt with both. he used state of the art programs to compare players of different skill sets and came up with some interesting results. Interesting enough for the $1,000 first prize.

The $200 second prize went to Jon Feyan for his homework. His capstone project for gradual school at Cardinal Stritch University in Wisconsin looked at analytics through eyes of baseball personnel. It is intriguing how that argument has completely turned around from a decade ago from maverick outcasts when Moneyball first came out to the way business is done.

In between doing his high school homework, 18-year-old Ben Diamond looked at the success rate of shoulder surgery for pitchers. It is not the slam dunk experts would have you believe. Remember Johan Santana? Diamond got $100 for his third-place entry. Here is the release with links to all the three winning entries. 

Great job not just writing these pieces, but getting the pieces in for the Greg Spira Award, named after a good friend and a great Mets fan who died too young from kidney disease. We worked together on the Maple Street Press Mets Annual for four years and I’ve been judging this for four years without him. He would have turned 49 this week and he would have loved seeing the Mets finally sticking to a plan.

And if you knew Greg or know someone going through the pain of losing a sibling, Greg’s brother Jonathan just came out with a book on the subject of dealing with the death of a loved one.

So far this year I’ve been to two Citi Field games. It was neither the first nor the last game of the initial homestand, so they lost both. Outscored 15-5. I sort of saw the lone Mets home run on the homestand by Yeonis Cespedes—I mean sort of because, having stumbled into the Promenade Club during Sunday’s frigid game (in the shade) against Philly, I could only see the tops of the outfielders, but I heard the cheer and picked up the crowd welcoming the ball into the stands. For one home run in 52 innings of swinging (and missing), I’m counting it. Unfortunately, I had much better sightings of Odubel Herrera, Giancarlo Stanton, Marcel Ozuna’s home runs—the latter two seen from my first visit to the Party City Deck Monday night. If they are going to name the stadium Citi Field, how about Party Citi Deck? Doesn’t matter, as they informed us it was now the M&M deck, but of all the stuff they “gave us” (after charging us $115 for all you can eat and drink) we did not get a single M&M.

All right, I am already rambling and I’m still just trying to lay the story straight on last year. The postseason threw off my ritual annual postings so I didn’t know when to do them. So how about just in time for tax day?

Favorite Nonplaying Met: Juan Uribe. I sure do miss the guy’s bat and smile. Even in the World Series, he got up just once and singled in a run—compared to three K-ABs by totally done Michael Cuddyer in Kansas City. We’ve never had a FNP Met who came midseason from another team and spent just a couple of months on the Mets roster, but he was the only guy I wanted to see play more. Though Kirk Nieuwenhuis had a chance to go back-to-back FNPs, like Nick Evans before him (2009-10). Uribe played plenty until David Wright came back and then Juan got hurt and couldn’t play again until the World Series. Still, this coveted prize will look great in an Extended Stay America suite somewhere near Cleveland. We’re thinking about you, Juan, and there’s that rendezvous at Flo Field in Cleveland!

OK, what’s next? Mets final grades. To quote newlywed Flap from Terms of Endearment, who he had more pressing concerns than giving out grades on English papers: “Oh, I’ll just give ’em all B’s.” Rarely have I ever been prouder to be a Mets fan than I was last fall. That’s better than any letter grade I can come up with.

And finally, there is the log of games at Citi Field, which I do annually so I never have to say I think I’ve been to so and so many games at the park. And for the first time since this began in 2009, I have postseason games to include. Come back a few months with me. It is magic from first to (almost) last pitch.

Captain’s Log 2015 Citi Field

Yes, I’m behind. Months behind in everything, and this blog has ended up at the bottom of the pile after family, finishing books, sitting at work, and what could have been the best sports year of my life. But wasn’t. It was close, though.

To be honest, I could not even put the lid on 2015 until January 2016 was almost done, with my Arizona Cardinals, but that ended in the NFC Championship Game, quickly, I might add, but they did pull out an incredible game out of the fire against the Packers. In short, the year 2015 can be summed up as absolutely superb, but a couple of game short of the ultimate goal. But it was close.

The World Series. The Mets in the World Series. Every step was as inconceivable as the villain Vizzini (Wallace Shaun) in The Princess Bride.

The Mets are getting Yeonis Cespedes at the trade deadline and it won’t cost them their best prospects.

Inconceivable.

The Mets are going to knock off the Nationals for the division title and the season-ending series against Washington won’t mean a thing.

Inconceivable!

The Mets are going to beat the Dodgers despite not having homefield advantage or, apart from one game, not hitting at all.

Bah, inconceivable!!

The Mets, who lost all seven games against the Cubs in 2015, are going to sweep them in the NLCS to reach the World Series.

As I told you, it would be absolutely, totally, and in all other ways inconceivable!!!

Inconceivable indeed. Though I was working two jobs, working on five books, and numerous pressing personal issues that are still too painful to share, the Mets, for once, were the one constant in my life. They just kept winning. I hadn’t missed a Mets postseason game in person since the last two games of 1986, but I missed one each in these three postseason series. Didn’t matter. Daniel Murphy’s heretofore up and down career was all up, stealing unoccupied bases and hitting homers at key moments. Every… single… game. And the pitching was as good as anything I’ve ever seen in a Mets uniform. Yes, anything. Even Terry Collins could not make a wrong move (until, sadly, he did). And if only for a couple more late-inning outs in the World Series, it might have all turned out like a fairy tale.

Inconceivable!!!! You keep saying that word. I don’t think that word means what you think it means.

I saw the first pitch of the year and the last from the upper deck at Citi Field. I went to eight games in between (more on that in a future post), but I saw most of the kids pitch: deGrom, Harvey, Syndergaard, and of course, Jeurys Familia. I am still trying to catch up on the work, but in the coming weeks you will see how my homework came out: One-Year Dynasty, 100 Things Mets Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die (third edition), Mets by the Numbers (the second edition of Jon Springer’s landmark concept). And Red Sox and Cubs by the Numbers will also be out soon, in case you think I’ve been slacking. All are available for preorder, I may add because there is room for promotion every year.

It is a new season but 2015 still seems to go on. The game goes on. Life has been moving as fast as a Matt Harvey fastball. And I’m still swinging. Let’s go Mets!

Keep the inconceivable coming.

Didn’t like how the World Series turned out? Well, here’s a chance to take the World Series trophy from the Royals… this Sunday night!

How could this happen? You know how the players from opposing teams nowadays love to fraternize before a game, no matter how important the contest. Fun-loving Mets outfielder Yeonis Cespedes hit it off with Royals catcher Salvador Perez so well during the World Series that when Perez stopped in Miami to film a commercial on his way from home in Venezuela to spring training in Arizona, the two hit the town harder than the Royals jump on a fastball. After many cervesas, Perez agreed to put the World Series trophy back in play in their rematch on Opening Night.

Wait, you ask, what are the Mets putting up if they lose? Yeonis agreed to put up his entire 2017 salary of $23.7 million. Perez was not aware that Cespedes can (and likely will) opt out of that contract after this year, leaving the Royals with a whole lot of nothing if the Mets can pull this off. But how can the suits from MLB let this happen? There has never been a World Series rematch on Opening Day (or Night), so this is new territory. And an old man in Quiggleville, PA recently found a copy of the Temple Cup agreement of 1894 that has some bearing on this issue, back when gambling was not limited to Indian-run casinos, state lotteries, and free agency.

By the time the lawyers get it all sorted out, the Mets might just have added a third trophy to the display vase at the Mets Hall of Fame and Museum. The Kansas rubes never saw this coming. They sure can hit, though. And run. And pitch. And celebrate in Flushing.

But after having the whole winter off and no two-inning saves to wear him out, maybe Jeurys Familia will be back to his pre-Series self. And Terry Collins knows to never let Matt Harvey talk him into anything. And Lucas Duda has practiced the throw from first to home 370,000 times (or, in dollars, the amount of money each World Series-winning player got).

Cespedes even convinced Perez  to put his World Series MVP on the line. (Perez really was hammied in Miami.) If Cespedes can pull of this trick, he deserves MVP even if he goes 0 for 4 in the game.

What better way to start the 30th anniversary of the 1986 season? Well, maybe pre-ordering this book is a good start.