Thank you, from Just Mets

A special message for our audience

We were hoping this post would get to wait until early November, but unfortunately we have to send this now, in early October.

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On behalf of the entire Just Mets writing crew, I just wanted to extend our thanks and appreciation to you for reading and supporting Just Mets in it’s first full season of it’s reboot.

It took a long time for us to get back to writing this site for a variety of reasons. For starters, I was afraid and nervous to do it after so much time away from the keyboard. A lot had changed for me personally since the initial site closed at the beginning of 2016 between the media landscape, our audience and my own life and health. Given all of the work I had done at SNY and MLB for a lot of years, I wanted Just Mets to be taken seriously when it was rebooted but also make it a site which checked all of the boxes you all were looking for, which was to give you only the information you needed to catch up on the Mets and, if you were interested, read an op-ed from a team member.

We conceived of the idea of “just getting to the point” almost a year before the reboot actually happened, which was last fall. And I think we did a pretty good job of sticking to that goal over the course of the year while working to evolve all of our voices to a tune you would both listen to and continue to read. There were a lot of people involved with the initial idea board to what is ultimately being presented to you on a daily basis, way more than those on the team today.

I think there’s work to do to make this better for you, and something that can be even more engaging for you every morning and throughout the day. There are things we can do and will do during the winter and ahead of spring training to do that, and we will work on other goals we were unable to achieve over the course of the 2022 season and be in even better shape for 2023.

All-told, I am thrilled with the work we have done and the dedication from our writing team. A 180-day formula is not easy to come up with editorially, especially with everyone living their own lives and earning their living in their day jobs. Yet everyone here used their creativity to provide some thought-provoking content every day throughout the season, we picked each other up when necessary, and I couldn’t be prouder of what they accomplished.

Rich MacLeod has done fantastic work in orchestrating the content and really taking a lead role in the production of the brand, coordinating and organizing, which in turn has allowed me to focus on the things I want to and need to be involved in both personally and professionally. He has also begun to develop an audio and video component to this along with Andrew Claudio on Playback, something I hope they continue to work on that during the off-season.

Linda Surovich has offered Just Mets a pragmatic and analytical voice for the brand, for better or for worse, and I am truly grateful for her participation and outstanding work throughout the last year. She writes for Amazin’ Avenue as well, and you can see more of her work there.

Lastly, Justin Mears has really offered an analytical perspective with the enthusiastic tenor only a diehard fan could provide. He also has provided great insight and analysis every week. Like Linda, Justin voice has been a welcomed and much needed component to our small organization.

For me personally, I’ve always been truly floored people give a damn about what I have to say about the Mets, and year after year you alone gave me a reason to relaunch the brand and a reason to keep doing this day-after-day. In the end, I am a fan just like you. But I am also a student of the game and have been involved in all facets of this game since I was five years old, whether I was playing, coaching, writing or learning from people and players in the organization with far bigger brains than I have. This is what I do every day in one form or another, and I only wish I could do more.

Through it all, I continue to daydream what it would be like as an adult to witness a World Championship for the Mets and witness that fabled parade up the Canyon of Heroes. Just for a day I would like my team, the one I have followed through thick and thin for 37 years, to be called a champion. All I really have of 1986 are images and glimpses, as I was just six years old and couldn’t fully harness the meaning of what winning the World Series was. All I have of 1969 are pictures and stories of one of the most iconic baseball teams of all time.

For a day, I’d just like to be able experience what so many of you experienced and processed all those years ago and have my own stories to tell about a world champion Met team.

I thought we might have a legitimate shot in 2022. Given the age, construct and contractual status of so many players on the roster this was a team literally built to win now with so much uncertainty ahead.

But, alas, 36 years and counting.

Still, I firmly believe that elusive world championship will soon be coming for the Mets. Change is inevitable, but they have an owner (who happens to be the wealthiest in the industry) who is also a fan like all of us dedicated to doing just that. Of course, 2022 is proof that spending alone is not enough. It’s a special recipe the Mets need to find as the final piece for their formula. That is something that is earned and not purchased - I hope the Mets learned that over the last couple of weeks.

As it always does, the bitterness of another cold, dark and quiet October in Flushing will eventually pass and give way to the off-season and, before we know it, the hot stove season will be in full swing. While there are big decisions and big changes coming, some of which will be unpopular for sure, I am confident in this owner’s commitment to delivering upon the championship promise he both made and wants soon.

And before you know it, February will be here for spring training with the warm breezes blowing hope through the palm trees and into Clover Park in Port St. Lucie, and we get to do this all over again.

For now, all I can say is Thank You and none of us are here and none of this is possible without you. I am sorry the season ended in the manner in which it did. We expected more, the players expected more, Buck Showalter expected more, Billy Eppler, Sandy Alderson, Steve Cohen and the entire front office expected more. It’s sad, disappointing and bitter, but better times are certainly ahead - that I have complete faith in.

That is all. We will talk soon.

-MB