Monday Briefing: Pardon us Mets fans while we celebrate in June
What a perfect weekend to be a Mets fan.
That’s not a sentence you hear too often, but today it’s one that can be said with pride.
The Mets are in a tie for first place, and although I know it’s only June, us fans will take it. That’s because one of the great joys in sports is to see a team exceed expectations.
Too often we find ourselves focused on the things we don’t like about sports. It can be frustrating after a long day to come home and watch a million-dollar athlete put on a lackluster show.
With this year’s version of the Mets — let’s pretend Jason Bay doesn’t exist for a moment — that hasn’t been the case.
This team is young and feisty, and filled with a desire to play the game right.
Sure, I recognize this team probably won’t win the World Series, and even the playoffs might be a stretch. But that won’t stop me and countless other Mets fans from enjoying these moments.
So excuse us, Yankees fans, as we celebrate our franchise’s first no-hitter like we just won a pennant. We’re only celebrating something we never thought we’d see.
• The Mets weren’t the only group of young baseball players I saw playing the game right this weekend. It was also a lot of fun checking out my first Hamptons Collegiate Baseball League game Sunday.
While Riverhead and Southold towns have had teams in the league for a few years now, Sunday marked the first game for the Shelter Island Bucks and they defeated the North Fork Ospreys, 2-1. (The Riverhead Tomcats also won Sunday.)
If ever there was a great place to see a small community gather to watch a collegiate wood-bat summer league, Shelter Island is the spot. Good luck, Bucks.
• Keeping on the theme of sports this week, there is no time like the spring for high school sports here. That’s when our two local public high schools play their signature sports. Congratulations to the fine athletes that run track at Riverhead and play lacrosse at Shoreham-Wading River.
You continue to amaze us each and every year.
