Don't Look Back in Anger
Morning Dose: Monday, February 23
☀️ Good Morning:
The return of baseball in the form of spring training can bring both the most exciting and most sobering feelings.
The first sight of a manicured diamond, Gary Cohen apologizing for the warmer Florida temperatures, the familiar ring of the SNY theme song. Those were the things that greeted Mets fans with a smile on Saturday. Everything after that was pretty much a dud. A reminder, along with the tonnage of snow we are receiving up north, that real baseball is still over a month away.
Luckily, Sunday brought us some fireworks, and not just on the hockey rink. The Amazins mashed four home runs en route to a win over the Yankees. It was a golden day at camp for those not named Jonah Tong 🇨🇦.
As we dig out from the blizzard (hence the late publish time), grab an extra cup of coffee and let’s get into it!
❶ Trying not to get worked up in spring.
❷ A.J. Ewing turning heads early.
❸ Brandon Nimmo shares his perspective, via The Athletic.
📰 ABOVE THE FOLD
❶ DON’T LOOK BACK IN ANGER
Noel Gallagher famously sings:
My soul slides away
But don’t look back in anger, I heard you say
It’s good advice to Mets fans this season.
Pete Alonso is going to hit home runs. Bo Bichette might not cleanly field every ball hit his way, especially in the first few months. Jorge Polanco might look closer to Jose Rojas did on Saturday in trying to receive errant throws than a Gold Glove first baseman.
And while I’m as guilty as everyone else in texting a friend about Alonso this weekend, I’m here to make a commitment together: let’s not do that.
That’s probably too much to ask, but you get the point.
It’s February 23. We have more inches of snow at Citi Field than we do Grapefruit League plate appearances. It’s going to be a long season if we punish ourselves with every offseason narrative playing out over a constant churn of X clips.
Out of morbid curiosity, we will obviously talk about former Mets like we always do. There is an interesting profile on Brandon Nimmo that I will highlight below. But we don’t have to overdo it.
☺️ ABOUT THAT PLAY: As for the Bichette play that got everyone going on social media, let’s talk about it in proper context.
