The Ewing Theory
Morning Dose: Wednesday, May 13
☀️ Good Morning:
Bill Simmons, several moons ago, popularized The Ewing Theory.
The idea, if you somehow haven’t heard of it, was first cooked up by his good friend, and posits that sometimes teams actually play better after losing a star player. The concept getting its name from the 1999 Knicks team that made the NBA Finals despite losing their Hall-of-Fame center along the way.
The Mets are not necessarily testing The Ewing Theory, per se. They haven’t lost a single superstar. They instead are losing a player of every ilk seemingly everyday. The injury reports getting worse for Luis Robert Jr. and Jorge Polanco, while Francisco Álvarez has now added another question mark to the roster after injuring his knee on a swing.
Which brings us, both impossibly and almost too perfectly, to A.J. Ewing, the 21-year-old speedster who responded to his quick call up by reaching base in four of his five plate appearances, stole a base and roped a triple.
I don’t know about you, but seeing Ewing’s helmet fly off his head as he raced into second for his first major-league swipe made me think of a highlight from the ‘86 Wild Boys montage.
As I wrote yesterday:
The Mets have spent the past calendar year looking old in the worst way possible. That is old in imagination and energy. Stale in the sense that no matter how much David Stearns tries to coerce the roster into his idea of a winning baseball team, it somehow plays the same. No offense. No firepower. The same postgame quotes that feel unaccountable.
A.J. Ewing doesn’t fix that, even if he is joining a growing group of young talent. But if this team is going to lose, they might as well lose with some fight and desire.
🍎 The Mets did the opposite of losing, for once, on Tuesday.
It wasn’t all because of Ewing. And we know they are a lot more than an early season promotion away from fixing a broken offense, a fragile roster, or a season that has already made mid-May feel like late September. But what Ewing brought to Citi Field last night is a reminder that baseball teams, even the really smart ones that lean into analytics, are built like everything in life, out of energy. Out of momentum. The feeling that something different might happen.
The Mets have spent the past calendar year making every game feel like a bad rerun.
Ewing made at least one game feel new.
Maybe it’s ridiculous to invoke The Ewing Theory after such a game.
Then again, ridiculous is where Mets fans are forced to live.
And if the season is going to keep breaking in strange and ridiculous ways, there are worse signs for optimism than the night Ewing broke into the majors so fast his helmet couldn’t keep up.
🗓️ UP NEXT: The pitching is lined up with Christian Scott, Nolan McLean and Clay Holmes scheduled to pitch the next three. Let’s build a winning streak!
📰 ABOVE THE FOLD
EWING DELIVERS
There’s a reason A.J. Ewing has a 70-grade speed profile.
