In the top of the eighth inning in Game 3 between the Padres and Mets, Edwin Díaz came into the game. His entrance was announced with the trumpets of “Narco,” truly one of the greatest entrance songs in the history of the genre. Throughout the 2022 season, all it took was a single note of Timmy Trumpet’s trumpet to whip the Citi Field crowd into a frenzy. It was always a delirious moment of unbridled sports enthusiasm, and it was shared by thousands. There are a lot of reasons to love baseball, but that feeling of communal electricity traveling from your eardrums to your auditory cortex and transforming into liquid anticipation is as pure as it gets.
On Sunday night, when the trumpets hit, it was a different scene. The Mets were down, 4-0, and they were facing elimination. They weren’t hoping their magical closer could close out a glorious win. They just wanted to fast forward a little bit, just in case the good stuff started happening again. Here’s how it looked:
If you want a metaphor for the Mets’ season, here it is. Have at it. The team and this song used to be fun. They used to be as much fun as the sport offers. And then, all of a sudden, it wasn’t any fun at all. Everyone else got to have the fun. What the heck, man? What the heck?
To hammer this point home, here are the Mets’ Game 3 hits, ranked:
1. Pete Alonso’s fifth-inning single
That’s not a lot of fun. The Mets season didn’t have to end with a parade, but
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