Attention Has Been Paid

Hey, whattaya know?  The Paper of Record actually ran a baseball story today, albeit on the latest face-flop of the Mets, one of the two teams the staff openly roots for.  (What's the other one?  I'll give you a hint:  chowdah.)

Michael Powell at least professed up front to being a dedicated, lifelong Mets fan, as is his family, and what can we offer but our condolences?

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/16/sports/baseball/mets-dodgers-playoffs-powell.html

Of course, he does give us this little white lie:

The first half of this season mixed the soporific with the dispiriting until in late July the Mets ripped off a winning streak, and soon fans piled into this handsome stadium by Flushing Bay, bellowing and chanting.

Mmm, not quite, Tondelayo.  Fact is, the Mets have had all of 4 sellout games this year: Opening Day, the two contests against your New York Yankees, and, yes, the Saturday night after the team's exciting, walk-off win against Washington.

That's it.  In fact, even after they followed that walk-off thriller with another, exciting, one-run victory, the following Sunday afternoon game against Washington...did not sell out.

Nor has any game since.  And Powell—again, to his credit—recognizes that prevailing hopelessness amongst the Flushing fandom, in writing about Sunday's heartbreaker:

The crowd was subdued for playoff-race September. The Mets claimed it exceeded 31,000, a number perhaps achieved by double-counting hot dog vendors. The Dodgers fans in attendance so often outshouted Mets fans you wondered if the Mets had given out Thorazine at the front gate.

The Chicago Cubs and even the Washington Nationals, with their khaki-and-white-shirt interns and lobbyist fans, have outdrawn the Mets of late.

Precisely.