New York Mets: Alonso and Rojas stun stricken fan Kathleen Selig

On Thursday morning, the calls made the back page of the New York Daily News. It showed Mrs. Selig clutching a large blue square item with the New York Mets skyline-baseball logo and a photograph of Alonso superimposed to the item’s right, with the headline blaring in what we ancients call 72-point type, LEAGUE OF HER OWN.

The granddaughter who instigated Mrs. Selig’s unexpected hour of joy inside her tears re-tweeted it, saying only, “THIS IS LITERALLY INSANE. OMG.”

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It’s tempting to suggest from there that “literally insane” and Mets baseball have walked hand-in-hand more often than young lovers in Central Park, as any Met fan since the day they were born could tell you with absolutely no fear of contradiction.

“Yes, sir, the New York Mets are ready to go in their first great season,” crooned Bob Murphy, one of the Mets’ original radio and television announcing team (with Lindsey Nelson and Hall of Fame former outfielder Ralph Kiner). That first great season proved that greatness has a dark side if you consider a 40-120 record the greatest exercise of the single-season calamity in baseball history.

Mrs. Selig from all known reports remembers that but prefers to think of the periodic highs. The 1969 miracle. The 1973 last-minute division triumph, pennant, and just missed winning the 1973 World Series in a seventh game. The 1986 threshing machine that got challenged arduously in the National League Championship Series (by a team of rather tenacious Houston Astros) and the World Series (by yet another team of tenacious but star-crossed Red Sox). The contenders of the early Aughts. The 2015 World Series team.

And, Alonso’s staggering rookie season last year. He’s not Mrs. Selig’s all-time favorite Met (that honor belongs to 1980s outfielder/speedster Mookie Wilson), but she could only say of Alonso, “I mean did you see what he did last year?!”

Those 53 bombs, that Home Run Derby conquest, were nothing compared to the ones Alonso and his new manager hit out of the park Wednesday, when they called Mrs. Selig to brace her up while  her beloved Mets are unable to play the game she’s loved watching them play for life.