Today should have been the last day of the 2024 baseball season and by the time all was said and done we’d have clarity on the Mets’ post-season status.

But, in somewhat typical Mets fashion, the Mets have turned the end of the season into a disaster.

I wish it wasn’t typical…but you can’t ignore history.

2022 when the Mets stumbled to the finish.

2007 and 2008 when the Mets stumbled before the finish and never made it.

I’ve actually been thinking a lot about 1998.

In 1998 the Mets entered the final week of the season at 88-69, batting the Cubs and Giants for a wild card spot. (For some reason I remembered the Brewers being part of this but they were not.)

The Cubs would get the wild card with a 90-73 record - I believe there was a playoff with the Giants? They finished 89-74. But by that point I was too heartbroken to follow the game closely, because the Mets finished 88-74, losing 5 straight against Montreal and then - you guessed it - in Atlanta to finish the season with a whimper.

This reminds me of that because the Mets haven’t blown any huge leads here…they’re just not finishing the job they worked so hard to put themselves in the position to achieve.

And of course the Mets went on to have great playoff runs in 1999 and 2000, so there’s another parallel.

I think everyone feels at this point that the 2025 Mets will be in great shape.

But I’m concerned right now about the 2024 Mets.

Despite what a great season it has been, the vibes this week have taken me back to all of the Mets failures.

It had been so long since the Mets made me as sad as they have this week. That’s how good of a season it has been. That’s probably why I slept so terribly Friday night. I’m not ready to see all of that go away.

I’m scared to death of 0-5 - with Milwaukee contributing 3 losses - bookends to the season.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

By some miracle the Arizona Diamondbacks have hit the skids worse than the Mets.

So here’s where we find ourselves on what is still the final day of the season for now: a Mets win coupled with an Arizona loss would have them both at 88 wins, and even if the Mets didn’t play Monday, they have the tiebreaker over Arizona, so they would be in.

A Mets win and a Diamondbacks win sets up the Mets needing one win in Atlanta on Monday.

It doesn’t matter right now what Atlanta does today, I don’t think - if they win they could pretty much lock up the 5 seed, if they lose, they can’t be passed by Arizona.

I have no idea what would happen if that first scenario plays out - whether the Mets would even need to bother going back to Atlanta for 2 games if everything is clinched. Is it worth that travel to determine the 5 or 6 seed?

So the Mets still control their own destiny. Which is a funny way of thinking about it…because on Friday night it sure seemed like their destiny was in the hands of the home plate umpire. (I’m not using his name because he seems like the type of umpire who likes looking himself up and reading about himself.)

He made some egregious calls squeezing Sean Manaea (that led to runs in the first inning when he could have been out of the inning) and not giving the exact same calls to the Mets when they were at bat. That resulted in a Carlos Mendoza ejection, which was nice to see, but it still didn’t fire up the team.

That’s what’s upsetting me the most at this time. I’d like to see some fire.

I don’t know why it hasn’t carried over from the Philadelphia series, when Francisco Lindor was not playing - but the Mets right now look like Lindor trying to play through injury: Tentative….unsure when the pain is going to set in.

It’s uncomfortable, and frustrating, to watch.

But I’ll be watching.

A Sunday afternoon in September…Jets on one TV, Mets in a clinching scenario on another.

It’s the kind of thing I used to live blog about, capturing my heartbreak in real time.

I won’t be doing that today.

But who knows. There might be a huge game or two to be played tomorrow, and that might be the actual last day of the season. Maybe I’ll do it then.

Let’s Go Mets!

One last note: I am running the New York City Marathon for the Safe At Home Foundation in just over the month. The Mets make me sad - you can make me happy by donating and helping me reach my fundraising goal. The deadline to get there is fast approaching, and maybe if you’ve enjoyed what I’ve had to say here this season you’d like to contribute. Here’s the link. Thank you for anything you can do.

*Oh, OK, one last last note. I was just thinking about how times have changed. Back in 1998 I was trying to watch these Mets games in any way possible. ESPN put some of them on, but I think I was mostly relying on Baseball Tonight updates and the GameDay feature on ESPN.com. Oh man, and the Jets were about to embark on a dream season too that September. But anyway, we’ve come a long way now that I can watch the Mets whenever I want. (Unless it’s AppleTV.)