It’s never good when I have to dig out the ol’ weather delay pic.

There have been a couple of themes to this year - one that I’ve written about a lot and one that lived in my head that I don’t think I spent a lot of time writing about:

The Mets’ schedule was really weird (I’ve mentioned this often)
The entire season could come down to the final road trip to Atlanta and Milwaukee (I think I’ve mentioned this but not as often)

It turns out that point 1 has become a major factor for point 2.

I will add that Kathy was away this week and I had to do late night activity pickups all week and I was worried that because of that I was going to miss some important parts of important Mets games.

As it turns out, I didn’t have to worry about that because the Mets’ schedule got even weirder and these games in Milwaukee are now really important.

And I don’t like having to wait until Friday for the next Mets game.

Quick recap for posterity/those of you who don’t know: The original 2024 schedule had the Mets with games in Atlanta Tuesday and Wednesday this week - Monday and Thursday were scheduled off days. Back in April the Mets and Atlanta had a game rained out and rescheduled for Thursday, so this became a 3-game series. According to everyone on the internet, the hurricane moving through the southeastern United States this weekend was going to affect Atlanta Wednesday and Thursday…but nobody in baseball took any action to reschedule games proactively and the two games were canceled (after Atlanta beat the Mets on Tuesday night), and now the Mets will have to go back to Atlanta on Monday for a doubleheader that could decide playoff status for one or both teams.

[Deep breath]

I don’t like it.

Or maybe I do. I don’t know.

I do like that the Mets can still put this all to bed with a great series in Milwaukee this weekend.

But I don’t like that they go into that series kind of cold after a lackluster performance Tuesday night and then three days off out of four after the thrilling Sunday night win at home against the Phillies.

I also was looking forward to having everything wrapped up by Sunday afternoon. I wrote about that last week - by the next time the Jets play we would have clarity on the Mets’ fate. That may not be the case anymore.

I do like that Atlanta has to use their best pitchers this weekend against Kansas City (and possibly face a doubleheader on Saturday as well depending on how the Royals are able to travel with the storm).

I don’t like that the Mets might have to play in Atlanta with everything on the line on Monday.

That’s just been a recipe for heartbreak for Mets fans. And this one would be TWO GAMES! And then if the Mets are lucky enough to get into the playoffs they’d have to start that short series the next day.

I guess that’s kind of like a regular season schedule…but their opponent would go in with a somewhat lined-up pitching staff and a day of rest while the Mets are coming off a doubleheader, their top pitchers wouldn’t be available, and they’d have a more tired bullpen, at the very least.

That doesn't seem fair.

I also did not like the feeling watching the Mets look flat in Atlanta on Tuesday, erasing all of the good recent feelings and bringing me right back to late 2022. (Or 1999. Or any year in between.)

You know I’m kind of a superstitious guy. The playoff tickets hit my MLB app last week and I can’t help but think about the playoffs - which is always a huge jinx.

But in fairness I want to go to every game I can and that requires some advance planning on my part to get there.

So I’m equal parts excited and nervous about the next week.

I hope it’s all decided by Sunday.

Notes: I just have one non-Mets thing to add here:

Today is most likely the last A’s game in Oakland. (I say “most likely” because everything involved in this proposed move is screwy and who knows what happens over the next few years.) Kathy and I went to the Bay Area in April of 2006. The Giants were out of town, so we went to an A’s game.

It was Easter Sunday - April 16, 2006 - and the Oakland Coliseum was known as McAfee Coliseum then. It wasn’t a great stadium visit, but it wasn’t necessarily horrendous. We treated ourselves to great seats and saw a great game - and I got one of my best ballpark pictures ever.

It was Huston Street bobblehead giveaway and Street came in to close the game and he gave up a home run to blow the save on this pitch that I snapped a picture of that I posted below. I was so proud of this for so long…I still am.

(I just looked up the box score - Mark Teixeira hit the game-tying home run - a 2-run shot to tie the game at 3. Then the Rangers added two more off Street. The A’s finished in first place in 2006, for what that’s worth.)

You see Street looking up at the trajectory of the ball….and I love that the kid in the first row is holding up his bobblehead! I think I’ll post this on other social media today. What a pic. (This was also from the days I did a much more careful job of documenting ballpark visits. Good work, John from 18 years ago.)

So, good-bye Oakland A’s. Kind of wild that kid holding the bobblehead could be one of the people at today’s game looking to bring home Coliseum souvenirs. I can’t imagine what that’s like for die-hard A’s fans. I feel sorry for them.

Let’s Go Mets.