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New York Mets: Five easy ways to spot a Mets fan in a crowd

By Elizabeth Muratore

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JULY 25: Cutouts of fans are seen during a game between the New York Mets and the Atlanta Braves at Citi Field on July 25, 2020 in New York City. The 2020 season had been postponed since March due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Braves defeated the Mets 5-3 in ten innings. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JULY 25: Cutouts of fans are seen during a game between the New York Mets and the Atlanta Braves at Citi Field on July 25, 2020 in New York City. The 2020 season had been postponed since March due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Braves defeated the Mets 5-3 in ten innings. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images) /
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MIAMI, FLORIDA – AUGUST 19: Jacob deGrom #48 of the New York Mets delivers a pitch during the game against the Miami Marlins at Marlins Park on August 19, 2020 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Mark Brown/Getty Images) /

Someone mentions their “lord and savior,” and you later realize they’re talking about Jacob deGrom

This may sound sacrilegious, but Mets fans are nothing if not aggressively hyperbolic about our favorite players. On the 2020 roster, Jacob deGrom is at the top of the “revered” list. He has proven his worth to this franchise time and time again, from his remarkable rookie season to his gritty pitching performances in the 2015 playoffs, to his Cy Young-worthy brilliance in 2018 and 2019.

It will be darn near impossible for deGrom to top Tom Seaver in terms of historic Mets greatness, but for right now, he is the best pitcher in baseball, and he is a New York Met. He lets his performance on the field speak for itself, and he inspires respect from all of his teammates. deGrom, of all people, absolutely deserves every bit of praise he gets from fans, media members, and fellow players.

You overhear a conversation where someone insists that ERA is MUCH more important than win/loss record for Cy Young consideration

Continuing on the “deGrom hype train,” his historic 2018 season in which he went 10-9 with a 1.70 ERA and handily won the NL Cy Young may have single-handedly destroyed the legitimacy of the “pitcher win” statistic. Before deGrom, Felix Hernandez held the record for fewest wins in a Cy Young-winning season, when he went 13-12 in 2010 en route to the AL Cy Young.

But something about deGrom’s season made people seriously stop and question why pitcher wins were considered such an important stat for Cy Young voters. The combination of the Mets’ paltry offense in 2018 and their beleaguered bullpen led to many no-decisions for deGrom, often in starts where he pitched brilliantly for seven scoreless innings. He also set a single-season major league record in 2018 for consecutive quality starts, and the Mets still couldn’t get him more than 10 wins.

Luckily, the tide seems to have shifted on how baseball views pitcher wins. When deGrom won the award in 2018, there were still rumblings of “how could someone with only 10 victories win the Cy Young?” By 2019, when deGrom won the award again, there was much less chatter over whether his 11 wins qualified him to win the award.

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