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The New York Mets won’t make their 2021 debut until Monday against the Philadelphia Phillies. Scheduled to start on Thursday night against the Washington Nationals, the start of the season was pushed back due to positive COVID-19 tests across the diamond.
It was a momentum downer after the big news of Francisco Lindor signing a ten-year extension with the ball club less than 24 hours before the season was set to begin. Fortunately, we have Jerry Blevins to cheer us all up.
Your 2021 Mets Opening Day pitcher was Jerry Blevins
Blevins may not pitch more than a handful of games for the Mets this season. Frankly, I thought the club brought him in more for his locker room presence and ability to teach the kids a few things. He’s now at the alternative site where on Thursday he declared himself the Opening Day pitcher for the Mets:
BTW I made the only Opening Day start for the Mets. 9am this morning. Port St Lucie. Suck it deGrom.
— Jerry Blevins (@jerryblevins) April 1, 2021
Blevins’ tongue-in-cheek troll job on Jacob deGrom was about the only fun piece of news received about the Mets since Opening Day was canceled. Even if it doesn’t technically qualify as an Opening Day start, it’s nice to know we at least have him around for a while to make some jokes on Twitter.
In these baseball-absent days when the Mets should be playing and either bringing us joy or frustration, it’s nice to have social media to turn to and see some of the guys having fun.
Taijuan Walker, for instance, joyfully boasted about a silver lining coming his way due to the delay. Now lined up as the fourth starter to begin the season, Walker shared his excitement at making his Mets debut in the first game at Citi Field in 2021:
My Mets debut will be the home opener. Let’s goooooo!!! The best part is I get to do it in front of the Mets fans ???? doesn’t get much better than that #LFGM
— Taijuan Walker (@tai_walker) April 2, 2021
The Mets have excelled at bringing positivity to social media this winter. For the most part, they stay out of controversy. Only Noah Syndergaard and Marcus Stroman walk across that line, but they have been crafting their own Twitter characters for years.
Syndergaard is a master at trolling while Stroman sticks with trying to inspire with the occasional word jab.
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This week, however, I declare Blevins the winner. It takes a special kind of confidence to troll deGrom. Blevins must know there’s zero chance he steps in the batter’s box against him. Otherwise, he’s going to have to find the delete button fast.