It begins where all my sports mindset is always geared towards and that’s the New York Mets.

I could see where a playful name like Summer of Orange & Blue 22’ would be a cool thing to tag and repeat and make into a thing. But that would be ignoring history and have I mentioned that I have a minor in history from Boston University?

Maybe it was the researching part to go along with the expected journalism degree that made me lean towards history. That and since I got to pick my classes, that’s what interested me.

I took your basics and Film History once I got to COM, watching a certified classic film each week was a blast. But the CAS HI classes I took always had an ancient focus.

They say it because it’s fact; history is written by the winners. But with enough time, you’re able to see exactly why certain people won. Hindsight is 20/20 and there are books that prove it; so why not learn from it as well?

With that, I bring us back to the topic at hand – the New York Mets and the beginning.

It’s been a good beginning of the season. They reached the mathematical quarter-mark of the season in first place with the largest division lead in the league. If I wrote this two weeks ago, most of that last sentence would still be true, but the team still would have featured the high-priced pitcher in the lead.

I was watching live when Max Scherzer threw a sixth-inning pitch and immediately gestured the universal sign for ‘Cut it’. It meant he was done and 48 hours later, we learned he was done for 6 to 8 weeks. Sadly, he joined another elite starter sitting on the sidelines until the late days of summer.

MRI results from Jacob deGrom a week ago came back “pretty clean” and “looked really good,” according to Mets general manager Billy Eppler. He’s still not cleared to throw off a mound. It’s likely the recently exercised free agent to be will spend July in the minor leagues, developing arm strength for the second half of the season.

This is Tylor Megill’s second season, one that started on the mound for the Mets on Opening Day and hasn’t disappointed since. It’s easy to forget that he was the starter for the first five innings of what would become only the Mets’ second no-hitter; the definition of irony for a franchise built on and thick with pitching tradition and not much else.

But that was then and this is now.

Now the team is owned by a billionaire willing to spend his money on the team like a top-flight European futbol club; pouring money into everything from the top down. So that means if manager Buck Showalter wants to stand and watch the game from a certain spot in the dugout at Citi Field, changes will be made before the next home stand.

It means they take advantage of the latest Oakland Athletics’ Fire Sale and snatch up Chris Bassitt, then extend him quietly to a $19 million mutual option for 2023. You don’t make a bid deal about it if everyone is going to get similar treatment.

So should Brandon Nimmo stay healthy all season and continue to be the true .400 On-Base Percentage player that he’s been, it doesn’t matter that Scott Boras is his agent. The team drafted him 13th overall in 2011 and fans like me have read, listened and watched him grow from “Did they really draft a guy from Wyoming?” to “He’s one of, if not the best lead off hitter in the league.”

You pay that guy and you keep that guy. You do the same thing for Jeff McNeil and Pete Alonso now if you can get them on the cheap, relatively speaking. But this is all long-term planning and you know why? Because this team is built different.

It’s built to succeed.

As a franchise, we’ve always had pitching. Obviously it is currently hampered by injury, but ask the Astros what that’s like because they know. Dodgers too. It happens because that’s what happens because that’s baseball. ⚾️

But unlike the past, there’s actually some depth behind the top of the rotation. There’s enough roster depth that we can afford to release Robinson Cano and watch him immediately be signed and start at second for the San Diego Padres, who are also dealing with injury issues.

The Mets are dealing with so many injury issues, the loss of relief pitcher Trevor May until early July certainly slipped my memory. I think of that because I hear the cries from the message boards as Met fans call from owner Steve Cohen to open his wallet and buy bullpen help.

Sadly, you could replace Mets with about 15 other teams and hear the same cries. But that’s an annual occurrence – the search for another arm. It’s similar to the search for another bat and the cries are coming early because the cities are where they’re coming from.

It’s been a while since the entire country was centered around New York. In fact, you’d have to go back to the turn of the 20th century, when the United States saw the Civil War in the distance, staring off their Southern shores at the surrounding islands like their ship-sailing ancestors centuries before them.

A century ago, there were three MLB teams in New York, two each in Boston, Chicago and St. Louis. Philadelphia had two teams as well, but some things don’t change as both teams sucked. Sorry, but it’s hard to sugarcoat 65-89 & 57-96; especially if you don’t want to.

Baseball didn’t want to only focus on its largest markets, but that’s who was able to sustain a sports franchise. Regardless, sports historians will tell you that this is when baseball was at its peak. When it was the only game in town.

Fast forward 17 years and the Philly still sucked (45-106 & 55-97). This is in the midst of the Yankees winning six of eight World Series championships, including four in a row (1936-1939). There’s a run of five in a row to come and seemingly put people in place – you’re either with the Yankees or you’re not.

Having a “Big Bad” to hate has worked in just about everything and still does to this day. Whether you’re talking politics and scaring voters into worrying about ‘the border’ and ‘street gangs’ and not militant mass murderers and their social gatherings or the gatherings of multi-millionaires on Wall Street, counting up your money before you get it…

There’s a conspiracy theory to go off on a tangent about, but since I’ve slipped away here, I’ll return to make my point.

In the past, baseball has benefited from successful big market teams. This year, both the Mets and Yankees are playing well, but so are the Los Angeles Dodgers and (Los Angeles) Anaheim Angels. The San Francisco Giants and Houston Astros were in the postseason last year and each fan base expects the same again. So did Chicago White Sox fans when they splurged for top flight free agents, similar to the Texas Rangers, based in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex; a location that knows about one city holding up an entire sport.

In the last 25 years, the Dallas Cowboys have the same amount of playoff wins as Luka Doncic and his Dallas Mavericks. But only one of those mentioned has a permanently assigned ESPN staff reporter or gets a national mention whenever possible. Because like it or not, the Cowboys are the straw that stirs the drink that is the NFL.

That’s stands for Not For Long if you don’t have some Cowboys coverage. And while I make fun of the absurd amount of air time dedicated to Jerry Jones and his latest hair piece, that’s the prime spot in sports on the same plane as Real Madrid, Liverpool and the Los Angeles Lakers.

The only reason HBO was able to create the much talked about and debated series ‘Winning Time’ is because the story involves the true straw in the NBA – the Boston Celtics.

The focus is on Magic Johnson and it helps that he was the Finals MVP as a rookie, winning the title after switching from point guard to center to fill in for already Hall-Of-Fame-Bound Kareem Abdul Jabbar, star of the films ‘Airplane!’ and ‘Game of Death’ with Bruce Lee.

It’s a great story and was done to the extreme, catering for the casual fan and angering anyone with any true sports love or knowledge. I mean, it’s only now that the league has outlawed defense, but the filmed gameplay was pathetic.

But that fan already knows the story. ‘Winning Time’ is for the millions (and millions) of fans who don’t know or care who Jerry West is, only that he didn’t want to draft Magic. Just like Boston Celtics’ owner Red Auerbach; at least that’s the way it will be remembered by those who don’t truly care cuz it’s a small, but important, fact like that that was skipped for the sake of the story.

And the story is better when you think Larry Bird is a hick from French Lick who dipped, spit into a Bud can and embarrassed people on the court. Better when it’s easier to generate emotion for someone you don’t know; something made easy when the opposition wears the name of a city you don’t like on their chest.

That simple small town vs. big city anxiety, matching the rural vs. urban conflict every land area has dealt with in some form or fashion, has returned as history prepares to repeat itself and it’s all there if you look.

• A sovereign nation invades another under unknown pretenses in a far away land.

• The country is slowly coming out from a deadly disease that caused destruction, not only from a health sense but the illusion that we are prepared for the next one.

• The stock market, an entity as foreign as a language & not understanding can cause calamity, is reaching record highs and lows with its after-effects affecting actual citizens where they can feel it and not just be told.

• Those same citizens; living through the latest leap in technology with only a small percentage truly understanding all the changes and how to best take advantage. And everybody else just following along for the ride.

Don’t worry; the ride is almost over.

To quote the great George Carlin, “We’re going away. Pack your shit, folks.”

And by the way, “Ever notice how their stuff is shit and your shit is stuff?”

My shit is founded on a believe that this Mets team is the shit, is built to withstand losing 2 of the 5 best pitchers in the game for an extended amount of time and will buy whatever is needed at the trade deadline.

I also believe this will be the start of an extended run of postseason appearances, mimicking the past where relevant teams in large cities stood atop the sport and demanded everyone pay attention. The NBA has done it with individual stars since David Stern sold his soul for a healthy Michael Jordan for a decade. That’s why we were all willing to journey to Cleveland to see LeBron make his Decision.

But baseball has always required the name on the jersey. The view from the stands and the seat of your couch can only see the jersey color and number. And that view is improved if there’s some emotion behind it. If that takes random people hating my favorite team, so be it.