National League Town (a Mets podcast)

Baseball fans are perfectly logical creatures at least until they start to think about the next game, and when aren’t we thinking about the next game? Greg and Jeff cop to their impulses and rituals regarding what they do to help the Mets along and, even more importantly, not wreck their chances. Yes, it’s true: we have that much influence over the action. Also, we try to discern bullpen patterns;...

National League Town provides on-the-scene commentary and reflections from the first Mets Old Timers Day in 28 years, which is to say Greg and Jeff went to game together and had as Amazin’ an experience as they’d imagined. All the fans! All the players! Number 24! And a Mets win thrown in for good measure. Relive a Citi Field day like no other with the podcast that will always say “Hey!” to Old Ti...

National League Town pencils in Endy Chavez, Edgardo Alfonzo and Eddie Kranepool for our final pre-Old Timers Day celebration because we’ll never erase the indelible memories each of these three E-Mets provided. In the present, Greg and Jeff rationalize the bumpy road trip through Atlanta, Philadelphia and the Bronx as more or less just one of those things even a first-place team encounters (thoug...

After three seasons of trying to manage with first-timers, the Mets turned to an old hand in 2022, and Buck Showalter has surely provided a winning hand in the dugout. National League Town expresses delight at all Buck has done with the players and the media and, because no scenario is perfect, contemplates what could possibly go wrong. And speaking of old hands, Greg and Jeff continue to get exci...

The best Mets team since 1986 has National League Town thinking October in August, though with August going as well as it is, savoring this summer’s steamy pace might be the most advisable course of action. Once Greg and Jeff praise the 2022 Mets to the high heavens, they offer thanks for the return of Old Timers Day (21:00) and begin their three-part preview of the franchise’s 60th-anniversary re...

National League Town fondly remembers the greatest baseball announcer who ever lived, Vin Scully, particularly how he started in Brooklyn and described a momentous night in Queens. Later (15:20), we balance satisfaction with discontent in assessing the Mets’ trade deadline activity (or lack thereof); Jeff “settles” for witnessing two Mets wins plus the return of Jacob deGrom up close and personal...

National League Town didn’t wait for the Mets to play the Yankees before letting you know how their two-game set MIGHT have gone down. Also, as long as Greg and Jeff are bending time to their will, our hosts revisit 2005 for more Fan Commandments; swing by a concert that could have taken place in 1998; and try to figure out how a properly clad fan in 2022 doesn’t know from a self-explanatory acron...

Despite forging National League Solidarity with the temporary teammates of Alonso, Diaz, Marte and McNeil, the senior circuit lost another All-Star Game, so we turn our attention to the process of making the entire week surrounding the Midsummer Classic better, with one Brilliant Idea after another offered free of charge to MLB. Also, we pay our respects to a pitcher who served as a bridge between...

With the All-Star Game approaching, we got to thinking that as NL fans, we’ll be rooting for players from teams we normally can’t stand. Thus, to make common cause with those who will be teammates of some of our favorite Mets for one night, Greg and Jeff come up with something nice to say about each of the Mets’ National League opponents. (Don’t worry, we won’t make a habit of it.) Also, the Mets...

Keith Hernandez is so much more than a number and so much more than his statistics. As 17 goes up into the rafters at Citi Field, Greg and Jeff fondly revisit (11:17) the most intense Met either of them can remember, recall his transformative effect on the franchise and make common cause with the lady who wouldn’t extend George Costanza’s unemployment benefits. We also mull a possible trade the co...

Greg from Long Beach and Jeff from Great Neck explore the Mets’ connection to the counties east of Queens, including the rationale for building Shea Stadium where it rose; the owners, players and professors who left an orange and blue imprint on Nassau and Suffolk; and their own memories of playing ball when surrounded on all sides by water. Also, Jeff asks Greg a question with no good answer (28:...

National League Town concludes its trip through the decades by naming its UtilityMet for the 2020s (to date) and discussing the role versatility plays in the current game (8:50). Greg and Jeff also attempt to shake off the wrong-way sweep in Houston and offer MLB Jeff’s Brilliant Idea to make national holidays twice as good (13:50).

What’s at least as good as the Mets being in first place? Getting to watch them at a decent hour. After a long West Coast road trip, Greg and Jeff are grateful for 7:10 PM starts; banged-up players coming home in one piece; fellow fans who know the score no later than the next morning; the most valuable UtilityMets of the 2010s (17:55); and a letter written in the 1950s. National League Town wishe...

Eduardo Escobar is dashing for third base and we’re right there with him as we celebrate the eleventh cycle in Mets history. We also explore the circle of life that surrounds “old friends” — players we loved as our own but then have mixed feelings about in other uniforms — as we prepare to process Noah Syndergaard pitching for the Angels against the Mets. Our Deep Bench series moves into the first...

When the Mets packed for their ten-game West Coast road trip, they made sure to take along plenty of momentum. Following a perfect homestand, Greg and Jeff revel a little in the Mets’ enormous division lead; fret not too much about the challenge awaiting them in California; and take this dream season one day at a time. Also, the Deep Bench series introduces the best Met role players of the 1990s (...

We dubbed them Commandments, but you can think of them as friendly suggestions — Greg and Jeff share a few time-tested guidelines intended to optimize your Mets fandom. Also, we withstand the loss of Max Scherzer; cross paths with Mark Canha’s relatives; catch a couple of Perks Patrol t-shirts; and offer the fondest of farewells to longtime bullpen coach Joe Pignatano (29:00) and baseball writer e...

Don’t ya love when you discover an unknown player five minutes before everybody else does? When you connect with a total stranger just because you’re each wearing a Mets cap? Experiencing one of those seasons nobody sees coming before it turns into a year that stays in your heart forever? Greg and Jeff ruminate further on the moments and emotions that make baseball special. (This episode was recor...

How confident are we in the 2022 Mets? Confident enough to spotlight the 1962 Mets, with National League Town’s first-ever guest, Dave Bagdade, author of A Year in Mudville , the definitive opus on the Original Mets, that eternally lovable collection of characters nobody will mistake for the current incarnation (though today’s Mets are pretty lovable, too) (26:40). Elsewhere, we toast the latest c...

April showered Mets fans with wins. With May underway, Greg Prince and Jeff Hysen wonder whether we can stop and smell the roses of first place — or is it our nature to wait for the other shoe to drop? Also, Deep Bench continues with a salute to Met utilitymen of the 1970s; Nationals Park comes under the National League Town microscope; and Mets fan Nora Ephron has us thinking about Mother’s Day.

The first combined no-hitter in New York Mets history is cause for the first emergency...we mean celebratory podcast in the long and storied annals of National League Town. Greg Prince and Jeff Hysen get positively giddy over Tylor Megill, Drew Smith, Joely Rodriguez, Seth Lugo and Edwin Diaz combining to blank the Philadelphia Phillies in not one but two columns of the line score. It’s the happie...

With the Mets having won the vast majority of their first few weeks’ worth of games, Greg Prince and Jeff Hysen contemplate whether a good start means a good season is in progress. National League Town also introduces Deep Bench, a 60th-anniversary celebration of the Mets’ most useful utility players, and stands to applaud most (if not all) members of the 3,000 Hit Club.

What’s that ten-foot high presence looming over the entrance to Citi Field? None other than the Tom Seaver statue, at last. National League Town celebrates the unveiling of the LONG overdue tribute to the Franchise and applauds the return of Nancy Seaver to the greater Shea Stadium vicinity. Plus Greg Prince explains his overalls and Jeff Hysen has had it up to here (his hand his under his chin) w...

Met-aphorically we sit at the Woodside station, with Mets-Willets Point as our destination. After a rousing road trip to start the season, the Mets are indeed coming home. Greg Prince and Jeff Hysen welcome them back to town by sharing a few thoughts regarding Citi Field, a ballpark that’s suddenly entering its 14th summer as the place we call our own.

One ace’s troublesome scapula notwithstanding, we brim with measured excitement for the season at hand. Take a trip around the diamond with Greg Prince and Jeff Hysen as they persuade one another every Met who wasn’t here last year is an upgrade over every Met who was; every Met who’s still here from last year will only get better; and if too much doesn’t go wrong, plenty is bound to go right in 2...

We’re looking forward to Mets baseball because we love the Mets and we love baseball. What exactly do we love about our team and the game they play? In an episode conspicuously devoid of gripes, Greg Prince and Jeff Hysen swap reason after reason they keep coming back season after season.