National League Town (a Mets podcast)

A fifteen-year contract suggests Juan Soto will be spending the rest of his baseball-playing life as a New York Met. The number 5 in the Citi Field rafters confirms David Wright has been, is and will always be a Met for life. The way he’s conducted himself tells us Art Shamsky has devoted much of his life to the legacy of the 1969 Mets. National League Town hopes you’ll have the time of your life...

Juan Soto is a New York Met. What else is there to say? Whatever it is, Greg and Jeff couldn’t be happier to say it.

We welcome Frankie Montas to the New York Mets. We welcome Jose Siri to the New York Mets. Given the chance, we will welcome Juan Soto to the New York Mets. The so-called “golden at-bat” Rob Manfred is reportedly buzzing about? We show that concept to the door.

It’s Thanksgiving week, so let’s be thankful that as lifelong baseball fans, we’ve been fortunate enough to experience quite a few ballplayers still around to be reminded by fans that they’ll never be forgotten. Join Greg and Jeff in appreciation of some legendary players, Met and otherwise, who made indelible marks on the game we love.

National League Town looks back at three baseball legends who’ve recently passed: the most prolific hitter of all time; the pitcher who generated a mania all his own; and a cat we couldn’t hear enough about. Join Greg and Jeff as they remember Pete Rose, Fernando Valenzuela and, yes, Hadji.

Click and refresh all you like. Juan Soto is not yet a Met. Whether or not he will be is the steamiest Remains To Be Seen component of this Hot Stove season, but there are other matters to preoccupy Mets fans everywhere, including the ones at National League Town. Will Pete Alonso stay? Will most of our rotation go? Who will move to new positions? What heretofore total stranger will play his way i...

How great was 2024 to be a Mets fan? That’s one of the questions Greg and Jeff ponder as they conclude their reflections on a year they didn’t see coming, yet are grateful to have lived through.

Greg and Jeff always believed in the 2024 Mets, especially once they gave up on giving up on them. National League Town retroactively pieces together its realization that — despite some stubborn cynicism that beset each of our co-hosts — the Mets were slowly but surely forging an unforgettable season.

Congratulations to whoever won the World Series, specifically for ensuring who didn’t win the World Series. Mostly, in the wake of a fifteenth consecutive joyous Elimination Day, we look forward to what could be a year from now. You never know, but it’s enough at this point to think of the Metsian possibilities.

With the NLCS over, we’re wearing black, but like the Mets on Fridays, only for a day. Mostly we’re celebrating the 2024 club taking us through the postseason as far as they could. We’re sorry to leave it all behind, but we’re oh so glad to have been as immersed in it as we were.

Did we give up after falling down three games to one in the National League Championship Series? Don’t feel compelled to answer that. The important thing is the Mets won Game Five, the NCLS extends to a sixth game, and Greg and Jeff are filled with hope. Mets fans couldn’t ask to be filled with much more.

The bases were loaded. Mark Vientos was up. Then the bases were unloaded and the Mets were soon on their way to tying the National League Championship Series at one game apiece. Sound familiar? A Mets fan could get used to clutch postseason grand slams when not squirming uncomfortably while crossing fingers, toes and everything else that a sizable lead doesn’t shrink, let alone vanish. The emotion...

The bases were loaded. Francisco Lindor was up. Then the bases were unloaded and the Mets were soon on their way to the National League Championship Series. Greg and Jeff relive the latest Greatest Moment in New York Mets History; discern among excitement, anxiety and this strange thing that must be confidence; and say goodbye to a team of rivals by pointing them to the ever-expanding couch of van...

Atlanta to Milwaukee to Atlanta to Milwaukee to Philadelphia to, at last, Citi Field. The New York Mets are coming home to play Games Three and Four of the National League Division Series with one win in their pockets and two on the table for the taking. The NLDS in progress, featuring two intensely familiar rivals, has represented gripping baseball, and sure enough, Greg and Jeff are holding on f...

The Mets being in the postseason is an all too rare phenomenon that no Mets fan wants to end. Good thing Pete Alonso made sure this feeling like no other would continue. Greg and Jeff marvel at the Polar Bear’s “most memorable” moment and the vital contributions of several key teammates in overcoming Milwaukee in the Wild Card Series and bringing on Philadelphia for the Division Series.

Greg and Jeff put on the Champagne goggles and toast the 2024 postseason-bound New York Mets.

Backs and other anatomy up against the wall, the Mets had to win their final game in Milwaukee to have a reason to go to Atlanta with their heads held high and their playoff chances better than slim, and they did it. Greg and Jeff revel in the revival of Met fortunes, featuring much love for Francisco Lindor, Francisco Alvarez, David Peterson and J.D. Martinez. Not so much love for Rob Manfred, bu...

On a show where parallels to 1969 are invoked repeatedly, Greg and Jeff conclude it’s quite possible the 2024 Mets aren’t miraculous so much as they are good. Whatever they are, they have entered the final week of their season positioned to do Amazin’ things, and when set against how this season began, we can understand why we just brought the word “miracle” into the conversation.

National League Town remembers Ed Kranepool, a Met presence like no other. We also look ahead to the next steps of a playoff chase that couldn’t be much tighter; share a few things we learned from an afternoon at the library; and toast a very happy couple

We’re in the month that matters with games that matter, assuming you’re the kind of person who aligns your shirts or your thoughts to bring your team luck. The Mets are making September matter deeply thanks to, among other things, airtight defense, which Greg and Jeff salute...as they do Francisco Lindor (something that’s become a habit). The question ultimately permeating National League Town’s d...

August encompassed a heckuva schedule, yet the Mets survived it quite well. After two West Coast road trips, the club finds itself in the thick of a September playoff race, which means Greg and Jeff find themselves on the edge of their seats rather than nodding off on the couch.

After a month of running in place, do the Mets have what it takes to get it in gear and go after a postseason berth in earnest? That, as they say, is why they play the games. Greg and Jeff try to sort through the particulars of a team that wins one, loses one, rinses, and repeats a little too often. National League Town also pauses to remember a coach who served five Mets managers and ran the show...

The Mets hit the road and, by the time they got through in Seattle, the road hit back. Fortunately, three losses 3,000 miles away, no matter how offensively inept, count only as three losses, and the Wild Card is still very much within reach. Mets fans will never retrieve the sleep they lost staying awake across time zones, but that’s how following baseball works. Greg and Jeff attempt to sort it...

Greg and Jeff call the Francisco Lindor Appreciation Society to order, but first clear away other business, namely how much fun tracking the Mets through a playoff race has become and how much better the Mets might be as a result of their trade-deadline machinations. As for our superstar shortstop, how much more can one Met do? Lucky for us, we’ll have a bunch of years to find out.

Virtually unstoppable team gets stopped by the only two National League opponents who aren’t trying to make the playoffs. High-charged offense wins only when it scores one run. A roster we’ve come to serenade (“OMG”) is simultaneously a group we’re anxious to see change somewhat in the coming days. Yes, the New York Mets are a hard team to figure out, but Greg and Jeff do their best as the trade d...