Just Mets

What an incredible spectrum of emotions that Wilmer Flores and this Mets team has endured in a 48-hour span.

On Friday night, on the heels of three standing ovations earlier in the contest, Flores rocketed a walk-off home run over the wall in left field to beat the Washington Nationals in the biggest game of the season to date for the Mets–but it almost didn’t happen.

“You can’t write that,” Terry Collins told the media after Friday’s win. “You guys couldn’t come up with that. And you’re good. But that’s unbelievable.

“Can it happen at a better time to a better person and in a bigger situation than that? We’re all so thrilled for him. It’s unbelievable,” Collins continued.

Rewind to two days prior on a warm Wednesday night at Citi Field against the Padres. It was just about halfway through the game when the news surfaced that Flores had been included in a trade to the Brewers for center fielder Carlos Gomez; a deal that was reported as “done.”

This is the moment that began an incredibly strange, turbulent and emotional few days for this franchise. While the news of the trade had circulated all throughout the ballpark, up to the SNY broadcast booth and even to Flores himself, he remained in the game.

I was spectator at Citi Field as this was all happening, and I’ll say what I’ve already written on this blog multiple times in the last couple days: This was the strangest day of baseball of my life.

The night was no longer even about the game, as everyone was fixated on this reported trade the Mets had made and why in the world Flores was still in this game. Inning after inning it got odder and odder. The atmosphere in the building was one I’ve never felt before.

As the game progressed into the later innings, Flores became aware of what was happening and was reduced to tears both on the field and in the dugout. As excited as this crowd was for the impending acquisition of a big bat, it was incredibly hard to watch this go down with Flores, and at one point I even began to get choked up a bit.

That’s one thing fans easily forget–these players are not assets, they are human beings.

New York did it’s best to send Flores off with a rousing goodbye, but he was struggling to say goodbye back. As he stepped to bat in the bottom of the seventh, the crowd rose to it’s feet, in what was believed to be Wilmer’s final swan song in the orange and blue.

Once the game ended things got stranger as general manager Sandy Alderson told the media that there was no trade for Gomez involving Flores, and that there wasn’t going to be one. After all that hubbub, all that applause and all that emotion, Wilmer was still a Met.

Things have been different, though, since. After his emotions were broadcast over television and social media, Flores suddenly became a player Mets fans were adoring and connecting with. He was reduced to tears at the thought of leaving this franchise, and these fans resonate with that kind of emotion and commitment.

On Friday against the Nationals, in his first start since the events of Wednesday night, Flores made the first of his memorable plays in the first inning as he made a tremendous diving stop to rob Yunel Escobar of a base hit, and he was greeted to the first of four standing ovations on the night.

“New York fans take a lot of criticism for being tough. They take a lot of heat about how hard they are on people,” Collins said. “What they did for Wilmer Flores tonight, you’re not going to find that in a lot of places. That is the most respectful way to handle a situation that these fans can possibly come up with.”

“I was surprised. Those guys are great,” Flores said of the fan response. “They cheered every time I was going to hit, and it felt good.”

After driving in the only run of the game for the Mets to that point, it was Flores once again who stepped up the bat, this time in the bottom of the 12th, where he made magic in a chill-inducing moment that wasn’t even supposed to happen.

He completed a storybook game in romantic fashion with a game-winning home run. It couldn’t have been scripted any better for the player.

“Words can’t really describe what has been going through his head, and us, as a team, the last couple of days,” said Matt Harvey, who pitched 7 2/3 brilliant innings on Friday night. “Obviously, everything that happened to him is pretty incredible. For tonight to happen the way it did, it’s pretty unreal. Everybody is so happy for him.”

A finish suited for Hollywood, and a man made for New York.

“It felt great. I couldn’t be happier,” Flores said after hitting the home run.