The unprecedented rivalry chance that follows Mets back to Atlanta

The truth is, going back to 1962, there aren’t a lot of regular-season victories that compare to the one that concluded at 4:08 p.m. on the afternoon of Sept. 30, 2024. The truth is, there’s only one that belongs in the same category, and it had taken place four days shy of a quarter century earlier: Oct. 4, 1999, a do-or-die, one-game playoff in Cincinnati for the National League’s wild-card berth. 

In ’99, the Mets carried quite a bit of baggage with them. It had been 11 years since their last playoff berth. A year earlier, they’d lost five straight games at the end, games 158-162, when winning only one would’ve snuck them into another playoff for the wild-card, a three-team round-robin with the Giants and Cubs. And there was plenty of concern that Bobby Valentine, the manager, hadn’t yet steered a team to the postseason. 

So 1999’s 5-0 win against the Reds, behind a two-hitter from Al Leiter, was cathartic. 

And still pales in comparison to what happened last Sept. 30. Consider all the layers of misery the Mets had added in 25 years: a walk-off walk in NLCS Game 6 to the Braves in ’99. A Subway Series loss in 2000. A cruel loss in Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS, followed up by gut-stomping collapses in 2007 and ’08. A 2015 run that ended in a World Series horror show. Another epic collapse in 2022.