Mets move on to the League Championship Series!
October 7, 2006 
What an amazing day for Mets fans! The Mets beat the Dodgers 9-5 today to move on to the League Championship Series! They swept the Division Series!
And earlier in the day the Yankees were eliminated from the playoffs, losing to the Detroit Tigers, and granting the Mets the full attention of New York baseball fans!
Due to *ahem* social commitments, I had to watch the Mets-Dodgers game in three pieces via TiVo throughtout the day, but even that didn’t ruin any of the excitement and realization that this year the Mets have a team that can go all the way and win!
So many great Mets players have come together as a unified team and that’s a beautiful things to witness. They’ve come out so strong, both offensively and defensively, and haven’t let injuries set them back either.
The Mets simply overpowered and overplayed the Dodgers in this series, much like I witnessed when I saw the two teams’ matchup at Shea Stadium during the regular season. So much so that the Dodgers went 20 innings straight without a lead in this series.
This all happened on the same day that the surprisingly powerful and playoff-ready Detroit Tigers shut down the Yankees in 4 games, bringing a renewed hope to the Motorcity faithful. (Did anyone else see the postgame celebration where the Tigers players went out and sprayed the fans with champagne and circled the stadium high-fiving everyone? That was a beautiful moment in baseball history, and I’m sure Mets fans can relate.)
Now many Mets fans, including my friend Fred, who revealed to me — without saying a single word — the outcome of the game with a beaming smile and crooked Mets hat, feel like today was a double blessing because the Mets went on while the Yankees went down. But, I was definitely looking forward to a Subway World Series rematch from 2000.
But we all know the Yankees were hardly a close-knot team this year and their league-best (tied with the Mets) season record was more an effect of bad American League teams than a super Yankees team. That was proven when they were held
20 innings straight without scoring a run in the division series. So it wasn’t meant to be, I guess. I wonder if Joe Torre will be back next year.
As for the Mets, the postseason continues. It looks likely to be the Cardinals — a team that skidded into the playoffs — that we’ll face next. And I see good things on the horizon. This is definitely our year. Bring it on! We’re ready.
