Francisco Lindor, Mets know what pain Knicks are feeling today
Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor looks out of the dugout during the eighth inning of a game against the Colorado Rockies on Sunday at Citi Field. Credit: Noah K. Murray
If there’s anyone who knows how the Knicks feel today, it’s the Mets.
Like the Knicks this season, the Mets last season fell one round short of reaching their sport’s championship series. The Mets lost to the Dodgers in six games in the NLCS; the Knicks lost in six to the Pacers in the Eastern Conference finals.
No World Series.
No NBA Finals.
No chance at a title.
“It was an empty feeling,” Francisco Lindor told Newsday on Sunday before the Mets beat the Rockies, 5-3, to complete a three-game sweep at Citi Field. “It was empty because you feel like you have a good chance of accomplishing something cool and you got closer to the end goal, and it’s not there anymore. Then you’ve got to wait together a whole year.”
It remains to be seen how Knicks fans — once they process Saturday night’s bitter ending — will look back on the franchise’s first trip to the conference finals in 25 years.
Mets fans generally reminisce fondly about the team’s improbable run to the NLCS.
Lindor doesn’t totally share that feeling.
“I don’t see it like that,” he said. “I see it as like, throughout the year, you realize what you are accomplishing. Once you finish the year, if you don’t accomplish the end goal, you didn’t. As of right now, I don’t view it as like, it was a good year because we accomplished this. For me, it’s about finishing the end goal, accomplishing it.
“I don’t view it as a failure. But I don’t see it like, ‘Oh, we didn’t accomplish the championship, but we accomplished this.’ That’s, like, trying to cope with pain. I don’t do it like that.”
Lindor, who said he attended three or four Knicks games at Madison Square Garden this season, watched the end of the Knicks’ final game after the Mets beat the Rockies on Saturday. It was tough to watch as Pacers fans got to celebrate and Knicks fans had to wait ’til next year. Again.
“I don’t know how Knicks fans are feeling,” he said. “But I know, as New York athletes, I know the fans will appreciate the effort, the memories, the idea that they had good moments with their colleagues or with their family members. New York fans will appreciate that.”
Said Mets manager Carlos Mendoza: “It’s always tough. We went through it last year. When you have high expectations and you kind of get close and you just can’t take that next step, it’s hard, but you’ve got to move on. The mindset is, ‘What are we missing? How can we get better? How do we become the best team in the league?’
“I know it’s hard. It’s not a good place to be. But there’s a bright future there, obviously. As far as turning the page, you’ve got to do it as quick as possible. You can’t just sit and start feeling sorry for yourself. You’ve got to continue to find ways to get better and improve. And I’m pretty sure they will do it.”
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
