The Buzz: Can custom cleats make Mets 'shoe-ins'?
Edwin Diaz's specially-designed cleats for Mets' Wild Card Series, designed by artist Alex Rodriguez. Credit: Alex Katz
Edwin Diaz will carry the trumpets wherever he goes. Eduardo Escobar will carry his hometown. Mets co-owner Alex Cohen will carry memories of Shea Stadium. And they’ll all be on their feet.
Diaz and Escobar are among a number of Mets who commissioned custom playoff cleats from Stadium Custom Kicks, whose owner, Alex Katz of New Hyde Park, prepared ahead of Game 1 of the NL Wild Card Series.
Katz, a professional baseball player drafted by the White Sox who currently plays with the Staten Island FerryHawks, started the venture in 2019 and employs about 30 artists who create custom designs for players who want to carry a little extra sartorial oomph with them into games.
Diaz’s cleats, painted by Alex Rodriguez (not the player), include neon trumpets — a nod to his entrance music — and a tribute to the Puerto Rican flag.
“Wow, these are sick,” tweeted Timmy Trumpet, whose trumpet solo has taken hold of Citi Field.
Escobar’s cleats had tiger stripes with repetitions of the phrase “El de la Pica,” a nickname that pays homage to his hometown in Venezuela. Francisco Alvarez’s are reflective, meant to shine in the bright stadium lights, while Carlos Carrasco leaned into his nickname with Cookie Monster cleats.
Finally, Cohen has white sneakers adorned with baseball seams and the words “La Jeffa” (the boss in Spanish), and another pair in black with re-creations of the old Shea Stadium neon line drawings.
“We can do anything imaginable, changing specific parts of the shoe,” said Katz, who hand-delivered the cleats Friday. “There’s no limit.”
— Laura Albanese
First impressions
Three of the top four hitters in the Mets’ lineup (Brandon Nimmo, Jeff McNeil and Pete Alonso) played in their first postseason game Friday night.
Former Mets second baseman Daniel Murphy was a playoff newbie when he went on a tear for the ages in the 2015 postseason. Murphy hit .421 with seven home runs combined in the NLDS and NLCS and was the NLCS MVP as the Mets made it to the World Series.
Carlos Carrasco's specially-designed cleats for Mets' Wild Card Series, designed by artist Dwayne Lee. Credit: Alex Katz
So does Murphy have any advice for the Mets’ trio?
“My first advice would be ‘well-deserved and enjoy yourselves,’ ” Murphy said Friday in a telephone interview. “And then, speaking from my experience, I was really scared. Like, nervous. Wanted to throw up. All of the things you get when you are kind of starting an adventure at something you’re aiming at, that you value.”
Murphy struck out on three pitches in his first playoff at-bat against Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers in Los Angeles.
The next time up, he homered off Kershaw for the first run of the series.
“I was really nervous in L.A.,” he said. “Like, really, really nervous. I think Clayton undressed me in my first at-bat on three pitches. It’s kind of like, well, welcome to the postseason.
“I think you kind of settle in, would be my advice. I think — and I’m speaking about myself — it’s a willingness to embrace probably the amount of fear and anxiety I was feeling. You could call it a dread. And then find some joy in that, because not everyone gets to experience that . . . There’s a bit of honor in being asked to face that dread. But it’s also exciting because really cool things happen.”
Francisco Lindor, who played in his 26th postseason game Friday, said: “I usually tell the young guys when they come up and do this experience, ‘This is the last time you’re going to make a postseason debut. Enjoy this one. Every year is different. I still get butterflies. I still get anxious. Just enjoy the first moment you go out on the field, look around, embrace it. You play 162 to get to that point. Just be thankful. Be thankful’ ”
— Anthony Rieber
Back in black
The Mets on Friday night wore their black uniform tops, as they have in every Friday home game since Steve Cohen brought them back last season.
But, uh-oh, the Mets went into Friday with an 8-9 record wearing the black jerseys in the Cohen era (7-5 in 2022, including a loss to the Padres), according to MLB.com.
Also according to MLB.com: The Mets had lost their last three postseason games in the black jerseys (2000 World Series Games 1 and 4 and 2006 NLCS Game 3).
— Anthony Rieber
Laura Albanese is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. She's been covering MLB since 2014 after starting at Newsday as an intern seven years earlier.
