Gutsy Mets did New York proud with spectacular October surprise and the future is bright

LOS ANGELES — Take a bow, Mets.You’ve done us proud.On only above average overall talent but extraordinary heart and guts and a marvelous ability to overcome leads and odds, you wrote a wonderfully exciting script for October.Unfortunately, the story was cut a couple games short of that fairytale ending.

There will be no Subway Series.But there should be no heartache here either.The Mets have nothing to be ashamed of.

They played great October baseball against three teams with more wins, a higher standing and far greater expectations.They did it almost all on the edge, but you can only live for so long on the edge.You can only stage so many comebacks before the burden becomes overwhelming, the task too tall.You can only win so many elimination games as a team allegedly in transition before the jig is up, and it’s time to start preparing for next season.You can’t keep coming back game after game.That just doesn’t happen.

Not in the major leagues it doesn’t.When you’re a team that had to wait until the last day of the season (actually the day after the last day) to qualify for this derby, you can only keep the Shohei Ohtani/Mookie Betts Dodgers down for so many games before they break out and run away, which they did in beating the Mets 10-5 in the deciding Game 6 of the National League Championship Series to reach the World Series against the Yankees.The Yankees got another break.They don’t love facing lefties (the Dodgers are almost all right) and didn’t beat the Mets once.

But that’s just water under the Whitestone now.Major League Baseball got the biggest break of all.After enduring Arizona vs.

Texas (a draw to no one outside the dust bowl), now MLB gets its dreamiest marquee matchup.Ohtani and Betts vs.

Aaron Judge and Juan Soto.The 2024 World Series is like a convention of superstars.

It’s a dream scenario to top a wonderful derby.The Mets were a big part of this postseason from heaven.From Pete Alonso’s wild-card winning home run...