Since 1962, there have been few regular-season wins as significant as the one celebrated on Sept. 30, 2024, at 4:08 p.m. Only one other victory can be considered as remarkable, which occurred on Oct. 4, 1999, almost 25 years earlier. This particular win took place in Cincinnati during a crucial one-game playoff for the National League’s wild-card spot. 

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.