The Soundtrack of Your Life

Perhaps with more indisputable zeniths, I wouldn’t be so quick to recall the transitory peaks of life as a New York Mets fan. Whether it’s a 9-6 record in 1978 or 42-42 in 1980 or 53-38 in 1991 or 59-37 in 1984, those instances when the Mets got as good as they were going to get in a given year tend to burn brightly for me. Sometimes they can be measured by the best winning percentage the Mets could calculate for themselves in the heart of a baseball season. Sometimes, though, it’s about a more intangible sensation. In 2007, the Mets rose their highest in late May — 33-17 after Jose Reyes and Carlos Delgado spooked Armando Benitez out of Shea Stadium — but there was another moment, exactly a month later, that I cling to just as much when I want to remember what was good about a year that wound up as historically dispiriting. The Mets had been meandering through June for about three weeks when they reignited to what we considered their usual standards. They swept Oakland a three-game...