Indulge the personal for a moment as I hope it helps make a point.
I was hired at this paper to be the investigative sports reporter when The Post began publishing on Sundays. My first day of work was Feb. 6, 1989. The next day, our Yankees beat writer, Michael Kay (yep, that Michael Kay), resigned to work at the Daily News.
On my third day of work, I was asked if I wanted to cover the Yankees beat. I was 24. I had no beat experience. I had a vision of what I wanted my career to be. I had been influenced heavily by the movie “All the President’s Men” and the book “The Boys on the Bus,” and I thought I was going to make my mark in investigations and turn that into a job covering politics at the highest level. Ah, stupid youth.
But the Yankees were viewed not only as the prime beat at this paper, but among the best in the country. It was, Godfather-style, an offer I could not refuse. Thank goodness. It made my career.
Opportunity, I learned, does not often come with advance warning. Boom, it is here. Then it is about if you can seize it, capitalize upon it, translate opportunity into something bigger and better.
And that brings me to the Mets — believe it or not.
They have opportunity right now that we could not have readily predicted. Some is about them perhaps figuring stuff out with their late-game bullpen and potentially getting more production out of shortstop. But this is really about the rest of the division opening a door.
For the second straight year, the Nationals’ on-paper talent is not translating to NL East supremacy. Like last year, the Nats are not maximizing potential, acting — in fact — more like a baseball Duke, thinking reputation alone will get them into the postseason tournament. At this point we can assume there is an essential missing ingredient with the Nationals that prevents them from translating talent into full success. Davey Johnson couldn’t get it out of them last year and Matt Williams, the new manager, is failing this season.
More than one-third of a season has been played and the Mets were one game behind Washington when play began Wednesday.
The defending division champ Braves have an offense as strikeout-prone and maddening as the Mets do. They lost 2-0 to the Mariners on Wednesday afternoon — the major-league-high 18th time they have scored zero or one run — and their gap over the fourth-place Mets was just three games.
The Mets just beat the Phillies four of five in Philadelphia and, I believe, that was an accurate reflection of how far the once-mighty have fallen. The Phils need to be thinking about trading Chase Utley and Cliff Lee and anything else over 30 that they can move. Remember how wretchedly the Diamondbacks began — well, they had the same number of wins as the Phils.
The Marlins? They were afterthoughts to begin the year, then they lost the brilliant Jose Fernandez. So in many ways they are like the Mets — long shots who lost their ace (Matt Harvey for the Mets) to Tommy John surgery. Yet, like the Mets, opportunity is upon them with the mediocre nature of the division and the league.
So in the last week, Miami got proactive — trying to address a weak setup crew by trading the 39th pick in the draft to Pittsburgh for Bryan Morris and signing Kevin Gregg. Maybe Gregg is just another way of saying Kyle Farnsworth or Jose Valverde. But give the Marlins credit for trying. Too many teams are playing for 2016 or to be loved by Baseball America for their prospect base.
Do I think the Mets can make the playoffs? It remains unlikely. But I will say this: I thought it was, at best, a 5 percent chance a month ago, but now I think it is better than that. Just six of the 15 NL teams began Wednesday over .500 and just three were more than two games over .500. It could be the NL East winner and at least one of the wild cards will play in the high to mid-80s — lower even than those 90 wins Sandy Alderson hoped upon.
There are four months of the season left, so maybe the Nationals get their act right. Maybe. Perhaps the Braves’ power bats overcome all. Perhaps. But there is opportunity here for Alderson and the Mets. If the Marlins are trying to get their team better, Alderson should be proactive as well. Ownership needs to stop talking about the money it is willing to spend and open wallets.
Does the front office, for example, think there is still a star player inside Matt Kemp as long as he is liberated from the Dodgers? Will the Rockies auction Carlos Gonzalez? Will the Rays concede and make the versatile Ben Zobrist available?
Maybe the Mets’ recent run to .500 is about the Phillies — arguably the NL’s worst teams — and not about the Mets. Maybe.
Or they just could be trending upward at a time when the expected best in their division have flat-lined. The Mets have a stockpile of pitching prospects and opportunity. It is an interesting combination, and the Mets should be as proactive as possible to do something about it, try to find extra wins when each one could really matter. Did you see the Rangers in the Stanley Cup finals two months ago? Can you imagine if the Mets do enough over the next two months that they actually have to think about using the renowned Rangers fan Harvey down the stretch?
Opportunity does not come with warning. But when it comes, seize it, capitalize upon it. I am writing this column because opportunity came out of nowhere.