How the ESPN stole Narco or Trigger a Mets fan With One Simple Trumpet

It takes a lot to bring an old, washed writer back out of retirement. But sometimes, there’s certain lines that are crossed that cannot go unchecked. Just when you think Bloggin Hood is gone forever, he re-appears, when the people need him the most. Of course, I’m talking about ESPN’s decision to play Narco during a Hockey Game. Why don’t you just tell the Met fans to take the longest stick they have on their property and…

You know what? Let’s avoid that line for our first paragraph back. There’s plenty of time for ass jokes as we go.

Some of you lucky, fortunate souls might not understand the rage involved with Narco being played. That’s not a knock on the song – it’s a certified banger. If you’re personally unfamiliar with the trumpet based jam, that means you’re not a Mets fan. Congratulations. If you’re 35 or younger, the Mets have only given its fanbase heartache, disappointment, and Bobby Bonilla day. Those over 35 got to experience at least one championship. Guess how old I am?

2022 was the pinnacle of Mets fandom. Despite having the highest payroll in baseball, the team overachieved, looking like the class of the National League for months. Even the most skeptical, pessimistic fan* ¹ began to believe. The team was on pace for 100 wins. What could possibly go wrong?

That’s when the organization had us fans right where they wanted. They waited until September and stomped on our metaphorical ball sacks. Ladies I know you felt it too so I added metaphorical. This is an equal opportunity blog.

In the biggest series of the season, the Mets needed one win against Atlanta, with their 3 best pitchers on the mound. They were embarrassed out of the state, losing all three games and ultimately the division. The team limped into the playoffs with a record of 101-61. How can a team with 101 wins be disappointing?

The embarrassment continued as they lost in the wild card round to the San Diego Padres. In the final game, the team managed one hit, and even forced the umps to check opposing pitcher Joe Musgrove for illegal substances. Sure, Musgrove was somewhat sweaty and shining, but the Met wouldn’t have hit a pitching machine that day. It was a dark day in Franchise History. That metaphorical ball sack wasn’t just stepped on – it was pulverized.

They really shouldn’t show that kind of stuff on TV. Kids are watching. They’ll either be tramized, or worse, develop a fetish… We really need to move on.

In fact, there were really only a few positive takeaways from the 2022 season. In no particular order:

– The combined 5 pitcher no hitter against the Phillies.

– The 7 run comeback in the bottom of the 9^th against the Phillies.

You know, the sad thing is even those two moments are tainted sijnce the Phillies limped into the playoffs worse than the Mets, and made the World Series. No, that wasn’t annoying in the slightest.

-Brett Baty, hitting a homerun in his first career at bat against the Braves. I’m been advised by my legal team to not speak more about Baty right now, for feel of going full, 100% fanboy, but that article is coming** ².

-The complete turnaround of Edwin Diaz.

Now, many of us, including the author, may have forgetting that this article is about ESPn recklessly playing Narco. But at the heart of that song is Diaz, the Mets closer who at one point was the heart of a horrible trade.

At the end of 2018, the Mets traded their top prospect Jarred Kelenic and a few pieces, including Jay Bruce, for Diaz, and 2 Time PED Suspension recipient Robinson Cano. At the time, this seemed like a really bad deal. This was before Cano would get his second suspension and be cut from the team in 2022 despite being owed 18 million dollars. That’s not great.

It didn’t help that Diaz had arguably the worst closer season of all time in 2019. His 5.52 ERA didn’t tell the full story. Every game he entered was an adventure. I don’t mean like a fun adventure like a Darkwing Duck episode. I mean like a Peppa Pig episode where Diaz was Daddy Pig, and the opposing batters where the mean little shit Pig.

After 2019, Diaz quietly regained his dominant form. His numbers in 2020-2021 are elite, with the exception of some spotty control. Still, the damage from 2019 was done. Fans could never accept Diaz. In fact, the only thing stopping Mets fans from going full on WFAN caller was that Kelenic was struggling mightily. Hold that thought for about 1500 words.

In would take a true elite, unhittable season for Diaz to win the fans over. So, Diaz did exactly that in 2022. After a “mortal” April, where he pitched great, Diaz reached a new level, and was virtually unhittable for all of 2022. His 1.31 ERA was actually unlucky (FIP was .90*** ³).

In a rare twist, the Mets had a closer who kept close leads and didn’t load the bases every outing. Diaz shortened games and even pitched before the final frame to face the best hitters on the opposing team. That sounds like an obvious move, but a lot of closers do not pitch any other innings in fear of missing the save. Diaz was a true team first player and was clear and away the best reliever in baseball.

Hell, he got low level MVP votes. No, really, he finished 16^th for the NL MVP. Is that all that impressive? For a closer? Yes, kind of.

But no matter how dominant Diaz was, what stood out the most in 2022 was his entrance theme. Typically entrance themes are saved for Wrestlers and Wedding receptions. However, closers do flirt with them from time to time. The most famous was Mariano Rivera and Enter Sandman. I can admit, that was pretty cool. But the Diaz entrance took on a whole new level during 2022.

I don’t have a clue when Narco actually came out, but it exploded in 2022 as Diaz became more and more dominant. At first, it was really just a Mets fan thing, but it slowly evolved and got some national attention. The Mets broadcast did a great job of hyping it, and Diaz entering became an event. The song was great, but Diaz being lights out it was made it. It felt like a final boss – one that the opponents couldn’t conquer.

Thank god the Mets offense failed to hold a lead in any big game down the stretch so they could use this unhittable monster. I’m so happy how 2022 ended. Can’t you feel my smile?

Now, you could argue the Narco entrance jumped the shark. At one point in the year, the Mets invited one of the song’s performers, Timmy Trumpets, to play the song live against the Dodgers. Not only he clearly lip play**** ⁴ the trumpet, the Mets started to churn downhill after. Yes, Diaz was electric in this game, but the team never recovered. Was this a curse from Timmy Trumpets?

No, probably not. To his credit, Mr. Trumpets became a fan of baseball because of Diaz and now roots for the Mets. That’s good hustle. It’s also quite fortunate that a man named Timmy Trumpets was so gifted with the instrument.

So, what does any of this have to do with ESPN? That’s a great question. I kind of forgot what I was talking about after I mentioned Baty. Let me review my notes.

In 2023, the World Baseball Classic took place. This is a major showcase of the game, where teams from all over the world compete. Did you know that Italy has a national baseball team? Neither did I, but Matt Harvey was somehow a starting pitcher for them. Shoutout to him on his retirement. It may not have ended well with the Mets but some of the moments were electric.

The WBC is a big source of pride for many players, especially in countries favored to win – The Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Japan and even the United States. The Mets, fresh off one of their best years in franchise history (and still a giant disappointment) had many representatives for the WBC. This included Diaz, playing for Puerto Rico. Also, I’m aware that Puerto Rico is not a country, but the WBC kind of implies it is, so I’m rolling with it.

Now, the World Baseball Classic is played during Spring Training. The timing of the event is not ideal. Players typically are ramping up for games by playing low stress, meaningless baseball. The World Baseball Classic is the exact opposite. Games are played at the highest level with national pride on the line. The players want to win, and many considered a WBC title of equal importance to a World Series, and some considered it greater.

During a clash between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, Edwin Diaz took the mound and saved the game against the favor DR. This was a huge rivalry game, and advanced Puerto Rico to the next round of the tournament. The team celebrated around Diaz. From my perspective, Diaz clearly did not want to celebrate too intently after his dominance. But then, he gave in…

A few seconds later, the celebrations stopped. Diaz was down on the ground in serious pain. He suffered a knee injury and was out for the 2023 season. This was after the Mets signed him to a lucrative deal, and he looked even more dominant in his limited WBC innings. As always, this is why Mets fans can’t have nice things.

I want to add that anyone blaming the event for the injury is a lunatic. If a player gets hurt celebrating like this, it probably means the area was weak and going to get injured anyway. Is it a bad look? Maybe, but I can’t fault somebody for celebrating a big win like this and the players care a lot about the tournament. In my view, this injury was probably going to happen, and it was a matter of when, not if. It sucks, but it happened.

To add insult to an injury taking place before the season, Jared Kelenic, the former Met who struggled mightily in the majors, seems to have figured things out. He had a very good April, hitting 7 homeruns with over a .900 OPS. National Broadcasters salivate, awaiting to appear this year’s Kelenic to Diaz and talk about the Mets got fleeced.

And trust me, they did. But I don’t want to hear about it after Diaz’s knee exploded.

Diaz’s injury not only took away the Mets’ dominant closer, but it also meant the trumpets must be retired, with no exception, until his return to the mound. Case in point, in Puerto Rico’s next game, Diaz’ brother Alexis, another highly skilled reliever, came out to Narco in his brother’s honor. He ended up giving up 3 runs without recording an out, and Puerto Rico was eliminated. The gesture was thoughtful, but the baseball gods made a ruling – This is Edwin Diaz’s song and no one else’s.

In fact, the song performers, BlasterJaxxx and Timmy Trumpets have stated as much. Last year, William Contreras, a Brave of all players, has Narco as his walk up song. Both performers were on record of saying that it was Diaz’s song. That’s pretty strong coming from the actual creators of the song.

Now, Contreras had used it for the full season and probably had every right to, but screw that, listen to Timmy Trumpets. It’s in his name damn it!

Which brings us to ESPN, and there no good, dastardly decision to go against the wishes of the creators of Narco and play this song when going to commercial break of a Hockey game. I don’t know who green lit this, but I have several questions.

First, ESPN has the rights to hockey again, but who had it before this year? I mean, when was the last Hockey game televised beyond the Stanley Cup or the Winter Classic before this year? This is probably why the country forgot hockey existed. I mean, they might still not remember, but it’s on TV. That’s a step up.

Secondly, and most importantly, why is ESPN trying to torture poor Mets fans? Narco was played during a Devils/Rangers game 7. They knew what they were doing. They wanted to prey on tense fans and make them feel even worse. But it wasn’t enough to stop there. Oh no, not at all.

Sure, Devils fans enjoyed a hard-fought series win against their bitter rivals, but what have the Mets fans who support their fiancée’s hockey teams? How about Narco playing every 18 seconds after every ESPN commercial break? I’m not sure what hurts worse: hearing the song of our falling closer or repeat in a non-save situation, or watching Carolina score uncontested goals? I mean, it’s pretty close.

Now, some of the slow witted readers out there***** ⁵ might think hearing Narco is an honor for the Mets. Diaz’s dominance helped popularize the song so much, that’s it’s spread. Not only has it become a popular mainstream song, but places like ESPN also try to ride the wave nearly a year after the rise. Mainstream media is always on the ball with what’s popular. Maybe, Bloggin Hood needs to lighten up and accept Narco playing as a tribute.

Yeah, tribute my sweet succulent ass. This is yet another way for ESPN to mock the Mets fanbase. While I’m forced to watch the Mets crash and burn against the dregs of the league, ESPN casually tries to crash and burn the only cool thing to happen to the Mets prior to Brett Baty’s call up. I mean, we can’t have a consistent winning franchise, we can’t have a competent rotation or lineup. Hell, we don’t have more than 3 players on the team hit their body weight. Can’t we at least have the song?

It doesn’t help that the ESPN analyst has always been, or what’s the word? Sucktastic. Yeah, there we go. The booth barely has enough time to discuss anything, and when they do, it’s usually something like “I think the team that scores goals is doing well.” Thanks team. I wouldn’t have guessed. This is pretty consistent with ESPN today – a lot of incoherent yelling, a lot of “hot” takes infested with inaccuracies, and then stating the obvious. And then after this paint by numbers bullshit they have to play Narco.

Every time Narco plays, I’m reminded of what could have been. Imagine an 8^th inning from David Robertson and a 9^th inning from Diaz? I mean, that’s arguably better than sex, I’d imagine. Unfortunately, that’s a fantasy I can only dream about.****** ⁶ Also, even in this fantasy, Diaz probably is pitching to keep the game 1-0 anyway. Not that I’m extremely bitter about 2023’s team so far.

NOT AT ALL. WHY DO YOU KEEP ASKING IF I AM?

I know it sounds like I’m protecting a song that’s available on all streaming platforms, but Narco was popularized by Diaz, and not the other way around. I can’t think of a player song combo like this, short of Michael Jordan and the Space Jam theme song, and even that’s tainted by Space Jam 2. No, Narco is something special.

While sports team have songs associated with their entrances and after big plays like goals and touchdowns, really, the only athletes with individual songs tend to be baseball players, MMA fighters, and the WWE. I don’t know that much about the MMA and I have it on good authority that the WWE is, in fact, fixed. Ironically, wrestling does have some iconic songs and entrances, but we don’t hear Sexy Boy when ESPN goes to the break. Can you imagine SVP cutting to commercial with that blasting? Sign me up.

Every batter has a walk up song, but honestly, we don’t hear these during a broadcast. Plus, batters tend to change their song yearly, and might even have different songs for each at bat during a game. Occasionally these are memorable, but not likely.  Former Met Justin Turner heroically walked up to Call me Maybe during his Mets tenure. After he left, he became a .300 hitter. Some would say it’s because the Mets are cursed, and that’s certainly true, but I credit it to karma for walking about to a generational jam.

Closers are the closest thing we have the WWE entrances. While not every closer is elite, and some lose their jobs weekly, the dominant closers can be paired with an entrance song and create something. Trevor Hoffman came out to Hell’s Bells. Kenley Jansen had California Love (Not really a great pick now that he’s on the east coast). Rick Vaughn had Wild Thing, but it turned out, that was a movie. All really cool, but not iconic.

But then, there was Enter Sandman. Now we’re talking.

Mariano Rivera is the greatest closer of all time. He also had one of the greatest entrance songs of all time. Rivera and Enter Sandman became synonymous. When the song played, the game was over like 99% of the time. You could say that Rivera owned the song. Now, Enter Sandman gets regular play still, at least in some circles. So why do I care so much about Narco playing on ESPN?

Because it’s two entirely different scenarios. ‘

Enter Sandman, and Metalica as a whole, was wildly popular before Mariano. Evem if you don’t know any of Metallica’s songs, you know of them. Do you think about could name Blasterjaxx? What about Timmy Trumpets? I don’t think so. No offense Timmy, but you wouldn’t be able to play in Metallica. They don’t have a trumpeter! As I said before, Diaz made Narco big. Rivera probably helped with Enter Sandman’s popularly, but it didn’t need much help.

But the second, and bigger reason, is us Mets fans need something to hang on to. I don’t like to admit it, but the past 35 years of Mets baseball, well, it hasn’t been ideal. The fans are finally given something cool, led by someone legitimately good, and then due to a freak injury, it’s taken from us. Instead of resting Narco until 2024, I have to hear it at the 12-minute mark during a hockey game. Much like Metallica, they don’t have a Trumpeter on their rosters either, so give it a damn rest.

And before Yankees fans say that times are tough, you’re the ones who cite all of the championships. Now, let me have this rant and enjoy A-Rod on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball.

That was mean. I apologize. Nobody’s watching ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball.

Game 4 of the Devils-Hurricane series is on Tuesday. I’m sure Narco will play 45 times, and each time I’ll get angry. I won’t just be angry thinking about what Diaz could have done this year, but also because the current iteration of the Mets seemingly tries to lose every time. In fact, now Nraco is a reminder of the Mets failings than their triumphs, at least until Diaz returns. Or every single time Baty gets up.

Oh man, what a talent.

So basically, am I mad at ESPN for remining me the Mets are the Mets? Well, yes, but that’s not my fault. It’s really everyone elses. Especially the Mets.

But even more especially ESPN. Stop playing the damn song. Can’t you play Call me Maybe or some JoJo like the people demand!

Now that’s how you get people ready to watch hockey!

1. *Hi I’m Bloggin Hood 8 time most pessimistic fan winner. Losing in 2015 wasn’t my fault. They called up Conforto. What was I supposed to do? Have you seen his swing?
2. **I have literally not shut up about Baty since his debut. He’s going to shatter Michael Conforto’s previously record of most hyperbole on a blog (set by Bloggin Hood, 2019).
3. ***FIP is basically the expected ERA assuming ever pitcher’s park and defense is the same. SO, despite a miniscule ERA, Diaz was actually even better. See? I can make a good point even between bad ball sack jokes.
4. ****I don’t know a better term for fake playing an instrument, so here’s my attempt.
5. *****I call them non Mets fans
6. ******I’m not sure what topic I’m talking about here.