John Mayer wants Francisco Lindor and the 2024 New York Mets to take a bow after their “monumental run” this season.
In a heartfelt message shared Monday on Instagram, the seven-time Grammy winner spoke candidly about the inspiration he drew from Lindor and the club, which came up short against the Dodgers on Sunday, 10-5, in Game 6 of the NLCS.
“Thank you Francisco Lindor @lindor12bc. Thank you New York Mets,” Mayer, 47, began. “You never know when you’re going to find a new source of inspiration, and Francisco became that inspiration for me this year. You could see the dedication in his eyes, in his plays – you could even see it in his strikeouts; it wasn’t a case of ‘couldn’t,’ only ‘didn’t that time.’
“My Sphere concerts this summer became games in my mind. Wins were when the music was cooking, when the notes matched the intention, when the zone could be found. Every weekend was a series, and every show was a home game.”
Mayer, who performed at the Las Vegas venue with Dead & Company from May until early August, revealed how he channeled Lindor when grappling with a finger injury.
“When I injured my finger and looked down to see half the nail sheared off and bleeding, my first thought was how to play with the other three fingers. That was what Lindor would have done, and so that’s what I did,” Mayer said of the Mets’ star shortstop.
“The Mets’ talent makes them aspirational, but their humanity makes them relational. It means that it’s never out of the question what’s being done on that field could be done by you and I in our pursuits, too.
“If I had one secret of success to share with you, it’s to pick someone in life you admire and run alongside them. You don’t have to know them to decide that if they can keep going, you can keep going. And the Mets kept going.”
With the dust still settling on the end of what was a magical run, Mayer hopes Lindor and his teammates “realize that what they accomplished was enough.”
“Their monumental run was enough to unify a city, bring together families, friends, and remind us all that above all else, nothing is more powerful a force in achieving success than effort. A boring word, ‘effort.’ But it’s the only chance of good becoming great and that greatness taking hold for the long run,” he wrote.
“So thank you Francisco Lindor, and thank you to the 2024 Mets for the unbelievable adventure, the inspiration, and the reminder to never give up. It was more than enough.”
Lindor swung his way into Mets lore earlier this month with a grand slam in the team’s Game 4 NLDS win over the loathed rival Phillies that helped them advance to the NLCS.
Although the fairytale came to an end in the NLCS, with the Dodgers advancing to the World Series to face the Yankees, manager Carlos Mendoza echoed Mayer’s sentiments following Sunday’s loss.
“I just told the guys how proud I was, because not only we became a really good team, we became a family. And now we raised the bar. This is what we should strive for every year, to play deep into October,” he said.
Mayer has long been a fan of Lindor, who arrived in New York in 2021 following a trade with Cleveland.
He thanked the four-time MLB All-Star and the Mets following Citi Field performances last summer.
“I’ll never forget these two NYC plays at @citifield. Since I’m in a sports mood, let’s look at it by the numbers: we performed four sets of music over two nights, and I played 75% of it while standing upright. Number of photographers: four. (Each photo tagged with credit.) Series MVPs: @lindor12bc for his friendship and hospitality, and the @mets organization for taking such wonderful care of me and one of their biggest fans: my dad. The music floated, the band was jelled the entire time, and not a single moment of music was taken for granted. We’re leaving it all on the field this tour…,” he captioned a June 2023 Instagram post that featuring him wearing a Lindor Mets shirt.