Philadelphia sports radio host Spike Eskin stopped short of saying the New York Mets are cheating, but he’s begging for an investigation.
Go down the line of 50-win teams in Major League Baseball this season and you’ll see stark differences between their home and road records for all of them except the Detroit Tigers. But the Mets’ split is just a little too big for Eskin. It’s not big enough for the WIP afternoon host to outright say the Mets are cheating, but it’s big enough for Eskin to call for an investigation in hopes that someone else will say they’re cheating.
“I was doing a statistical deep dive on the Mets,” Eskin said on Ike, Spike and Fritz. “I’m not saying that they’re cheating, but there’s something fishy going on this year with the Mets. So, the Mets this year, again, I’m not saying that they’re cheating, I’m just saying that maybe somebody should take a look at what’s going on.”
Eskin went on to read statistics around the Mets’ home record vs road record this season. The Mets are 33-14 at home, good for a .702 winning percentage this season. On the road, they’re 19-25, which equates to a winning percentage of .432. It’s a stark contrast, one that Eskin says would be the seventh biggest home/road split in MLB history, with the other six all coming in Colorado and Minnesota. Is that enough evidence for Eskin to say the Mets are cheating? No. But it was enough evidence for Eskin to claim and investigation is warranted.
It’s also worth investigating whether Eskin was sitting on this take for two years. Because it was curiously similar to when WFAN’s Evan Roberts accused the Tampa Bay Rays of cheating. In May 2023, Roberts saw the Rays 19-3 home record and said, “HELLOOOO. Are you gonna wake up when the article’s written in The Athletic, or are you gonna wake up now? Sometimes you don’t need evidence.”
Eskin was WFAN’s program director when Roberts’ rant accusing the Rays of cheating went viral. Two years later, Eskin crafted his own MLB cheating scandal rant.
“You just have to ask yourself, in this era of baseball cheating, and again, I’m not saying the Mets are cheating,” Eskin insisted. “I’m just saying that maybe somebody should take a look at what’s going on.”
If someone wants to investigate whether the Mets are cheating, can they also investigate why they recently lost 14 of 17 games?
About Brandon Contes
Brandon Contes is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. He previously helped carve the sports vertical for Mediaite and spent more than three years with Barrett Sports Media. Send tips/comments/complaints to bcontes@thecomeback.com