NEW YORK — Friday evening at Citi Field began with The Temptations singing their 1965 hit single “My Girl” in an ode to Francisco Lindor’s walk-up song. Lindor, while warming up on the field, smiled and sang along to the lyrics. Pete Alonso, stretching before what could be his final home game as a Met, joined in, too, and pretty soon the crowd — understandably tense before an elimination game — relaxed a little. Watching the jovial scene unfold in Queens, it was hard to tell that the Mets had lost by eight runs on each of the previous two days and were facing elimination. 

If they seemed loose and carefree mere minutes before southpaw David Peterson threw the first pitch of the game, it’s because that’s how they showed up to Citi Field ahead of Game 5 of the National League Championship Series. Mets manager Carlos Mendoza walked into the hitters’ meeting and everyone was smiling. Hours before their most important game of the year — yes, another one of those — New York’s happy-go-lucky attitude foreshadowed the pain they would inflict on the Dodgers.

“That’s who we are,” Mendoza said. “There’s no tomorrow for us. But we’ve been in this situation before. So, nothing new.”

After Peterson stranded Mookie Betts and Shohei Ohtani on second in the first inning — lifting the crowd’s energy from unease to optimism — Alonso followed by lifting a three-run blast off Jack Flaherty in the bottom of the frame. The Polar Bear’s fourth home run of October was a harbinger of the offensive outburst that was to come. The Mets tallied 14 hits, the second-most in postseason franchise history, in their 12-6 win over the Dodgers in Game 5. 

The onslaught was a product of sticking to the plan, capitalizing on Flaherty’s drop in velocity and refusing to chase outside the zone. The Mets wound up tagging Flaherty, who shut them out five days prior, for eight runs in just three innings. Besides Alonso’s long ball, New York drew key walks, enjoyed timely hitting, and played small ball to overwhelm Los Angeles’ pitching staff. Starling Marte went 4-for-5 with three RBIs, Lindor collected a stand-up RBI triple, Jesse Winker reached base in four of his five plate appearances and catcher Francisco Alvarez went 3-for-4, too. 

On top of all the scoring, the Mets didn’t strike out once — a feat unseen in the postseason since the 2002 World Series by the Angels.

Friday was the kind of complete effort the Mets needed to remind themselves of their ceiling. 

“The quality of at-bats that we had, the intensity that we needed every inning, we understood that,” Lindor said. “And we had to give everything that we had, and that’s what we did.”

As the Dodgers threatened to put an end to this improbable run, the Mets leaned on the experience and the results that got them to this point. Their slugging first baseman, throughout these past few victorious weeks, has been right in the middle of it. Of Alonso’s five career postseason homers, four have given the Mets the lead — including three in the past two weeks alone. Not bad for one of baseball’s most powerful hitters just weeks away from entering free agency. 

Like Betts said on Wednesday, the Mets didn’t become one of the final four teams standing because of luck. They also didn’t reach this point because of a McDonald’s mascot or a hit Latin pop song. On Friday, the Mets reminded everyone why they’re only two wins away from advancing to the World Series: When they’re at their best, they can beat anyone. 

“We’ll be ready. We love opportunities,” Alonso said. “This is what we want to continue to play for. Today was all about, figure it out, get to Game 6. And we have that opportunity, and it’s going to be the same mentality: figure it out, get to 7. That’s what it is. Survive the day. And we did. And we’re really, really excited for the opportunity coming up.”

In a season overloaded with surprises, the Mets have the opportunity to pull off their greatest upset yet. They forced a flight back to Los Angeles for Game 6, which will take place Sunday night at Chavez Ravine, by focusing only on the 27 outs that could save their season rather than getting overwhelmed by the big picture. All baseball teams like to say they don’t look too far ahead, and instead prefer to take things day-to-day, but Mendoza’s Mets have executed that mindset better than most this season.

The Mets are attempting to become the ninth team in LCS history (AL or NL) to come back from a 3-1 hole. For motivation, they’ll be reminding themselves that they’re 2-0 in elimination games this year. 

“We’ve had success focusing on the process for 4-5 months now, and it’s not the time to change it,” Brandon Nimmo said. “We’re just trying to beat on that dam until it finally breaks, and it broke tonight.”

On The Temptations’ official website, the Motown legends bill their story as “an epic journey of courage, struggle, triumphs, setbacks, and ultimately, international superstardom.” 

Sounds a lot like the 2024 Mets.

Deesha Thosar is an MLB reporter for FOX Sports. She previously covered the Mets as a beat reporter for the New York Daily News. The daughter of Indian immigrants, Deesha grew up on Long Island and now lives in Queens. Follow her on Twitter at @DeeshaThosar.

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Thomas was appointed to Hines’ staff last year and has vast experience of coaching across all age groups in America, as well as analysis work with US Soccer.

She is vice-chair for US Soccer’s ‘Black Coaches Community’ and leads on an initiative called ‘Moms Who Coach.’

Thomas says if you work long enough in women’s sport “you either become an activist for women or you quit” but seeing inequality in football has encouraged her passion to drive change.

Her inspiration stemmed from a run-in with former England manager Hope Powell – the first black female coach Thomas had seen while playing football.

“I was playing in the youth teams for Sweden and we played against England. Hope Powell was the coach. That was the first time I saw anyone who looked like me,” Thomas told BBC Sport.

“I had dreadlocks at the time and so did she. I thought ‘wow, she looks like me and she is doing this. I am going to do that.’

“That was the seed planted in me. I didn’t say anything to her but the ability to see someone that looked like me, in that position, inspired me.”

Thomas has never met and spoken to Powell but she remains a key influence on her life.

“I think about it often. I am very aware each time I walk into a stadium, that there are no other black women coaching. It’s not lost on me,” she added.

“I hope my visibility will create an opportunity and a sense of ‘I can do that’ too. I chose a long time ago to not view it as a burden but a privilege.

“If I fail, unfortunately it could impact those after me. That is unfortunate but it’s my reality. I just decide to take on that attitude and think ‘it’s not just for me, but for those who come after me.’”

VINCE RUSSO has claimed that women “could not say no” to controversial WWE co-founder Vince McMahon.

The WWE writer admitted that the females would say “yes” to McMahon when it came to highly sexualised storylines in the ring.

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McMahon, 79, was recently the subject of a Netflix documentary and has been accused of sexual assault, trafficking and physical abuse in a lawsuit.

He has refuted the claims as a “vindictive distortion of the truth” and “lies”.

Speaking on Piers Morgan Uncensored, Russo said: “When I was writing, what the Attitude Era was all about, Piers, was blue collar versus white collar.

“That’s what it was all about. Stone Cold Steve Austin, Vince McMahon. Austin was telling McMahon every single thing a blue collar would want to tell his boss.

“Well, when I left, all of a sudden there was a shift and that shift was all of a sudden Vince is on camera with all these beautiful women, making out with them, kissing them, groping them. They are groping him.

“Now, Piers, you gotta understand something, and everybody here will understand this, as a writer I could have never written any of our female characters in that position because they couldn’t have said ‘no’.

“They would have had to say ‘yes’ because it was with Vince McMahon and they would have thought if they didn’t do this, they were going to be fired.

“So when I saw this type of behaviour, after I left, it never sat well with me. Now, I don’t know if that came from Vince or the writers.

“But like I said, he put all those females in a situation where they could not say no because they felt like their job was on the line.”

Ex-WWE announcer Charley Arnolt has insisted that she was never mistreated in the business.

However, she did admit that in WWE, people need a “thick skin”.

She added that some people “probably put their own self-respect on the backburn” as people also wanted to get good feedback from the “boss of all bosses”.

During the episode of Uncensored the likes of wrestlers Maven Haffman and Jonathan ‘Coach’ Coachman hit out a New York Post reporter.

The pair slammed journalist Phil Mushnik for his investigations into the WWE world.

They also challenged his long-running scathing momentary of McMahon.

Mushnik defended his record and also revealed that he warned Donald Trump about aligning himself with the WWE co-founder.

He said: “On two occasions, I called Donald, who I’ve known for years.

“I called him and I said ‘Donald, I have four boxes, I will deliver them to you, I’ll get a truck and I’ll deliver them to you, with all the Fedex records of the steroids and the opioids delivered to McMahon, the wrestlers. You don’t want to be involved in this?’

“He is the smartest man on earth! He said, ‘don’t you worry about it, I’m going to give the money to charity’.”

But Mushnik said he never saw him giving the million dollars promised to charity.

The basis for the calculations are figures from the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) on average salaries in countries around the world, as well as the salary figures of teams in F1.

The top three teams in F1 have an average salary level of £90,000, while the same number for Sauber, who are last in the world championship this season, is £125,000.

Salaries make up approximately 35-40% of a team’s budget, which means Sauber/Audi are in effect working to a lower budget cap than any other team.

Mattia Binotto, who was last month appointed as chief operating and chief technical officer of Audi, told BBC Sport that it would not be possible for Audi to be competitive in F1 without this adjustment.

He said that Audi had accepted that, as a consequence of changes in exchange rates being reflected in the 2026 recalculation, they would be at a $20m disadvantage.

The other nine teams are opposed to the budget-cap offset being introduced in 2026.

But they are powerless to be able to prevent it happening because none have signed up to their F1 contracts for 2026 and so there is no governance structure in place for them to affect the decision.

However, there will be further discussions on the issue in the next two months, after the teams have studied the figures supplied to them by the FIA, before a final decision is made at the next world council meeting in December.

SNS

Financial difficulty

REGIS LE BRIS refused to rule out Jordan Henderson making a romantic return to Sunderland in January – but says no transfer talks are underway.

The Wearsider, 34, came through the ranks at his boyhood club before signing for Liverpool in a £20m deal in 2011.

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He went on to enjoy great success at Anfield, captaining them to the Champions League, Premier League, FA Cup, Carabao Cup, European Super Cup and the Club World Cup.

The England midfielder’s 12-year stay with the Reds came to a controversial end in the summer of 2023 as he headed to Saudi Arabia side Al Ettifaq for mega wages.

The move turned into a disaster as he played just 19 games for the team managed by Steven Gerrard due to his family being unable to settle in the Middle East.

Henderson headed back to Europe in January with Ajax but he has started just twice in the Dutch top-flight this term.

That has led to his representatives allegedly trying to engineer a move back to the Stadium of Light to help Le Bris’ young squad in their promotion charge.

Ahead of Sunday’s trip to Hull City, the Black Cats boss bluntly replied “no” when asked directly whether Henderson’s name had been discussed as a potential target.

However, when asked if he was the type of player that he would like to bring in, he did not rule out a potential swoop.

The Frenchman said: “He’s obviously a strong and famous player.

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“At the minute the transfer window is not open, so we can speak about many players but we don’t have the choice at the moment.”

Sunderland legend Julio Arca certainly believes that it would be a no-brainer to snap him up if the opportunity arises.

The 43-year-old Argentinean, who spent six years at Sunderland and helped them to the 2005 Championship title, told SunSport: “I haven’t seen Jordan play a lot recently or what standard he is at but he is someone local that has gone on to do really well.

“He did great for the club while he was here and he can bring a lot of experience to Sunderland’s young players.

“It’s good to have experienced players like that as, even if they don’t play all the time, they can help in the changing-room and in certain games. 

“Some people will think that Jordan cannot play in every game, but he can bring a lot more than just the football playing side.”

Sunderland have history when it comes to reunions with ex-stars and they have produced mixed results.

Strikers Jermain Defoe and Danny Graham both endured miserable second stints with the Black Cats while the likes of Grant Leadbitter and Paul Bracewell both enjoyed further success.

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And another ex-Sunderland fan favourite Martin Gray, who came through the ranks at Roker Park to help the club win promotion in the 1990s, issued a warning to Henderson.

The 53-year-old said: “You look at his achievements since leaving Sunderland and you just think, ‘Wow, where has that come from?’

“Not many thought that he would go on to become the person he has and achieve the success he has with Liverpool and England.

“You need experience but you need energy as well. 

“He could come and take some of the pressure off of the younger lads but if it doesn’t go well for you then it can leave a bit of a sour taste due to what you have achieved since you left.

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“I think it’s a big decision to make and if your legs are starting to go or you start picking up little niggles then the punters can turn on you very quickly.”

Meanwhile, Ajax manager Francesco Farioli, who took over in the summer, sung the praises of Henderson when asked about the Sunderland links but refused to confirm the veteran was staying in Amsterdam.

He said: “He is an exceptional player who possesses great quality and leadership.

“Having captained his team to a Champions League victory, I believe he can effectively communicate the essence of a winning mentality and a strong work ethic.

“There are many valuable ways in which he can make a significant contribution to a young team like ours.”

Who are these famous footballers?