The New York Mets and the Seattle Mariners claimed their leagues’ wild card berths, securing their place in post-season play. How can they hold up against the stronger teams in their leagues?

Miracle Mets?

The Mets ( “born” April 11, 1962, 7:55 pm, St. Louis, Missouri) of 2000 lacked the miracle quality of their legendary 1969 season. Yet, here they are again. For the second year in a row, they’ve clinched the wild card and are aspiring toward the World Series. This year they backed into the championship. The first half of September they posted a miserable win-loss record, dropping thirteen of twenty games. Fortunately, the Arizona Diamondbacks and Los Angeles Dodgers kept losing, allowing the Mets’ second-hand entry into the wild card slot. Despite the whimsical and “you never know what” Uranus near (but not exact) their Midheaven (world recognition), the Mets’ chart is not superbly supported by current planetary transits. They must lean on their manager, Bobby Valentine, to pull them through.

Bobby Valentine (born May 13, 1950, in Stamford, Connecticut) is a stubborn, doggedly determined Taurus. Add to this a volatile Moon and Venus in Aries, and Bobby’s reputation as a temper-driven loose cannon comes to light. He shoots from the hip, calling a spade “a damn shovel.” In one game this year, he argued on the first pitch, and was tossed from the game. He’s Aries obnoxious, abrasive and outspoken.

The Mets need him to pull off a coup of baseball strategy when their own planets run thin. Bobby V’s Saturn in Virgo is currently enduring a transiting square from retrograding Jupiter in Gemini. Saturn, with his “nose to the grindstone” mentality, directs Bobby to jump start the tired players into giving a few weeks more hard effort. To do this, he must call up his natal Jupiter in Pisces (widely squared by both transiting Jupiter and Saturn in Gemini). The parable-telling, image-creating, motivational magic of Jupiter, which he possesses in great measure, might do it. The exaggerating transit of Jupiter in Gemini works in his favor, using a “both sides of the story” method. He’ll tell his troops that the other guys are tired as well, and that their pitchers fear the Mets’ hitters as much as the Mets’ pitchers fear theirs. You know, it’s Jupiter—and he’s believable even when he’s making things up. And with the wide transit orbs, this is a stretch, but it’s worth a shot.

Bobby will experience an energizing, volatility-provoking Mars return in picky Virgo on October 23. If the Mets advance further in the playoffs, the on-field confrontations should be interesting and animated.

On-Course Mariners

Philip Sedgwick began his study of astrology in 1969. He is the author of Astrology of Deep Space, Astrology of Transcendence, The Sun at the Center: A Primer of Heliocentric Astrology, The Galactic Ephemeris (a compilation of over 8,300 points in deep space).