This sure looked like the real Knicks with ‘irreplaceable’ Josh Hart back in fold

It’s always useful to remember what Leo Durocher once said about the Mets when they were first becoming something more than a cute little story early in the summer of 1969. The first-place Cubs had dropped the first two games of an intriguing three-game series with the second-place Mets at Shea Stadium, the first genuinely important games the Mets had ever played.

Then, a day after Tom Seaver’s famed “Imperfect Game” one-hitter, a hail of bad fielding and bad baserunning and bad pitching had sabotaged them in the third game, depriving them of a sweep.

“Were those the real Cubs?” someone asked Durocher.

“No,” Leo the Lip replied, “those were the real Mets.”