Why?
-
- May
- 23
OK, your team just got waxed by the Braves.
There are a lot of other teams you could be rooting for right now that would cause a lot less aggravation.
So, why don’t you?
With things looking bleak, this is a good time for you to share why you are a Mets fan?
What event pulled you to Shea?
This entry was posted
on Friday, May 23rd, 2008 at 7:12 am by John Delcos.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Print This Post
| 
Leave a Reply
It is a condition of your use of the comment features associated with the blogs that you do not: Use the site to post or transmit any unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane or indecent information of any kind, including without limitation any transmissions constituting or encouraging conduct that would constitute a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability or otherwise violate any local, state, national or international law. You alone are responsible for the material you post or send. Refer to the
Terms of Service.
I have a pretty unique reason…
Lee Mazzilli moved into my apartment building in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn during his second season in 1978. I was 6 years old at the time
My parents befriended Lee and he would actually come over to our apartment to borrow normal hosehold stuff that neighbors sometimes borrow.
Lee gave me and my Dad tickets for games a few times and that was that.
BTW, it should be noted that I saw Lee at a baseball card show in 1986 and told him who I was and he barely acknowledged me.
Somewhere between the 78-80 season my grandfather got buy one get one free tickets to Shea for a businessmens special (weekday, day game). Place was empty and ushers were allowing kids down to the field level. I ended up right at the Mets dugout, Lee Mazzilli was playing first and as he came off the field he flip me the inning ending ball. As a 9-10 y/o I was hooked…...
Paulie Lo Duca owed me and my teenage sister some money (OTB—long story). Started following the team and haven’t stopped. Never got the money back, though.
They gave me a job. ‘Nuff said.
LETS GO METS LETS GO METS LETS GO METS LETS GO METS…GO METS
My dad took me to my first game when I was 8 years old at the Polo Grounds. The one thing I remember is that the place looked huge. Been a METS fan ever since.
Just working their as a concessions worker made me a fan, but sadly the team is letting a lot of fans down, still have faith though.
Starting playing baseball when I was 9 years old and started to watch the mets on tv back in 1967 and my grandfather who was from Italy knew nothing about baseball but he took me to a game at shea,I was hooked.
My father emigrated to Brooklyn from Italy in 1949. In his desire to assimilate to american culture, there was no choice but to be a Brookly Dodgers fan. Therefore, I think it all started a long time ago. My first association with the mets came with my first baseball glove having Lee Mazzilli’s signature across the palm. Shortly therafter, I went to my first Mets game in 1979(ughh). I was hooked. Even though, they sucked beyond all belief. As a six year old kid, I was awestruck. As the team developed in from 1982 to 1984 I was getting excited about the future. Then came the big one in ‘86. After that, I bled blue and orange. Fast forward to today. I guess my attitude about the Mets is tied to the fact that we are accustomed to not-knowing whether the team will be very good at the beginning of the year. The excitement for Mets fans is the season, its not the expectation of a WS ring. Therefore, my thoughts on this year are that it will be very exciting. I expect the Mets to battle for the division all year long. As we have seen, it won’t be easy. Frankly, 2006 was kind of a bore of a season. We were so far in front, that it felt like every game after August 1 was meaningless. I expect us to have to play meaningful ball through the end of the season. Hopefully we come out on top.
LETS GO METS!
I come from a long line of Brooklyn Dodger fans – there was just something about being a Mets fan that a Yankee fan will just never understand.
that being said – as bad as this year is, it’s still not as bad as the days of Mettle the Mule…
Having a low IQ helps enormously.
My big brother was a huge Met fan. Shea was alot closer to Long Island than Yankee Stadium. My first game was when I was 6, double header against the Astros or Padres. I couldn’t root for any other team than the Mets.
If you are a real fan, you don’t abandon your team if they are not winning. Conversely, you aren’t a real fan if you root for a team only when they ARE winning. I’ve been a Mets fan since 1962 (my family were ardent Brooklyn fans before they abandoned us in ‘58)and I wouldn’t have it any other way. They are my team, good and bad. Sometimes it hurts, and sometimes it is sublime. The hurting times make you appreciate the sublime times that much more.
In the 50s you were from a National league family or an American League family. National League fans were pitiful lost souls from 58-61 listening to Dodger or Giant games on the radio So who else would you be a fan of starting in 62. And you should amend your question to ask what pulled you to Shea/POLO GROUNDS. My old man being a Giant fan we went to every Giant game in the POLO GROUNDS in 62. Willie Mays in New York was like a class reunion for him and his friends.
Even though I grew up while the Yankees were winning and I liked them, I liked both teams, but, sometime after interleague started and sometime before the 2000 World Series, I switched to liking the Mets more because I found them more charming, I guess. Then, I started to dislike the Yankees as they spent exorbitant amounts of money to fill every starting position. I liked them better when they had closer to role players than stars like Brosius, O’Neil, and Martinez, and maybe they should go back to that since they haven’t won in seven seasons; god forbid! I still like the Mets, and I’m not going to change now.
To a couple items from after I posted yesterday: Reyes has not sucked, as he has been on base in 22 straight games; and there are no outfielders available because Pagan is on the DL, Clark is out for the season, and F-Mart is hurt. Casanova showed good pop while he was up here, anyway, so he can fill in before Pagan is ready.
If the Mets were in the American League where there is a DH, I could see bringing up Casanova. Having Anderson and Chavez out there until Pagan is ready is severly limiiting an already trouble offense. It also means that in order to set up defensively and let Delgado get a day off, that we the Mets will have to either use Tatis or Easley at first. Hopefully, there is some trade or other move that we are not yet aware of in the short term. If not, the move to me does not make much sense. I would not carry three catchers when my outfield ranks are markedly depleted.
Still Sane: I think you posted this in the wrong thread
Still Sane: Never mind. Didnt realize you were responding to Spider
Why I watch the Mets is that even in their darkest and poorest of teams, I always found them entertaining. I do not remember the Casey Stengel days well, but, starting with watching Seaver, Koosman and McAndrews and the rest of their staff go out there and pitch the way they did, it was always exciting to root for them. Even though the offense was anemic for a lot of that era and the one following it, you never got aggrevated because it looked like the players were phoning it in. That is why it is so difficult to watch them now.
No problem, Steve (The Original).
Spiderpig, reyes doesn’t suck but a OBP of .338 doesn’t cut it as a lead off hitter so reyes isn’t doing his job.
When your team sucks and can’t do anything right no matter how much everything says that they should be doing SO much better, you don’t abandon your team.
You just spend months bitching about how poorly run it is and how if they were trying even a little bit, they’d have been winning handily for months.
That’s how it works.
That’s how I feel about the Mets, that’s how I feel about the Democratic Party, that’s how I feel about this entire damned human race.
I can’t just declare myself a lemur or a bear because humanity has basically messed things up for itself irreversibly.
I’m a human, that’s just what I am, I can’t change that now.
Ditto for being a Mets fan.
When I was a little kid, the Mets NY-Penn League team was in my hometown. How can you not be hooked when you’re eight and you’re in a town of 6000 and the ONLY thing to do in summer is to watch minor league baseball?
When it is the only thing that makes your dying milltown special in any way and… by extension… the only thing that makes you feel special?
These future millionaires from all over the world who have to pass through your little dot on the map for one short summer.
I was hooked, I was hooked.
Reyes in 2006 finally started to look like he had learned how to work the count therefore his OBP was around .400. Since the second half of last year his OBP has been in the low .300’s and has reverted back to swinging at pitches early in the count and not working the count and swinging at the pitcher’s pitches.
If Reyes could ever learn what a strike is and what isn’t a strike and have discipline at the plate he will be a very good offensive player. The key word is “if”.
I like the unis. Also I don’t buy all this nonsense that they ‘aren’t playing with any fire’ and are ‘mailing it in’. That is just silly. When you go up and hitter after hitter makes an out it may seem like they aren’t trying but the reality is that they most definitely are trying. Watch closely on every pitch. They are trying. They just aren’t succeeding. It happens. We had high expectations and we should have high expectations because the Mets have a lot of good players, at least according to their career records, but things just aren’t going well for them right now. The idea that they aren’t trying their hardest is just silly to me. The other teams are full of major league players too. That Braves lineup is very good. Maybe they’ll turn it around and maybe they won’t but they have been trying all along.
tomg, Reyes OBP in 2006 was .354. He’s just 16 points below that now. You’re going to get on him for 16 points difference?
Maybe it’s as many have been saying …. the Reyes we saw the first half of last year might have been the best he’ll ever be. What we’re seeing now may be the norm. Which isn’t so bad.
Chris Young is the leadoff hitter for the D-Backs and his OBP is just .340.
Soriano leads off for the Cubs and his OBP is just .315.
So maybe we’re being too harsh on Reyes because of how crappy the team in general is playing and how poorly others are performing in the lineup.
i grew up watching baseball during the late 90’s when the yankees were winning championships and i couldnt stand the fact of them being so dominant. So i started to watch the mets instead and ive always found them to be a more exciting team. I also liked the blue and orange, shea stadium, and mr.met. Its been a tough start to the season this year, but the way i see it is the phillies started out the same way last yr while we started off good, so its how finish not how you start. you gotta believe
Here’s what other leadoff hitters are doing from winning teams: Orlando Cabrera .275 OBP … Maicur Izturis .276 OBP. That’s much worse than Reyes. And their teams are in first place.
I think Reyes will have spurts in his career where he will be like the player he was in the first half of last year. But more often than not he will be like he is now. Which is OK.
I grew up rooting for the Mets and Yankees at different times. My Dad grew up in the New York area rooting for the Brooklyn Dodgers but he never really adopted the Mets as a favorite team. He took me Yankees and Mets games. He was just a baseball fan in general. Somewhere around the early 80’s I switched back to rooting for the Yankees. I rooted for them from about 85-99. In 1999 when the Yankees won the World Series for the 3rd time in 4 years I realized that I just wasn’t that excited about it. It seemed like they were just winning more than their share and I started feeling myself pulling for the teams they were beating. It just seemed unfair to win all those championships when other teams were going decades on end without winning. So when the Yankees won the WS in 99 and I felt nothing I realized that I just didn’t want them to win anymore. It had nothing to do with how much money they spent. I always root against anyone or any team that dominates. I hate to see Tiger or Roger Federer win every tournament. So in 2000 I started to root for the Mets in earnest and I stopped watching Yankee games altogether. Since then I’ve watched 4 or 5 Mets games a week. If the Mets won two World Series in a row I’d stop rooting for them too but then I’d have to buy the Extra Innings package because I won’t root for the Yankees until they go 15 or 20 years without a championship.
I hate the Mets…I just realized it at this exact moment.
In 1969 – I was 7 – Everyone in the neighborhood was getting hooked on the Mets around August of that year. That’s what did it.
In 1973 I lived and died with them. On that last day when the lost the World Series (on in which they had a damned good shot of winning) I ripped up all of my Oakland A’s cards (wish now I didn’t because they are worth some money). I still have them and they are taped up and falling apart.
Tug McGraw had us all believing. That pitching staff was phenomenal. Seaver and Matlach, Koosman and Stone. WHat a year. Buddy Harrelson standing up to Pete Rose. Jerry Grote a defensive wiz.
In the years since I have followed them relentlessly. I have to say though, we never bitched about them, even in the darkest days, the way fans do now. We never booed. We never turned on our team. There was always someone you could call your favorite. Yeah, there was always some drunk guy there at the stadium booing and cursing but that was it. Kids did Let’s Go Mets chants (without the new Let’s Go twist at the end). The sign guy was there. On TV you always saw someone with a big rainbow afro.
Now I wouldn’t even play for the Mets. The fans on this blog and at the stadium can be just plain mean. I am not talking about intelligent discussions – I am talking about the boos and the personal attacks. I don’t care how much they make they are humans too. I would love to see how anyoe would perform under that kind of scrutiny in their own jobs. When you’re under the microscope it tends to tighten up anyone. I know the new fans would boo Seaver if he had an off day. But enough …
I don’t even need to talk about ‘84, ‘85, and especially ‘86. 2000 was another good year and we probably would have beat anyone else that wasn’t a dynasty like the Yanks were.
At least make Bobby V a lucrative offer. I don’t care if we’ve “been there done that” (that one’s for you, JD). As Jon Heyman said, he’s a top-5 MLB manager strategy-wise, he took a team w/ an outfield of Jay Payton, Timo Perez, and Benny Agbayani to the WORLD SERIES, and he squeezes every ounce of talent out of his players. BRING HIM HOME.
clm,
You are totally right about the booing bordering on mean. It just isn’t right. Not to your own guys. SOME Mets fans have to look themselves in the mirror and recognize that they have not done everything to help this team.
The two players who have been consistently booed are Aaron Heilman and Carlos Delgado. Each of them are complete wastes and deserve to be booed.
Fire Willie AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. This team is a nightmare to watch.
Delgado and Heilman are profound disappointments to be sure but they are not complete wastes. They are both talented players who are going through a very rough stretch. I happen to like both guys too. The best hope is that they pull out of it. I think both of them will end up playing better even if they don’t play up the pre-season expectations. But I agree with the posters who are sick of all the negativity. You root for the team that you root for. I’ve scaled down my expectations but I’m still hopeful. Most importantly they still play every day and I can come home from work every day and watch them play.
Why do so many fans take it so damned personally when players don’t perform? Its ridiculous. Its like the fans are delusional and infantile and can’t see that the players are playing a game against other teams that are trying to win and that have good players too and success is never assured.
I like to complain and commiserate about it when they lose in a disappointing fashion but I don’t take it personally. The players are trying. Anyone who can’t see that is a bit delusional.
Why? Because I hate the DH rule and must root
for a NL team. The Mets are the closest and easy
to see on tv and read about in the paper.
But I’ll tell you, I wish I was a Phillies fan.
I admit I’ve been extremely negative at times this year towards the Mets. I think it’s because of the way the season ended last year and seeing the same trend this year. I need to step back, take a deep breath and tell myself that the season isn’t even half way done yet. There is plenty of baseball left in the season. Maybe the Mets will have a strong second half of this season and come from behind and take the national league like the phils did last year. One can only hope. I still blame Omar Minya for putting to much stock in El Duke, Martinez, Alou and deldado which is really hurting this team. These are major holes to fill and Omar has no back up plan to replace these guys knowing they were either injury prone or at the end of there careers.
A friend of mine new Howard Johnson, I cannot remember how. Anyway, I used to get a ton of Mets stuff from her through Howard Johnson and he would sign cards for me, so I became a Mets fan quickly and have been my entire life.
JK,
The point I’m trying to make with Reyes is if he ever learns the strike zone and how to work the count he will be this electric player that people have said they think he will be. If reyes learned how to work out walks with his speed it’s like a double. Reyes showed signs of this in 2006 but has reverted back to swinging on his heals and not being disciplined at the plate.
I went to a Mets-Rockies game at Shea and the Mets won on a game-winning double by Piazza, been hooked ever since.
I’ve been a METS fan since this kid came up in ‘83 and started crushing balls from Shea to the bronx. Gave us METS dreamers a reason to start puffing out our chests. We finally had something to cheer about since they gave Seaver away for a couple dozen black roses! METS fans are hopeful & dreamers which is why I think this year is starting to sniff like ‘73! Ya Gotta Believe! Go METS!
Please leave & keep all the negativity in the other borough! We started quick the past 2 years and look where it got us. This team will start to take off real soon. I believe that they truly are getting all the bad stuff out of the way now instead of later. Go METS!
When U saud hooked, of course I ment on drugs, as I a poor werback immigrant, and Scott from Pelham hides me in his basement.