15
2012
Being A Mets Fan – A Gift, or a Curse?
An article by 
Do you remember when you became a Mets fan? Was it because the Brooklyn Dodgers up and left town, leaving you with no option other than to root for the hated Yankees? Was it that miracle run in 1969? Was it the power house Mets teams of the 1980s? Maybe it was something else. Whatever it was that drew you to the blue and orange, everyone has their own special reason to attribute their fandom to. Something keeps us rooting, even during the times when it seems as if there is no hope left in the season.
For me, it was my grandparents that passed on the love of the Mets. I grew up in the Bronx where half of my family (on my mother’s side), were die hard Yankees fans. The other half of my family (father’s side), represented the blue and orange. One day I would be at Yankee Stadium, and a few days later I might be taking in a game at Shea Stadium.
It was a confusing time for me as a child, with the two factions pulling and tugging for my loyalty to their favorite teams. It was like a game of tennis, and I was the tennis ball. One year the back of my little league baseball card read that Don Mattingly was my favorite player, and the next year it read Gary Carter. Each faction represented the case for their team very well, and the back and forth gave me a healthy respect for both teams, but it was the Mets that ultimately won over my loyalty.
I can see my grandmother now, sitting at the kitchen table of her apartment, the smell of Winston cigarettes and Folgers instant coffee in the air, as she watched her “Metties” on her little twelve inch, black and white television. It seemed like she never got up out of that chair. My grandfather would pick me up on hot summer afternoons, and take me out to Shea on the orange bus (we called the bus that took you out of the Bronx the orange bus because it was orange).
I remember going to those games like it was yesterday, even though I was just a young boy. One of the proudest memories I will ever have is getting to repay my grandfather for all those games he took me to in my youth, by playing one of my college conference championship games at Shea Stadium, and getting him the chance to stand on the field after the game. My grandmother wasn’t around to see that, but I’m sure that opportunity would have definitely gotten her out of her favorite chair.
People wonder why fans stay loyal when their favorite teams aren’t doing great. Why do we put ourselves through all the strife? Well, I’m sure many fans have stories similar to mine, which always keep us connected to certain teams whether they are doing well or not. It’s really easy to root for a team when they are doing well, but let’s see what happens when a team starts to spiral downward. That separates the true fan from the “fair-weather” fan.
It’s said that we all have to experience failure, or disappointment, in order to truly appreciate success. Mets fans will agree that it’s not always easy being a Mets fan due to all the disappointment that comes with the territory. It may be easier to jump ship, especially when the team across town is the Yankees, but we stand strong knowing that the all the pain we experience as fans will just make winning feel that much better. Losing to the Yankees in the 2000 World Series stung a bit, but we’ll get another crack at it again one day.
So is being a Mets fan a gift or a curse? People looking from the outside in, and at the current state of the Mets, would say it’s a curse. But for me, it is definitely a gift. A gift that was passed down to me that I will always remember – a gift that I will continue to pass down to my children, and my children’s children.
Let’s Go Mets!
About the Author: Mitch Petanick
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NL East Standings
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Braves | 42 | 28 | .600 | - |
| Nationals | 34 | 35 | .493 | 7.5 |
| Phillies | 34 | 37 | .479 | 8.5 |
| Mets | 25 | 40 | .385 | 14.5 |
| Marlins | 22 | 47 | .319 | 19.5 |
Last updated: 06/18/2013
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Excellent read, Mitch.
I became a fan in 1968 as a result of my Dad – Brooklyn Dodger fan converted to Met fan. Always a ball game on in our house. Either the Mets or the Yankees – who my Dad hates with a white hot intensity.
Put me in the column of die hard fan. I’m not going anywhere – certainly not jumping ship to those cross town rivals.
When my dad immigrated to this country back in the early 1950s, the Giants were still in the Polo Grounds. When they moved, he couldn’t root for the Yankees, so he held out for a little while, got married and started raising a family. He took up with the Mets passed it on 2 of his sons (myself and one of my older brothers) but the other 2..well every family has their black sheep. It was probably that bad influence of moving to the Bronx.
So, ya, I’m a Mets fan because my dad passed it down…and I’ve never forgiven him.
Well they were born the same year as me and I suppose that was something of a coincidence.
My Father hated the Yankees as did anyone who grew up in Brooklyn and no one in thier right mind wanted to go to the Bronx just to see a baseball game.
My first game was in 66, they lost I just assumed thats what they always did but I got a Mets cap out of it and there is sat looking at me every day and worn whenever I played ball.
Then they started playing good they were a real team!
When I got old enough to work and could buy season tickets I bought them and that was back when Joe Torre was the Manager probably the darkest days in Met history (which is why I laugh at all the folks who complain about the last 25 years which were GREAT by comparison to those days!)
I stuck with them and kept buying ticket and the team rewarded me by having some great seasons and eventually winning a WS which I was able to attend thanks to my loyalty and dumb spending on season tickets all those years!
I kept the seats (upgrading when possible) until 1993 where the economy was not what it was, and time to spend at the game became more scarce.
But Being a Met fan is not a curse!
It’s a blessing and it shows strength of character!
If you can remain a met fan there is NOTHING to tough to deal with!
And every now and then they reward you for that!
They will again but I fear not until the current regieme takes thier head out of thier butts and makes something happen as opposed to waiting for something to happen.
My oldest brother was a Yankee fan and I watched games with him. My father had become a Mets fan, but I don’t remember who he rooted for before them. My first game was a Met bat day game that we got turned away from because it was sold out. Eventually did make it to a game and also another bat day. My other brother and me eventually took our nephew to games, so we passed it down to him.
Always a Mets fan no matter what. NEVER root for the other NY team, rather root for Boston.
My Mom and Grandmother were Brooklyn Dodger fans. It’s in our blood.
We are National League/true baseball fans and could NEVER root for a team that uses the DH.
And I will steal, for my obituary, from Marylou Belles “She was also a lifelong Mets fan though surprisingly, that wasn’t what killed her.”
I was born this way…
I inherited the Mets from my father. My earliest memories were being an 8 year-old kid, being worried about Mike Scott and being pissed that my grandmother made me go to bed before Game 6 was over.
I wear my Mets fan hood as a badge of honor even after moving from NJ to VA. I am still trying to pass on the Mets to my daughters, which could be a form of bad parenting.
The thing that I love about us–being a Mets fan is such a counter-culture. It’s cool not to be a Yankees fan. How hard is that?
We have been repeatedly beaten down by our team–in my lifetime, I’ve experienced the Dykstra trade, Pendleton, Scoscia, Vince Coleman, Bobby Bo, Chipper, Jordan–geez I could go on for years.
But those amazing moments I go nuts over. If they win another World Series I may keel over with happiness.
Pat friggin Burrell….
Never been so happy to see someone retire. That is, until this year.
I became a Met fan mostly because when me and my brother were even too young to know or care about baseball my mother bought us t-shirts and randomly I got a Mets tee while my brother got a Yankee tee. We each became sealed with our fates after that. As we got older and both joined baseball leagues and played for school, our sibling rivalry reached new heights as it was a fight to the finish every night as to which game we were watching on our one TV. One night things got so heated he smashed my KISS album into pieces and I smashed his bass guitar in retribution. We drove our parents insane. I’d rather fight than switch.
Dad was a Dodger fan and took me to Ebbets field as a kid a few times. I was a Dodger fan in the fifties and routinely died every fall whe the Yankees would whip our butts every year (except one). These disappointments made it easy to make the transformation to a Met fan in 1962, and have been riding the roller coaster ever since. Wouldn’t have it any other way.
Enjoy reading the posts here every day, and the comments, although sometimes the comments digress to individual assaults and insults which seem unnessasary. We are all entitled to our opinion, and the debate should not become a shouting match. Love the site.
In 1969 I was serving my third tour of duty in ‘Nam and I remember if my flying schedule permitted of listening to the 69 Mets in the World Series on Armed Forces Radio. It wasn’t heaven on earth but close. I could never turn my back on my Mets! The late John Denver had a line in a song “some days are diamonds some days are stone,” Kind of sums up being a Mets fan. A few years ago on father’s day my son gave me a Mets hat and on the front was a pin “World’s Greatest Dad.” I don’t wear that Met hat. I want it to look perfect when they bury me in it.
Let me add another comment on this great subject. I took my own Dad to Yankee stadium before he went to a nursing home and it was a good day but it was just a game and didn’t feel anything special even though I saw the Mick hit a homerun. But when I went to Shea I felt alive and excited and happy and I didn’t have to ask myslef if I was a Met fan-I KNEW!
I was born in 1991 and I am 21 years of age right now. I never saw the New York Mets win a World Series and only saw the Mets once in the World Series and that was against the Yankees in 2000 (a series that many Metropolitan fans will agree with me in saying that we really didn’t have much of a chance to win against the Yankees team of 2000). I am primarily a baseball junkie and the occasional fan of other sports. I love Mets baseball and I feel very blessed and fortunate to be a Mets fan because I get to see the best games every day compared to others (Many would call me a fool to say Mets games are the best but that’s just me, I love watching 162 Mets baseball games from April-September)
So my back story. Well like I said I am 21 years young. I was born in Flushing, New York and grew up in Kew Gardens (to be more precise, right on Union Tpke, basically 4 blocks away from the Grand Central Pkwy) and was raised by my mother and father who separated when I was 2 (my mother lived in Corona). My mother was never really into sports but my dad is a big Yankee fan. The first day that I got hooked to the Mets was when I was around 4 or so and I was in my father’s car (a Ford but I forgot the model) and on our way like always to my mother’s house so my dad drops me off there and goes to work and then pick me up early in the morning to go back to his apartment. So we entered the highway after we drove away from home and I starred out to my right through the window on the passenger seat side. I saw the famous Fresh Medows park globe then the two towers with disks on top (if any of you guys seen Men In Black, those towers make an appearance), the tennis stadium and then I saw this really big blue stadium with these neon lights that are configured into baseball players, a hitter and a catcher I saw and I couldn’t keep my eyes away from it and was really angry when La Guardia blocked my view and couldn’t wait to go back on the Grand Central. During the car ride I asked my dad what was that blue stadium near the airport and he said it’s name is Shea Stadium and the baseball team the Mets play there.
So ever since then I fell in love. The team I loved plays in my hometown and in the most beautiful stadium I have ever seen and I will ever see. I remember seeing the weekend games on WB11 and immediately after the game was always the movies Batman (Jack as Joker) or Edward Scissorhands. I always enjoyed when the Mets faced the Cardinals more because McGwire was still great at the time. I loved him growing up but when I found out he did steroids and understood that steroids meant cheating I lost all the respect for him. I really don’t know what was my first game at Shea because my dad tells me he took me as a little boy but he doesn’t remember the date but my last game at Shea was a day game in 04 against the Cubs when Sosa was still a Cub. We won that day, I don’t remember by how much but all that matters is that we won. Also my favorite Met position player growing up was Piazza and pitcher was Leiter. Through the recent years I got more hardcore into baseball in general because I understood the game more than I ever did. I never truly regret being a Mets fan. I look at it as a privilege and an honor to be a Mets fan. With the recent struggles I look at it as a slide and makes me take all these losing seasons in and enjoy the ugly so when things get better I will be even more eager and more appreciative to see the gold in Queens because it will be that much sweeter. I always believe in this team and even when they’re not in any playoff position I still watch the games because 6 months of no baseball is hell and torture for me because I don’t see the Mets play baseball so I try soaking in every game no matter what and I very rarely miss 10 games of 162 so you can just tell how much I love these guys,haha. So with all that writing, all I have to say is…LETS GO METS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I remember when the Cardinals came to town during his home run race year in 1998 I think. Me and my buddies didn’t have tickets but we drove out to the stadium anyway hoping to find some tickets – we got tickets and were there to see McGwire smack #50 & #51.
Pauly Mets: Thanks for a beautiful story. You should write a book. You have excellent writing skills.
My father was a Brooklyn Dodger fan, and when they left town he was livid. When the Mets came he quickly aligned with them. I was essentially made a Mets fan because he was. Remember watching Met games on WOR channel 9 way back. Been cursed ever since lol. The gift is the winning seasons, the curse is having to say wait till next year. More wait till next year than winning though. I would just like to see a 10-12 yr run where they play consistent winning ball, a couple of WS wins and maybe 5-6 NL crowns. That would be nice, where have you gone Mark Cuban, Met’s nation holds it’s lonely eyes to you ….. boo hoo hoo!
When I was a kid, I liked the name. Mets. It’s unlike any other team name.