5
2012
MMO Fan Shot: A Letter To The New York Mets
An article by 
The year was 2000, and the Mets had just lost to the Yankees. Being 20 and in college, I was surrounded by Yankees fans that were giving me the business. I was left with only one reply, “wait until next year!, we will sign A-Rod and take this town over!”. Then the rumblings began about how A-Rod was a 24 and 1 type of player. Well, we all know how that worked out for the Mets. It hurt that my one consolation prize for losing to the Yankees was not coming to Shea.
As all Mets fan recall, it didn’t go so well and after 9/11 the Mets could not finish the comeback. I was at the Piazza home run game against Atlanta and I recall being so happy that I was sure they would go on to win the World Series. It never happened. As the Piazza era came to a close with no ring, I felt as though my favorite team was never going to win anything to have a parade over.
That feeling began to change as the 2005 offseason took shape. First Paul Lo Duca then Carlos Delgado. The Mets were well on their way with a mix of youth and veterans. That offseason I purchased a Jose Reyes authentic jersey. He was my favorite player and I spent my work bonus to buy the $200 jersey.
Every year since 1997 my family and I would go to opening day and get together – we were a group of 20 or more! We watched as the Mets spent 2006 beating up everyone and giving Mets fans the kind of run we had been waiting for since 2000. I laid motionless for more than 20 minutes as I watched the Cardinals celebrate on our field that October. (Side Bar: We should have bunted instead of sending Floyd to the plate).
The pain subsided and the Mets came out the gate on fire in 2007. It was such an amazing run until late September. We couldn’t close the deal again, and I can still remember Tom Glavine saying, “I’m not devastated.” Or whatever his exact quote was. I swore on that day, “I will never spend another dollar on an athlete.” I was so angry and he seemed to just get on with his life.
Despite the disappointment, my family and I returned to say goodbye to Shea on opening day in 2008. 2008 was our chance to wipe the slate clean and fix everything. We traded for Johan and we still had a great core. We had rooted so hard for them to take it to the National League. It was setup for another magical run until once again, we were mistaken as the Mets collapsed again. How could this happen again? How could our guys not have it in them to win one more game? To make matters worse, the Phillies won the title. Our group has not returned since.
We all know what it’s been like around here since 2008. No one needs a reminder so I will spare everyone. The point is, I want to come back. I want to be a Mets fan again. I want them to be relevant again. I have given the Mets everything since I was 5 years old and I want to keep going.
My wife asked me what I wanted for Christmas. I asked for a 4 pack of Mets tickets and a David Wright Authentic jersey to replace my Reyes jersey. I want the purchase to symbolize my renewed dedication to the the future of the Mets. It does not need to be this year. Or next. But I need it to become respectable. This is my commitment to Fred, Jeff and Sandy. I am also renewing our family tradition this year to exercise the demons of the last 5 years. Please dont fool me again. Please lead this team to prosperity again.
If not, I won’t be able to stay a Mets fan. It saddens me to say this. But the reality is, I am giving the Mets one more chance over these next few years to return my loyalty. You gave my Reyes jersey one good year and plenty of years filled with disappointment. All that I am asking is to give my Wright jersey more than just one good season. I am dedicated to you, show me the same this offseason and next.
Sincerely,
A Lifelong Mets Fan
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Great job. If the Mets continue towards respectability they will indeed earn the good will of the fans back. It will not happen overnight for sure.
Nice job on this. You touched on some nerves regarding this team over the years. I need to see more from Sandy this offseason. I need to see him stay true to his word that the team on the field last year would not be the same this year and that the changes are going to be dramatic. I’m still waiting.
Ah..such is the life of the long suffering Met fan.
I’ve followed since ’68 and to be sure there’s been more downs then ups.
50 years, 4 pennants, 5 Division champions, 2 WS, i’d THIS what you just said… It’s not been pretty. It’s a shame that many people who think that know baseball or the history of the mets have not seen this team win a championship.. And don’t give me the 4 year old version of celebrating with milk and not really knowing WTH is going on. We’re talking Patriots winning it all and celebrating, Miami Winning it all and celebrating. at 4 years old you don’t do that!
Having been an original new breeder I can saw there have been way more ups than downs over the past five decades (last two seasons not included) despite the lack of championships for often it’s not the wins or losses that make for a great time.
Two of the best times I remember having at Shea were when we on the losing end of the score for it wasn’t so much what was happening on the field as to what was happening with us in the stands or the newspaper write-up.
The first was during the 1969 home opener loss to Montreal when those around me were muttering “sh*t, we can’t even beat an expansion team!”. The other was in 1965 when the Mets lost to the Cubs despite holding Chicago to three hits. The headline in the next morning’s Daily News: “Cubs Three Hit Attack Sinks Mets 7-1″. Lots of walks and errors in that one.
…. there was also a third game in 1965 though it was in St. Louis and I obviously was not in attendance but watching on TV. St. Louis had the bases loaded and two out in the ninth inning in a game we were ahead 7-4. Ordinary game ending fly-ball hit to Ron Swoboda in right. You guys probably guessed what happened then…
The next day Dick Young started his game summary with the sentence “Ron Swoboda, who hits home runs with his bat and triples with his glove…..”
See, a Met fan has to take the losses as well as the wins in order to keep one’s sanity – especially with this front office….
For sure, there should have been more championship years – especially in the late 80s.
We talk about the Marlins but the FO did their own version of tearing down that team starting in ’87. I hated that trading of Kevin Mitchell – like trading him was gonna solve any of the problems they had coming up with Straw, Doc and others. And obviously, it did not.
I didn’t mind them letting Knight walk though – mainly b/c of his age and I didn’t have much confidence he’d repeat that good year.
Injuries and Doc’s problem kind of killed them in ’87. Was so pissed off b/c I had tickets to opening day that year, only to find out Gooden was starting the day in drug rehab.
Really thought they were going all the way in ’88. I still consider that the most disappointing ending to any season I’ve watched so far – even worse than ’06 for me.
Really thought they were going all the way in ’88. I still consider that the most disappointing ending to any season I’ve watched so far – even worse than ’06 for me”
Sigh……THIS^^^^
Hi Alex,
Yeah, that and the Penndleton home run are probably my two most crushing moments after the ’06 one.
Spot on dude. Too many bad memories and not enough good ones. At some point this pattern has to change.
Hi Peter,
I think we all share the same sentiments you do but I do have to draw the line when it comes to “This is my commitment to Fred, Jeff and Sandy”. Sandy’s commitment has only been to Fred and Jeff and Fred and Jeff’s commitment has only been to themselves. Even if the Mets had been a winner the past few seasons and thus the ticket prices increased instead of dropped since 2009, how many average income fans would have been able to take their families to the ball park for a day like they did years before?
In this case, commitment has to be a two-way street, not a one-way street with restricted entrances.
And when asking them to “Please dont fool me again. Please lead this team to prosperity again” I myself don’t think about that n terms of the heartbreaks of 2006, 2007 and 2008 – for in those cases we weren’t fooled, we just competed and lost – I instead think of it in terms of 2011 and 2012 – when we didn’t lose in a competitive contest we lost because the front office did try to fool us and insulting our intelligence believing we would fall for it.
Again, I share your sentiments completely but if I had known today what I didn’t know 25 months ago, I would have written a letter to the Commissioner instead asking him to please stay out of our problems. That way many of us who left Citi Field after the 2011 opening day loss would have got our wish as we were shouting “sell the team, sell the team”.
This is exactly the kind of fan the Wilpons depend on.
Great letter, now lets hope that it is not “Returned To Sender” by the Wilpons and SA.
I remember the awesome 1st WS Title and worrying when TT lost his game but the Miracle Mets lived up to their name and shocked the Birds and the media in NY.
I also feel that loss in “88 was the beginning of a down side for this team, to lose with Doc on the mound was just terrible and it wasn’t till the mid 90′s that hope returned to be dashed by Bravos and Jeter in 2000 then the return of good days in mid 2000′s until the called 3rd strike, the Sept swoons, the injuries to pitchers and BP and now we should be coming out of the dark ages hopefully sooner than later but it remains to be seen how the Wilpons/SA are going to remove the shroud that has covered my fav team going forward.
Only the light of good signings and the continued development of Harvey, Wheeler, Ike, Tejada, Flores, etc will tell, I guess.
That would e pretty bad if they sent the letter back. Lol. We can only hope that they get what the dans are going through like they have been saying for the last few years.
Great article!
I grew up in Corona, Queens. My family and I used to walk to Shea. I remember wearing my Piazza jersey to every game. I’ve never seen the Mets win a WS…. I’m 17. At four years old, I was watching the Mets in 1999, I remember seeing the slam single on TV. When I was 10 or 11, I was rooting hard for the 06 Mets, even attended a few playoff games that year. I was watching Game 7 on TV and crying and crying after Molina homered. I thought we had a chance when we had the bases loaded and Beltran up. I remember seeing the ump signal strike 3 and my family was frozen. I hope the future of the Mets will allow me to see them win a WS. Sometimes I think I’ll die before I see a title brought back to Queens.
What I expect is a run of sustained winning. World series titles pretty much come down to luck, so while I hope to witness another World Series title or two for the Mets, it’d be more important to have a run of 5 playoff appearances over 7 years. Whether it includes a title or not.
Hey Pete, nice article. Unfortunately, I think we’re a good 3-5 years away from being decent again. Hang in there and take the lumps.
Thanks for all the feedback everyone. I wrote this article while eating lunch and reading articles bout the bottom feeding the Mets were looking to on Free Agents. I literally wrote the article and hit send so it was truly from the heart. Lets just hope as many of you said that this down turn is followed up by a sustained upswing. I am not looking for 5 straight titles, just respectability.