Feb
20
2013

My Mets Evolution, 40 Years And Still Believin’

An article by Gregg Hopps

mazz_kiss

On Saturday, February 23rd the Mets open up their spring training schedule with a game against the Washington Nationals. The game is schedule to be broadcast on SNY at 12:00 PM, and I plan on being in front of my TV and watching it…

Baseball is back, and what could be better?

For me, the 2103 season marks a personal milestone, it will be my 40th season as a Met fan. Not too bad considering I’ll be 50 in December. Mathematically, it means I will have spent 80% of my life rooting for the Mets.

People often ask me why… Why do I root for the Mets, they lose all the time? You live in New York, and you’re not a Yankee Fan? There is no simple answer, except to say the Mets are a part of me. I’d like to go into some reasons why I am, and will always continue to be a Mets fan.

First and foremost, I believe the Mets in many ways represent us. They go out and play with the best of intentions, they work hard, they try to do the right things, but more often than not they fall short of their ultimate goal – in their case, a World Series.

But, can’t the same be be said of all of us? Those of us who are lucky to have jobs, go to work day in and day out with the best of intentions. We do our best to excel and meet those expectations our employers have for us. But no matter how hard we try and despite our strongest efforts, we don’t always get that raise or promotion we strove so hard for.

The same goes for students who are still in school. They study, they work hard, but very few of them get those coveted 4.0 averages.

But isn’t it true that during those times when we do succeed… Those times when we do get that promotion… Those times when we do get that 4.0 average… Or those times when the Mets do win a World Series… There is no greater high or feeling in the universe.

I also like that the Mets are “counter culture”. In their infancy, the Mets were so unique, and so different from the Yankees, that they were embraced. We loved our Lovable Losers right from the start!

The same is true today. The Yankees are just a collection of pinstriped suits and wing tips, while the Mets wear their shorts and flip-flops. The Mets are, and should be unapologetic, in what I refer to as their Metscentric behaviors. This year the Yankees will have their annual old-timers day celebration, and all the all-time Yankee greats will show up at the Stadium and take a bow. The Mets, on the other hand will be having their annual Banner Day Parade. Fans from all over will march around Citi Field displaying their art work and love for the Mets. I participated in Banner Day back in the late 1980′s and what a thrill it was!

sign man miracles

Some other great Metscentric things include: Mettle the Mule from the 1970′s, those old bullpen carts with baseball caps on them, the Home Run Apple, the Sign Man, Bob Murphy’s “Happy Recap’, Howie Rose’s ‘Put it in the Books”, the Curly Shuffle, Professor Reyes teaching Spanish between innings, Meet The Mets, Kiner’s Korner, and of course the King of all things Mets, Mr. Met! Who doesn’t smile when they see Mr. Met?

During a typical baseball season, I’ll catch between 120-130 Met games, either on SNY or WFAN. That’s a lot of baseball games, and I’ve forgotten so many of them. What I choose to remember are special moments like in 1973, when Bud Harrelson and Pete Rose slugged it out in the NLCS. The day Tom Seaver was traded. The dark days of the late 1970′s and how the magic did come back in the 1980s just as they said it would.

I’ve been to playoff games both in 1988 and 2006, what a thrill. October baseball is very nice, but Shea Stadium was a cold venue to watch a baseball game, but they never ran out of hot chocolate to keep us warm.

I still get tears in my eyes thinking about that night in September 2001 when baseball returned and truth be told, it was my proudest time of being a New Yorker and a Met fan. Last June, we received the biggest surprise of all, when after 50 years, Johan Santana threw the first ever Met’s no hitter.

As usual, the media, Yankee fans, and sadly even some Met fans are throwing in the towel on the 2013 season for the Mets. Truth be told it’s easier to be negative than be positive. But if you can’t be positive in the Spring, when you can you be?

A few years ago the Tampa Bay Rays were picked to finish last, and they shocked everyone. Last year’s Baltimore Orioles came from complete obscurity and gave the American League East a run for their money. So who says our Mets can’t do the same in the NL East? They have five very solid arms in their rotation and even Gil Hodges would tell you, “that’s where it all begins.”

The infield is set, and although it’s unpopular to say so, I think it’s a pretty damn good infield and stacks up well against our rivals. Sure there are question marks in the outfield, but what if one or two of these guys surprise us? And we didn’t exactly have a Herculean outfield in 2000, when we made it all the way to the World Series!

Why am I a Met fan? Why do I believe? Why do I have have faith in this team?

As Natalie Wood said in Miracle on 34th Street, “Faith is believing when common sense tells you not to”.

Unless the Mets are mathematically eliminated, I will always believe in them. And no matter how each season ends, every February my belief in the Mets is fully restored. For now and always; LETS GO METS!!

believemrmet

About the Author: Gregg Hopps

Gregg lives on Long Island, and has been a Mets fan since Bud Harrelson and Pete Rose slugged it out in the 1973 playoffs. "Keith Hernandez is the best defensive first baseman to ever have played baseball."

14 Comments + Add Comment

Lisa P. February 20, 2013 at 1:41 pm

This was one of the best posts I’ve read here this week and there have been quite a few other great ones. We have so many wonderful memories and great reasons to stick by our team through thick and thin, and you named just a few including some I actually forgot about. How about the Black Cat and Ron Santo? Or the shoe polish game? Lazy Mary and the airplanes flying over Shea? One of my favorite was the guy who parachuted his way into Game 6 with Bill Buckner at the plate in the first inning. They took him away in cuffs while he kept shouting “Lets Go Mets!” And on that note I will end my comment!
Alex68 February 20, 2013 at 1:55 pm

Gregg, for this post you know the CORE will salute you.. I am pumped because baseaball is back !!!
Let’s go mets!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
srt February 20, 2013 at 2:07 pm

As a 40+ year Met fan myself, it just never gets old for me. Love when ST begins and even more so once opening day rolls around.
LGM!

Just a side note….that wasn’t Natalie Wood with that quote: ‘Faith is believing when common sense tells you not to”. It was John Payne’s character Fred Gailey who said it it first to Doris Walker (Maureen O’Hara). Later in the movie Doris Walker uttered that to her daughter Susan (Natalie Wood).
I’ve probably seen this movie a hundred times. “-)
Joey D. February 20, 2013 at 3:02 pm

HI Gregg,

This is my 51st year waiting for the start of spring training for the Mets – though will admit, in 1962 I was not aware I was waiting for it. So for me, it is 82 percent of my life.

It would indeed be wonderful if the spirit and enthusiasm of the fans was reflected in the front office just a little bit…..
Metsie February 20, 2013 at 5:23 pm

50 years old and only a Met fan for 40 Years?
Bandwagoner! LOL

Just joking of course…..
Kay February 20, 2013 at 5:46 pm

Great post – thanks for writing this. Also part of the 40+ Fan Club (that hurts to say lol)
- Joey D. February 20, 2013 at 7:39 pm
  
  Kay,
  
  How do you think it feels to be part of the 51+ club? But the memories are worth it!
  - Kay February 21, 2013 at 12:11 pm
    
    I’m actually getting closer to that Joey D
    - Joey D. February 21, 2013 at 12:39 pm
      
      Hi Kay,
      
      But like a fine wine…..
Joey D. February 21, 2013 at 10:09 am

Hi Gregg,

Unfortunately, there are less and less people sharing our love of the orange and blue.

http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/yankees/findings_more_facebook_like_yankees_9uZjYCo6gJzk8GzaJhakeJ

I wonder why. Certainly, it has nothing to do with the way the front office and ownership has been handling things the past few years, has it? With the Yankees being the aging club and the Mets the team of the future, one would think we’d be more up there, right?
Alan from AZ February 21, 2013 at 11:25 am

A great posting Gregg and having turned 60 means I have been there since before day 1 back in 1962. Looking back often brings a tear or two to my eyes. Living in Arizona for 7 years now is tougher to keep abreast of the everyday stuff but I watch all of the games, look at the News and Post on line and of course to WFAN on line too. I cried watching Shea being dismantled bit by bit that last winter. Lived just 15 minutes from it till I was in my 40′s

This kind of post along with up to date news about the ball club is what this site should be about. I hope that real Met fans can convince the haters and detractors to go elsewhere to spew their venom and stop filling the site with ridiculous stats that are coming from a million different directions.

Keep up the great work!
- Joey D. February 21, 2013 at 12:44 pm
  
  Hi Alan,
  
  Cried too when they tore down Shea. Have one of the bricks as a keepsake.
  
  Too bad you weren’t at the 50th Anniversary celebration at Hofstra last year. I was moderating a panel discussion on past memorablia and one of the presentors was a photographer who had put together a video presentation of Shea as it was in the various stages of being torn down. It was played to the background of Frank Sinatra singing “There Was A Ballpark” – the one usually associated with Ebbits Field.
  
  Not a dry eye in the house. And for the first time, I was too choked up for words.
  - Alan from AZ February 21, 2013 at 1:09 pm
    
    Hey there Joey D,
    
    Gregg’s posting seems to be uplifting to all today! In the last few weeks I pulled out my Met videos and DVD’s with the anticipation of spring training and often watch Billy Joel’s “Last Play at Shea concert. My wife and I have a deal…..She wants her remains spread over Rockland Lake up in Nyack where we lived from 1993-2006 and I want mine spread over the footprint of where Shea stood!
    
    Seeing all the good comments this morning makes me glad that I am one of the “Faithful”
    
    Have a great day my friend!
    - Joey D. February 21, 2013 at 1:39 pm
      
      Hi Alan,
      
      Know what you mean despite all that I feel. Not to beat my own drum but yesterday got a copy of my friend Greg Prince’s new book “The Happiest Recap – First Base”, in which he was kind enough to mention my name in the acknowledgements. He also wrote specifically about me when writing the forward for Janet Paskin’s book “Tales From The 1962 Mets”.
      
      So you know how bad it has to be for me to feel this way now. The Mets have been a very, very big part of my life – so much that even my wife now watches the games with me when, in 1975 when we were dating, her knowledge of the game was so much that she wanted to leave in the seventh inning of the second game of a Yankee doubleheader with the Bombers ahead by something like 8-0. She had no appreciation of the fact that Catfish Hunter was pitching a perfect game to that point!

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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