I hate being negative ! I know this comes as a surprise after you have read many of my diatribes this past off season, but I tend to be very positive about many things – especially my New York Mets !I can remember being about 8 years old during that “Magic is Back ” season that was 1980. The team was horrible, Craig Swan was our ace pitcher that year which by all accounts wasn’t so bad . We also had former Rookie Of The Year Pat Zachary as a pillar of our rotation. The Problem is when you have the likes of Pete Falcone ,Tom Hausman, and Andy Hassler thrown in there to round out our starting staff that team looked less than formidable. That coupled with a anemic offense that 1980 Mets team was lucky that they didn’t lose more than 100 games that season. But the crux of the matter was that I believed ! I believed in the Mets ! every day I thought I would win , I rooted for the bench players like Bob Bailor and Jose Cardenal to succeed. I wanted Jeff Reardon to have 30 plus saves a year. I thought the team would contend. Was I delusional – I say as a 8 year old kid on the streets of Brooklyn who’s parents had divorced a few years earlier I was looking for something to believe in . And yes I took my lumps from the Yankee fans my age that were reveling in the success of ’77 and ’78 , and who’s marquee names included the likes of Gossage, Nettles and Jackson, but I never wavered from ” my guys” Alex Trevino, Frank Taveras, Mookie Wilson and Mike Jorgenson.
I don’t know when I lost my child like ” innocence ” when it came to the Mets losing and losing badly – I remember thinking just before the ’92 season that we had a team that could go all the way , with such players as Coleman, Saberhagen, Murray and Bonillia, but we all know how that turned out. But yet I still had a grin that wouldn’t ben because the Mets are still my team. Fast forward to today. I feel that maybe with the advent and advancement of inventions such as twitter and the 24 hour sports channel us fans as a whole has changed. Alot of us are less patient with our teams because we lust for instant gratification, we long for feeling like winners. And when our teams don’t make the moves that we want or expect of them we either turn apathetic and complacent, or we become hostile.
Damn I wish I was eight years old again , wishing that Rusty Staub was my father…..
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                                                               ” Rusty The third?”
And now on with the INFAMY !!!
Happy Birthday wishes go out to former middle reliever from th early ’80′s -Tom Gorman (1957) .
Late September call up from the ’90 season  - outfielder Chris Jelic is 46 (1963).
Reserve infielder/ outfielder from the ’94- ’95 teams – Chris Jones is 44 today (1965) .
New York Mets signed free agent Rusty ” Poppa !” Staub of the Texas Rangers on December 16, 1980.
On this day in 1982 the ” Franchise” came home , when the New York Mets traded starting pitcher Charlie Puleo, Lloyd McClendon and Jason Felice to the Cincinnati Reds for Tom Seaver . Unfortunately they left him exposed in the ’83 compensation draft and lost him to the Chicago White Sox.
New York Mets signed free agent First baseman / outfielder Jim Lindeman on December 16, 1993.
New York Mets signed free agent outfielder Rick Parker on December 16, 1993.
New York Mets signed free agent outfielder Doug Linton on December 16, 1993.
New York Mets signed free agent pitcher Jonathan Hurst on December 16, 1993.
New York Mets signed free agent outfielder and all around card shark Rickey Henderson on December 16, 1998. Congrats on your induction to the Hall Of Fame Rickey !
New York Mets traded superstar power hitting outfielder from Japan ( America – not so much) Tsuyoshi Shinjo and infielder Desi Relaford to the San Francisco Giants for Shawn Estes on December 16, 2001.
New York Mets signed free agent reliever, Mike Stanton of the New York Yankees on December 16, 2002.
In a move that made the Mets relevant again in this past decade – The New York Mets signed free agent Pedro ” Petey “Martinez of the Boston Red Sox on December 16, 2004.
Florida Marlins signed Wilson Delgado of the New York Mets as a free agent on December 16, 2004.
Kansas City Royals signed Doug Mientkiewicz ( I dare you to try to pronounce his name !) of the New York Mets as a free agent on December 16, 2005.
And doncha forget – There are only 110 more mind numbing days until the Mets open the 2010 season against the Florida Marlins at Citi Field.
10 comments
darknova306
12/16/2009-6:42am at 6:42 am (UTC -4)
I grew up in the 90s in Central NY (Ithaca) and never really new many Mets fans. There were always tons of Yankees and Red Sox fans (pfft, front runners. PLEASE!) but rarely other Mets fans to share my agony with or my joy (1999 NLCS was amazing regardless of the outcome). For as much as technology and the internet may have helped develop impatience in many fans and provided an outlet for everyone to vent their irrational frustration and crazy hair-brained ‘fixes’ for their teams, it’s also provided an easy way for fanbases to build communities. It’s been great to meet so many Mets fans I never would have met because of Twitter and blogs.
rustyjr
12/16/2009-7:16am at 7:16 am (UTC -4)
i see your point – my emphasis was being deluged my 24 hours of negative press and talking heads that claim that they know whats in the teams best intrests have made us fans more jaded and irate. i too have made many friends due to this site and justy being online in general – sometimes i just wish a fan could just be a fan and not a armchair g.m
darknova306
12/16/2009-7:29am at 7:29 am (UTC -4)
That’s a good point. It doesn’t help that the talking heads love to focus on NY with their negativity.
trs86
12/16/2009-7:40am at 7:40 am (UTC -4)
That is a very interesting point. Like yesterday the media stresses that Lackey wanted no part of the Mets when in fact it looks like took the first 5 year offer because the Mets, M’s and Angels were unwilling to go 5 years. Does that also mean he wanted no part of the Angels and M’s?
metsfan4decades
12/16/2009-7:51am at 7:51 am (UTC -4)
Good point. I was thinking the same think reading Rusty’s editorial on 1980.
Remember that year well. And as bad as they were, it didn’t bother me like the past few years. I really believe it’s because all I had was WFAN and the newspapers for my updates on all things Mets and there just wasn’t as information.
Now….we’re privy to just about everything the minute it happens along with all the rumors and such. Somehow makes us think we know the inner workings of Omar and Co. and feel qualified to comment on where this team should be going.
Not to mention having access to all players and just about every stat known to man on them, which makes it far easier to construct our own ‘fantasy’ team….
trs86
12/16/2009-8:02am at 8:02 am (UTC -4)
Very true. Before we had the semi-regularly updated USA Today and that was about it.
stickguy
12/16/2009-10:03am at 10:03 am (UTC -4)
Hey, I have to drive up to Ithaca tomorrow. Damn, it’s cold up there. And I think the 10 day forecast has some kind of snow on 9 of them.
NO wonder you left!
darknova306
12/16/2009-10:08am at 10:08 am (UTC -4)
To be fair, I’m now in Rochester, which is actually colder and snowier. Good old lake effect!
Kingman 26
12/16/2009-8:30am at 8:30 am (UTC -4)
Great points Rusty–and great list of ancient Met names to bring back smiles!
You are SO right about the changes in the media bringing out the worst—of course ESPN and the rest love to crap on the Mets 24/7, and it does have an effect on some of us.
I was 10 on June 15, 1977, and I saw the news about the Seaver and Kingman trades when I came to the breakfast table the next morning—today, there would have been 18 cable channels and 783 internet sites blathering about it the day and night before.
Even in college in the mid-80s, as TRS said, it was basically the young ESPN and the USA Today.
In some ways, today’s media is certainly an improvement, with the incredible number of choices we have, but it certainly can be annoying to be a Mat fan in tough times like right now.
stickguy
12/16/2009-10:08am at 10:08 am (UTC -4)
Yeah, the sports media (heck, media in general) has pretty much been reduced to the level of papparazzi and the gossip rag magazines. All about the dirt, and negativeness.
That, and I guess due to the speed at which the media has to move, fact checking and in depth analysis is a thing of the past (for the great most part).
so “everyone knows” is good enough. ANd getting hits is big now, so combine all that (along with what seems to be a general dislike for NYC in much of the country), and of course piling on the Mets is just so, so easy.
Only way to combat it? Have the team take on the “us against them” and “no one respects us” umbrellas, and just win baby!
Heck, back in 1979-1980, I used to actually have the neighborhood local store set aside a News and Post, so I could make sure to get a copy so I didn’t miss the Met news of the day!