First off I would like to give Luis Castillo a round of applause for his game winning single ( where was this kind of play this season?). It’s good to see – at least for what might be a brief moment that the Mets are back in sole possession of third place with last night win over the rival Marlins.
You know I don’t know If this is something us Mets fans acquire with age, but is it me or is the older we get the more unforgiving we become with our players? I remember as a kid growing up through the dark time – ’77-’83 that even though my team was would perennially finish last in the standings I would still root hard for the team and it’s players. It didn’t matter if it were Jerry Koosman or Andy Hassler. if the Mets had obtained Tim Foli on a trade or the bought the contract of Ray Burris , I would still root for them to have a 4-4 day or pitch a complete game shutout. Today it seems like that if the team isn’t producing we automatically demand that players be cut or shipped out ( don’t worry I still feel that Oliver Perez and Luis Castillo must go). I guess we as fans have grown extremely agitated and impatient that it has been 26 years since we have won a championship. 10 years since we have been to a World Series and four years since we have made the playoffs. That combined with sports talk radio and the fact that for the last 15 or so years our cross town nemesis , the New York Yankees have been either winning it all – or at least making the playoffs. I guess for most of us Mets fans – sans the newer generations that don’t have a real clue of our tumultuous history – have grown cynical. We feel that year after year that our hopes are raised by rah rah slogans, our front office spends money on one or two impact players ( in theory). But in the end it seems like our team ( as well as out front office) comes up short.
Like I said I am too young to remember what the general consensus of Mets fans were back in the bad old days- I know that they did alienate the fan base with the trading of Seaver, Koosman and Kingman, Shea Stadium Was a ghost town and like Omar Minaya there was no love for M . Donald Grant. But it seems that those we wear those god awful teams of the late ’70′s and mid ’80′s as a badge of honor – Kinda like we’ve survived hell and we are still here. I just wonder if the next generation of Mets fans will have that same point of view about the past few years with franchise in it’s current state.
” Does this constitute child abuse?”
And with that said…. HERE COMES THE INFAMY !!!!
Celebrating Birthdays today are :
Mets coach for the ’93 team, Darrell Johnson would have been 82 today (1928) .
One of the all time memorable Mets, catcher , Choo Choo Coleman is 73 (1937) .
Reserve outfielder from the ’66 team,Shaun Fitzmaurice is 68 (1942) .
One of Omar’s biggest mistakes this season, Gary Matthews Jr is 36 (1974).
Our current loogy specialist,Pedro Feliciano is 34 (1976) .
New York Mets signed free agent pitcher,Brian Buchanan on August 25, 2004.
New York Mets traded closer,Billy Wagner to the Boston Red Sox for glorified dh,Chris Carter and minor leaguer,Eddie Lora on August 25, 2009, The Mets did the right thing by trading Billy to a team that was in contention- especially since last years team was out of contention. I just wish we had gotten better prospects for him.
Mo Vaughn’s favorite movie – Hot Dog : The Movie !!!
13 comments
Dirtysanchez
8/25/2010-8:11am at 8:11 am (UTC -4)
hey….i grew up with the 90′s team and they were pretty bad too lol
Being a met fan is synonomus with taking the harder road to things but in the end its soo worth it. That being said, I think the harsh view on players has to do mostly with the disconnect the fans have with the front office and to some extent the character of this team over the last few years. The mets collapsed with 17 games to go in 2007, The mets missed the playoffs by 3 games in 2008. Both of those teams were pretty good and more than capable of making the playoffs. In 2009, nobody could explain the rash of injuries that took place and this year nobody can explain how a team that looked very promising going into the asb has only won i think 14 games since. Something is wrong here and the fans know it but cannot put their finger on it. Since we cant…impatience builds due to our lack of understanding what the REAL problem is and how to fix it.
gategem
8/25/2010-4:49pm at 4:49 pm (UTC -4)
I believe many in the fan base know what’s wrong with the team but outside of not attending games are powerless to do anything about it. Thus the frustration.
kingman 26
8/25/2010-8:54am at 8:54 am (UTC -4)
I think part of it is that in the late 70s, attendance was much lower, WOR did not have nearly the reach of SNY on cable systems, and there was no ESPN and 24/7 news cycle. And you did not have parasites like Adam Rubin writing multi-part garbage stories trashing the team for ESPN, and folks like Klapsich writing their drivel for the nation to see on the internet.
People were much more polite, and less jaded and demanding, and enjoyed the game. And every dimwit, halfwit, and nitwit (OK movie buffs, where’s THAT from?) did not feel like they were the next Hemingway on the internet.
The comment area here–and even at FWICG.com–are like havens of sanity compared to places like the Ledger and Mets.com areas, with ceaseless racism, fire everyone, everyone sucks, blah blah blah.
Yeah, I get frustrated, but you know what? I was clapping and thrilled at the win last night. It’s the Mets, it’s the orange and blue, I don’t give a rat’s ass about the Yanks and their payroll mocking the game—-I love the sport and I love the Mets.
Yeah, it is time for another WS, yeah, Omar has made some mistakes, yeah, Jerry is not Davey or Gil or Bobby, but I still enjoy the team when they hustle, which they sure did last night.
Hey, my screen name salutes a Met who was not known for drinking champagne in October—he was known for HRs that were the only bright spots in often lost games!
rustyjr
8/25/2010-9:01am at 9:01 am (UTC -4)
Blazing saddles Headly
agree with you on your points – it just seemed back then we embraced our scrubs and rooted hard for them – I don’t see that kind of devotion anymore – including me
kingman 26
8/25/2010-9:10am at 9:10 am (UTC -4)
HAHA! Nice!!
Yeah, I think you may be right.
Even in 86, I liked Teufel (well, not exactly a scrub) almost as much as Keith.
And I even really like Ron Hodges way back when–I am sure you remember him!
rustyjr
8/25/2010-9:16am at 9:16 am (UTC -4)
Hodges & trevino in ’80 along with Stearns lol
hazmet
8/25/2010-6:28pm at 6:28 pm (UTC -4)
Pretty much agree with everything here as usual but lest we forget, 2 words for the ’70′s hatchet man: Dick Young. And that’s not an ED ad.
metsfan4decades
8/25/2010-9:30am at 9:30 am (UTC -4)
Agree with both Dirty and Kingman’s comments above.
I’m a cynic by nature – and the older I get the more jaded in my outlook – by ironically when it comes to the NY Mets it’s almost the polar opposite. I go into each season with the same hope THIS will be our season. Being more of a realist though than in my younger days, I usually come the realization we’re out of it much sooner than I did as a kid. This year, for me, I had very little hope left coming out of the ASB and by the time that road trip was over, I knew we weren’t making the post season this year.
Having watched the ’69 season as a kid and the ’73 season not too long after, there’s always that thought that it’s baseball and anything is possible….
I very rarely have hated any one NY Met player, at least while they were on the team. There was many though that I wasn’t sorry to see go. Castillo time has come and gone, I believe he should not be in the plan for 2011. Oh, and Ollie I’d prefer not to even see at ST.
metsfan4decades
8/25/2010-9:55am at 9:55 am (UTC -4)
Also, I believe the single best change they can make is a new GM and coaching staff. A GM that the Wilpons trust so they take a step back (many steps back), let that GM focus on fixing this mess. The key will be who….
stickguy
8/25/2010-11:38am at 11:38 am (UTC -4)
partly revisionist history, and partly a different technology age.
NYC was still very large 30 years ago, but you could walk up to the window 5 minutes before gametime on a beautiful saturday, and buy field box tickets. So there may have been a big fan base still, but it sure wasn’t attending games! Only in the winner years, so if anything, the fans are more supportive now.
and now, you got ever twit that tweets (I despise twitter, worry if that makes me a cranky old man), so the constatnt barrage of negativity just wears you down. The old days, having to wait for the 11:00 news of the next days paper, was not really that bad!
And I think the perspective of the recent run is a tad skewed. 2006 was almost the glory year (so damn close). 2007 up until the last 2 weeks, was looking just as good. Hell, even 2008 they were in 1st pretty late. I was at game 162 2 years in a row, watching a game where if the mets won, they were still playing the next day.
sure, close but no cigar, but damn it, they were still close. And closer those 3 years than all but a couple of other teams.
2009 just never happened, and I haven’t figured out what 2010 is yet, but heck, even a few games over .500 can be considered close enough to be in it the next year.
finally, I think that the availability of a media outlet (like what I am doing here!) to every loud mouth, whiner, and lost soul really makes the vocal majority seem much larger, and more “powerful”, then it really is.
most fans are still just fans. They like to watch, but have other lives. sure they would like to see a WS run, but they also just take a season as it comes, for what it’s worth. Then come back the next year, dilusional with renewed hope.
GravediggerHebner
8/25/2010-12:15pm at 12:15 pm (UTC -4)
I think others have largely summed up my thoughts above. Back then we were kids who didn’t know nearly as much about the game as we do now and we were simply not exposed to as many games and as much information as we are now.
One thing I’m not sure anyone touched on above is the salaries. In say 1978 yes the players made a lot of money by comparison to say what my mother made as a teacher but it wasn’t nearly as out of whack with my reality then as it is now. It’s one thing to root for a team whose highest paid player makes half a million, quite another when that’s the minimum salary. Part of the reason Hebner is my nickname is because the real Richie Hebner augmented his salary by working during the off season – who does that now, at least in any kind of meaningful way?
For me it also has to do a lot with knowledge and experience. In the late 70′s the teams were horrible but I didn’t really grasp the concept of quite how horrible they were. Every spring I felt like “this could be the year” in large part because I simply didn’t understand a lot about the game. Now that (I think) I understand a lot more it’s easier to get jaded looking at a particular roster and believing/realizing how many holes it has. That’s something I was not capable of when I was 13.
Then I didn’t really get that something was lacking so I didn’t spend time worrying about how much so and so sucked and needed to be replaced. Now a day doesn’t go by without me at least spending a few minutes thinking about that.
IB_Twaddle
8/25/2010-4:15pm at 4:15 pm (UTC -4)
I grew up in Flushing in the 60’s and being a Met fan is tribal, even visceral. (God help me). That said, I think it has to do with expectations and results. Those old Mets teams looked as bad on paper as on the field. You played the hand they dealt you. Got your kicks from, say, Ron Hunt hitting .303. Joel Youngblood leading the lead in outfield assists. Shit like that.
I don’t have to tell you what we got now. You all know it already.
Here’s another not-so-subtle factor: Yankee Fans.
TRS86
8/25/2010-6:06pm at 6:06 pm (UTC -4)
Don’t recognize your name. Welcome to TRDM!