The Appreciation of Winning

I was there when we got blown out on our home turf in the rain against bottom dweller Temple with well under 1000 fans total.

I was there when we returned for our first home game of the season after upsetting Michigan State only to lose to Division 2, New Hampshire.

I painted my face in negative 10 degree weather and stayed til the end for a blow out loss to Notre Dame.

I have seen the opposing quarterbacks take a knee in the early moments of the fourth quarter of an 80-7 blow out by West Virginia.

I still talk about the 3rd down quick kick that went backwards by Mike McMahon in a blow out loss to Virginia Tech.

So last night as I charged the field in a 28-25 comeback victory to celebrate my Scarlet Knights, I really was able to appreciate the victory. I have been through the trials and tribulations of a losing program. A program that had to fight just to stay in the Big East.

I had about a billion thoughts racing through my head as I walked off the field and through the parking lot to the RV my friends rented so that we could tailgate before the game last night. A specific epiphany I recall having among this stream of consciousness was that of feeling fortunate about being a Mets fan.

Seems like a weird thing to ponder as ANOTHER one of my teams had the biggest win in their entire history; I think it may have been related to the fact that I brought Young Sip and other of my fellow Mets fans to the game.

They were excited with me before the game, and celebrated with me after. They understood what it is like to have to struggle to get to the next level. If cell phones even remotely worked I would have called Young Sip and said, “You will one day understand how I feel right now when the Mets inevitably win it all.”

If I didn’t loathe them so much, I might feel bad for Yankee fans, for this exact reason. As most of them have been rooting for the team since circa 1996, they will never know what it is like to struggle. Consequently, they will NEVER be able to appreciate a win.

It's like that awful saying that the Yankees use, which I don’t even think they realize is ironically a mock of their free spending, “We Don’t rebuild, We Reload.”

For a Mets fan as it is for a Rutgers fan, winning generates happiness and excitement. For a Yankee fan it is relief.

As I watched Beltran watch strike 3 from the uppers I was sad. I left Shea down the tunnels with 10s of thousands of fellow sad Mets fans. The next few days the Mets Community supported each other and reminisced about the exciting points of the season.

When the Goliath Yankees lost to the Detroit Tigers the Yankee “faithful” ran through excuses, and spewed anger. It was Who’s head has to roll for this? and what billion dollar baby has leave to right this pathetic ship?

I have seen the worst of the worst with my Mets and Scarlet Knights. And I’ll take that ten time out of ten over being a Yankee fan. Because 200 million dollars will never buy the feelings I had last night.

- Cousin Tonks