Sadness in the Fan base
I stood in the electric Chase Field. I watched pre game intros and chills raced thru my body. Hearing the crowd go nuts as Orlando Hudson and Eric Byrnes were introduced had my blood flowing. When the loud speaker started blasting my favorite song " Where the Streets Have No Name" and the Dbacks took the field I had to jump up and down just to truly soak in the adrenaline rush. This was postseason baseball and it was awesome. I looked around and saw a sea of sedona red with some Cub blue sprinkled in. And then I got depressed.
I thought about Shea.
My dad emailed me a couple of day ago talking to me about an article in my baby, the New York Post (shame on you Cheddar ben)by my main man Mike Vaccarro. The question the article raised, who cares more, the Mets or their fans
At first I shook my dad off. "How the fuck should I know" I responded. I'm a bad son, I guess.
But over the last couple of days, when my biggest decision was regular or diet, I thought a bit more about what my pops asked. And I came to a pretty quick conclusion.
The fans care more.
Most of us have been Mets fans for 20 years or more. We have sweat thru hundreds of games per season. I did the math. A good Mets fan spends about 20 full days a year watching Mets baseball. 20 full days.
And I'm not even talking about practice.
To be a real Met fan is to embrace this team as your own. You take the hits and you enjoy the success, but with everything you watch and see, you internalize.
That is the difference between being a fan of baseball and a fan of any other sport. Being a baseball fan takes soul. Anyone can watch football for 3 hours every sunday. Anyone can watch 3 basketball games a week. But to sit there and watch a team play 9 days out of 10 for 6 months, that takes a real commitment.
So we've been "Mets" for years.
Moises Alou has been a Met for 6 months.
Here in lies the problem with professional sports. Few players identify with one team. Carlos Beltran is a Met, but is he really? Did he just go where the $119 million dollars took him. You can't fault him for that, no.
But how many players on this team can we truly identify as Mets? I'm talking Mets the way I look at AFOMG and see orange and blue bleeding out of that Rockeresque frame?
The answer is 2 maybe 3. That is if you're including Aaron Heilman. (Yikes) But beyond David Wright and Jose Reyes, the kids we developed, which guys on this team do we really consider our own.
And that is the problem. There are so few. You can't fault the Mets. They are a product of baseball and playing in New York City. But all this made me realize where the real heart and soul of this team is. But is Billy Wagner really a Met? What about El Duque? How bout Paul Lo Duca? Even Pedro.
We love these guys, but are they really ours. I don't know the answer.
But when I go back to the upper west side I'll see AFOMG and Sepa and Cheddar. Guys that are Mets without question.
Which is why it is the true Mets fans that make the Mets who they are. In 5 years we aren't going anywhere. But you can't say the same for 90% of our roster.
Vaya,
Sip
(Pics courtesy of allposters.com, cnn.com)
I thought about Shea.
My dad emailed me a couple of day ago talking to me about an article in my baby, the New York Post (shame on you Cheddar ben)by my main man Mike Vaccarro. The question the article raised, who cares more, the Mets or their fans
At first I shook my dad off. "How the fuck should I know" I responded. I'm a bad son, I guess.
But over the last couple of days, when my biggest decision was regular or diet, I thought a bit more about what my pops asked. And I came to a pretty quick conclusion.
The fans care more.
Most of us have been Mets fans for 20 years or more. We have sweat thru hundreds of games per season. I did the math. A good Mets fan spends about 20 full days a year watching Mets baseball. 20 full days.
And I'm not even talking about practice.
To be a real Met fan is to embrace this team as your own. You take the hits and you enjoy the success, but with everything you watch and see, you internalize.
That is the difference between being a fan of baseball and a fan of any other sport. Being a baseball fan takes soul. Anyone can watch football for 3 hours every sunday. Anyone can watch 3 basketball games a week. But to sit there and watch a team play 9 days out of 10 for 6 months, that takes a real commitment.
So we've been "Mets" for years.
Moises Alou has been a Met for 6 months.
Here in lies the problem with professional sports. Few players identify with one team. Carlos Beltran is a Met, but is he really? Did he just go where the $119 million dollars took him. You can't fault him for that, no.
But how many players on this team can we truly identify as Mets? I'm talking Mets the way I look at AFOMG and see orange and blue bleeding out of that Rockeresque frame?
The answer is 2 maybe 3. That is if you're including Aaron Heilman. (Yikes) But beyond David Wright and Jose Reyes, the kids we developed, which guys on this team do we really consider our own.
And that is the problem. There are so few. You can't fault the Mets. They are a product of baseball and playing in New York City. But all this made me realize where the real heart and soul of this team is. But is Billy Wagner really a Met? What about El Duque? How bout Paul Lo Duca? Even Pedro.
We love these guys, but are they really ours. I don't know the answer.
But when I go back to the upper west side I'll see AFOMG and Sepa and Cheddar. Guys that are Mets without question.
Which is why it is the true Mets fans that make the Mets who they are. In 5 years we aren't going anywhere. But you can't say the same for 90% of our roster.
Vaya,
Sip
(Pics courtesy of allposters.com, cnn.com)
posted by Sippy Momo at 3:14 AM
6 Comments:
Sip,
As always, nothing but love for yankees2000, but...
Aren't you the same guy who blasts Yankee fans for calling guys "true Yankees" and making players "earn their pinstripes"?
I said 2 years ago that the Mets will behave like and look like the Yankees in 5 years. In the last few days, I've read arguments to keep an over the hill 40 year old Glavine and trade prospects for Santana. If this were the end of 2008, I'm sure there'd be talk of buying Santana.
You all already have the 3rd highest payroll in the league. Why not just go out, sign two of Schilling/Colon/Rogers to a 3yrs/30mil deal and then over pay Scott Linebrink/Eddie Guardado. You could put some momuments in centerfield while you're at it.
Either way, I'd say the 5 year plan is looking right on schedule.
Danny D, that's not fair. Sippy was raising the (very fair, IMO) question of who puts more blood sweat and tears into this thing? Us (the fans?) or the players? I mean, when two respected baseball guys like Delgado and Glavine just say they got "bored" at the end, what does that say? No motivation? We were motivated! I even told someone during Friday's game that I could put a uniform and go out to the mound, I can junkball with the best of 'em. We are the ones who hear the taunts, we are the ones who have the walk the shame walk by rooting who we root for. The players? Meh, not so much. They can get traded or whatever.
I also think that when people say "true Yankee" it's the guy who can come in through the clutch in the postseason. Scotty Brosius is an example (who sucked every other time). Aaron Boone (shudder) also is considered one of those, though he was a mercenary who only played 3 months, sucked in all three of those months and had one key hit against the Red Sox. A-Rod, best player in baseball, of our generation? They hate him b/c he GIDPs too much in the postseason. I think that's what we mean when we talk about disdain for "true" Yankees.
We all root for laundry, Coop. That's what free agency does to a team. The real fans always seem like they invest more into the team than most players do. I'm just pointing out that we Yankee fans have been taunted by Mets fans for years about guys "earning their pinstripes". What can I say in return? Sure, we value some Yankees more than others because we KNOW (or so we think) they love this ballclub.
Best example is Johnny Damon. I'm going to root for him tonight everytime he comes up to bat... but do I really think he gives a shit about the Yankees or us fans? I still think of him as the same guy who killed us in '04. To a lesser degree I can say the same about 90% of the Yankees. Just like you guys with Reyes and Wright, the only guys I want to believe are emotionally invested in this team and, in turn, us (read: true Yankees) are our homegrown talent like Jeter, Posada, Rivera etc. And how much do they really care? Who knows? 2 of those 3 are going on the market this year. Let's be real. Mickey Mantle isn't gonna pay my rent.
So I just want to point out the hypocrisy. Certain Mets fans seem to be going through the same thing they've been taunting us about for years now. I just want that recognized.
Great piece, nice work!
The days you speak about were a long time ago. They were the golden years of baseball. When subway series met that the players took the subway to the series. Know what I mean?
I hate to say it but I agree with Danny D. This upcoming year is a perfect example. We have all the pitching we need. Pedro, Duque, Maine, Perez, Pelfrey, Humber. But we talk about going out to find that "big time" pitcher. I say we use the talent we got! What the hell is our farm system for anyway? No pitcher (or any player) is a lock anyway. Look at Zito!
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