Or I suppose the better question is, what made you a Mets fan?
I was thinking about this recently, trying to quantify exactly what were the root causes that made me want to wear blue and orange.
In most areas of the country this is an easy question. You grow up in Boston, you are a Red Sox fan, no question. Same with Philly, Detroit, Minneapolis, St. Louis, etc. Sure, you could point to Chicago, and to a lesser extent LA, but neither of those cities has the unique situation we have. On one side of town is the most successful franchise in all of sports; on the other are the Mets. Really, the odds are stacked against you.
So, what confluence of factors led me here today? It comes down to 3:
- Timing: I was 2 1/2 when the Mets won the World Series in 1969 and 6 1/2 when they went back in 1973. Now of course I don’t remember the 69 series. However, the Mets were the hot team and so when relatives would buy me baseball things, they would be Mets related. I have pictures of me at 2 wearing a blue Mets helmet. By the time 73 rolled around, while I don’t remember the series per se, I do remember cheering on the Mets and I remember the excitement of going to see Willie Mays and Ya Gotta Believe. The point is these were very formative years and I naturally gravitated towards the tam that was winning.
- Geography: I was born in Brooklyn – Flatbush to be exact - in 1967, just 12 years after the last Dodger season. The memories of the Dodgers were still very fresh in the minds of just about every adult in my neighborhood. That in and of itself would have been enough to influence my fandom. Link that though with the period. The Mets played in Queens, the next borough over and an easy ride on the special Shea Stadium bus that left from “the junction” (the intersection of Flatbush and Nostrand Aves). meanwhile the Yankees played in the Bronx – a long subway ride through Manhattan and into the bowels of a crumbling neighborhood and city. The subways in the 70’s were your worst nightmare. Given the choice between taking a clean bus to a stadium nearby vs. taking the dirty, graffiti covered, crime ridden subway to an old and decaying stadium further away, my parents made the easy choice. So we went to Mets games. As it was I didn’t set foot in Yankee Stadium til 1984.
- Family: Obviously your family history and the influence of your parents will have some influence on who you root for – but the reasons behind that influence may be different. For me, I got the Mets bug from both parents but for very different reasons. My Dad gre up in Brooklyn a die hard Dodger fan, and growing up we heard all the stories of Ebbets Field, the Knothole Gang, you name it. However, unlike many Dodger fans, my Dad did not transfer his allegiance to the Mets. He never rooted for them. But as children he didn’t dissuade us from that path, or in his words “I don’t care who you root for, as long as you don’t root for the Yankees.” Well, that left us with ether the Mets or rooting for an out of town team – which in the days before cable and the internet was just not going to happen. (Inexplicably later in life my Dad started rooting for the Yankees). My mother on the other hand was a Mets fan. She was raised in Ireland and knew nothing about baseball – but in 1966 when her boss at a Wall St. investment firm started giving her tickets to the Mets, who was she to turn them down. Turns out the seats were next to the Payson family. Even though she may not have understood the game, she understood good manners and started rooting for the mets. She eventually came to love the team as longtime MetsPolice readers know. So my Dad steered us clear of the Yankees, and my Mom steered us towards the mets.
So there you have it – timing, geography, and family. If any of these had been different (say my formative years were in the mid-70’s for example), I might be writing for the Yankees police right now instead of here.
What made you a Mets fan? Any of these reasons? Something else?