Same Old Mets With A Smile

Again the radio Gods have inflicted on me the joy of working at night again. This time it is a Monday night and the New York Mets , the team of my youth, have come to town. They of course are cannon fodder right now, a lousy club managed by a good man, Terry Collins.

I grew up a Mets fan. When I was only 5 I met Ron Hunt and later Al Jackson, players who figured prominently in Mets lore. This blog is really about my Dad and what he did for his kids.

My father's older brothers were all New York Giant fans. He grew up a Yankee fan and his favorite player was Lou Gehrig. He even convinced his mother to be a Yankee fan. Up until her 90's, my grandmother listened to Yankee games on the radio.

My older brothers Tom and Dan were 10 and 8 when the Mets were formed. For some reason they became enamored with those horrible 1962 New York Mets. The worst team ever in baseball. And my father did something remarkable; he dropped the Yankees to become a Mets fan!!  Dad always claimed he did so because the Yankees were boring they won so much!!  He said he got a kick out of the Mets.

Due to my brothers and my Dad, I became a Mets fan. There was the heaven of 1969 and 1986 but there have been mostly horrible years.

Every year till he died my Dad would say in the spring that he was done with yet another awful Mets team. Yet every year he would be watching till at least hockey season. When the Mets were on the West Coast, he would scan the crowd on TV and look for my late brother Tom and me. In 2004, I impressed him with my stint as the pre-game guest on the Angels Radio network.(They were desperate.) But then again, he was more impressed when I called into the Mets post game show on WJRZ radio to ask whether Claude Osteen and Darryl Osteen were related. I was 7 and they weren't.

At the end of his life, Dad's favorite Met was Danny Murphy. I think he just liked the name. Well tonight Murphy got up with the bases loaded and 2 outs. I thought smack one out for Dad. Murphy popped out to end the inning. Somehow dad would understand. I hope he is telling Lou Gehrig the sacrifice he made. Even the Iron Horse probably approves. While shaking his head.