Craig Mitchell -- A Comedians Guide to being a Celebrity Met Fan

So turns out I’m a celebrity Met fan. Well, kind of. Ok, Ok, not really. But I come close.  I digress. The Mets actually do have their fair share of celebrity fans. I mean, why not? They are the only National League team in the biggest city in the world.  What classifies as a celebrity? Well, that’s easy enough. Actually the Mets have always had their share of attention in all sorts of Media too.  Take the movie “Fear Strikes Out” for example. While not about the Mets per se, it does focus on Jimmy Piersall. Who, when as a Met on June 23^rd, 1963, celebrated hitting his 100^th career homer off the Phillies Dallas Green at The Polo Grounds took his trip around the bases backwards. Actually that was his only homer as a Met.

Take the movie “Rookie of the Year”, tune into that and you can see a 11 year old kid with a 120 mph fastball strike out Bobby Bonilla in a Met uniform. (I love that so much, I watch it over and over again, check out my “Bobby Bo and the Blue Moon” article from January for that back story.)

 

In the 1968 Movie, “The Odd Couple”, while Oscar Madison is arguing on the phone in the Mets press box with Felix about dinner, he misses the Mets complete a triple play.

Perhaps the most famous Mets moments in the movies came in the 1996 film “Men in Black”. I believe it's towards the end of the film when one of the flying saucers takes off from Flushing Meadow Park fair grounds, a wide eyed and distracted Bernard Gilkey (shown on the right)  watching the event, gets conked on the forehead by a fly ball to left.  Then in 2012’s “Men in Black III”  Griffin, a time tripping Alien, takes agents J and K back (or in this case forward) to the moment Cleon Jones caught Davey Johnson’s fly ball to clinch the 69 World Series.

Perhaps the most biting example of all is from “Family Guy”, showing Stewie in a Mets cap at the Mets first game of the season and the announcer goes “And here’s the season’s first pitch” There’s a crack of the bat and then he follows “….and the season’s over” Stewie then takes his Met hat and slams it to the ground. 

So the Mets are ever present in the Media themselves. Both for good and bad.  But over the years the

Mets have quite an impressive array of celebrity fans that live and die by the Orange and Blue.

The most notable Mets celeb fans include: Jerry Seinfeld, Kevin James, Robert Klein, Billy Joel, Jon Stewart (The TV host, not The Green Lantern), Alyissa Milano, Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, Robin Williams, Bill Smitrovich, Nas, Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino, Jimmy Kimmel, David Brenner, Tom Brokaw, Ron Artest, Zoe Saldona, Michael Vartan, The Jerky Boys, Ben Stiller, Hillary Duff, Robin Quivers, Glenn Close, Matthew Broderick, Susan Sarandon, Will Arnett, Kelly Ripa, Matt Dillon, John McEnroe, Bill O’Reilly, Opie and Anthony and Craig Mitchell
(Record scratch……wait a minute) Craig Mitchell? Me? Well…like I said…Kind of. I've teased enough. I’ll explain.

Now, certainly,  I’m no celebrity. While I have worked with some of the celebs I mentioned above, I am NOT in their league. That’s all just play. But, I kind of got a taste of what it’s like to be a highly recognizable Met fan in 1994.

On Saturday, June 11^th I was covering the 1:40pm game at Shea between the Expos and the Mets. The game was nothing special. The Mets wound up losing 7-4. Marquis Grissom had a field day going 4 for 4 with a homer, double 3 run scored and 2 RBI.   Bonilla homered for the Mets. But the reason this game sticks out in my mind is because this is the very first game I had field and dugout passes to a Met game.  Now, I was working for Sports phone and they always got those passes, but I didn’t. This was my first time. I was cool, calm, collected and PSYCHED OUT OF MY SKULL!! <deep breath> But there was no way I was going to act as if it was any big deal. I walked around and got the feel for being on the field. I wandered into both dugouts and got sound from some interviews in progress. I walked behind the batting cage and watched the swings and hits exploding out of the cage. I’m sorry, it wasn’t professional then, possibly not now either, but this was the COOLEST THING EVER! I was on the field at Shea! If this was the era of selfies I would have like 400 to show you, but it wasn’t and I have no visual proof.

Now, that night, I was booked to do a comedy show in Hartford, CT in a great comedy club that is still there. At the time it was called Brown/Thompson. Today it’s called City Steam and the Brew Ha Ha! Comedy club. Seeing that depending on the time of the game, I might not have time to go home and change, I went to the game in my “Stand Up” attire. Black pants, black sneakers, white shirt and a black vest. I probably looked like a bartender on the field. I probably did stand out from the other reporters. Most of them were business casual or even less. Some were just  shirts and jeans. It didn’t matter. I didn’t care. I was on cloud nine. This was a dream come true, and I wasn’t sure if it would ever come again (and it didn’t), so I soaked in every moment.

The game was most typical. It was 2 hours and 46 minutes long. Plenty of time to get sound out of the lock rooms, file my report and get on the road to Hartford for an 8pm first show. I bolted out of Shea and onto the Cross Island, over the bridge and on to Hartford.  I arrived at Brown Thompson about 7pm, plenty of time before the show started. I never ate before a show, so I just milled around the bar, played some video games and drank a coke or something.  The other comics were eating in the back room, so I decided to go hang with them.

This is a very unique restaurant. It’s a converted department store, so people eat on different lofts and levels. Honestly, if you are in Hartford check it out.  So, I’m walking down a hallway towards the back room and from a table a level above me a guy goes…”Excuse me?”  I didn’t stop. I figured he thought I was a waiter from the way I was dressed. Then, louder “EXCUSE ME?” I stopped, looked at him and pointed at my chest. “Yes you! Hey, weren’t you on the field at Shea today?”  MIND BLOWN! Holy Crap!! I just got recognized for being on the field at Shea. I was really stunned and to this day it still blows my mind. I offered “Yes, yes I was. I’m also a sportscaster.”  He went “Cool! Why don’t you do that full time instead of being a waiter?”  I explained I was a Stand Up Comedian. Looking back on it he didn’t seem convinced. But my decade was made!

When I got to the back room and met the other comics, I don’t remember if I relayed that story or not. But I must have, right? How could I not? The headliner I was working with? Kevin James.  Fellow Met fan. Now, he gets the coolest gig. They play a video of him going “Let’s Go Mets” during rallies at Citi Field…or at least I think they still do. So, OK, like I said, I’m not a celebrity Met fan. But thanks to the Prime Rib on table 12 on the 2^nd level I got a feeling for how it would feel. Oh, how did I know it was a Prime Rib? I’m not saying. Let’s just say he was a great tipper!