Reese Kaplan -- Mets Fans Used to be Positive

I am confessing my entry towards senior citizenship by reminiscing about the Mets as they were for me as a child growing up in the New York City metro area.  Back then the team was bad -- very bad.  Yes, they did win in 1969 and made it to the World Series again in 1973, but those years were the exceptions, not the rule.  

 

At that time we were happy simply to experience the game of baseball, whether in person, on TV or on the radio.  It was a feeling of like minded participation with fellow fans who rooted for the positive but accepted the negative.  Then when something good actually did happen (like rookies Tom Seaver and Jerry Koosman), all of the sudden our hearts nearly burst from our chests with pride and appreciation.  

We had our own superstars in Cleon Jones and Tommie Agee.  Yes, there were an assortment of others around the field and dancing in and out of the lineup, but for true Mets fans it was enough to see the few prosper and sometimes actually lead this moribund club to unforeseen victories.

 

After the Yogi Berra unlikely push to the 1973 World Series it was a long, dry spell for Mets fans, but still the people who supported the team were pretty optimistic about their fans.  Yes, some of the blind loyalty was questioned by front office moves (or lack thereof), but the cynicism of wanting and needing to win hadn’t overshadowed team loyalty.  Those were especially difficult years under the shepherding of the likes of Joe Frazier, Joe Torre, George Bamberger and others for whom winning was not a known result.  

 

In 1984 (a landmark year in literature and in Mets baseball), the New York Mets reached into the depths of their minor league system to promote one time playing rival Davey Johnson to lead the big club in Queens.  He had been highly successful as a minor league manager but hadn’t had very much experience overall, so there was some trepidation among NY Mets fans wondering if a more seasoned skipper would have made more sense if the club was serious about elevating itself from its doldrums.

 

Much to everyone’s surprise, the manager wasn’t the only change the team made.  All of the sudden some real players started making their way into the New York Mets baseball scene, including All Star catcher Gary Carter, All Star first baseman Keith Hernandez, and a bevy of internally developed youngsters including Dwight Gooden, Darryl Strawberry, Hubie Brooks, Wally Backman and Kevin Mitchell.  Trades brought in the likes of Ron Darling, Sid Fernandez, Howard Johnson and other credible ballplayers.  

 

The combination of better players and a good manager turned the 1983 record of a combined 68-94 into a winning one of 90-72.  In 1985 it got even better at 98-64.  Then in 1986 it was almost preordained for the Mets to become to toast of not only the town but the entire Major Leagues when they finished the season with a stunning 108-54 record, moving into the post-season and winning the World Series on the forever miraculous “It gets by Buckner!” game six which tied things up at three games apiece before the Mets moved onto the championship victory against Boston in game seven.  

 

That great success which made the Mets the number one team in baseball (and more importantly, in New York), changed the attitude of many fans.  Now they expected to win and were highly disappointed when anything else was the outcome.  It was at this time the cynicism of fans took root and began to grow.  It was a solid late 1980s and then a very long dark period of the 1990s until the surprising crosstown World Series loss in 2000.  

After that it was another 15 year stretch of nothing until losing to the less-than-illustrious Kansas City Royals under the stewardship of the team’s losingest manager who came very close to achieving 600 losses during his overlong career with the Mets.  

 

Nowadays everyone hopes for the best but it’s hard to wrap your hands around what’s happening between the pandemic, the short season, the 5-day hiatus due to Miami infections and the upcoming sale of the ballclub.  I have a feeling that a new era of optimism will result when the Wilpons are in the rearview mirror, but how long it lasts is anyone’s guess.