A Contributing Article by Reader "Remember 1969": What If Every Met Was A Superstar?

 

What if every Met was a Superstar? - Part 1

 

(Macks' Mets reader "Remember 1969" contributed this article for your consideration.)

In a very interesting February 1 piece on the Mets360 site, contributor Chris Flanders asked the question "Is Francisco Lindor on a Hall-of-Fame career trajectory?"

 

In addition to the well done depth of investigation and extrapolation of Lindor's career stats, there were some thought provoking comments that followed.    Contributor NYM6986 made the statement that prior to Lindor,  the Mets haven't had a bona fide position playing star for a long time who is or was that complete a player, both offensively and defensively.     

 

A couple subsequent suggestions of Jeff McNeil, Dom Smith (at first base "where he belongs"), or Brandon Nimmo (in left field "where he belongs") were answered by Chris as players not in the same class as Lindor.   

 

This triggered me to wonder two things.   

 

First, would we root more for a team if it had nine superstars in the line-up everyday more than one with guys that we really don't know what to expect of them from year to year?      

 

Second, how many superstars does a team need to be a perennial winning team and playoff /World Series contender?  

 

I'll break this into two parts and address the first question now and the second one in a follow-up piece.  

 

So, as fans, specifically Mets fans, what does it take to root for the team?   

 

I have been a Mets fan for over 50 years through the great (1969), the bad, the bad, the bad, the great (1986), the bad, the bad, the bad, the good-great (2000), the bad, the bad, the OK (2015) and the some in between parts, so I can reflect a little on what I root for and what makes me happy.  

The bottom line is I like the Mets to win games.  

 

I guess I do appreciate the superstars, knowing that over the course of a season, you will get some of the best stats and discussion of the hardware at the season's end.  deGrom is the best, but I also root hard for the next tier of guys like Dom Smith, Brandon Nimmo, Michael Conforto, etc.   Perhaps it is the promise of good to great things and being home-grown talent.   

 

I found it hard to cheer a lot for Wilson Ramos or Billy Hamilton.     

 

Even though I was not a fan of Hamilton, I do appreciate speed and defense above home runs.   

 

I really appreciate the guys that seem to have a lot of fun and exude energy to the team.   I like the character guys.    

 

My favorite players over the years were the same as most everyone else - Seaver, Koosman, Kranepool, Jones, then Matlack, Staub, etc. in the early years (actually, I was a huge Wayne Garrett fan as an 11 year old, but...).

 

Doc, Strawberry, Darling, Hernandez, Carter, and HoJo were my favorite guys in the 80's.   I was actually more a fan of Tim Teufel than Wally Backman in those 80's years for some reason.        

 

Piazza, Leiter and of course Alfonzo were the guys in the late 90's/2000 teams followed by David Wright.      

 

And some miscellaneous call-outs for whatever reason, I liked Mike Cameron a lot when he was around, and who couldn't root for Curtis Granderson?    Darryl Hamilton and Daryl Boston were two other random guys that I liked back in the day.    Not exactly hall of famers.           

 

I could go through a lot of players over the last 50 years and say yes or no to whether I rooted harder for them, and many of the yes answers would be the more obscure guys (Duffy Dyer over Jerry Grote).   For some reason, I was not a huge Carlos Beltran fan, who I would think would be considered the last true star prior to Lindor's arrival.   I have always been a Lindor fan, and am extremely happy he is wearing the blue and orange now. 

 

Now, would I be content with if they were to go get Freddie Freeman, Jose Altuve, Nolan Arenado, Mike Trout, and Bryce Harper?    I don't know.   Somehow I think I need some question marks and success stories that are unknown as the year begins.   

I am not one for the Yankee way and buying the best players because they can.   Would it make them a better team and give them a better chance to be World Series champions?     The knee-jerk answer has to be 'yes', but I'm not so sure.   I'll examine that in part 2 to follow.   

 

What kind of a team do you guys like to root for?