Losin' in Amazin' Fashion

(I just got internet in my new apartment today, Thursday, November 5. This was written on Tuesday while on the B train heading into the city from Brooklyn.)

On Monday, I treated everything that had happened on Sunday night as a New Orleans-type 2015 New York Mets funeral, marching around Brooklyn in my new Orange and Blue Mets 2015 World Series cap, my Mets Mitchell & Ness Jacket, and my Green Jets shirt. Neither team had played well the day before, though no one had anything at all to say about the football team.

"Yo, what happened last night, man?" Said a man in a Brooklyn Nets hat as I passed New York Avenue and Snyder Avenue.

"We didn't get it done, but it's alright. We'll be more athletic next year and beyond."

"We need to get a closer that can shut it down!"

"It's not Jeurys' fault (Other than the one quick pitch too many in the 1st game.) We need to make plays behind him! It's alright, we're gonna take it all next year!"

"Hey, man. They could go back next year. Gotta get it done."

I passed a group of 5 school kids somewhere between Rogers and Bedford Avenues, probably somewhere between the ages of 7 and 12.

"The Mets are not winning the World Series, bro."

"That is now officially true."

I should have added "...smartass," to the little twerp. All in good fun.

I got to a Staples Print Center, and while waiting on line for a computer, a middle aged man with very heavy bushes of hair in his ears sat on a chair off to the side. I asked him if he was on line, he just pointed at the computer and muttered something. I didn't really understand what he said, but I understood his next words.

"What happened last night, man."

The conversation continued and so on and so forth.

On Church Avenue, next to the old Dutch Church, a man in a Yankee hat of some New Era nature stuck his head out the passenger's side of a moving car.

"What happened, man?"

"Wait Til Next Year!"

And that's all I could think of after the Murph and Clippard debacle from Game 4; the parallels to another young National League team of this region, whose old adage, "Wait Till Next Year" kept their faithful sane and warm through the winter. I hoped it wouldn't be the case the next night, but unfortunately, Game 5 became even more devastating than the 1941 Brooklyn Dodgers parallels I had started drawing up.

You see, the 1941 Brooklyn National League Baseball Club hadn't been to the big show since 1920 and had never won a championship in the World Series era.  After just inching out the Cardinals for the pennant, the young team was poised, at home in Ebbets Field on Bedford Avenue and Sullivan Place in Flatbush, to tie the experienced North Neighbor Yankees 2-2 in the series. Up 4-3 with no one on, 2 out and a 2-strike count to Tommy Hendrich, Hugh Casey unleashed a curveball that was swung on and missed, but ate up catcher Mickey Owen, allowing Hendrich to reach 1st base. The Yankees rallied from there and won 7-4.

Unlike OUR Game 5, the Yankees controlled that one throughout, where the Bombers' Tiny Bonham outpitched Brooklyn's Whit Wyatt and New York (A.L.) won 4 games to 1.

What's even spookier for a series that was played on Halloween was that Ebbets Field, whose facade was mirrored by our Citi, also saw it's home team lose 4 games to 1 in its inaugural World Series in 1916, against the Boston Red Sox, although, oddly, Game 5 was back in Boston back then.

So, after marching around happily mournful yesterday (attempting to let the belief that the Mets are about to get more athletic as the Minaya position players start fading away keep me smilin') Tuesday is a different story. Combined with the fact it's unseasonably 70 today, I left my hat and jacket at home, only dressed in jeans and an orange Knicks shirt. I didn't want to talk about it anymore. I just wanted to write about it.

This season started with me heading down to Washington on a Megabus at 5 in the morning to catch the afternoon game between the Nats and the Mets. It brought me back down to Washington in September for one of the greatest times I've ever had watching this team on the road. It brought me to work at Citi Field for Two Boots from Mid-September all the way through the last game of the year, which turned out to be in November and turned out to be the WORLD SERIES. It may not have turned out the way we wanted to, but I can't say I didn't have fun.

I had the time of my life, but now I've got work to do. I've got an new apartment that I OWN to get together and a life to attend to.

But I'll have the Mets on my mind the entire time.

Wait till Next Year indeed.

KEEP. ON. PUSHIN'.

LET'S. GO. METS.

Once in a Lifetime

A year ago, somewhere out in the webosphere, whether it be Facebook or twitter or to an email chain, I said congratulations to the Giants on winning that Orange and Blue World Series, and said here's to Orange and Blue being only on ONE side of the equation next year.

Though the same blue on the American League side of things is still Royal, the marriage of Orange and Blue is only happening on the National League side in the form of their Metropolitan Baseball Club.

And let's be glad there's no red anywhere to be found.

I just bought a place today. Closed on it and everything. A one-bedroom in East Flatbush. The main reason I was able to do this is because I had a grandpa who worked for Buena Vista Distribution, loved his grandchildren, and got them some Disney stock when they were born. That stuff just opened up some once I turned 30. 

The apartment is a couple blocks from Holy Cross Cemetery, which was another inadvertent move on my part to near a Brooklyn Dodgers landmark, the other couple times in my life just bringing me to near the land of Ebbets Field. This time, however, it's not just a Dodgers connection, but the final resting place of the greatest manager the Mets have ever had, Gil Hodges. I took one more look at the apartment today early before the scheduled closing time, and naturally, knew I had to go see his grave. On a day like today, it only made sense.

My realtor, who is a Mets fan as well, walked over with me to take a look. Having directions from the Brooklyn Trolley Blogger Mike Lecolant ("Go in the main gate on Brooklyn Ave. It's just off to the left....not far from the perimeter gate at all.  Obviously, look for the only headstone with pebbles on top of it") we ventured forward. Right after we walked in, a sanitation worker in a regular car drove through the gate. When he got out of the car, I asked, "Do you know where Gil Hodges' plot is?" "No, I didn't even know he was in here till now. Great jacket, by the way." "Thanks." We headed off and soon found out that it was as easy to find as Mike said; A shiny Orange tombstone with a faded Brooklyn Dodgers hat on top being held down by one of those stones Mike was talking about. It was a bittersweet moment; Gil died much too soon at age 49. 

The sanitation worker came over to take a look, and it turns out his name is Andrew and he's a huge Mets fan, as can be seen by his Instagram. He's friends with Darren Meenan of the 7 Line as well as Keith Blacknick of Mets Police, and he also knows a Mets pin guy, who had recently sold him a few. He offered to give each of us a Mets pin, since he had already purchased them anyway. We graciously accepted, as I yielded a full Mets logo for this Mets logo on a city shield. I had recently read about World Series press pins, and so I felt as if I had just been handed my very own World Series pin. Thanks, Andrew, and as you said, serendipitous indeed.

(I also got a real kick from these Delgado and O'Shea tombstones next to each other.)

I did not leave anything on top of the tombstone, as I later thought I maybe should have done, to pay respects as well as add a little Metsian flare with the Brooklyn hat the only item. I thought later on, I should have left the Mets pin, but in the moment, it didn't feel like the thing to do. Adding an extra Mets badge to my Mets jacket felt right after I had been presented with a gift. I have thought that when I get another chance, I'll go leave a Mets Orange rally towel, and a part of me wishes I already had before game 1. But I've also said my superstition this year is that there are no superstitions. I think the visit alone on the day I closed on my first owned property in Brooklyn on the day the Mets play their first World Series game in the history of my full-on Mets fandom that is also the day 29 years ago they won their 2nd World Series is omen enough. 

I sure hope so, 'cause these last few days have me on such a surreal high that I want it to continue with the Mets truly adding the cherry on top. 

3 is a good number.

Let us make it so.

KEEP. ON. PUSHIN'.

LET'S. GO. METS.

Back to the Present

I have a feeling, if I were to look hard enough, I'd have already found that headline out there about what the Mets have just done to the Cubbies. Not only did I not look hard enough, I didn't look at all. No need. 'Cause that's how I feel. Welcome to the present, baby.

Mandatory Credit: Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports

My favorite part about this is the camaraderie in the city, the landscape covered in a hue of Orange and Blue, and the focus on actual baseball.

Since mid-September, I have been working Two Boots Pizza in center field at Citi. Besides my initial few days coinciding with the worst home stretch of the year for the Mets, I noticed that there was generally a crowd on line throughout the entire game, or at least before the 7th. The Yankees series had the most people, and was basically split down the middle Yankees/Mets fans buying pizza. The Washington series had some folks on Sunday, the 1-0 90th win, since Saturday, the doubleheader, was just a miserable weather day, though there was a rather sizable contingent to witness the 2nd no-hitter thrown against the Mets in the year. Anyway, my point is, from a concessions standpoint, none of us, fans and Citi Field workers alike, knew what to expect when it came to playoff baseball at this place. 'Cause it hadn't existed yet.

And here's how you gauge what's most important in the playoffs.

We open around 5:30 for these 8 o clock starts, and from about 6:30 on, the pizza line doesn't stop flowing. Once the game starts, however, it completely dries up, and I loved it. Once the game started, everyone's focus was on the Mets playing baseball. Occasionally, they'd trickle in for more pizza and beer, but those moments were timed around breaks in the action. Because you can't miss the Mets baseball being played.

We're not talking about payroll, or whether a player is on the coach's badside, or whether they should pick up an option, or a confrontation at a press conference, or Ponzi, or Jason Bay and his contract (though I did watch a highlight reel of Jason as a Met on youtube recently...yes, there were enough moments to put that together...)

We're talking about the Mets playing World Series baseball this October.

4 more to go...

KEEP. ON. PUSHIN'.

LET'S. GO. METS.

Random Mets Highlight of the Day

So, we got ourselves the 4th all-time installment of the Red Sox and Cardinals World Series matchup. It was fitting back in 2004 that Boston, who at the time had lost twice to St. Louis in 7 games (1946 and 1967), had to beat their Fall Classic foes to "reverse the curse" after exorcising their Yankee demons.

Now, though I'm a HUGE Carlos Beltran fan and will always wish him the best (that swing is so sweet...), it will certainly sting to see him win his first World Series with the Redbird on his chest. The series should be a great one, and I expect it to go either 6 or 7 games. Let's Go Red Sox. I can't do my usual thing here and root for the NL team.

Clearly, there is too much Red in our October faces, and not enough Orange and Blue. We crave that feeling in this (finally) chilly Fall air once more, and will have to wait at least a year till those Metsian hues are in our eyesights this late into the season.

I don't care what any of you say, however you find a way to complain about every bit of news or no news that comes across your brains. The bottom line is we love this game, we love this team, and there's no way in the Fall of '68 when the Tigers and Cardinals took each other on in the World Series that people were saying, "Don't worry. We'll finally see the Mets in the series next year."

So, as the old adage goes...Wait 'till Next Year.

For now, though, for the sake of a quick smile and for the sake of maintaining this blog, I present to you the Random Mets Highlight of the Day.

In the stream of consciousness that is me writing this right now, I have yet to pick this Random Met Highlight.....So, let's see what we can find...

Yeah...This'll do.

ORANGE. AND. BLUE.

LET'S. GO. METS.

Thanks for reading! Follow me on Twitter @convertedmetfan. And for the latest on a Brooklyn Baseball TV Series I am developing, Like the Bedford & Sullivan Facebook page, and follow on Twitter here.