Why I <3 Mets Baseball.

Well, at least the sidebar sentiments are known, if truncated. Philly sucks. And my Metsies are starting to rebound a little, taking a series away from Atlanta. The Phils lost to the Pirates today... Thereby, the two are currently tied for second, one game back from Florida (which is really kind of sad), with the Mets having the slightly better winning percentage.

I have never really taken out a moment to discuss my undying love for our nation's pastime, as it is reflected in Flushing, Queens. Therefore, I am going to present this as if it were a personal essay, with fairly accurate informations.

I think a lot of it comes from growing up in downstate New York. People there have baseball roots that leach deep into their family's genetics, due to the city's history, and there are, as well, the obvious geographic ties to the teams. If you were from the Bronx, it was obvious that you were a Yankee fan - Westchester, too (but that's likely because both are really into spending a lot of money to get things they think they want which turn out to be disappointments). If you were from Queens or Long Island, you were a Mets fan - and there were also the disenfranchised Dodgers fans.

Therein comes my grandpa, Gerry. Gerry grew up in Brooklyn from a more American, less Jewish household, and was, of course, a Dodgers fan, albeit not rabidly so. He never liked the Yankees - the seats at their games were too expensive. He waited it out.

In 1962, the year the Mets came into existence, my father was 10 and living on Long Island's south shore. It was around then that he went to see the Mets play at the old Polo Grounds (which I think is awesome). In 1964, the Worlds' Fair came to Queens along with Shea, and my dad could more easily go to games, and thus he did, although, again, he was not rabid. But he was defiantly not-a-Yankee fan.

In 1984, I was born, and my parents were (and still are) living in Westchester county, a Yankee fan hotbed. The Yankees, alas, were suffering from '80s sickness, and some folks defected around this time, just in time for 1986, when the Mets made it to the series.

At some point, they defected back. Some time, oh, around 1996, when Steinbrenner opened his enormous wallet and took a gigantic money crap on the team. Suddenly, the Yankees were the Team To Beat - it is at precisely this moment that the Rat-Bastard Yankee Fan came into existence.

The RBYF* is not to be confused with the old school fans who have been around since the lean years, who carry the old RC Cola bags and can have friendly discussions with you without screaming "fuck the Mets" at you. Rather, the RBYF* provided just the spark the Mets needed, fan-wise. It became an attempt to prove "I will NEVER root along with a bunch of screaming, red-hat wearing shitheads who don't know crap about baseball."

Something amazing I have discovered about Mets fans is that they're incredibly knowledgeable about the sport, and most of them stuck with the Mets through some really terrible years of "baseball". A couple years ago, we got some of our own Bandwagoneers, but they quietly disappeared after the, um, incident last year.

I am proud to be among this legion of fans.

So to all you folks out there who cheer for teams that others laugh at, I salute you.

...

Unless you like the Cubbies.