Our team has already managed to get themselves into last place and then into first place and then back to last place within the first month and a half of the season.

And now, mid-May brings two of the Mets starting pitchers missing from the roster.

Guess we should be used to that.

Oliver Perez picked up where he left off last season, walking the ballpark.  And he’s in the second year of an unimaginable $36 million contract.  (Scott Boras is GOOOOD)  Now Ollie has been shipped off to the bullpen rather than going down to Triple A where he SHOULD go.  And Jonathan Niese who thus far has been pretty good has reinjured the hamstring that cut his season short last year

But don’t worry Mets fans.  We will now be treated to the 35 year old knuckleballer named R.A. Dickey as a starting pitcher.

And Japanese pitcher Hisanori Takahashi who has never started a game here in the States but has been an effective arm in the Mets bullpen this year is now also a starting pitcher.

Jose Reyes, who many consider the key to this team, is back on the field as our starting shortstop but has yet to get his bat in gear.

New acquisition and alleged “big bat” Jason Bay can’t get a hit with guys on base.

Right fielder and dreamy guy Jeff Francoeur got off to a blazing start but has since gone cold and was actually benched the other night.

(note: my first Citifield purchase of the 2010 season if you don’t count a beer and a pulled pork sandwich from Blue Smoke was a Francoeur tee shirt).

David Wright is swinging at some pretty awful pitches although at this writing he has 8 homeruns equaling the total number of homeruns he hit for the entire 2009 season.

Some guy named Carlos Beltran is supposed to show up at some point before October to play centerfield.  Can’t wait to meet him.

On the upside, the Mets have two pretty good hitting catchers in Rod Barajas and Henry Blanco.

And 22 year -old rookie first baseman Ike Davis has been a ray of sunshine…he can hit AND he can play first base!

At the end of April the Mets won, I think, 10 out of 11 games on a long home stand that propelled them from worst to first in the NL East.  For a week or two sports reporters applauded the Mets and their remarkable turn around.

But then they went back on the road and started losing again.

Perhaps the Wilpons can arrange to put large photos of Citifield around whatever ballpark the Mets are playing in.  Or paint a view of the field of Ciifield on the inside of the Mets players’ sunglasses.  If they think they’re home maybe they will play like they are.

And now the talk of when manager Jerry (umm, ahhh, umm) Manuel will be fired and/or when general manager Omar Minaya might meet the same fate has heated up again.

I, for one, never wanted to see Bobby Valentine leave but I think the chances of the Wilpons bringing him back are about as slim as there ever being an honest politician.  For one thing, he’s too expensive.

For my May 9 birthday this year, we spent the day at Citifield (when I bought the aforementioned Francoeur shirt) hoping the Mets would sweep their series against the Giants.  They didn’t.  It was sunny but brutally windy at Citifield and we were bundled in multiple layers of clothing.

Our next Citifield adventure happens this Saturday night when we will watch the Mets play the Yankees.  There are two real pitchers pitching: Mike Pelfrey and Phil Hughes.  Maybe we’ll see a good game.

It’s gonna be a long season but I love it.

Hello my name is Pam and I am a Mets fan.

Yup. Yeah I know. Most people in the Nutmeg State say “WTF?” when they find out I’m a Mets fan. Sometimes I think I’d get less of a reaction of bewilderment if I said I was, say, a Padres fan. Or a Nationals fan. But a METS fan? Sometimes people take a step back from me and give me “that look” that says: when you can be a fan of THAT OTHER NEW YORK TEAM WITH ALL THE RINGS AND ALL THE HISTORY or that BOSTON TEAM THAT HANDED IT TO THAT OTHER NEW YORK TEAM IN THE 2004 ALCS you actually are a METS fan?

Yeah, well, I am a Mets fan. Builds character, I say.

I grew up in lower Westchester County, NY where both my Mom and Dad were Yankee fans. My big sister took me to a Mets game sometime in the early 70’s – a doubleheader – and I became a Mets fan. That simple. Tug McGraw was my hero. Ya Gotta Believe. And I did. I still do. Tug told me to.

Listen to any broadcast interview conducted in Connecticut, or read any interview in a local Connecticut publication and the question is posed to the interviewee ala the “boxers or briefs” question:

“Favorite baseball team? Yankees or Red Sox?”

Uh…Mets.

But the Mets are never one of the choices offered when the question is posed.

And then, as a Mets fan, when you encounter another Mets fan it’s this feeling of contentment; this feeling of “yeah, WE know the team to root for” acknowledged with a smile and a nod; perhaps a thumbs up. For a Mets fan knows the specialness of being a Mets fan and of spotting another Mets fan. We are the blue whale, the giant panda, the snow leopard of baseball fans…we are, indeed, like an endangered species as each year of spending our days and nights rooting on our baseball team seems to become increasingly futile.

A true fan wears his or her team gear regardless of how grand or how putrid that fan’s team is. Mets fans know and embrace this. It is a badge of courage; loyalty. Mets fans are loyal through victory or defeat…or defeat…or defeat. You’ll never catch a Mets fan with cobwebs on his or her Mets cap because it is worn each and every day. If the Mets closer blows a save – or 10 – it’s another blown save, not the end of an All-Star closer’s career because, well, his career must be over because it’s his second blown save of the season and it’s September.

When the Mets win a game it’s pure joy. When the Mets win a series it’s euphoric. When the Mets make the playoffs it’s, well, RARE, but it’s over-the-moon terrific. When the Mets win the pennant it’s grab-your-toes-and-scream-out-the-window fantastic. When the Mets win the NLCS to go to the World Series (I was at Shea to see it happen in October of 2000) it’s around-the-world crazy happiness. And when the Mets win the World Series it’s … well there are no words.

I was at Game 6 of the 1986 World Series. Yes, the Bill Buckner game.

And I was at Game 3 of the 2000 “Subway Series”…the game was at Shea and it was the only game of the 2000 World Series that the Mets won.

Sure it would be swell to have the Mets win more, get into the playoffs every year and of course to the World Series. But Met fans know it is not our birth right. We are more accustomed to our team NOT getting there than getting there.

But if and WHEN they DO get there, it is so much sweeter. It’s a feeling that only a Mets fan can know and appreciate.

Maybe next year.

]]> http://pamlandry.com/2009/09/30/on-being-a-mets-fan-in-a-yankeered-sox-nation/feed/ 11