I thought as this was my 1st shot at putting my Mets story in print I should start at the very beginning. It’s not the normal story of a little kid from Queens or Brooklyn following in his fathers footsteps by signing up for a life of pain by following the New York Mets, or even a love affair after being brought up in the Bronx in the shadow of Yankee Stadium to then visit Flushing in Queens for a no mark midweek ballgame and becoming seduced by the downright sceptical nature of every Mets fan.
No, my story is a lot less interesting and started with pyjamas.
I’ve pretty strong links with NYC in the fact my mother and father moved there in 1969 from Scotland only to return home just over a year later. Yes, I know it was the year of the Miracle Mets but my folks had no clue about Baseball then or when I started to become obsessive with the Mets. The pyjamas originated from my aunt Frances and uncle Matt who resided in Kearny, New Jersey after emigrating circa 50 years ago from Scotland, and each home visit I’d get a mixture of New York Jets and New York Mets pyjamas, socks etc.
Later in life I took this to be my calling but in truth they meant little to me and if anything the Jets gear took pride of place as it was the same colours as my beloved Celtic Football Club.
This is the thing with Scottish people like my Father and Uncle Matt. Although they can move far away from home the one constant that stays true is their love for Glasgow Celtic Football Club hence they still listen, watch and hope for the Bhoys to win and other sports take a back seat. I’m not going to lie here and say the Mets mean more to me than Celtic but nonetheless the only things that mean more to me than Celtic are my family so the Mets are well up there.
Right, let's get this story back on track. In 1998 my girlfriend (now my wife) and I took a holiday to LA and Vegas for 2 weeks. Whilst in LA I looked up all sporting events and found the Angels were playing a homestand to the Seattle Mariners and the great Ken Griffety Jr was hitting for Seattle. Whilst not being a baseball fanatic at this point I still took a keen interest in all sports hence I knew the big names. We got tickets to this game and off we went to Anaheim to the Angels stadium. Whilst being impressed with the stadium, the fan base was a very plastic type and the big shock I got was everyone all getting into their cars and driving home after the game. A strange fact is that I and Linda headed across from the stadium after the game into a bar which was empty. This is an unheard of experience back in Scotland when attending a Celtic match. The score was 2-1 Angels and there was something that didn't feel right about being there. Whilst being in LA I never dreamed of buying a Dodgers or Angels hat as my allegiances were strictly East Coast and to New York in particular.
Fast forward a few years and after visiting New York on a few occasions for the week of St Patrick's day I started noticing the sight of the Mets caps being wore throughout the city rather than the Yankees hats. Not true that there were no Yankees hats, but back home in Glasgow there are thousands of people who wear Yankees hats and have no clue that they are a baseball team. I think this is replicated in NYC.
Satellite TV had took off big time in Scotland and now Baseball was being shown regularly as when it was previously on Channel 5 I wasn't too interested but now I was, and I needed a team. There was only 1 team to choose and my team was that of my childhood pyjamas and my team of New York City. This was before MLB. TV and to be honest I half followed the Mets through the internet and chatting to likeminded weird Scotsmen, Englishmen and Irishmen (no, it's no joke). The Mets were doing pretty good and having recently lost the WS to them, we were a team that had won the big one twice, won the NL pennant 4 times, the NL East 5 times and were competing with a decent all round package to attract some big name players. I could start googling and naming players but to be honest I wasn't following them religiously and apart from Mike Piazza and John Franco id have struggled to name more players at the time (all that has changed now).
I started reading up seriously on the Mets in the mid 2000's and uncovered this glorious history of NL baseball in New York City from the Dodgers and the Giants and obviously we used the Polo Grounds for our 1st 2 years as the Mets. The romanticism of Out of the Ashes arose the Mets struck a chord and being the underdog worked for me!!
Having visited New York City several times previously, I booked up with my wife for the 1st time and we ensured the Mets were at home to enable us to attend Shea Stadium for the 1st time. My good friend in New York City, Queens born and bred Frankie Fraser who was also a mad Celtic FC fan arranged tickets for us and it was all set. The 7 train from Grand Central, get off at 61st Woodside and Frankie will be waiting on us at the bar in Saints and Sinners. This already sounded like my kinda day out and nothing like the previous LA experience. True to his word the big man was ready with the tickets and after a few pints off we headed to the Mets v's the Dodgers at Shea stadium. What a night even although we lost!! I learned more about baseball sitting with Frankie for 3 hours than I had in the previous 3 years reading books and watching highlights of games. I was well and truly hooked and nothing was getting me prepared for 6 months of no sleep, waking up at 4am and checking phone through fingers, starting to watch a game at midnight and decide just 1 more inning. Yes, the New York Mets have a lot to answer for!!
Fast forward several years and I can safely say I'm a hopeless Mets addict but I have a support group now and I realise I'm not alone. I'm still great friends with Frankie and I've met my other friend from Brooklyn Nicky on a recent trip to New Shea Stadium. I've grew into the Mets more with my mates Joc and Steph O'Connor. My son and Daughter think the Mets are the only baseball team in New York which is pleasing and I've got an unhealthy dislike for the Yankees.
I was speaking to Harper online a few months ago as recently I've been co-hosting his and Joe's Celtic podcast called HomeBhoys with Paul Larkin. I got onto the subject of our common love of the Mets as Harper is also an addict and we spoke about the idea of creating a Mets podcast. Fast forward a few weeks and Nicky and Frankie are on board and Joc and Steph have an open invitation whenever they want. We're due our 4th show tomorrow night and the Amazin Mets are due to kick off our run at the WS at home to the Braves in 30 mins.
MetsBhoys is up and running and we're loving every minute of it.
Jason
Let's Go Mets!!!
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