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.

Related posts:

1. Same Old Mets But They’re My Mets
2. It’s That Time Of Year, So Boston, Got Anything Left For Us?
3. The Connecticut Defenders