Your Mets Gift of the Year: Can You Spell QBC?

Just came from the mall where I bought… a bunch of crap. It’s nice that the Newburgh Mall has a branch of the library there, with lots of people sitting and reading. For shopping it would have been nice to have an actual bookstore to browse through titles in hardcover, softcover, and CD, but you still might order your favorite Mets book online if you don’t mind getting it after Christmas. But if you are reading this, I am assuming you already have One-Year Dynasty covered. Thanks so much.

Anywho, going to the mall is a pain. An hour and 15 minutes spent there feels like 15 hours and 1 minute to me. I can think of someplace where standing for 75 minutes waiting in line feels mighty fine: The Queens Baseball Convention. I’d gladly wait that long for two former Mets infielders and third base coaches in Bobby Valentine and Tim Teufel.

And the Queens Baseball Convention will have me, too. I have been asked by Mets author and blogger extraordinaire Greg Prince to take part in a panel on Tom Seaver, who became a Met 50 years ago. Whoa! I get a lot of anniversary numbers thrown at me, but that one made my knees buckle a bit. I’ll hopefully have recovered enough by Saturday, January 28, at Katch Astoria, 31-19 Newtown Avenue in Queens. This is inside information since I’m not listed on the QBC web site. So keep it under your (blue) Mets hat.

And what does this have to do with holiday shopping? Well, since we all waited too long to order our stuff online, my recommendation for your Mets Christmas gift of 2016 is to buy a ticket to QBC, print it out, and put it under your favorite Mets fan’s tree. I attended the first two QBCs put together by Mets Police and many other dedicated volunteers. I was monumentally bummed out that last year’s QBC was snowed out—the one storm all year! Bobby V. and Timmy T. won’t let that happen again.