Author Commentary:
This is the one that started off “The Year(s) of Living Metiously.” When Triumph
Books asked me to write a history of the Mets, I tried to think about how to
attack it from a different perspective than the many other books on the subject.
I decided to write from a fan’s view and filter it into 224 pages for Mets
Essential: Everything You Need to Know to Be a Real Fan, covering what fans have
experienced through the turbulent ups and downs of the franchise since its
founding, an event that occurred only because New York lost two teams. It
includes trivia, and sections with facts and figures in all 30 chapters. It has
an All-Time Roster, and something about every year of Mets existence, plus the
prehistory, through 2006. Photos include Branch Rickey in a great hat, Casey,
Koosman, Tom Terrific, The Shoe Polish Incident, Tug, Kong, Keith, Carter, Messy
Jesse, HoJo, Mikey P., Pedro, Endy’s Catch, and even such low lights as the Pat
Zachry era, Bobby Boo, and Roidger Clemens. A great primer on the Mets with a
lot of unkown facts sprinkled in. Ralph Kiner, a humble and wonderful person,
wrote the foreword.