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AmazinAvenue.com Book Review: Mets By The Numbers

by Eric Simon on Apr 8, 2008 12:15 AM EDT in Reviews

There are probably dozens of new Mets books published every year, and most of them are redeeming to varying degrees. I recently* got my hands on a copy of Mets By The Numbers, the softcover companion piece to the wonderful Mets By The Numbers website and blog.

*This is a lie. It's been sitting on my desk for a couple of months. I regret not writing it up sooner, but one thing or another always seemed to push it off my plate. I apologize to the authors and especially to their publicist Jen, who has made it her life's work to make sure that this write-up gets posted. Thanks, Jen!

Mets By The Numbers (MBTN) is, at its essence, the history of the Mets. Where MBTN differs -- and ultimately sets it apart from other Mets histories -- is its format. As you can probably gather from the title, MBTN is about numbers. Not stats, but uniform numbers, and the stories of the men who wore those numbers. So, rather than telling the story of the Mets chronologically, the book's authors -- Jon Springer and Matthew Silverman -- use ascending numeric delineation to weave their narrative. In other words, one chapter per uniform number.

Given the book's unique structure, it would have been very easy for each chapter to devolve into a tired roll-call, blandly cataloging every player to don a particular uniform. The authors deftly avoided that particular pratfall by interjecting humor with history, and leaving us with a chapter-long capsule for every number ever worn.

The book really shines when its spotlight is on the also-rans. Anyone can make Tom Seaver or Mike Piazza seem interesting, but one of the most enjoyable parts of the book for me was reading and subsequently ruminating on the tales of the less-than-stars. Some examples:

On Luis Lopez (#17):

Luis Lopez (1997-99) filled in for Rey Ordonez at shortstop, out-hit Rey-Rey as a Met (.250 to .245), and punched the Gold Glover on the team bus, which was something everyone wished they'd done when Ordonez later called the Shea fans "stupid". Lopez was part of two shocking developments on September 14, 1997. First, he started the game wearing 17 on "Keith Hernandez Day" when many fans hoped the number might be put in storage to honor Mex (it was the same year Jackie Robinson's 42 was retired at a Shea ceremony). Second, the banjo-hitting Lopez socked a homer for the only run in a 1-0 win that afternoon.

On Pete Harnisch (#27):

Pete Harnisch (1995-97) briefly assumed No. 1 starter duties, but he was no Tom Seaver. He was no Craig Swan (ed note: also #27), even. The Long Island native battled depression and tobacco withdrawal while clashing badly with manager Bobby Valentine.

On Jeff Innis (#40):

Sidearmer Jeff Innis (1987-93) was a beguiler in the Mets' bullpen and [a] good clubhouse interview. He was the first Met whose last name began withI, and while, of course there's no "I" in team, there was plenty of team in Innis, who gamely led the Mets in appearances during the sorry seasons of 1993-93.

Of course, the book has great stories about David Wright, Howard Johnson, Gary Carter et al, so if you want to read about the big boys they're definitely in there.

If you're looking to bone up on your Mets history, want to share the team's stories with a friend or family member, or just want some Mets reading to pass the time when there's nothing new to read here, go pick up Mets By The Numbers. It's ten bucks at Amazon, a steal at twice the price.

http://www.amazinavenue.com/2008/4/8/390708/review-mets-by-the-numbers

New York Times : March 6, 2008

The Mets From A to Z: One Fan’s Perspective

                                                  Matthew Silverman has produced six books about the Mets. He sometimes writes wearing a Bernard Gilkey jersey.

“I spent that day driving to the funeral of an old acquaintance,” he recalled. “On the way there, I was listening to the Mets’ last game of the season on the radio. They lost to the Marlins, 8-1, and were eliminated from the playoffs.”

“As a Mets fan, I was crushed by their late-season collapse,” said Silverman, referring to the Mets’ losing a seven-game lead in the National League East with 17 to play. “I walked into the funeral home and just said, ‘Look, I don’t want to be the bearer of bad news — but it’s over.’ ”

The Mets’ meteoric tumble is No. 30 in Silverman’s new book, “100 Things Mets Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die” (Triumph Books).

“Shea Stadium is one of the last familiar places in my life,” Silverman said. “Someone I don’t know lives in the house I grew up in, and now I have my own family, and I live in a new house, in a new town. But Shea, at least for another season, it’s still there.”

Silverman, who grew up in White Plains rooting for Dave Kingman to hit home runs and Lee Mazzilli to track down long fly balls in center field, has written or edited six books about his favorite team, including “Mets Essential” (Triumph Books) last year and the recent “Mets by the Numbers” (Skyhorse Publishing), which he co-wrote with Jon Springer.

“Being able to write these books from a fan’s perspective is a lot different than writing them from a press box,” said Silverman, 43, who said he sometimes writes while wearing a Bernard Gilkey jersey and Mets slippers. “It’s a view you don’t normally get.”

Silverman, who lives in High Falls, N.Y., with his wife, Debbie, and their two children, Jan, 10, and Tyler, 4, began tuning in to the Mets shortly after they lost the 1973 World Series to the Oakland A’s. He spent a good deal of his summertime youth in the company of his aunt Virginia, now 93, who has always listened to the Mets on radio, and with his father, Syd, now 76, who often took him to Shea Stadium.

“By the time I really became a Mets fan, they were terrible,” said Silverman, who makes the roughly 200-mile round trip about 10 times a year to see the Mets. “I climbed on board just before the franchise derailed.”

But there were memorable stops along the way.

“I remember Kingman hitting a ball off of J. R. Richard of the Astros in July 1976 that hit a bus parked behind the bullpen in left field,” he said. “I also remember a Wednesday afternoon game in July 1979, when Greg Luzinski of the Phillies hit a bullet down the left-field line, just fair, a titanic shot off Doc Ellis that traveled halfway up in the mezzanine.”

“The ball didn’t hit anyone,” Silverman said half-jokingly, “because in those years, there was no one in the ballpark.”

By the time the Mets got back on a championship track, Silverman was a student at Roanoke College in Virginia. In 1986, he shuttled to Shea to watch Games 3, 4 and 5 of the National League Championship Series against the Houston Astros, and the first two World Series games against the Boston Red Sox, which the Mets lost.

“Those were two very forgettable games,” said Silverman, who was back in his dorm room for Game 6, watching as the Mets tied the game in the 10th inning on a wild pitch to Mookie Wilson before Boston first baseman Bill Buckner allowed Wilson’s ground ball to squirt between his legs, enabling the Mets to score the winning run and gain enough momentum to win their second World Series.

“Think about it,” said Silverman, who lists Wilson’s at-bat and Buckner’s blunder as the No. 1 fact Mets fans should know before they die. “We were one Mookie Wilson at-bat from being Jets fans, who have only one championship to their name.”

Silverman — whose book ranks the construction of Citi Field, the Mets’ home beginning in 2009, at No. 100 — is still trying to come to grips with the Mets’ inability to win a championship last season.

After the funeral last October, Silverman said, he returned home tired and depressed, but in time to tuck Tyler into bed.

“He was wearing his Mets pajamas,” Silverman said. “I just told him that he was really lucky that he wouldn’t grow up remembering any of it. All of a sudden, he just looks at me and blurts out, ‘Let’s go, Mets.’

“For me, that kind of put everything into perspective. It reminded me that in baseball, as in real life, you have to learn to deal with the tough times and just move on.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/06/sports/baseball/06cheer.html?ex=1205470800&en=30cab6fc9f6ae0de&ei=5070&emc=eta1

By BILLY HELLER

Mets by the Numbers by Jon Springer and Matthew Silverman (Skyhorse)

Baseball is a game of numbers and as the Mets open their 46th season (tomorrow in Florida), devoted fans can spend the team's off days soaking up the heaps (Danny Heep's number was 25) of information in this happily obsessive, 303-page book subtitled "A Complete Team History of the Amazin' Mets by Uniform Number." One example of trivia Required Reading didn't know: Two players with the same first name wore No. 18 - Darryl Strawberry and Darryl Hamilton.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/03302008/postopinion/postopbooks/required_reading_104119.htm

Chronogram Magazine: June 2008  (Hudson Valley)

 

100 Things Mets Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die
Matthew Silverman
Triumph Books, 2008, $19.95
High Falls author Silverman’s sixth book about the Mets mourns the passing of Shea Stadium and celebrates the home team. It’s all here: great plays, bad trades, baseball wives—even the scrawls on the left-field walls and the Beatles’ legendary 1965 concert (the Fab Four entered from the visitors’ dugout).

http://capital-region.chronogram.com/issue/2008/6/Books/Short-Takes?page=2

New Book Review - March 03, 2008: Faith and Fear in Flushing

Mets by the Numbers: A Complete Team History of the Amazin' Mets by Uniform Number

The Book for Mets Fans Who Like to Count

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