Every year at this time (or later) I toss out an idea for those looking to give the gift of Mets at holiday time. Often, the suggestion is books, because I know of no better way to say a lot about Mets for $20 or so and learn something at the same time. There are an absolute ton of Mets books due out next year, including three from your faithful servant (one new, and an update or two crammed with new material).
You could say the gifts have already been given for 2015. Mortgaging a small bit of future for a push to the postseason. The Washington Nationals not firing Matt Williams when he lost the team and lost tons of games with questionable moves. Knocking off the Dodgers in a tense NLDS. Sweeping the Cubs in the NLCS after Chicago swept the season series from the Mets. The thrill, never mind the outcome, of returning to the World Series for the first time in 15 years. You could even say that Michael Cuddyer retiring and freeing up a bunch of money for a cash strapped club is a gift under the tree. (Mike, you may not have been my favorite player, but that is a classy way to go out with your dignity in tow.)
But we are looking at something simple and even for under the tree. Getting your butt to Citi Field, or getting someone there who hasn’t gone in a few years due to some grand point. Here is the news: Your experiment has failed. The ship is leaving without you. And you are not hurting the Wilpons, you’re hurting yourself. Or your loved ones. The Wilpons will endure. So must you. We are not talking about season tickets, we are talking about a game or two. Get you back in flow, Joe.
I address all the reasons some may be reticent with a never-before-published segment to the new edition to 100 Things Mets Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die. This did not appear in the 2008 or 2010 versions of the book. It didn’t have to. It needs saying now.
Have the Mettiest of holidays.
Go to a Mets Home Game
The first two incarnations of this book did not include this recommendation because it seemed too obvious, but following the team’s financial miasma that took over the Mets conversation for much of the 2010s, it is worth advising now: See the Mets in person at Citi Field. If you don’t live near New York, see number 82 (Attend a Mets Road Game).
Many, many Mets fans have proclaimed that they will not attend another Mets game until the Wilpons sell the team. As of 2015, with a newly minted National League pennant and the floor of the Wrigley Field visiting locker room still sticky from the champagne from the giant bottle of bubbly Jeff Wilpon was last seen hoisting following the sweep of the Cubs, it doesn’t look like ownership is changing soon. So how many more pennants do you plan to miss? They don’t come around in Flushing too often, no matter who owns the team.
First, for those planning to raise a new generation of Mets fans, the best way for it to stick is to bring young kiddies and (if it applies) bring your wife, as the song goes. You can watch all the baseball you want on TV or buy tons of merchandise (and doesn’t that wind up in ownership’s pockets?), but it is much more likely to take hold in an environment with thousands of others with the same predisposition. If you want to raise Yankees fans, or worse, people who don’t care about baseball at all, the best way to do that is to not take them out to the ballgame. It can go a little far in the other direction, like the kids under 10 seen by the hundreds after midnight of a 13-4 lead in the eighth inning of Game 3 of the Division Series, but the Mets have been known to go long periods between sips of playoff bubbly.
Watching on TV is cheaper, but it’s not anywhere close to the shared experience of the ballpark. And here are a few hints on how to do so without costing an arm or a leg or bringing excess treasure to owners you don’t like. Here’s a five-step plan.
- Buy from Stub Hub or similar secondary market sources—including people you know who have extra tickets. Stub Hub is partner with almost all major league teams, including the Mets, and there is a processing fee, but it is a great way to get tickets at a reduced price (like the $6 Promenade seats overlooking the infield purchased at the last minute for the final regular season game of 2015) or an incredibly inflated price (like the sum I cannot disclose for 2015 World Series standing room tickets, should the Mrs. reads this).
- Take public transportation. This will keep you from paying $22 and up for parking at the ballpark, unless you are willing to get there early, park free on the street, and then walk a bit.
- Bring your own food. The Mets are pretty good about letting people bring in food, so long as it is not in a cooler. As for drinks, the team website says, “Guests may bring in one, soft, plastic, factory-sealed water bottles of 20 ounces or less. Guests may also bring in one sealed, soft-sided child’s juice box. Note: Water bottles and juice boxes may not be frozen.” (Also be careful of metal containers, including aerosol sun screen, bring a plastic bottle instead.)
- Give blood. New York Blood Center in recent years has given free Mets tickets to people giving blood during certain times of the year. Likewise, people donating to the team’s December coat drive and summer food drive (10 items or more) at the stadium receive free seat vouchers for future games at Citi.
- Don’t confuse laziness or cheapness with some high moral stand.
To quote Auntie Mame, “Life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death.” And have you tried the Pat LaFrieda steak sandwich at Citi Field?
Bonus Paragraph Not Available in Book (or sold in stores, to use holiday speak)
If I may digress, I came from a household where baseball was not big, but I suddenly got into the game and the Mets at age 10 in 1975. That year both the Mets and Yankees played at Shea Stadium, and I first saw the Yankees play at Shea against the Indians on Oldtimers Day, with all the pomp and circumstance moved from the Bronx to Flushing. And I pulled for Cleveland the whole way. A few weeks later my father took me to the same place to see the Mets, and that beat-up old stadium was the only structure I loved as much as the house where I grew up. As bad as the Mets were in the years that followed, I cherished going to those games with my dad—mostly losses—almost as much as the postseason games I was later privileged to attend with my friends. I can’t be the only one who feels this way. Take your kid to the ballgame. Or take yourself, for your own good. You’re guaranteed to have the time of your life. (Disclaimer: Guarantee not valid in Flushing.)