Made it back safe and sound from the sixth Queens Baseball Conference, beating the heavy snow hitting near me up north, but getting a nice parking ticket in Astoria. It was a small price to pay for sharing Shea Stadium Remembered with the best fans in baseball, and sharing a table with Mets in 10s author Brian Wilson and his dad. Got to meet fans new and old of my work, including Janie, Michelle, Will, Oscar, and a host of others.

Having our own spot—in a great location—made for a great place to meet up with old friends and acquaintances like Greg Prince, Jesse James Burke, Pete McCarthy, Darren Meehan, Mark Healey, and more. I did see a few recognizable faces that paused ever so briefly in front of our area, even if we didn’t get to say hi, we were giving back the good vibes of how much we appreciated Edgardo Alfonzo, Ed Kranepool, Darryl Strawberry, and Todd Zeile—if you want to go alphabetically. And let’s hear it for David Wright, who did a short video with Steve Gelbs to say what an honor it was to receive the Gil Hodges Award. Class Act all the way, just like the QBC—thanks again Keith Blacknick, Dan Twohig and the QBC staff. Can’t wait for next year.

If you are going to the Queens Baseball Convention on Saturday, January 19, congratulations! That was one hard ticket to get. It sold out before Christmas and I struck out a couple of different ways to get in. But author Brian Wright of Mets in 10s generously offered to share his vendor space with me and we will be there Saturday selling copies of our books.

Shea Stadium Remembered is officially released this week. It’s been a decade since Shea was dismantled and demolished, but I went picking through the rubble of history to unearth what Mets fans want to remember from the old place—and what they can’t forget. Like Shea itself—it may not have always been pretty, but the memories of the players, the people, and the days we’ll never get back made this project a lot of fun. Hope you agree. Stop on by and Shea Hey on Saturday at Katch Astoria at 31-19 Newtown Avenue.

Brian and I are even working on a special deal so people can buy one of each of our books at the event for a nice price. If you got shut out from going to the QBC, Brian and Wright will be collaborating again at the New York Public Library for a signing on March 18.

It has been a couple of years, but I have a new book coming out. The publication date for Shea Stadium Remembered is January 15, 2019, though it’s available before the pub date if you order it online or through your book store. Or you can drop me a line and I will arrange a signed copy for you.

What’s the book about? Shea Stadium. Lyons Press, which has published my last three books, asked for me to take on the subject. I jumped at the chance to tell the story of the place I spent way more than 1,000 hours and sat in every seating area from the Press Box to the Picnic Area. The only team that called Shea home that I did not see play was the Giants, one of four teams to host games at Shea in 1975. I saw the Yankees, Jets, and—yes—the Mets all win home games there. I missed Shea’s two landmark Beatles concerts—and was grounded instead of seeing the Who in ’82—but I did see The Police and was in the crowd for the “last play at Shea” with Billy Joel in 2008. I attended the ’86 World Series, the Subway Series, saw Lenny Dykstra’s remarkable blast in the ’86 NLCS, Todd Pratt’s home run and Bobby Jones’s one-hit masterpiece that clinched Division Series a year apart, and I saw the Mets clinch the 2000 pennant as Shea swayed.

I saw too many blown leads than I care to count and I saw Shea go down in defeat on its final day. But I walked out with my head high after the postgame tribute, which outdid any other ceremony the place ever saw—though I was at home, oblivious, doing my elementary school homework on Willie Mays Night in 1973, so maybe that was a better night. At least they won that night—and almost ran off with ’73 world championship. But that’s a story for another book.

I don’t bring that up to brag, but to lay down my bonafides. I have written numerous books on sports and the Mets, but Shea Stadium is where I came to know sports, the camaraderie among people sharing the same (misguided) passion, and I feel fortunate to be able to pass on the history of the place for people who may not have known it as well—or at all. And while I may denigrate the place now and again—it wouldn’t be accurate if I did not—I feel Shea was my home as much as it was Swoboda’s or Seaver’s or Koosman’s or Kingman’s or Mazzilli’s or Stearns’s or Strawberry’s or Doc’s or Keith’s or Carter’s or Bobby O.’s or Bobby V.’s or Leiter’s or Piazza’s or Reyes’s or Wright’s. It belonged to us all. And Shea may be a decade gone, but the stories live on. They shine again for a second every time someone poses in front of the original Home Run Apple or strolls across the Shea Bridge. Welcome back home.

We have been doing some upgrading of the site. Get ready for a relaunch at the end of February. Well, maybe relaunch is too big of a word. But it will look different. If this is loaded properly by me (and based on this post being several days old upon publication, this is not my first try), this is kind of a spring training reveal. Whaddya think?

One thing that was the same was the always awesome Queens Baseball Convention. The Mets even sent a couple of people from marketing and promotion to talk to the people and they handled some pointed questeions well and honestly. Todd Hundley was back in New York and Chris Flexen, whom I missed. And the panels on the State of the Mets and the Uniforms were their usual brilliant selves. But the star of the day was Brandon Nimmo.

I have been rotting for him since he came up. I admit I was skeptical that they spent a first-round pick on a guy from a state without high school baseball. But he can play and play the right way. And his attitude is even better than this batting eye. And I was one of the few people who have been to Wyoming. I lived in Colorado for a little while and I’ve been to Wyoming like six times. I’ve been to Frontier Days twice. And I like neither rodeo nor country music. So Nimmo and I have that Wyoming crush in common. We both like the Mets, too.

I have to thank Keith Blacknick for giving me the OK to come the morning of the event when I realized very late that Katch Astoria was sold out. Also thanks to up and coming Mets author Brian Wright; Jesse James Burke, barrister and memorabilia man who treats me like a king, and Marty Gover, Ed Kranepool’s agent, who met me there—and who is still has a lot of Kranepoolian memorabilia available through the end of January for those who are interested in meeting the Krane at his home. Contact Momentum Sports if you are interested (212-918-4545).

I hope to have even more of a presence at the next QBC. But right now I am working on a book on our favorite ballpark. More on that later.

In almost 10 years running metsilverman.com, I have been loathe to put any commercial, outside, or autographed products on this site. But I never got a call like I got this week. Martin Gover, who represents many former ballplayers in their life after the game, reached out to me about a Met having health problems. And not just any Met, but the longest tenured Met ever: Ed Kranepool. (more…)

It was quite an interesting fall in baseball. The Astros won their first World Series. They became the first team who switched between the National and American Leagues to become a world champion. They are also the first Texas world champion. They beat the Yankees to get there. And, if you want to get technical, the new world champion is my employer. (more…)

I made the mistake of going to a Mets game on a Sunday. I knew the Mets did not play well on Sunday, and were 0-4 in trying to complete home sweeps—all on Sunday. But how was I to know that when I bought seats online directly from a season ticket holder in the last row of the first section at Citi Field behind home plate. My whole family attended a game for the first time since the 2013 All-Star, when our standing room tickets transformed into great seats when the people in front of us left early.

This one got a late start, thanks to a downpour, but the seats had four different clubs to seek refuge in. With two picky eaters gone teenagers, I was not about to waste the $33 all-you can eat ballpark food at the Porsche Club, so we gambled on the Foxwoods Club and waited out the rain until we could order Shake Shack from the waiter service. But I am not there for the food. It’s better than anything I ever ate at Shea, but I wonder what’s the surcharge to order a second helping of the ’86 Mets, please.

Both WOR radio and the New York Times did a fine job of chronicling the Mets’ woes on Sunday. The Mets had been 4-0 in games I attended this year this year (all on Friday or Saturday nights), and somehow got great pitching performances each time. I did not get a bad effort from Rafael Montero against Oakland, either. But the Mets lived up to the Sunday billing.

They have actually won twice at home on Sunday (once in April and once in June). Yet they lost this one to Oakland, the closest loss they’d had on a home Sunday all year—the other seven losses had been by an average score of 9-2. This was 3-2, sounding a lot more like the 1973 World Series against the A’s than a pedestrian interleague game against a foe whose players’ names were almost entirely unfamiliar to me except for Yoenis Cespedes, who wants to go back there for his final year. I hope the final year of Yo’s career won’t come for a while and if I could go back in time and spend one more year in the house where I grew up, I’d probably wish for it aloud, too.

On Sunday Yoenis gave everyone a jolt—if not a McDonald’s-sponsored compression sleeve with his #52 on it—when he skied a high fly to center with a man on in the ninth. The crowd behind me oohed and ahed, but I had a perfect view up the middle of umpire, catcher, pitcher, and center fielder. Jaycob Brugman (I so had to look up the A’s CF) never moved and the Mets never quite got off the Sunday schnide.

And if the Mets had gotten three wins in Flushing in 1973, there would have never been that ill-fated flight to Oakland or the George Stone what-if, or facing Catfish Hunter, or Ken Holtzman, or Reggie Jackson stomping on home plate, and the A’s celebrating all around the Oakland Coliseum, which is now the fifth-oldest ballpark in baseball, if not the least attractive. The Mets lost their last game at the Oakland Coliseum in 1973—on a Sunday, no less.

The question isn’t Why Did Mr. Met Flip Someone Off

The question is, What Took Him So Long!?!

Mr. Met had a little trouble this week. In case you don’t think the Mets are overly-scrutinized, Mr. M got in trouble for giving the middle finger, which is hard to do when you have four fingers. Three-Finger Mordecai Brown had four fingers (he lost one finger and another was badly bent) and his natural curve was one of the reasons the Cubs repeated as world champion 109 years ago. Jerry Garcia had four fingers and he was a great guitarist. Mr. Met has four fingers, never says nothin’ to nobody, and… well you know things are with the Mets.

Being a Mets fan is the equivalent of the maxim, “May you live in interesting times.” The Mets are an interesting team. Whether they are good or not depends what year you are asking.

The Mets have been good for less than half the years of their existence (25 for 55). And by good, I mean .500 or better. The Mets aren’t one of those teams where if they don’t win the World Series, it’s abject failure. It only feels that way minutes after the excruciating final World Series loss. (See 1973, 2000, 2015.)

The team is interesting because they are like someone who cannot throw a straight ball. It is always darting this way or that. And sometimes the Mets have pitchers who can do that very well. That makes things really interesting. And then they have pitchers do that and it is constantly called a ball. It feels like every pitcher on the team is having that problem in 2017.

But the beauty of baseball is that it is every day. It is looking good today, terrible tomorrow, and OK the day after. They play enough games to keep things lively. It’s up to them to add the interesting. And it is up to you.

I try to treat the team like a long-term investor, who knows they will never sell the stock while enduring the ups and down of marketplace volatility. One day it was low, like Friday night, when a five-run inning was immediately followed by a seven-run inning by the opponent—and that was that. The next night, which I saw in person, was a clean game with Robert Gsellman—he of the funny hair and funny name—pitched as well as I’ve seen him pitch this year. The bullpen actually pitched out of trouble. Addison Reed got the first two-inning save of his career, which I thought was “That ’70s Move” by Terry Collins, but it worked this time. Of course back in the 1970s, the “stopper” could pitch two or three innings in relief and then not be needed the next couple of days because one of the starters would pitch a complete game. The Mets have seven complete games in the four years since efficient and effusive knuckleballer R.A. Dickey was sent to Toronto. (Not to say in any way that was a bad trade. It was one of Sandy’s finest moments.)

And there I go, off on a tangent. Just like the 2017 Mets, it seems to make sense for a moment, and then it’s all over the place. Like a dream. And by dream I mean herky-jerky, hazy, and not quite there. Because this is no dream season. More like one of the 30 seasons that have not even come close to being a winner. I hope it is not a year that is remembered solely for Mr. Met going all Richie Hebner on the fans.

In the days before the new season begins is as good a time as any to reflect back on summers at the ballpark. Looking back on the 2016 season I did not get to that many games at Citi Field, but I did see some epic moments, even if they were more epic for the other team. I did not see the season kick off in New York, but I was there when it ended. I heard the “thunk” of the ball landing on the met bullpen roof from my perch from the 7-Line seats. I sat there twice in 2016 after never getting out there before. I also made my Citi party deck debut in 2016. Not featured on my Citi roll call was my visit to Marlins Parks, where I saw the game Jose Fernandez was supposed to pitch, but tragically did not.

My record may not be so great this year, but I really enjoyed every game. Living 100+ minutes away makes you appreciate the journey as well as the game. And as things turned out I went to the same series once and back-to-back games another time. So it came in bunches. Like runs sometimes do. But not wins. I only saw the Mets win once in 2016, but it was against the Nats, who beat them like a drum. If you look at their home record overall, the Mets enter 2017 at exactly .500 at home since Citi Field opened. A nice recovery for a team that couldn’t win at home for several years and couldn’t beat anybody at all for several more. I am still under .500, but that’s just me.

Here is the log of my games at Citi Field, which I do annually so I never have to say I think I’ve been to so and so many games at the park. This also does not include the 30+ games I worked at “The Joe” in Troy for the Tri-City Valley Cats. My major league scorecard may be shrinking, but I am still seeing plenty of baseball. And talking about it now and again (thanks to Media Goon and Greg Prince for providing video of the panel discussion I was in on Tom Seaver at QBC ’17.). Thank you very much.

Captain’s Log 2016 Citi Field

Tremendous time at the third Queens Baseball Conference at Katch Astoria. I am 3-for-3 in QBC and had plans to go to the one snowed out last year. This was the first time I was on a panel, thanks to Greg Prince. Bill Ryczek, Greg, and I were the anchorman panel to close out the event, commemorating the 50th anniversary of Tom Seaver’s debut season of 1967. I got a little worried when I saw that Greg and Bill had written remarks, but luckily I brought along a Seaver Danbury Mint statue (making its outside my laundry room debut) plus a copy of the latest edition of 100 Things Mets Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die, which has numerous Tom Seaver chapters to choose from. Greg assigned me the saddest Seaver day: June 15, 1977. I read chapter 13: “The Seaver Deal.” One person said he got misty during it.

Well, that made my day. So did getting a gift of a 1976 bicentennial patch from Mets memorabilia man Jessie Burke, winning a signed Ron Hunt ball in a silent auction from Scott Green’s Play at the Plate booth, jawing with old pal and uniform creator/historian Todd Radom, and meeting former MLB PR man Jeff Heckleman plus Mets pregame host Pete McCarthy. And of course old friends Sharon and Kevin Chapman, Arnold Dorman, Mets by the Numbers founder, author, and pal Jon Springer, Uni Watch’s Paul Lukas, Game of My Life New York Mets author Michael Garry, Mr. Met, and the organizers of the event, including Shannon Shark and Dan Twohig, who also aided in a couple of books of mine that came out last year. And there are other names I am too tired to drop. It was just a fantastic time. It always gets me geared up for the baseball season and to get back to work writing about baseball. I am still in the midst of a hiatus I have to take every few years to keep sane. There really is nothing like the Mets community—because anyone else would have given up on the whole thing long ago. But fans do not give up easy. Or forget. God bless ya!