DH agrees with you, NoVADad99. He thinks teams baby pitchers too much, but this is what those pitchers have become conditioned to since they were younger.
And so far I have you all beat. I’ve been a Mets fan since 1966, my first game at Shea.
And now it’s on to Wrigley. I’m glad the bullpen came through last night.
My first Met game was in 1964 I was 7. We went all the time in the early years when they were unbelievably hopeless. I remember my first Met game like it was yesterday. It was tied after the 9th. Since my sister and I were both young after a few more scoreless innings my dad said it was time to leave. I refused to go. We stayed. Game went 23 innings and the Mets lost.
It was the second of a double header. Mets lost both games.
I once asked my dad why we only went to Met games when I was a child when they were so incredibly bad. He said because it was the thing to do.
^^Sorry. You still get to stand on the medal podium, but with the Silver. I was at the Polo Grounds, 1962.
I’m impressed with you all. My first game wasn’t until 77. I am in awe of your Mets-ness!
Also, wow–so thrilled to see Thor outpitch Arrieta. He gets better every time he goes out there!
“I’m impressed with you all. My first game wasn’t until 77. I am in awe of your Mets-ness!”
I was watching the Yankees win the World Series that year. 
My cousins H pitched for the Yankees in late '70’s/early 80’s (Ron Davis) until he pissed George off by asking for more money and was shipped off to Minnesota - the death knell for a fast ball pitcher. His son Ike played for the Mets for a few season a couple of years ago.
“Ike’s mom conceded that there’s quite a few Yankee fans in the family, no doubt from Ron’s days as a fine setup man to Goose Gossage … not to mention the family’s geographic roots in New Haven. But she reminds them that blood is thicker than fan allegiance and they better be rooting hard for Ike and the Mets as well.”
None of us switched allegiance but we (the cousins) did go to one game his first season.
I always liked Ike! So cool that you’re related!
When Ron was with the Yankees a whole bunch of us cousins were living in NYC and she invited us a lot to sit in the players wives section ( right behind home plate.) She knew nothing about baseball and is not the brightest bulb in the package, so was constantly asking us if something was good or bad - like when he struck out a pitcher.
I guess I get the bronze then (1966). My elementary school took 6th graders who volunteered with the younger grades to an afternoon game. I didn’t understand much about baseball at that time. All I knew was that the Mets were winning by a few runs in the 5th inning, but ultimately lost the game. Typical Mets for 1966. I made my father, also a Mets fan, explain the game to me after I got home. I’ve been watching ever since.
I think DH was at the 23 inning Mets game, but his father made them leave early. They went to a Mets game because they lived on LI so it was easier to get to , but they were all Yankees fans.
I lived in the Bronx during the Yankees’ championship years of the late 70s, but stuck with the Mets.
DH was a Bronx boy who lived two blocks from Yankees Stadium in the 60s and cheered for the Mets. Always the contrarian.
My only trips to Shea Stadium were in 1974 and 1975 when the Yankees played there while the original Yankee Stadium was being renovated. (I can’t remember ever seeing the Mets play in person.) I didn’t like it much, and greatly preferred Yankee Stadium, where I first went to a game in 1967, with my father, and was fortunate enough to see Mickey Mantle hit a home run down the right field line.
I always liked Ron Davis, and remember the game in which he struck out 8 or 9 batters in a row, which I think might still be the Yankees team record.
^ it was lousy for football, too.
The worst park for baseball I was ever at was the old Blue Jays stadium, It was also used for their football team.
Shea was, to say the least, a pretty crappy stadium, it was rushed in its building, and like many projects that Robert Moses had a hand in, there was a lot of corruption, favored contractors, you name it…but it was the home of the Mets for many years, and I started going to games there in the early 70’s. I might get honorable mention because I was at Citifield when Santana threw the Mets only no hitter, got tickets on a whim behind home plate for myself and my son the day before, and the rest is history (and Shea was no bargain for baseball, but for football, well, it was downright horrible, between the swirling winds because the stadium was open, and the shape the field was in, it made playing there a challenge, and sitting through a game in November, the only game I ever went to there, was as cold and bitter a feel as I have sat through).
I live in Chicago and have been a Cubs fan for all my 51 years. I flew to NYC to go to the games this weekend. I had REALLY good seats in the first few rows behind home plate. I hope the Cubs take it because I have never seen a ruder and more annoying bunch of fans than I saw at those two games. Maybe people in NYC in general are just rude, but get a life people. I also attended game 2 in St. Louis last weekend, and even though Cubs/Cards is one of the biggest rivalries in baseball, the fans in St. Louis were courteous.
If this isn’t the Cubs year, I’m ready to become a Royals fan so I can root against the Mets fans getting a World Series!
@musicprnt, I was at a Jets game once in December and sat way up. I had never been so cold in my life. Even the alcohol didn’t help me forget.
Yes, NY fans are rude. You should see what it’s like at Yankee/Red Sox games.
@kmmord:
You haven’t seen anything, you should check out Dodgers fans, they seem to specialize in seriously hurting and maiming the fans of other teams. and if you want to see the worse of the worse, go to a game in Philadelphia, either baseball or football, having been to both a Phillies game and an Eagles game, it is a toss up which are the worst fans, they are legendary (apparently, it was true back in the old days, too, in one of Damon Runyon’s short stories he writes about the NY Giants beating the Phillies, then walking to the train station and being verbally and physically assaulted by Phillies fans, to quote the immortal wording of Runyon “They are saying things that you scarcely believe would be known by people residing in those parts” lol).
Yep, that is where I sat, upper deck…not great sightlines, and it was miserable (worse, I was too young to drink lol).
NoVa regarding your post #39 about pitch counts. In 1969 Seaver and Koosman had 11 complete games between them.
In the month of September.
@tom1944:
It is amazing how much the game has changed, the number of complete games these days across the league would be the total for one staff back in the old days, I think Denny McClain had something like 28 or 29 complete games one year. Likewise, you read about Nolan Ryan going 140,150 pitches routinely. They made a point last night, that normally relief pitchers throw harder than starters, yet with the Mets for example their starters are often throwing as hard or harder than the relievers,which is very different than the norm back then.
I am not sure that I totally like the modern game, while I do think it is a lot better to try and protect pitchers, not burn them out (read sometime about Dan Warthen, the NY Mets pitching coach, and what that a-hole Mauch did to his pitchers, including Warthen), but I kind of agree with Nolan Ryan, that this whole righty-lefty crap that LaRussa used was idiotic, for example, and that pitchers not being able to go deep into the game hurts teams (for one thing, requires carrying a lot of pitchers, which reduces the number of hitters available).