 The Polar Bear Delivers In the first chilly, soggy weeks of the 1962 baseball season, a rickety franchise was being born. I was in the Polo Grounds one dank night when the Mets and Cubs were going back and forth. In the stands near the press box, a new Mets fan was heard to say: “I hate to go…but I hate to stay.”
This duality remains, six decades later. Ya Gotta Believe. Ya Never Know. The Mets staged another epic game Thursday night when their slumping slugger Pete Alonso came up in the ninth inning for what may have been his last at-bat for the Mets. Alonso's contract is up, and he has been slumping all season – lunging at sliders veering away from his rigid power swing. Hard to see. All his good works – the charity appearances, the goofy commercials he does so well, his earnest upgrading of defense at first base, and the home runs, since he came up – were in his favor, but he had not hit a home run in his most recent 49 at-bats. You hate to go. You hate to stay. Now that I am retired, I am free to root for the Mets, except that my decades of covering baseball (remember when the NYT covered baseball?) has turned me into a grizzled professional who never rooted for “us.” I’ve been following baseball since the 1946 season. (Enos Slaughter’s mad dash home.) I’ve seen so many epic games – Kirk Gibson! Mookie Wilson! Bucky Dent! Swoboda’s sliding catch! – that I have been conditioned to watch without fan histrionics, not thinking my agony will change anything. I’m a reporter. But, deep into retirement, I have been exposed to the superstitions of ball players who do not go near a teammate working on a no-hitter, who meander around the dugout just to change luck. On Thursday night, I was watching – more fatalistically than fanatically – in what I call “the health club,” in our basement, riding the stationary bike, watching the game from a side angle through a door toward the TV. No matter what Tug McGraw proclaimed – ya gotta believe – I did not believe. Ride the bike. Or peck away at the laptop. Que sera sera. You think I’m making this up? I just got an e-mail from my pal Bill Wakefield, who had a nice single season with the Mets in 1964, and retains the old dugout superstitions. “Full disclosure,” Wakefield wrote to me. “I did the same thing .Included a walk around the block!! Wake the bats up walk around !!! Ha -Ha!! “Long shot,” Wakefield added, as a loyal son of Kansas City. “Royals - Mets are still alive!!” The two impulses live side by side. In the top of the ninth inning, Brewers up, 2-0, I did not expect anything from Pete Alonso. Even in family Mets e-chats, I was proclaiming a morbid lack of faith in the nice guy. (“He’s done.”) I want Pete to stay with the Mets but he was flailing his way to a lower salary at some other franchise. Then for the first time in 49 at-bats, Alonso met the ball out front, propelling it toward right field. And it kept going. And the Mets suddenly had three runs and the lead. However, true to my profession, I could not find any fan-type cheers within me. I was deeply happy, but I kept pedaling, at the same time, happy for loyal Mets fans around the league, the ones who show up on the road in their blue and orange outfits, as yappy as they are in the stands in Queens. I saw the dejected looks on the Brewers’ fans. I feel for other fan in towns I loved visiting – St. Louis, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Oakland, Milwaukee. I also love the Kansas City posts from Lonnie Shalton, lawyer and music buff and fan of the Royals as well as Negro League history. For a glimpse into the heart of a fan: https://lonniesjukebox.com/tag/hot-stove/. At the same time, my cautious internal fan was happy at the epic comebacks the Mets have staged in recent days and weeks and months. As I recall, I gave up in the first month when they showed me nothing. But the new manager, Carlos Mendoza – now known as Mendy on my e-chats with other baseball types – showed patience and confidence, sometimes letting pitchers keep themselves in the game. That takes security. (Casey Stengel used to say that, with the Yankees, Whitey Ford never lied to him. If Whitey was toast, he was toast.) The Mets got better, had a marvelous second life this season. I’ve never met Mendoza. For that matter, I’ve never met Pat Murphy, the Brewers’ manager, with his face as rugged as the Cliffs of Moher in County Clare, Ireland. After the first game – a loss to the Mets – Murphy praised the Mets’ poise and skill. Most managers don’t do that. So the Mets have staged two more amazing comebacks in this wild-card round. Baseball veers onward to the next round – the Mets and Phillies starting Saturday. I have relatives in Deepest Pennsylvania. I am sure we will have our own little dialogues in the next few days. *** GOOD OLD HOWIE ROSE CALLS THE POLAR BEAR HOME RUN x.com/JimmyTraina/status/1842018882787409958 https://x.com/JimmyTraina/status/1842018882787409958 *** Howie Rose also made a classic call of the Mets' victory in the first game. I was watching the Alonso inning on the tube where I work out, and listened to the ESPN call by Schlub Central. Never again. GV
Maury Mandel
10/4/2024 12:08:35 pm
Fond memory of attending the final playoff game when the fans celebrated by ripping up the grass at Shea. The Miracle Mets are reincarnated.
GV
10/4/2024 02:31:26 pm
Maury, hey, good to hear from you. I remember that day, I found a guy tearing up a piece of sod and wrote about him. He said he was going to transplant it in his yard. It being the tail end of the 60s -- remember the 60s? -- he later wrote to me that he had mixed in a certain plant on the Mets' hallowed ground, and it was growing better than the Mets; farm system....etc, etc, Best to you both, G&M
Diana Bartelt
10/4/2024 12:30:15 pm
I posted on FB yesterday that these Mets remind me of the 1969 team who were discounted. They were 7 years removed from their 120 loss season and in last place Sept 1, 1969. JeanMom and I were in the stands the night the scoreboard flashed look who is in first place. We too had been at the Polo Grounds in ‘62.
GV
10/4/2024 02:34:22 pm
Diana, what a nice note. I was covering the Mets for part of 1969....and remember the magic feeling in the ball park. (Check out my reply to fellow Queens-person Maury.) I love your memories of your family trekking to Shea. Shame our group outing went down this fall....be well, see you both soon. GV
Ed Martin
10/4/2024 12:32:35 pm
In 1986, our sons and I watched playoffs and Series at Shea. Mookie in the 6th game, (sparing BB), Mets come from behind in 7th.
GV
10/4/2024 02:37:09 pm
Ed, I thought Lindor was trying way too hard to play and show leadership in his first years. But this season has been maybe the best single year ever by a Met. I am sure he felt hey, we are down by 2 runs, I need to start something Which he did, Amazing, as Casey said. GV
bruce
10/4/2024 12:37:39 pm
george,
GV
10/4/2024 02:41:50 pm
Bruce, In covering sports, the issue was rarely life and death, so I was happy for a story/column. Most athletes were admirable -- the best athlete in their home town or province...I loved the Islanders -- best team I ever covered -- but I enjoyed Edmonton, and not just Gretzky.
bruce
10/4/2024 06:02:48 pm
george, 10/4/2024 12:51:51 pm
Delightful piece, George. Terrific understanding of the reach of sport's drama, as well as the role of a reporter.
GV
10/4/2024 02:44:25 pm
John, you and I have been at the same press tribune many times. The US Open -- watching a great story develop in a night match and then somebody takes the third set, and we groan and say, "Don't do this to me!" Nothing personal Just Deadline! Great to see you the other day, GV
Altenir Silva
10/4/2024 01:12:06 pm
WOW! This game was so crazy, like going down a rollercoaster on a rainy day. I love baseball for this and everything it brings. Let's play NY.
GV
10/4/2024 02:48:39 pm
Prezado Altenir: A rollercoaster in the rain? Sounds scary.
Alan D. Levine
10/4/2024 01:17:37 pm
George--No objectivity here. My son, Gabe, stayed after Rosh Hashonah dinner rather than miss the first four innings riding home on the partially out of service No. 1 train. When Alonso hit that home run I jumped up and and down, screaming like it was 1969 while Gabe did the same like it was 1986. Superstition? Before the game, I changed into the same Mets t-shirt I wore while watching the first game of Monday's doubleheader.
GV
10/4/2024 02:50:45 pm
Alan, That's what all those relic t-shirts are for in our drawers. I've got some Italian soccer shirts...and put one on when the Azzurri are playing. Great to see you the other day...GV
Josh Rubin
10/4/2024 01:34:06 pm
I haven't had time to watch games, but I've even gotten superstitious about how often I check the score on my phone. I'm not even going to say what i did or what I changed, but I don't begrudge anyone their sports superstitions,
GV
10/4/2024 02:53:55 pm
Josh, did you see the great obit on Pete Rose, accompanied by selections about Rose from great NYT sportswriters -- Daley, Berkow, etc. Nothing from Red Smith, but I remember Red sometimes writing that Rose played with a look on his face described as "lascivious."
Joshua P Rubin
10/4/2024 03:18:21 pm
Yes - very thorough and engaging and captures his best and worst. Some incredible details (Bourbon taking a bite out of a Mets cap!). .
Walter Schwartz
10/4/2024 01:54:02 pm
We remember the night, ah, so well: October 25, 1986, a generation and more ago. We were in the girls' gym on the third floor of Jamaica High, celebrating our 30th anniversary class reunion but listening attentively on portable radios to the crucial game. Last inning, last licks, Mets down by two. Everything the team had accomplished during the season looked blue. And where were you? Five miles away at the old Shea, covering the Mets and Red Sox. As a journalist, as a fan, as a witness to history. Last night, last inning, home team down by two. Deja vu. What a view!
GV
10/4/2024 02:58:17 pm
GV; I hated to miss our reunion at Jamaica....but my job called. I had written an early column about the Red Sox winning....but then the Mets had their Mookie inning, My colleagues were all groaning about the long stories and short deadlines in out faces,. But we did it. Now the NYT deadlines are in early evening or worse -- part of being a great world paper -- but the side effect is that the NYT will never again be a source for timely and literate game coverage. Or columns.
Ef
10/4/2024 04:19:05 pm
Where is tbe Herald Tribune when we need it?
Alan D. Levine
10/4/2024 04:46:20 pm
The Herald Tribune. Did anyone else notice it's last owner's (Ogden Reid) widow's obituary notice in the Times last week?
Chris Vecsey
10/5/2024 12:25:01 am
You want objectivity? My scientist son called Thursday's game a "routine win," for the Mets.
GV
10/5/2024 08:56:00 am
Chris, the scientist has a point. The Mets have staged a number of walk-off homers and other hits. - I may be wrong, but Lindor, Alvarez, Nimmo, Alonso, McNeil, even the maniac Winker. But routine? What fan ever has enough!
GV
10/5/2024 09:03:53 am
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=l712P3gT27M
Phyllis Rosenthal
10/5/2024 10:12:06 am
As an old Jewish mother would say....OMG willing. Howard is managing from above. George and company, here we go again. LET'S GO METS
GV
10/7/2024 08:24:24 am
Phyllis, what did you think of bringing in Diaz, after all those innings? Lot of noise from Flushing Tuesday and Wednesday....Be well. GV
bruce
10/6/2024 11:09:04 pm
george,
GV
10/7/2024 08:20:37 am
Bruce, hi, no, we have never met, but I love her work, and I feel I know her because of her youthful love of the Brooklyn Dodgers and her youth in Rockville Centre, same county where I, Queens native, have settled She sounds like my rellies....and she knows stuff,
Edwin W Martin Jr
10/11/2024 02:16:31 pm
Greeetings from exile to Miami to escape Milton in Venice. I liked it better when we could get rid of Miltie, by changing the channel, (by hand).
Haruko Hasumi
10/13/2024 10:15:48 pm
If you look around the world, I'm probably the only Mets fan in the world who's depressed after going to the NLCS. Oh, no, no. I beg of the Mets, please lose. You've given me so much fun in this season, so that's enough. That's enough.
GV
10/14/2024 02:11:04 pm
Greetings, Haruko, You are such a good baseball fan, I can understand your sense of guilft -- do I (we) really deserve any more. I cannot imagine my late friend Yoshi Demura not getting the nuances right in his posts. He knew baseball better than we Yanks do. There is always a home-tea slant. But you have seen the Mets....Ron Swoboda!....in Japan, I say, guilt-free, root for the American team of your heart, As you will see from my post today, I have no guilt feellng the john of my childhood team -- but now I am a Mets fan. That's not all that complicated. Be well, George
Ed Martin
10/21/2024 03:27:04 pm
“Wait ‘til Next Year, Decade, etc” Comments are closed.
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