I was there at Shea Stadium on opening day in 1985, Gary Carter’s first day playing as a New York Met. In the bottom of the 10th inning, Gary Carter won the game by hitting a home run. The crowd went wild! Everyone was shouting “GARY! GARY! GARY!” for the next fifteen minutes as we walked out of the stadium (we were in the cheapest seats so it was a long walk).
Now, both Shea Stadium and Gary Carter are no more.
Ah, the glory days of the Mets. How long ago it was.
Who would have thought that Carter would leave us before Gooden and Strawberry.
I'm going to have to break out the 1986 World Series DVDs and watch 'em one more time.
Posted by: The Engineer | February 17, 2012 at 12:01 PM
I will remember him sporting the 'fro so unashamedly more than anything else.
Posted by: Camlost | February 17, 2012 at 12:30 PM
Can a New Yorker explain to a Southern boy your city's baseball fans? Who are Yankee fans? Resident of the Bronx and Manhattan only? And the Mets are the 'suburban' team?. I have a vague sense that Queens and Brooklyn are considered suburban and undesirable, although never having been to the Center of the Known Universe, I am piecing this together from media depictions.
[HS: Some people are Mets fans and some are Yankees fans. Proximity to the respective stadium increases the likelihood of being a fan of one team or the other, but is not dispositive. Fandom of one team or the other is often inherited from one's father or other male relatives.]
Posted by: Matt in RTP | February 17, 2012 at 03:55 PM
I loved Shea Stadium, and I don't much like Citifield. Shea was home, to a Mets fan.
Posted by: Park Slope Pubby | February 17, 2012 at 04:27 PM
@Matt in RTP
Since HS was a coward, let me answer.
People from Staten Island and the Bronx tend to be Yankees and Giants fans, while people from Brooklyn and Queens (and the rest of LI) tend to be Mets and Jets fans. As for Manhattan, they tend to lean Yankees and Giants as well, but are more fair-weathered.
Posted by: ScarletKnight | February 17, 2012 at 05:38 PM
I once watched Mr Mantle at the old Yankee Stadium.
Posted by: dearieme | February 17, 2012 at 05:45 PM
There are lots of families,including mine, which are split. Some are Yankee fans and some Mets. The old pattern was that the Yankees were the preppy's team, but it's all gotten shook up since. The Mets are always the second rate team here, even when they win, so people who like to cheer for the underdog tend to gravitate to them.
Some time in your life, you get attached to a team and that's that. NYC has a double in everything: Giants and Jets, Knicks and Nets, Yankees and Mets. In every case, the one that ends w/ "ets" is secondary in NYer's consciousness.
Posted by: Park Slope Pubby | February 17, 2012 at 08:02 PM
Half, I never thought of you as a sports fan.
Posted by: Twain | February 17, 2012 at 08:31 PM
Half, did you ever read "The Worst Team Money Could Buy"? It's about the '92 Mets. Carter had been traded by then, but it's very entertaining, and extremely well-written for a sports book. I was surprised so many of the Mets players were golf nuts. They quote the equipment mgr. as saying, "what is this, the PGA tour?"
Posted by: not a hacker | February 18, 2012 at 06:05 PM