FEELING PROUD OF YOUR TEAM

On Friday morning, I was boarding the train.  I happened to see my buddy getting out of his car and he was dressed, head to toe in Mets gear.  Worn out hat… ratty shirt, you know, his comfy clothes. Clearly he was off from work and going to the bagel shop.  He had a skip in his step. That’s because he’s a die hard Mets fan and has been for years.  He’s proud of what his team has accomplished so far.  The Mets are in the World Series.  I got all fuzzy inside as I watch him walk into the shop and as the train pulled away… I started to write this. I remember when Yankee fans had that feeling. Thinking about how excited his is about the Mets gives me chills.  That’s true fandom.  It’s stuff like that that makes you, if you’re a baseball fan, step back and see the big picture.  Fans come in all shapes and sizes… and yes, there are Mets fans that for decades have been embarrassed by their team and management and lousy decision making.  Now, these same Mets fans… the die-hards, are proud.  They are proud that a club that no one really thought about actually has done something incredible.  For them… it’s about damn time. I stated in THE METS ARE IN & JOE MADDON ISN'T A ROCKSTAR the following:

"I'm happy for the die hard Mets fans . I am not happy for the bandwagon fans who have no allegiance to anything but winners and will sell their mother down the river if it means being with a champion.  If you were a Yankee fan and you flipped because you got impatient... go away, you are no longer welcome on my side of the street.  But again... to the die hard Mets fans, this is great for you guys!"

That’s a fact.  Bandwagon fans kill me, and I see them a mile away.  Their Mets hat right out of the bag… they’re wearing uniform tops like Flores and deGrom.  Let me tell you something, my friends… My real friends that happen to be die-hard Mets fans wear Hernandez… Kranepool… Seaver… Orosco.  They are true Mets fans.  I’m not taking anything away from Wilmer Flores, David Wright or Jacob deGrom, they are great players having a good run. But in the grand scope of Mets fans and baseball… I appreciate the die-hards.  That’s because the die-hards have been waiting for a while.  Again, they're proud… they deserve alittle happiness.

I made a statement the other day suggesting I wanted to Cubs to win it all.  It’s not unusual or absurd.  As a baseball and Yankee fan, I felt the Cubs fans needed a smile… it had nothing to do with the Mets, but Mets fans took exception when I wrote WHY I DON'T FEEL THE NEW YORK METS tweeting me…

Like we care. #lgm RT @BleednYankeeBlu: Bleeding Yankee Blue: WHY I DON'T FEEL THE NEW YORK #METS http://t.co/OhPLzx8V72

— Shea Hey (@sheahey56) October 18, 2015

@BleednYankeeBlu No one cares here. #LGM #Mets

— TheKevinLarkin (@TheKevinLarkin) October 18, 2015

If they didn't care, they should have ignored it
.

Sure, they have a point, no one cares about my opinion.  But they took it personally and they shouldn’t have.  It’s an opinion, nothing more and they need to relax!   No one cares about great baseball and fan allegiance more than I, but it’s those damn bandwagon fans that couldn’t name the 1986 lineup or even know what uniform number David Wright is that kill me.  They water down what the true Mets fans are feeling.  That’s basically what I’ve been suggesting all along.

So, here’s to the Mets fans, the die-hards, the guys and gals that have been struggling through the Bobby Bonilla years. The ones who had to dig out their Darryl Strawberry shirt from the closet and re-break in their old Mets cap.  Be proud of your club. They did good for you and I got your back.  In the end, the Mets in the World Series is good for baseball.  It’s a wonderful story. It is good for New York too. But don’t give away the key to New York yet… the Yanks have always been the kings of New York.  OK… if the Mets win… we can lend them New York… but just for 2015.

Good luck to all those true Mets fans.

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TRUE YANKEE FANS ARE THRILLED ABOUT TINO BEING HONORED

...and I can't believe we're still talking about this...

If you read BYB enough, you know that I read Jason Keidel's piece the other day about Tino Martinez.  It was titled I Love Tino, But There’s No Way He Belongs In Monument Park. It was pretty critical of Tino being honored with a plaque in the Yankees' Monument Park.

I quickly pointed out the simplest reasoning for the Yankees decision when it was announced. It was my opinion, of course: "The Yankees have had great players over the years.  The best part of these great players is, when the time comes each year, the Yankees will sit down and decide who gets honored. When they do that, and a name pops up you love, you will once again, pay money to go see them get honored.  The Yankees are a machine. This idea was strategic... don't over think it.  The best part is, these players come back to the stadium, they get a proper honoring and then if they are worthy, they also get a plaque. It's the new Yankees.  Sure, the retired numbers are running out, but that's not what this is about.  This is about giving the nod to other great Yankees... just not great enough to have their number retired.  It's an acknowledgment. It's a "Thank you"..."

That was before Keidel's piece came out and it made perfect sense, plus, the understanding is clear; Tino was a great Yankee. No, his number will never be retired, so instead, they honored him. When the announcement went down, some were critical of Tino being put into Monument Park. Again though,  it's about "moments"... it's about Yankee greats at the time.

It's about Tino and his 4 World Series wins.  It wasn't about Tino being benched in 1996 for Cecil Fielder, as Keidel wrote.

Not, let me state that I love reading Keidel.  He touches a nerve and makes me think and I am NOT crticial of Keidel as a writer at all. I'm a fan, we just disagree... and so do some fans apparently.  I wanted to share these 2 comments since I wrote  IF IT WAS "KEIDEL MONUMENT PARK", TINO WOULDN'T BE THERE:

From computermaximus:

"Jason Keidel is clueless. Tino's moments make him a Yankee great. Timely hits over his time here. Tino might have had a postseason batting average of .233, but he had some huge hits. The grand slam in game 1 of the 1998 World Series, the huge game tying HR in the game 4 of the 2001 World Series. Also a bunch of defensive stops over the years that boggle the mind. Keidel thinks that monument park is for legends in time. That is the issue. It is for legends, Yankee legends. You may hit .250 in a Yankee uniform but if that one hit every four at bats was a huge, clutch hit, you earn yourself a spot in monument park."

From Michael Pacholek:

"Plus, Tino won 5 Pennants and 4 rings. The guy he replaced at first base? Zip. Yet he got the full treatment: Plaque and number retired. We are the Yankees: We have a different measure of such things. 

(In Photo: Jerry Grote)
Let the Mets honor their Ed Kranepool's and their Jerry Grote's in their team hall of fame, we should be about winning, and Tino was a winner."

In the end, that was really what it was all about in the Yankees' decision to choose Tino to be honored. No, he wasn't a .300 hitter, but what he offered while he was here, big, timely hits and a solid first basemen, got him picked.

Tino has fans and Tino, while I never thought of him as one of my favorite Yankee first basemen, deserves the nod.  Thanks for your comments guys...

Go Yanks...
 
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