Chapter 1: The Amazing Mets Let us begin with the Mets, the original Mets. As the years go by the originals more and more take on a mythic quality. Not that there wasn't great excitement at the time. In the years between the departure of the Giants and Dodgers and the arrival of the Mets I frequently covered the end-of-the-season pennant races in the National League. I recall in particular a day I was with the Pittsburgh Pirates who were on their way to the 1960 pennnat. I was on the Pirates team bus to the ball park one day sitting with Les Biederman, a longtime Pittsburgh baseball beat reporter. He asked me whether I would be covering the Yankees or Mets when the Mets started playing in 1962. I was surprised at his question because it seemed so obvious to me that the excitement of that season would revolve about the Mets.
I was surprised, too, by his surprise at my answer. He said, "The Yankees are the great team of baseball. Their success rubs off on the people who cover them. The Mets are new and by covering them you won't have any of that glory going for you." I smiled somewhat condescedingly. By my lights, the success of the team you covered had little to do with your own eminence. I preferred to believe that reporters would be judged by the quality of their work. I have come to see that Biederman was an astute analysis of the public pulse. People are star and celebrity struck, and people who cover such celebrities and stars, particularly the winning ones, get to bask in that success. I still would have chosen to cover the Mets of course. They have taken on a wondrous quality as the years have passed. I sometimes think that I can make a living on the lecture circuit in my old age by just talking about Casey Stengel and the stories he told and the ones surrounding him. We start this divertimento with the column recording the opening of the Mets 1969 season on April 8 at Shea Stadium. The game marked the debut of the new Montreal Expos franchise. The column reflects the history of Opening Day frustrations by the Mets. Little did I guess what glory was in store for the Mets. But a bit of wisdom did emerge from it all in my final comment.
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The Confederate army had a good club, but it couldn't win on the road. |
