Dave Kingman Appreciation Day

Welcome to Flashback Friday: I Saw The Decade End, a milestone-anniversary salute to the New York Mets of 1969, 1979, 1989 and 1999. Each week, we immerse ourselves in or at least touch upon something that transpired within the Metsian realm 40, 30, 20 or 10 years ago. Amazin' or not, here it comes. One win. That's all I saw at Shea Stadium in a span of time covering more than six years. One win. Although I would go on to leave Shea with a comfortable lifetime regular-season record of 218-184, and have christened The Log II with a 17-5 start at Citi Field, I am forever haunted by what went on after July 2, 1975 and before August 15, 1981. Losing. Nothing but losing for the longest time. Then a break. Then more losing. My record — that is the record of the Mets in games I attended — for the aforementioned period was 1-12. I went to thirteen games. The Mets lost twelve of them. How is that even possible? I understand seeing the same lousy team when it's stuc...