LATEST STORIES FROM FAITH AND FEAR
He’s a Met Fella, He’s One of Us
There was Cleon and Tommie…
“I’ll track that thing down for ya.”
And Tom Terrific, who they also called The Franchise…
“Throw strikes.”
And Little Buddy…
“Let ’em hit it on the ground.”
Jerry the Kooz and Jerry the Catcher…
“Keep the ball down, would ya guy?”
Rusty the Orange…
“Hey, call me in a pinch.”
And his guy Mex who wasn’t...
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18 days ago
Discuss
Carter: A Name, Not A Number
Gary Carter Stadium in Port St. Lucie…has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? Won’t happen, though, because Gary Carter was a catcher and isn’t a corporation. Some company few Mets fans had ever heard of before 2010 or have any idea what exactly it does owns the rights to the name of the Mets’ primary Spring Training facility, and the Mets aren’t about to revoke those...
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20 days ago
Give That Team a Nat Sherman Cigar
Fine Sunday night for Cousin Harvey’s favorite football team. Satisfying retribution exacted against San Francisco for kidnaping New York’s first National League baseball team. Intriguing thought crossing my mind as I dare to dream that the forthcoming Giants-Patriots Super Bowl works out as well as the last one:
If the Giants win a fourth Super Bowl, how on earth does...
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21 days ago
Nifty for Fifty
Several immediately upcoming events to know about with a Mets 50th anniversary flavor. Get out a shovel and dig a path to any and all of them.
• Sunday between 9 AM and 5 PM, MAB Celebrity Services is hosting 50 Years of Amazin’ Baseball at Citi Field’s Caesar’s Club. There’ll be Q&A, there’ll be autograph opportunities (or opportunitie$) and there’ll be a slew...
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24 days ago
Narrow Left Wing Conspiracy
Mike Pelfrey’s been re-signed, so that’s a load off our minds. If we didn’t have the tall wonder’s shortcomings on which to dwell, what starter’s lack of progress would obsess us ahead of Spring Training?
Jon Niese’s probably, which seems a little quick, considering he’s only 25 and has yet to make more than 30 starts in a single season. Non-pitching injuries seem to...
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26 days ago
Harvey’s Version
My dad’s one of those people who scans the Paid Death Notices in the Times to see if anybody he knows has recently become somebody he knew. He was surprised to discover his cousin Harvey was among the listings two Sundays ago. He died at 81 on January 4…or to put it in terms Harvey would have appreciated, between the Giants beating the Cowboys to win the NFC East and the...
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28 days ago
For Donation: Reyes Shirt, Briefly Worn
That’s Joshua’s Jose Reyes shirt, off to Goodwill, and if you’ll excuse me I need a minute. There seems to be something in my eye.
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29 days ago
Can’t Fight City Hall
He could have been elected mayor at this moment.
If you didn’t make it to the ticker-tape parade the City of New York threw for its World Champion New York Mets in 1969, then by all means click right here for a delicious two-minute, forty-one second bite of it, courtesy of NYC Media. It’s part of a series called City Classics that combs the municipal archives for what...
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January 13, 2012
Tell Me Something Good
Johan Santana is throwing from flat ground in St. Lucie and hopes to be ready for Opening Day. Adam Rubin has the story here, MetsBlog offers SNY video here.
Even with too many other signs pointing downward, and even as there are “no assurances” that the ace of the staff will be ready to face the Braves by April 5 (or that Johan will ever really be Johan again), geez...
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January 12, 2012
Fernandomania Curtailed
It’s scary that as fans, any team’s fans, we get hooked on new players and young players and changes of direction and we’re sure we’re going to benefit — if it’s March — this year or — if it’s September — next year. Yet we just don’t know. It’s the ultimate blind trust.
Theoretically, the future has never been more foreseeably agreeable for the Mets. If the...
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January 12, 2012
PED McCarthyism & Mike Piazza
Twenty years ago this week, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum reached its peak as an institution of relevance when it ushered into its ranks Tom Seaver with the highest vote percentage ever. Since then, its various machinations have churned in a fashion that have overlooked the contributions of Gil Hodges, ignored the accomplishments of Keith Hernandez, thoroughly dismissed...
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January 10, 2012
Stuck in the Why and Now
Why did the Mets hire CRG Partners? Beats the hell out of me.
Intuition — which is often fallible — strongly suggests it isn’t just to tinker with bookkeeping, or to draw a couple of lines differently on the org chart. The nature of the Mets’ situation and the kind of business companies like CRG do both make you suspect something more is going on.
It also...
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January 09, 2012
Turn the Mets Around
The Mets are only enlisting a “turnaround consultant” now? Where was this service in September 2007? August 2002? May 1993? June 1977? The Mets have definitely been in need of a few sharp 180s in their storied history. You’d figure they’d have a “turnaround consultant” on call 24/7.
The “turnaround” in question isn’t directly baseball-related, though...
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January 06, 2012
Three for Thursday
Who says there’s nothing to do on a Thursday in January? Three things you the Mets fan should know about:
1) Blood drive at Citi Field (I swear I was gonna say “at Shea”) between 10 and 5. Good cause, of course, and a bonus show of appreciation from your New York Metropolitans in the way of two tickets for a game in April when you roll up your sleeve and give; a...
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January 04, 2012
By George (Vecsey, that is)
Good thing in this day and age that a farewell column doesn’t have to be definitive. George Vecsey published his in the Times last month, yet he is still writing — for himself and for his old paper on an occasional basis. That’s a pretty good thing, indeed, for Mets fans who like to read.
I’m glad I can still find some George Vecsey if not as much as I had grown used to for...
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January 04, 2012
Hofstra Mets Conference Calling
The Hofstra Cultural Center’s conference honoring the 50th Anniversary of the New York Mets is coming Thursday to Saturday, April 26-28, and if you’re in interested in contributing a paper or presentation regarding some aspect of your favorite ballclub, please contact me at faithandfear@gmail.com. Full details are posted here (with some more information here).
This conference...
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January 03, 2012
Day to Day Already?
You’d think it would be too soon for a 2012 injury update, but we received one worth passing along regarding FAFIF reader Andrew Hees. His uncle Phil reports Andrew and his family were the passenger victims of a car accident on New Year’s Eve. Andrew, a devoted Mets fan with whom I had the pleasure of taking in a game just before he started high school this past September...
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January 03, 2012
Step Into 2012 From Way Back
Happy New Year! We look forward to an exciting 2012 here at Faith and Fear, even if we have to create the excitement ourselves. But isn’t that what Mets fans do when the Mets don’t necessarily contribute as much fun as they could?
And while you’re waiting for pitchers, catchers and trustees to report to Spring Training, may I suggest a few well-chosen steps into...
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January 01, 2012
The 49th Parallels
With my incurring a 49th birthday today, I received a number of touching messages from Mets who can truly relate to being 49. Thought I’d share them with you.
“Let me be the FIRST to wish you happy birthday.”
—Don Aase
“I’ll see to it that your birthday’s perfect even if it falls to me to ensure that perfection.”
—John Stephenson
“Too banged up — again — to...
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December 31, 2011
No Bread, So How About Some Circuses?
I don’t think the 2012 Mets will be as bad as most people seem to think … but that’s not the same thing as thinking the 2012 Mets will actually be good.
I’ll think they’ll be mediocre, with a relatively robust offense but too many No. 4 starters in the rotation and too many improved teams in the National League East. And like a lot of mediocre teams...
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December 30, 2011
Enjoy Every Ballgame
Clockwise from upper right: Fans of the Mets Dana Brand, Matthew Silverman, Greg Spira, Greg Prince. Background: Home of the Mets Shea Stadium.
“More words about the Mets have been written by the people in this photograph than have been written by the people in any other photograph I’ve ever seen.”
So noted the man in the upper right of this photograph, Dana Brand, a friend...
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December 30, 2011
Nine Hours, Eighteen Yearbooks
DVR or just plain old viewing alert: Friday, starting at 1:30, SNY is airing 18 of the 20 cherished Mets Yearbooks for nine consecutive chronological hours, starting with 1963 and running through 1988. The only ones being skipped, for whatever reason, are 1965 (Expressway to the Big Leagues) and 1978 (Turning It Over). Both are classics of the positivity-accentuating genre, but...
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December 28, 2011
The Happiest 163
Could ya use an extraordinary Met season right about now? Try this one, courtesy of The Happiest Recap, the Faith and Fear series that ran from April to November, capturing the “best” wins from across the first fifty years of New York Mets baseball, numbered from 001 to 163 to correspond to where they fell into the schedules from whence they came. Click on the links and enjoy...
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December 26, 2011
From Merry Olde England
The life of Brian includes a numerical tribute to a team that doesn't swing by the U.K. too often.
Before the Christmas trees start coming down and just ahead of Boxing Day, we have this cup of Yuletide cheer to share from the United Kingdom. FAFIF reader Brian Spencer — whom Stephanie and I had the pleasure of meeting (along with his lovely wife Chris) at Citi Field this...
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December 25, 2011
Your Newest Cardinal
Carlos Beltran is a Cardinal.
I say good for him. A player criminally unappreciated by the Mets’ stupider fans deserves a last go-round in a town that’s reflexively supportive of its players.
But isn’t it weird that Beltran’s a Cardinal? Because remember he took that called third strike that one time against the Cardinals? (If you haven’t already, go...
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December 23, 2011
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