Mets Fan

The late Dana Brand was a professor of English and American literature at Hofstra University. He received his Ph.D. from Yale, where he often talked baseball with A. Bartlett Giamatti, a Yale English professor who would go on to become the Commissioner of Baseball. The author of numerous articles about English and American literature, philosophy, and film, he lived in Connecticut.

“subjects range over a wide swath of topics and incidents in the team’s history”—The SABR Bulletin; “great baseball writing that will delight Mets fans and everyone who enjoys baseball”—Sports Collectors Digest; “a wonderful read”—Aethlon; “it’s the best exploration yet written about what it means to be a Mets fan”—The Jewish Press; “a happy book...a labor of love”—Newsday.com; “this is a book for us. It’s a book for Mets fans. It’s a book we deserve. It’s a book we will absorb through our pores...[Brand] has combined memoir with history and given us a rich tour of the lifetime of a franchise”—Faith and Fear in Flushing.

• Table of ContentsPreface      Mets Fan      For Shea      Mr. Met.      Meet the Mets      Lets Go Mets!      The Mets Logo      Yankee Hatred      1962      My First Game      The Mets in the Sixties      1969      Tom Seaver      Jerry Koosman      1973      Rusty Staub      Eddie Kranepool      1977–1982      Meeting a Met      1984      Dwight Gooden      1985      1986: The Bad Guys Won?      The Most Exciting Mets Game Ever      Marrying the Red Sox      Mookie Wilson      Keith Hernandez      Darryl Strawberry      1987      1988      The End of the Eighties      The Mets in the Early Nineties      The Mets and Seinfeld      1997–1998      1999      The Second Most Exciting Mets Game Ever      The Mets and Frequency      2000      2001      The Mets at the Beginning of the Millennium      2005      Mike Piazza      Going to the Game with My Daughter      The Crowd at Shea      Diamond Vision.      The Home Run Apple      Cow-Bell Man      Seventh-Inning Stretch      The Guys Who Wipe the Seats.      Curtain Calls      Booing      The Mets in Queens      Inside Bob Murphy’s Voice      Ralph Kiner      Howie Rose      Listening to Mike and the Mad Dog as a Mets Fan      Steve Somers      Gary Cohen      2006: Getting Ahead      Pedro Martinez      Carlos Beltran      David Wright      Jose Reyes      Paul LoDuca.      Carlos Delgado      2006: Late Summer Blues      2006: The Clinching      Doris from Rego Park      2006: The Hour of the Wolf      Going to a Playoff Game: 2006 NLDS Game Two      Cardinal Red      Another Playoff Game: 2006 NLCS Game Six      The End of the 2006 Season      The Point of Baseball      Following Baseball      Baseball and the Life of the Mind: MemoriesBart Giamatti      Why Do We Do This to Ourselves?      The Offseason      Mets Fans Are Geeks: Forumworld and Blogosphere      The Return of Baseball      Groundbreaking Ceremonies for Citi Field      The Mets in the Future      Index