It’s just Amazin’
Let’s Go Mets . . . fans. Forget wait until next year. Suddenly, like a divine intervention, fans of the first-place Mets are waiting for October of this year. “It’s gonna be 1969 all over again,” says Downtown Ronnie Califano, a Mets fan since 1962. “Get ready for plays like Ron Swoboda’s diving catch out in right field. Remember the black cat that crossed behind the plate and stared bad luck into the Cubs dugout in ’69? Somebody said the other night that the yellow parakeet hanging out in Citi is the new Mets’ good-luck sign.”
The Mets TV channel televised the yellow bird watching Yoenis Cespedes — sporting a matching bright yellow elastic elbow sleeve — hit a home run. “Feed that yellow bird,” says Downtown. “It’s a sign from God. Put up a feeder for that parakeet. Feed him the filet mignon of birdseed. Better, feed him a basket of them dinner rolls outta Peter Luger’s that make you 300 pounds. Feed that parakeet till he’s too fat to fly away.”
With the Mets leading the National League East, Mets fans are feeling like first-class citizens again after years of slumming in the shadow of the snobby pinstriped fans from the Bronx. “A-ma-zin,’ ” Downtown says.
And the most Amazin’ thing about it is that all it took was what loyal fans had been begging and praying for all season. A couple of bats.
On July 5 in this space, I said being a Mets fan since their 40-120 debut season in 1962 has been like purgatory on Earth. At that time last month, the Mets, with perhaps the best pitching rotation in baseball, had scored just three runs in 37 innings, losing 10 of their last 15 games and racking up a record of 12-26 on the road.
Downtown Ronnie had lamented, “The owner, this Wilpon, outta Lafayette High, he gotta spend our money on some guys who can hit a baseball. Guys who can score some runs for these here kids who are pitching great baseball games. We’re not asking for the cure for leukemia here. If your windows are bare you buy curtains. If you score one run in 28 innings buy some goddamned hitters!”
Downtown never misses the 11:30 a.m. Sunday Mass in the seventh pew, center-left row, aisle seat at St. Athanasius in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, where the pastor, Msgr. David Cassato, ends every service with a special prayer for the Mets. On July 3, Downtown suggested that Cardinal Dolan take over the Mets front office. Then, all at once, all the Mets fans prayers were finally answered when the team traded for Cespedes, Juan Uribe and Kelly Johnson. It was like general amnesty had been declared for the Suffering Mets Fan Souls in Purgatory.
“God is good,” Msgr. Cassato said Friday with the Mets enjoying a 41/2 game lead over the Nationals. “He is all-merciful and decided that Mets fans had suffered long enough, done enough penance.”
“I’m thrilled that David Wright is coming back,” says Vic Nacinovich of North Flushing, Queens, who also pleaded in this space for some fresh Mets lumber. “After carrying the franchise for so many losing seasons, Wright deserves to be in the pennant race, and a chance at a World Series ring. Cespedes is a legitimate five-skills, No. 3 hitter. The Mets now have a strong bench. And with Uribe’s two championship rings in the lineup, and Duda, Granderson and Lagares, Wright won’t have all the pressure on him straight off the DL. With these veterans for the young guys to learn from, it’s a perfect mix. Last year, you couldn’t get me to go to Citi Field. I’ve been to two games in the last two weeks.”
That says it all: If the Mets front office spends, Mets fans will outspend them.
“Last month, there were vultures on the Mets roof waiting to swoop down on another dead Mets season,” says Downtown. “This month, we got us a yellow parakeet from heaven bringing good luck. Even an embarrassing blown trade deal for Wilmer Flores turned that kid into a local hero.”
Flores has become an unlikely fan favorite who turned his onfield tears into deafening cheers in a few fairy tale game-winning performances.
“If the Mets traded Flores. now, it would be like someone shootin’ the yellow parakeet,” says Downtown. “Flores and the parakeet are proof our prayers have finally been answered. This here is 1969 all over again.”
Let's Go Mets fans.