Mr. Met, Global Warming, Enron
Mister Met, American Hero. My friend Justin, who is now slightly famous from my article on our basketball game for control of Brewster and the country, once said "If you don't like Mr. Met, I have no time for you. I mean, how can you not like him? Do you hate America or something? Basically if you don't like Mr. Met I say, "Fuck you."
I totally agree. So I was happy to see that more and more New Yorkers are getting into the Mets in this New York Times article. But there was one odd bit from the end.
While casual fans waver with their allegiances each season, the hardliners — those Yankees fans who would sooner root for global warming than for the Mets, and the hard-core Mets fans who consider the Yankees only slightly less evil than Enron — will not budge from their positions, no matter how well-reasoned the argument for supporting the other team might be. - Allen Salkin
Uhm. I've been as tough on conservatives who stub their toes and blame the liberal media as anyone - but gosh, who uses global warming and Enron as their two stand ins for "bad things" in a sports article?
Michael Brendan Dougherty
in Culture, Sports
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Source: Giving It Up for Mr. MetThe two franchises have been fighting for the heart of the city since 1962, when the Mets played their first regular-season game and soon became the laughingstock of the sports pages. The Mets, with their hungry teams and improbable victories, have buoyed and won over the city occasionally — most famously in 1969, and more recently in the late 1980’s, a rough time for the Yankees. But for the most part, the 103-year-old Yankees, with their law-firm haircuts, subtle pinstripes and 26 World Series
Reader Comments (10)
Hope you've considered that in addition to more lawyers the world might use (intelligent) schoolteachers, bank examiners, surveyors, statisticians, purchasing agents, departement store buyers, industrial psychologists, machinists, forensic accountants, budget analysts, appraisers, pharmacists, hospital administrators, translators, underwriters, claims adjusters, actuaries, archivists, museum curators, librarians, town planners, brokerage clerks, and technicians in wineries, brewieries, and distilleries. Learning one of these trades might put you less in hock, and be more suitable. (And my apologies if unsolicited suggestions irritate you).
It was quite funny.
I think his point is that nobody likes global warming or Enron's accounting and business models. I think he was trying to communicate the gravity of the allegiances for the people who hold them. Fans of sports teams treat every setback as if it is a disaster worthy of a Al Gore slide show or a prosecution by Elliot Spitzer.
(I'm serious.)
(I checked, and you do not have a comments policy against this.)
However, I will say this: some Mets fans are louts. I know, I know, Philadelphia sports fans are regarded as the most boorish fans this side of English football hooligans. But hear me out. It's loutish to travel to another team's stadium in order to drunkenly jeer that team, as Mets fans have done every time I've been at a Phillies-Mets game in Philly. It's loutish to refuse to pay respects to worthy opponents, as Mets fans did in chanting, "No more hits!" to Chase Utley when the Mets stopped cold his 35-game hitting streak. One should always pay respect to opponents, particularly those who play the game in the hard-nosed, old-school way. One ought not jeer even the Yankees, who are the Evil Empire of sports.
That said, however, I expect the Mets to play the Yankees in the World Series, and will enthusiastically back the Mets. The Yankees are, you know; and National League ball is real baseball.
Though, like Maximos, I prefer National League ball it is now beyond doubt that the American League dominates the game. So the Yankees will win yet again and we can all wallow in righteous indignation.
Spitzer is gonna win - he will do a very good job and he may be President within ten years.Sorry,
It's the kind of thing a scriptwriter would have a character do if he wanted to paint him [the sportswriter] a certain way - or maybe it's the type of odd detail many on the right would imagine (incorrectly) was common in the left-leaning elite sports press ....
Then again - there was something about that crooked E Enron symbol....