Daniel Kohn is a guest writer to The Sports Union.
When any baseball season begins certain teams surprise fans, both pleasantly and unpleasantly. Marlins and Royals fans are tickled pink right now as their teams enjoy the view from the top, while Yankee fans are dismayed because they haven’t clinched a playoff spot 20 games into the season. Red Sox fans are nervous and hoping not to awaken the curse of the Bambino or some other craziness.
However, as a Mets fan, I’m not tickled pink, dismayed, nervous or even worried. I know, like all the years previous, they’ll manage to break my heart in a new and painful way. So far, I’ve witnessed three losses that are due to misplayed balls in the outfield. Wonderful.
After hearing about another disheartening loss, I decided to retrace my steps as a Met fan, which began after they won the 1986 World Series. By golly, since then, they have found a new way each year to lose and crush the hearts of those in Met blue and orange. And here is that painful list:
1987: After winning the World Series we are picked as heavy favorites to repeat. Then Doc Gooden’s suspension for cocaine use set an ominous tone for the season. However, the NL East came down to a pivotal series versus St. Louis when Terry Pendleton hit a home run to beat the Mets and propel the Cardinals into the playoffs.
1988: With the second best record in the league (100-62) and an overwhelming advantage in the season series against their NLCS opponent, the Los Angeles Dodgers, they blew it yet again. With the Mets going 10-1 against the Dodgers during the regular season this series should have been a walk in the park, but Dodger pitcher Orel Hershiser had a series for the ages. Mike Scioscia’s Game 4 homer against Gooden was shocking, but the shellacking in Game 7 truly broke my heart. This one hurts with an acute pain because the Dodgers went on to win the World Series and we should have swept them with ease.
1989: Ugh! This one was a bummer. Trading Lenny Dykstra to the Phillies for Juan Samuel and losing to the Cubs in September, enough said.
1990: Well, this one wasn’t so hard to swallow as the Pirates, with a non-steroid using Barry Bonds and some guy named Bobby Bonilla, took the division. It wouldn’t have been nearly as bad if we hadn’t fired Davey Johnson and handed the keys over to the clueless Bud Harrelson. Also, on a sad note, this was the last season where Doc Gooden and Darryl Strawberry played together.
1991: A mess all over. Strawberry signs with the Dodgers and the Mets sink to 71 wins. Lost from the start and unmemorable.
1992: When Bob Klapisch actually writes a book about you entitled, “The Worst Team Money Could Buy” you know things are awful. The money was amply spread to the likes of Bobby Bonilla, Eddie Murray, Bret Saberhagen, Vince Coleman and a new manager, Jeff Torborg. Oh yeah, we also traded David Cone for Jeff Kent–who sucked in New York–and Ryan Thompson, a batting practice phenom who couldn’t get it together on the field. The cherry on top of the cake was that before Cone left he was accused of jerking-off in the bullpen in front of some female fans. Classy. Overall, the highest paid team played like one of the worst with only a slight improvement from the year before.
1993: This is where we bottom out, I thought. A stunning 59 wins for the highest paid team in baseball. They were the worst team in a league that included two expansion teams. Unbelievable. Oh yeah, this season also included Vince Coleman and Daryl Boston throwing a firecracker at a youngster in the Dodger Stadium parking lot, and the year of the infamous record-setting right-hander, Anthony Young. Young’s major league record 27-game losing streak was the crown jewel in what is now known as the second worst season in franchise history, but unlike the lovable losers of 1962 this team was far from lovable. A year to remember!
1994: Finally, signs of hope, but of course, the strike ruined that. We were 55-58, not bad considering the horrors of 1993. My standards have officially been lowered.
1995: This was supposed to be a good year. Though the strike hampered improvements, the Mets signed some new free agents like Brett Butler and hoped that a young core of pitchers, aptly named Generation K (Bill Pulsipher, Jason Isringhausen and Paul Wilson) would propel them forward. However, by mid-season, the Mets were in sell mode, trading Butler, Bonilla, Saberhagen and a slew of veterans for future prospects.
1996: With free agent pickups Bernard “Innocent Until Proven” Gilkey, Lance Johnson and a group of youngsters, the Mets seemed poised to make a run at the Braves. Nope. Seventy-one wins and multiple arm injuries to Generation K led us Mets fans to believe things were never going to get better.
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I wish it ends here, but there are 12 more years of pain and heartache to delve into. Click to continue reading The Misery of a Mets Fan – Continued . . .
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Daniel Kohn is a guest writer for The Sports Union and the owner of the Kohn Pub, which is always packed with angry New York fans. The self-proclaimed hater of anything not authentically New York, like the Jets. Kohn is a writer for the Huffington Post and has managed to not only piss off all conservatives for writing for the Post but also to enrage most of the liberals that frequent the site.
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I’m with you buddy. Although being a tad younger than you I don’t really have a lot of vivid memories of those early years. Also you should do a once over proof read before you post there are quite few typos in this.
blame it on the copy editors
[...] Yesterday Dan related ten years of frustration over his beloved Mets. Like a stripper they teased and taunted him throughout his youth. They led him on tantalizing him with fake talent and hints that he might consummate his desire of a championship. Yet every year he was left crying in a decrepit bathroom at Shea with soiled pants. [...]
[...] Yesterday Dan related ten years of frustration over his beloved Mets. Like a stripper they teased and taunted him throughout his youth. They led him on tantalizing him with fake talent and hints that he might consummate his desire of a championship. Yet every year he was left crying in a decrepit bathroom at Shea with soiled pants. [...]