Fans of NY presents: Tom and Carl Straut-Collard’s Mets Fandom
Concrete New York brings you the story of siblings that share a bond rooting for their favorite baseball team: the New York Mets. Tom and Carl’s Mets fandom originated from their grandfather’s love of the sport and has stayed with them ever since.
Being a die-hard New York Mets fan means that you are opening yourself up to gut-wrenching heartbreak, most of the time, anyways. This requires a different level of commitment compared to being a fan of other franchises. Our father always stressed to us boys that being a Mets fan is not easy, but he’d always back it up with, “Still--we root for the little guy.” The little guy of New York baseball is our beloved Metsies (or as we also call them - the Lovable Losers).
Our grandfather from our mother’s side was named Poppy Chick; he was a New York Giants fan for his whole life before the team made their controversial move to the West Coast in 1958. He specifically loved Willie Mays, who was the face of New York baseball at the time. After the move of his favorite team and favorite player, he didn’t have the same passion until four years passed and there was a new National League ball club in the Big Apple. The New York Mets came to town in 1962 and became the team for many disgruntled fans of the New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers.
It helped that our grandfather lived in Queens not too far away from the stadium. Little did he know, across the East River in Greenwich Village years later a little boy and his brother would get free Mets tickets from their neighbor, the Met's organist at the time.
That little boy grew up and ended up getting married to our Grandfather's daughter, and just like that, two different families merged their Mets fandom into one. This allegiance to the “lovable losers” cemented our fate in bleeding orange and blue. And it was fitting, as the Straut-Collards (on both sides) were always more of an underdog kind of family.
It’s true that we’ve only seen our Mets win one pennant, two division titles, and zero World Series championships since we started avidly watching in 2005. But one can not deny that when the Mets are playing good baseball, it’s a joyous time for the sport and for our city. Watching the Mets steal Game 3 against the Kansas City Royals in the 2015 World Series was the closest to euphoria we’ve reached as Mets fans. Albeit, we lost the series, the energy and passion was heard throughout the city till the very last out. It spoke volumes that even a large portion of the Yankees’ fan base supported an all-time run for the Mets.
We’ve been lucky enough to attend memorable games at Shea Stadium and Citi Field. This includes seeing pitcher Dontrell Willis hit a grand-slam at Shea Stadium and Paul LoDuca tag out two Dodgers at home plate in one play in Game 1 of the 2006 NLDS. Along with those two, we were in the stands for too many instances where David Wright got plucked in the head as well as many games where the Mets lost to the Yankees.
Although the Mets get a bad wrap, during the time that we have been rooting for the team, we have been blessed with a fair share of star power. Growing up with New York legend Mike Piazza representing the city in the biggest moments was special, as was the dangerous combination of David Wright and Jose Reyes. We have also been seen some of the best and most unique arms in baseball take the mound for our team with Tom Glavine, R.A. Dickey, Johan Santana, Bartolo Colon, and more donning blue and orange. Even with our current roster, players like Pete Alonso, Jacob deGrom, and Noah Syndergaard are familiar faces around the league that represent the franchise well.
Our passion for the Mets and love for the sport of baseball have produced some of our fondest childhood memories. We would save our modest earnings from work as teenagers and use them towards baseball card packs. For our 16th birthday, we embarked on a 7-stadium East Coast baseball road trip with our dad where we also visited the Baseball Hall of Fame. Even if the Mets aren’t regarded as a “winning team” thus far in our history of rooting for the franchise, there is a lot to be hopeful about. The Mets’ recent buzz in free agency is promising under new owner Steve Cohen. He promised to give back to the fans, so hopefully he will deliver. It does feel like we are one step closer to bringing the Commissioner's Trophy back to Queens and having the chance to live through another Miracle Mets era.