Introduction

Well, I am hoping that this works out. This site is new to me, and I am excited to be here posting about my favorite subject, the New York Mets.

Since I consider myself an amateur “expert” in analysis of the Mets, I guess I should give some background information about myself to give everyone an idea of my “credentials”.

OK, My name is Brian Stark, and I am 40 years old. I have two sons, age 18 and 16, and have been happily married to my wife Stephanie since 1999. I was unhappily married to my sons mother for seven years, but that is a different post altogether.

Anyway, my father was an “Original” Met fan, he was 14 when the team came into being and was there from the start. My Dad’s side of the family was originally from Maspeth, so he was able to get to games both at the Polo Grounds and Shea from the start, and my two Uncles also were there as soon as they could be “trusted”to ride the train to the game without my Grandmother or Grandfather’s supervision. The Mets were their passion, and it quickly became ingrained in their DNA.

In 1967, my Dad met my Mother at a convention in Baltimore MD, and fell hard. My Mom was from a VERY small town in rural North Carolina, and while only 16, her feminine wiles drew my Dad from New York to Podunk NC later that year, and they got married. In 68 I was born, and the indoctrination began. In 69 my Dad could only listen to games on the radio, and was working LONG hours to support his new young family, but he was able to root on his team while listening, often having to go on the front porch to pick up the games on a tiny transistor radio.

We moved to New Hampshire in 1970, as some of my Dad’s friends had migrated there and Dad could get better work there, plus Mom hated living in the deep South at that time, since she had pretty liberal racial views and my Dad, being from New York, was not used to having to watch who he spoke to or ate lunch with at work.

Anyway, although we lived in New England, I was not deeply rooted in the whole “Boston” thing. Frankly, New York was already in my blood. We went to games whenever we could back in the city, and I fondly remember listening to games on that radio in a tiny apartment as a VERY young child.

By the time 1975 rolled around, we were on the move again, this time to the Norfolk Virginia area. This was when the fever REALLY took hold, because at that time,the Mets AAA affiliate was in Norfolk. The Tides played at an old, decrepit stadium, known as Metropolitan Park, but it was heaven to me. I got to see all the famous guys come through town. Mookie, Wally, Darryl, Doc, Lenny, we were there right at the start. Of course, when we first got there, the farm system was a shambles, but those crappy players were GODS to me.

Anyway, by 1983 we KNEW that the Mets were on to something pretty big. I still recall my Dad calling my two uncles, still stranded in New Hampshire, and telling them, “Watch out, we’re gonna be BACK and SCARY soon.

We were right. In the winter of 1983 my Dad bought a satellite dish, one of the old 8′ HUGE dishes, that gave us access to WWOR, the carrier of Mets games at the time, and we watched virtually every game in 1983. I had been taught how to score games as soon as I could write my own name and the names on the lineups, so every game I watched I scored. It became a habit that has turned into an obsession. I have the score sheet from EVERY game I have watched, listened to, or attended since that time (1975). Since the advent of the dish (1983), that is no less than 100 games a year, every year for 26 years. Last year, I scored all 162 regular season games and all 21 broadcast games in spring. That is pretty much the case every year.

Anyway, getting back to the history…

I’ll not go season by season, that will come out as we go along here on site.Moving forward to relatively recently, by 1999, I had gotten remarried to my wife Stephanie, and she had never been a big baseball fan. That was not going to make for a good marriage, and I had already been through that before. I determined that the best way to acclimate my wife to baseball was to actually take her to some games. I did just that. In June (about a month after we got married) we went on a visit to New York, and I took my two boys with us. They were 7 and 5 at the time. We took the train into the game, and I have pictures of them looking out the window at the stadium as you come around the bend. They had a look of absolute joy as they saw the stadium that until then was only something you saw on TV.

We got there as soon as the gates opened, and I left the boys with my Mom and Dad to go through the gift shops and get some food. I took Steph down to the lower levels to watch the team stretching and fielding before the game.

I had an ace in the hole. I knew that once #31 came out of the dugout, she would be hooked. I was 100% right. The second she saw Mike Piazza, Steph was no longer just a football fan. She became a fan immediately.

So, now, I have no problem watching games or going, because I was able to get her hooked. (Now that “her Mikey” is gone, the object of her affection is David Wright)

So, there you have it. A 30+ year dedicated fan, one who has created other fans, and believe me, one who KNOWS baseball and specifically the Mets.

More information will come out over time, but I have Orange and Blue blood flowing through my veins, and that will definitely come out over time!

Let’s end this initial post the only way that it can be properly ended…

Let’s Go Mets!

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