Innocence Lost

[Guest Edgy DC]

For some it was Strawberry. For too many it was Seaver. For a gilded few, it was Ron Hunt. And for scattered pockets, it was Mazzilli, Wilson, or Tug McGraw --- that child of the Mets that your childhood parallelled, suddenly launched from the team, launching you out of your childhood innoncence whether you were ready or not. It could be almost anybody with a little meaningful tenure --- Todd Hundley, Wally Backman, Francisco Rodriguez....

Wait, Francisco Rodriguez? Really?

[ashie62]

This is for real? This kid is a bit odd..

[Guest Edgy DC]

"Daddy, What does 'Mets Mercifully Deal Coleman' mean?"

[Ceetar]

hmm..

I think mine would be Olerud.

"Greatest infield ever" and then all of a sudden he's gone? and for pretty reasonable "I want to go home" type reasons If I recall.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

So... I take it the kid learned to read this year?

[ashie62]

Mine was Dave Kingman. Loved the bastard.

[TransMonk]

Dykstra.

I got over it.

[bmfc1]

Very odd. Maybe the kid wears goggles when he plays ball and F. Rodriguez became his favorite when Duaner Sanchez left the team.

[MFS62]

An entire team was taken away from me.
The loss of one player wouldn't have the same effect.

Later

[bmfc1]

You could have told me that the article was from [u:2zwtm9vh]The Onion[/u:2zwtm9vh] and I would have believed you.

[Guest sharpie]

Ken Boyer losing his playing time to the upstart Ed Charles really hurt.

For my son, the former poster Lenny Harris, it would have been Jay Payton.

[ashie62]

sharpie wrote: Ken Boyer losing his playing time to the upstart Ed Charles really hurt. For my son, the former poster Lenny Harris, it would have been Jay Payton.

Ken Boyer?

Where are Broussard & Buchek when ya needem.

[MFS62]

Broussard?
Later

[Guest Edgy DC]

bmfc1 wrote: You could have told me that the article was from The Onion and I would have believed you.

That actually would have been kinda funny, too.

[G-Fafif]

I pouted when my favorite Met wasn't on the team anymore and watched them only grudgingly for the next season and a quarter.

OK, so it was Fonzie and I was 40. But still, I get it.

[Benjamin Grimm]

It was when the Mets released Donn Clendenon after the 1971 season that I realized that the Mets roster wasn't fixed in place for eternity.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

I'm probably a Dykstra/Straw guy... one for "this is a business" and the other for "this is a business with stubborn, stupid stupidheads."

[G-Fafif]

I can't say it broke my heart, but I do remember thinking it was strange the Mets decided they could live without Ron Swoboda. How could Ron Swoboda be anything but a Met?

[ashie62]

G-Fafif wrote: I can't say it broke my heart, but I do remember thinking it was strange the Mets decided they could live without Ron Swoboda. How could Ron Swoboda be anything but a Met?

Oh, maybe an MFY?

[ashie62]

[Theoldmole]

MFS has it right. Nothing can compare.

But on the Mets, mine was Ron Hunt.

And hey, stop picking on a 5 year old kid.

[metsmarathon]

i could see a 5 year old liking frankie.

i don't think i had an analogue. i suppose the closest would be dykstra, but i was more than twice the kids age.

[Guest attgig]

loved the ending of the article

for me.... the first mets I really remember were all from 86. I think the first bitterness I felt against some of the mets was seeing Straw fade away and become a shell of his former self - to a point where I cheered on Mark Carreon when he started in place of straw. knowing what i know now, I guess i feel bad that his addiction got him to that point rather than upset with him/cheering against.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I certainly don't mean to be picking on him, just scratching my head raw.

I guess with no Reyes and Wright, the child in his single digits has to shift his focus somewhere, and Goofy Goggles is as attractive a fixation as any. He problably wasn't even paying attention to the Mets when K-Rod pulled the old domestic assault maneuver last year, but liekly nonetheless feels like he's been following this team forever. And the trauma is, of course, the sudden realizaiton that someone could be kicked out of the family and join one of those 29 other evil conglomerates inexplicably bent on breaking our hearts. It's an awful thing.

It's just funny in another sense, as I've read the same story a million times, and 999,999 times, it's been about somebody at least three times as appealing as Rodriguez.

[Willets Point]

Probably Dykstra but less as an individual and more of a symbol of several players I like who left the Mets ca. 1989-91 and were replaced by players that were hard to like as well as the realization that the Mets weren't going to be contenders every year anymore. Of course, nowadays I wonder why I considered Dykstra likeable.

When I was 5 I wasn't even following baseball yet.

[Centerfield]

For me it was Dykstra followed by Strawberry.

The Dykstra trade hit me hard. He was one of my favorite players.

Strawberry was my absolute favorite player, so even though I knew it might happen, it was still devastating.

Sad to say that after these two moves, the Mets never meant as much to me again. And part of this is obviously just that I was growing up, but I really link these two events to the end of my childhood.

[dgwphotography]

My childhood officially ended when Tom Seaver rode out of Shea through the center field gates on Tom Seaver Day.

The Seaver trade was devastating to me. The Mets didn't mean as much to me until I saw Strawberry on the cover of Scholastic magazine in June of 1981.

To be honest, I never got the appeal of Dykstra. I was happy to see him and that other punk McDowell traded...

[Guest sharpie]

Ditto on Dykstra. Reminded me of the kind of kid I hated growing up.

Was pretty stoked that we got Juan Samuel.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Really?

I liked Dykstra; I didn't LOVE Dykstra. But even as a 10-year-old, I remember thinking that Dykstra and McDowell seemed like a lot to give up for a second-baseman that you wanted to play CF.

[Guest attgig]

I liked McDowell. Dykstra...all I could remember was the gobs of chewing tobacco he had and always thinking it was kinda gross.. I didn't like the trade more for losing Mcdowell than Dykstra.