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Greg Prince and Jason Fry
Faith and Fear in Flushing made its debut on Feb. 16, 2005, the brainchild of two longtime friends and lifelong Met fans.

Greg Prince discovered the Mets when he was 6, during the magical summer of 1969. He is a Long Island-based writer, editor and communications consultant. Contact him here.

Jason Fry is a Brooklyn writer whose first memories include his mom leaping up and down cheering for Rusty Staub. Check out his other writing here.

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The Nerve of Them

Well, the first game of the rest of our lives has come and gone and absolutely nothing has changed. The Mets lost; no biggie there. We didn't lose any ground. I'd argue there's no ground to lose. What hasn't changed is the Met fan reaction to anything less than eternal perfection.

I went to the game and there was a nice ovation when the Mets took the field, but eventually there was booing. Booing of Mets. Booing of the Mets. Booing of the team that just won eight in a row on the road and put away the Phillies and separated themselves irrevocably from the Braves. Booing of the team that ended Thursday with the best record in baseball and — the nerve of them — maintains the best record in the National League.

One unattractive loss to some unfamiliar opponent after a rampage across the continent requires a pass. If you'd been traveling nonstop for a week-and-a-half, would you be your sharpest the next night? Would you want someone to cut you some slack? Would you immediately point to what you've done for them lately?

Don't they have a term in golf for it…a mulligan? Give the Mets one of whatever it's called when you don't hold a mistake against somebody. Hell, we'll take the stroke penalty. It's a loss, the first one in a very long time. Suck it up and do like the people sitting in my row: buy something to eat (they bought one of everything; I love watching vendors make change instead of the pitch).

Aaron Heilman was the prime boo provocateur, giving back in the seventh the lead we squeaked out in the sixth. Didn't Aaron Heilman pitch a perfect inning the day before in a one-run ballgame against what had been our prime division rival? Didn't he help nail down a very important sweep of sweeps? And now you're letting him hear it because he sucked against the Orioles? He hasn't been a beauty lately, but hey, he's all right. Pedro has a lousy inning, he has a chance to make good. When a starter recovers, we're all “boy, you gotta get to the great ones early.” Aaron, who only gets one frame, has a lousy inning and he's the new villain in town.

Apparently we need one.

10 comments to The Nerve of Them

  • Anonymous

    The angst. The angst. Even in the most recent heyday, 99-00, losing to the perennial Braves and the machine from the Bronx.
    So long in the wilderness.
    The booing aint my style. Bad taste. I think its just welled up emotion to prior bad management.

  • Anonymous

    I blame Danny Heep.

  • Anonymous

    Junior Noboa

  • Anonymous

    I wrote the same thing on a post at Metsblog before I even saw this. It makes me crazy. God forbid a Mets fan should stand and cheer and yell….”go get 'em next town Aaron.” Show a little respect, a little admiration for the team's efforts over the past week plus. No, much too civilized for some obnoxious Mets fans!

  • Anonymous

    Of course, I meant next” time”…not town. I'm so annoyed, I couldn't type straight!

  • Anonymous

    Wait a second, you may have subconciously stumbled onto something. Work with me here.
    Ahem.
    Maestro, music please.
    “New York Mets, out team, our town.”
    Hey, that's way cooler!

  • Anonymous

    Unless, of course, you're referring to the next road trip, 'cause we'll need Aaron then, too.

  • Anonymous

    Maybe, but it's time too shake out some of angst in our pangst.

  • Anonymous

    They booed EVERYONE last night. People in our section booed Jose Reyes, they booed David Wright, they booed Milledge, they booed Willie. It was drunk Friday night bandwagoneers who came to Shea because the Mets were winning and got angry when they didn't.
    they had plenty of boos for the mets but none for the opposing team. which confirms my theory, at least to me.

  • Anonymous

    You're right. I wonder how long it'll take the News or the Post to pick up on that.