The little Mets fan that (I’m hoping) won’t get away
By Margaret Gates
Updated Feb 19, 2007 15:52
That’s right up there with having tomato soup for lunch while wearing white pants. I’ve done that, too. In the car.
Eat your heart out, Evel Knievel.
Being a “Let’s Go Mets!” girl in a world of phanatical Phillies fans is no easy task. Although it’s much easier now that the Mets are in first place.
That wasn’t the case when my family moved here from Queens some 30 years ago. The Mets were in the basement and the Phillies were in their heyday with Mike Schmidt, Larry Bowa, Greg Luzinski, Bake McBride and Garry Maddox.
My family couldn’t stand the Phillies. My mom called Bowa ally have a chance with the little guy. At 3, he’s too young to really care about baseball — and I would never dream of trying to influence him — but one day I decide to just feel him out on the subject, you know, subtly.
So I “accidentally” knock over two Mets hats hanging on pegs on his bedroom wall. (Hey, I had no place else to put them.)
“Ooh, we want to be careful with these NEW YORK METS hats. By the way, what’s your favorite baseball team?” I ask, knowing full well he usually responds to such questions with the name he heard most recently.
“Jimmy Wollins’ team,” he answers, without hesitation.
The words hit me like a Billy Wagner fastball. Jimmy Wollins? How does he know about Jimmy Wollins? I smell the handiwork of our 8-year-old phanatic.
“Don’t you like the METS?” I ask, bravely steadying the quiver in my voice.
“No. I like Jimmy Wollins’ team.”
Sigh. I guess there’s always hope.
Maybe someday Jimmy Wollins will get traded to the Mets.
——— The Voices column is written by a rotating team of New Era staffers. It appears Mondays.
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