This is what it means to be a Mets fan.

 

You know, sometimes in this weary old world of ours, I try to take time and look around, and appreciate how much worse some people have it than I do.

Sure, it's fun to fill the hours complaining about Hal and The Brain. But during those dwindling times when I'm at least partially sober, I try to acknowledge that my life could be so much harder, and there are so many worse things I could be.

Such as a Mets fan, for instance.

Even as I write these words, the Mets are retiring the number of one of their all-time greats—a man who won three times as many World Series rings for the Mets' hated, crosstown rival, as he did for them.

Darryl Strawberry never did make the Hall of Fame, or fulfill all that amazing potential. (No greater curse in this life, I think, than "potential.") Before walking away to play for the Dodgers, Straw did become the franchise's all-time home-run leader...with 252. 

It was thought that he would soon be passed on the club home-run list by another can't-miss superstar, Pete Alonso. That seems less likely now, with The Polar Bear mired in another slump and fast approaching free agency.

But this is what I'm talking about: How hard it is to be a Mets fan!

We have no real conception, we proud, snooty Yankees fans. 

I mean, consider: before the Mets retired Darryl's number 18, the last number they retired was that of a player who...won twice as many rings with the Yankees as he did with the Mets.

Before that, they retired the numbers of:

—A guy who also won a ring, an MVP award, and a batting championship before becoming a Met...and was traded to New York because he was a pusher.

—A Hall-of-Fame catcher...who has his best seasons, and two All-Star MVP awards before becoming a Met. And was cashiered by the Mets organization because he didn't want to go manage in Binghamton.

—Another Hall-of-Fame catcher who was nothing but a creature of the juice...and had his best years before becoming a Met.

—An outstanding pitcher, who won the final game in the Mets' only other World Series win...and ended up quitting the team in disgust, as a free agent.

—A terrific, all-time great of a pitcher...who was chased off the team by an insane Mets general manager. Then was left off the team by accident, by another Mets general manager.

—One of the very greatest players of all time—maybe THE greatest ballplayer of all time—who had all those great years with the Giants, before stumbling through the end of his career in Shea.

—An outstanding Mets manager who was known mostly for being a beloved member of...the Brooklyn Dodgers.

—A New York legend, an outstanding player and probably the greatest manager of all time...who set a record for losses in Queens.

That's what it's like to be a Mets fan, people. 

Think of it for a moment. In their 63rd year of existence, in 1965, your New York Yankees had already the greatest dynasty in sports history.

In their 63rd of existence, the New York Mets...are still largely an object of reflected glory, a franchise whose greatest players overwhelmingly had their greatest years elsewhere. A team that has not won a World Series in 35 years, and counting.

God bless, Darryl, a man who had to struggle with many things, right from the beginning—starting with a violent, dangerous, abusive father, and forging on through serious addiction problems, a near-fatal cancer and a heart attack, and all the usual demons of this life.

He persevered—and gave us some nice moments as a Yankee.

As for the Mets...well, that's just sad.