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Innocence Lost

Edgy DC Jul 16 2011 08:27 PM

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 Jul 16 2011 08:43 PM Re: Innocence Lost

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

Edgy DC Jul 16 2011 08:49 PM Re: Innocence Lost

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

Ceetar Jul 16 2011 09:11 PM Re: Innocence Lost

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.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Jul 16 2011 09:54 PM Re: Innocence Lost

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

Ashie62 Jul 17 2011 06:46 AM Re: Innocence Lost

Mine was Dave Kingman. Loved the bastard.

TransMonk Jul 17 2011 06:49 AM Re: Innocence Lost

Dykstra. I got over it.

bmfc1 Jul 17 2011 06:58 AM Re: Innocence Lost

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

MFS62 Jul 17 2011 08:29 AM Re: Innocence Lost

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

bmfc1 Jul 17 2011 08:39 AM Re: Innocence Lost

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

sharpie Jul 17 2011 09:23 AM Re: Innocence Lost

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 Jul 17 2011 01:20 PM Re: Innocence Lost

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 Jul 17 2011 02:37 PM Re: Innocence Lost

Broussard? Later

Edgy DC Jul 17 2011 04:00 PM Re: Innocence Lost

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 Jul 17 2011 04:52 PM Re: Innocence Lost

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 Jul 17 2011 05:48 PM Re: Innocence Lost

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.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Jul 17 2011 06:51 PM Re: Innocence Lost

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 Jul 17 2011 07:18 PM Re: Innocence Lost

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 Jul 17 2011 08:25 PM Re: Innocence Lost

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 Jul 17 2011 08:25 PM Re: Innocence Lost

TheOldMole Jul 18 2011 06:47 AM Re: Innocence Lost

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 Jul 18 2011 06:54 AM Re: Innocence Lost

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.

attgig Jul 18 2011 07:01 AM Re: Innocence Lost

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.

Edgy DC Jul 18 2011 07:03 AM Re: Innocence Lost

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 Jul 18 2011 07:43 AM Re: Innocence Lost

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 Jul 18 2011 09:23 AM Re: Innocence Lost

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 Jul 18 2011 09:46 AM Re: Innocence Lost

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...

sharpie Jul 18 2011 10:01 AM Re: Innocence Lost

Ditto on Dykstra. Reminded me of the kind of kid I hated growing up. Was pretty stoked that we got Juan Samuel.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Jul 18 2011 10:05 AM Re: Innocence Lost

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.

attgig Jul 18 2011 10:09 AM Re: Innocence Lost

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.

Edgy DC Jul 18 2011 10:13 AM Re: Innocence Lost

I figure it's an age thing. dgw and I were old enough to see through his act (I was a high school senor in 1985), but the junior high kids in my town were enraptured.

TransMonk Jul 18 2011 10:15 AM Re: Innocence Lost

Dykstra was always dirty. To me, that meant he played hard. Also, his '86 postseason seasled it for me. That HR in Game 3 of the NLCS was one of the first walk-off win I remember watching. It was AMAZING!

metsguyinmichigan Jul 18 2011 10:15 AM Re: Innocence Lost

The Seaver trade was out-and-out betrayal to this then-13-year-old. I took it very personally.

Ashie62 Jul 18 2011 10:36 AM Re: Innocence Lost

Dykstra & Mcdowell came off as bullies to me. Where are they now? hmmm...

Ashie62 Jul 18 2011 10:56 AM Re: Innocence Lost

MFS62 wrote: Broussard? Later Oops Eddie Bressoud 1967 .

Fman99 Jul 18 2011 07:58 PM Re: Innocence Lost

Lost my innocence at 15 at the (skilled) hands of a 19 year old Puerto Rican girl, the older sister of a buddy of mine from high school. She was most instructive. No Mets were involved.

themetfairy Jul 21 2011 09:46 AM Re: Innocence Lost

June 15, 1977. Specifically, Seaver.

Frayed Knot Jul 24 2011 01:43 PM Re: Innocence Lost

In today's NYTimes Sports Section was a letter-to-the-editor section with replies to Alan Schwartz's article on his kid's lost innocence after the Frankie trade. This is obviously by no means scientific and you do get the idea that some used this as an excuse to rant about things they were simply pissed off about either at the time or in retrospect. Anyway, a synopsis of the responses divided into categories more or less: Trades -- Mets deal Seaver Oilers deal Gretzky Giants deal Cepeda Dodgers deal Jackie (to the Giants no less!!) Knicks deal Clyde Met trades of Mookie / Dykstra / Mazzilli Cubs trade Lou Brock for Ernie Broglio Indians trade Rocky Colovito Yanx trade Bobby Murcer Colts trade Unitas Rangers trading Park, & Ratelle for Esposito & Vadnais (then followign that up with Middleton for Hodge) Releases/Firings -- Yanx let Damon & Matsui walk Yanx fire Showalter Yanx fire Berra Yanx fire Dick Howser Celtics let Paul Silas go Czonka, Kiick & Warfield flee the Dolphins for the WFL Business -- ‘94 MLB strike McCourt buying the Dodgers Dodgers/Giants moving to California Robert Irsay moving the Colts away form Baltimore in the middle of the night MLB clubs tossing aside Fay Vincent for Selig Getting priced out of Yanqui Stadium Al Davis taking the Raiders out of Oakland (despite a waiting list for tickets) Scandals -- Steroids in baseball “When it bacame obvious what Pete Rose would do for a dollar” Player personal lives becoming public (generic) Keckich/Peterson Dwight Gooden in rehab Vince Coleman with firecrackers and not knowing who Jackie Robinson was Having to toss aside one’s framed, autographed Roger Clemens photo Assorted -- Munich ‘72 Mets removing the orange & blue shingles (really dude, Really?) The introduction and subsequent proliferation of over-the-top NBA player intros Leaning over the Dodger bullpen wall to see a pack of Maroboros next to Don Drysdale

Edgy DC Jul 24 2011 01:46 PM Re: Innocence Lost

Frayed Knot wrote: Mets removing the orange & blue shingles (really dude, Really?) Hey, I wrote what was in my heart, OK?