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Wilderness Years

Centerfield Oct 22 2019 12:30 PM

Inspired by Lunchbucket's post in the other thread. Johnny Lunchbucket wrote: Bogar played mainly during my "Wilderness Years" when I was out of state, no games on TV, fresh off "Worst Team" era, and the strike that led to an additional year of pay-no-mind-to-baseball. Basically I missed almost the entire Dallas Green Era, returning only in time to see it end. It's funny. We're not quite the same age, but those were exactly my wilderness years as well. 1994 was the summer after my freshman year of college, and I was living in Ithaca with a bunch of guys, no TV, and waiting tables every night. I must have watched less than 15 games total from 1994 through 1996. I started following them again in late 1997, but was fully back in by '98. In HS, I used to watch all sports, but the Mets are the only pro sports team I picked back up. And Syracuse basketball is the only thing I followed all throughout.

Benjamin Grimm Oct 22 2019 12:37 PM Re: Wilderness Years

My wilderness years were probably 1974 and 1975, when I was eleven and twelve and discovered... comic books! (You thought I was going to say girls, right? Well, that came a little later. Comic books were easier to figure out! And now, at 56, I'm dating again. Sheesh!) The 1994 strike did cause a big dropoff in my baseball interest from which I've never fully recovered. I was 31 that year, newly married and became a father in 1996, so baseball took a back seat. There are times when I go "all in", like in September and October of 2015, but I spend much less time actually watching than I did at my peak, in the 1980s.

Lefty Specialist Oct 22 2019 12:55 PM Re: Wilderness Years

Late '70's- early '80's. The Seaver trade was a dagger to the heart, and 78-82 I watched very little and attended even less. When they got him back in '83, I started to watch again, tentatively. When they got Hernandez I was ecstatic. I was fully back by '84.

Edgy MD Oct 22 2019 12:58 PM Re: Wilderness Years

In fairness, 1994 and 1995 were wilderness years for a lot of people, being that both the Mets and MLB were self-destructing.

G-Fafif Oct 22 2019 01:34 PM Re: Wilderness Years

I was so grateful to have baseball back in 1995, coming off the surprisingly resilient 1994 Mets' partial season, that it never occurred to me to hold the strike against the sport. If anything, I stepped up my Mets fandom vis-a-vis other sports (for example, wanting the Knicks postseason to go away ASAP because it was sucking up too much media oxygen and bumping too many Mets games from WFAN to WEVD). I took advantage of various makegood ticket deals and enjoyed immensely what felt like a second-half rebirth of the franchise. In retrospect, 1995 was a trailer for 1997, which is essentially the beginning of my contemporary fandom. I am a little sketchy on some details from 1974, probably because we took a family trip out west.

Vic Sage Oct 22 2019 01:46 PM Re: Wilderness Years

I've watched at least a few games (whether on tv, live or on radio) every year for around 50 years, and it's ALL been a desert wilderness, with a brief stop at an oasis in the mid-80s.

Frayed Knot Oct 22 2019 02:10 PM Re: Wilderness Years

The college years are always tough to follow as you used to do. Too many distractions: some of those distractions have foam heads, others have tits. Oh yeah, and those book things too. I like how Keith & Ron both admit to having 'Wilderness Years' from the sport as a whole, in each case coming in the period following their respective retirements (1990 & 1995), something I suspect isn't at all unusual, and in some cases the break probably becomes permanent. When a game consumes you from the time you're six y/o until you're nearing 40 -- and in both K & R's case it's also tied in to their fathers and brother(s) -- the whole idea of following the sport from afar probably seems ludicrous.

Edgy MD Oct 22 2019 02:22 PM Re: Wilderness Years

The funny thing is they were both clearly (and openly) a little lost when it came to the current personnel when they each entered the booth. Now, they really seem to have a grasp of the whole league, speaking with familiarity about games in the American League West from the night before, aware of who the players are out there, though Keith seemingly won't form an opinion of a guy until he's seen his act in person a few times. Keith can really seem intellectually lazy sometimes, but he genuinely seems to like following the whole again league these days.

Johnny Lunchbucket Oct 22 2019 02:30 PM Re: Wilderness Years

It's weird to say this now, but the other thing that contributed to my baseball leave of absence was a bad breakup ... of a Fantasy League started among me and a buncha college friends. I feel like we "discovered" rotisserie shortly after its "invention" (the league written about by Dan Okrent et al) and the first draft we held--12 old friends in a room, live bidding, laughs, beer, crazy times--probably in 1990, we thought it would last forever. But it eventually got ugly, some guys owed money, others said they would then didn't show for subsequent drafts or stopped paying attention when they were't winning and got humiliated when they lost, still others had the temerity to get married and get on with their lives. It just crashed, and it was such a letdown from what was really fun that first season.

Johnny Lunchbucket Oct 22 2019 02:39 PM Re: Wilderness Years

And if I may continue on this topic, a bad breakup also brought me back to baseball. This, with a real person. But I latched very quickly onto the Mets as a thing to get devoted to again, used games as a good place to have dates, etc. This was the 1997 club which was compelling. Oh, and I found a bunch of likeminded freaks on the internet who shared my rediscovered passion

Willets Point Oct 22 2019 03:12 PM Re: Wilderness Years

My wilderness years were 1991-1997 coinciding with moving to Virginia and going to college at the same time. I went through a phase were I haughtily pretended to myself that I did not like sports. After graduation in 95, I started going to Norfolk Tides games. I started following the Mets heavily again during the 97 season, partially because of players I liked from the Tides getting promoted, and partly because I broke up in a long time relationship and moved into a sublet where I had a lot of free time and a cable tv package.

Centerfield Oct 22 2019 03:46 PM Re: Wilderness Years

Frayed Knot wrote: Too many distractions: some of those distractions have foam heads, others have tits. This might be the truest thing ever written on this forum.

Fman99 Oct 22 2019 06:25 PM Re: Wilderness Years

I put this in the other thread, but, yes, I had a similar time line. I started college in the fall of 1991 and I was too busy [crossout]chasing ass[/crossout] [crossout]smoking drugs[/crossout] working on my degree to follow the game.

MFS62 Oct 23 2019 06:37 AM Re: Wilderness Years

My local cable provider discontinued SNY in the middle of last year. I don't know which is worse, not having the Mets broadcasters or having to listen to the occasional Mets game announced by the ESPN and Turner crews. Later

seawolf17 Oct 23 2019 06:41 AM Re: Wilderness Years

Because as always, CF and I are the same, it was "college in western New York in the mid-90s" that did it for me. I have only vague recollections of the 1993-1997 seasons, but in 1997, I started going to dozens of Rochester Red Wings games, so I became familiar with guys like Benny Agbayani and Jay Payton, so in 1999 when we'd moved back down to Long Island, we were already all in.

41Forever Oct 23 2019 06:47 AM Re: Wilderness Years

About the closest I came was in the early 1990s and moved to the Midwest. Pre Internet, the only way to follow the team was the daily box scores and AP game stories we had access to at the paper. On some nights, if I was away from the city, I could get WFAN on the car radio -- weak signal with a lot of static, but it was a real treat. The fandom never waned, but the lack of access made it tough to follow the minutiae.

Frayed Knot Oct 23 2019 07:09 AM Re: Wilderness Years

Why do I get the feeling that a 'Wilderness Year' from G-FaFiF is defined as one where he can only remember the details from around 140 games that season?

Johnny Lunchbucket Oct 23 2019 07:22 AM Re: Wilderness Years

btw, great song: [YOUTUBE]3-8rPRxqFBA[/YOUTUBE]

seawolf17 Oct 23 2019 07:59 AM Re: Wilderness Years

Frayed Knot wrote: Why do I get the feeling that a 'Wilderness Year' from G-FaFiF is defined as one where he can only remember the details from around 140 games that season? LOL! "Yeah, I only saw maybe two-thirds of Andy Tomberlin's at-bats that season."

RealityChuck Oct 23 2019 08:09 AM Re: Wilderness Years

For me, it was 1990-1995 or so. The team wasn't very good, and the Schenectady Gazette only covered the team sporadically, other than game reports. These didn't appear when the team was playing on the west coast, so you'd get nothing but a box score and the results two days later. It was rare that they were on TV, and every time I tried to watch, they'd lose. I was convinced that there was some signal in the dugout that told them I was watching and it was time to tank. I started following the team more closely when I could get online and see the scores and more detailed news reports. I actually thought I'd stop following in 1973. I didn't pay any attention until I discovered they were in the world series. That got me back into it, and after college I worked for several years hosting a sports talk show and could get regular news on the UPI sports ticker.

Methead Oct 23 2019 10:53 AM Re: Wilderness Years

I followed the Mets growing up outside of Syracuse. Like many of you I lost touch with baseball during college from 91 to 96. But after graduation I moved to NYC and could actually start attending Mets games for the first time in my life, and it just so happened to coincide with the team getting good again. I'll never forget walking through out of the concourse and seeing that field for the first time.

Benjamin Grimm Oct 23 2019 11:04 AM Re: Wilderness Years

College didn't distract me from the Mets. A big part of that was because I was in New York City and had friends who were Mets fans and Shea Stadium was just a subway ride away. It was while I was at NYU that I attended Seaver's return in 1983, enjoyed the rookie seasons of Darryl and Doc, found out that the Mets had traded for Gary Carter, and saw the beginning of Gooden's 1985 season.

G-Fafif Oct 23 2019 11:46 AM Re: Wilderness Years

The enforced geographic detachment of my college years (fall '81 to spring '85) was alleviated by box scores, calls to Sports Phone and occasional indulgences at the out-of-town newsstand for a National-edition News or day-old Post. I missed the day-to-day buzz and a few September callups, but strove to keep up and generally succeeded. The 1984 renaissance, enjoyed as best as it could be from afar, doesn't quite resonate with me as it does others because I took a summer term that year and was in New York for less than six weeks, just in time for the Mets to peak before falling definitively behind the Cubs.