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You meet the nicest people blogging about the Mets. Among the nicest I've come across is Dave Murray, the Mets Guy in Michigan. A 42-year-old Long Island native and longtime education beat reporter for the Grand Rapids Press, Dave joined the Metsosphere in 2005, staking out not just The Wolverine State but a crossroads of baseball, family and spirituality as territory uniquely his own within our realm. Dave writes concurrently about life and the Mets, weaving from one experience to the next without ever failing to be Amazin' about it. His blog offers a very refreshing respite from who should bat second or play second. Mets Guy in Michigan is subtitled "adventures in baseball and life," and that's what it's got.
After I told Edgy how much I enjoyed his interview with Steve Keane of the Eddie Kranepool Society, he offered me the opportunity to do one of my own. I chose to do Dave. I hope you enjoy it and I hope you visit Mets Guy in Michigan often.
Dave, you're the Mets Guy in Michigan. Are you all alone out there in that respect? Are there other Mets Guys (or Gals) in the Grand Rapids area?
I'm pretty much alone, which is to my advantage when trying to find things like Carlos Beltran McFarlane figures in the toy stores. On the rare times I see another person in a Mets cap I make sure to say "Hi."
When you settled out there, how much did your distance from the Mets weigh on your mind?
Tremendously. I'm a native Massapequan, but finished college at the University Of Missouri School Of Journalism, my first taste of rooting for the Mets in a strange land. We lived in Connecticut for three years after graduating, and it was great because we still had easy access to the Mets in person, on television and in the papers. I knew it would be a struggle when we moved to Michigan, but it was better for the family. It was a tradeoff.
How hard is it to follow your team from what we shall politely call the hinterlands? And how much easier has it gotten over the years thanks to technology? What do you miss most about not being in New York?
There were serious withdrawal issues at first because I was limited to ESPN and box scores the next day. I'd buy USA Today a lot during the season because of the team-by-team notes, the best way to get Mets news. For some reason the cable company in my area never carried WOR, though we had the Cubs and the Braves. That was frustrating.
The Internet certainly as made it much easier. I follow games on MLB.com or Yahoo, and I recently purchased the MLB.com radio package. My Mets listserv brings me a daily dose of articles and opinions. And of course the blogosphere brings things to another level entirely. I don't feel so isolated anymore.
As far as missing things about the homeland, you're going to laugh, but I miss New Yorkers! These Midwesterners can go through their whole lives without using their car horn, and of course we use it as basic communication. I miss little things, like proper bagels. People here just can't make them properly. I'll always be a New Yorker living in the Midwest, rather than a Midwesterner who was born in New York, if that makes sense.
How far back do you go with the Mets? And whether through your travels or just general disillusionment, did you ever take a pause in your affections?
I can't remember not being a Mets fan. My parents think it is appropriate that Shea Stadium's first game was about two weeks after I was born. We were a National League household, with my dad and grandmother growing up going to Ebbets Field. My first Mets game was Banner Day in 1971, and I was hooked for sure!
The Seaver trade was traumatic, but didn't shake my fandom. All the kids in my neighborhood switched to the Yankees by 1978, so I was all by myself. One day I got disgusted and was tired of all the verbal abuse and thought about going Yankee. That lasted about 20 minutes. I just couldn't do it. I'm loyal, if nothing. My team is my team, through thick and thin. And the thin makes the thick that much more enjoyable.
Shortly after moving to Michigan, I interviewed a principal who grew up in Lindenhurst. She said she was a Mets fan — my first question, of course — and she said that when you live in the state long enough you start following the Tigers. I was horrified. You don't turn your back on your team like that.
If I say "Mets" to you, who do you think of? Which players, which teams, which era?
I always considered the 1973 team "my team." I was 9 years old. That was the first year I kept a scrapbook of every Mets photo that appeared in the paper and knew absolutely everything about every player. That whole Seaver, Koosman, Harrelson, Grote, Staub, Millan gang. After that, the late 1980s teams are special to me. I was able to go to a lot of games when we lived in Connecticut, and I'd meet players at card shows.
Who is your favorite Met ever and who is your favorite non-obvious/obscure Met of all time?
Seaver was my hero, and to this day, if I have a number on anything, that number is 41. Besides being a great player, Seaver seemed clean cut and honorable. I finally met him in 1987, and I was worried that I'd be crushed if he was a jerk. But he was very nice. It was kind of emotional when I took my son to a card show a few years back and took him to meet Tom.
My favorite obscure Met is Mickey Weston, a pitcher who had a cup of coffee with the team in 1993. Mickey is from the Flint, Mich. area and I became his de facto biographer starting in 1990, when we spent time with him trying to tell readers what it was like to be a minor-league player so close to reaching his dream. He was in the Orioles system then, and went on the Blue Jays and Phillies before arriving with the Mets. I caught up with him in Cincinnati at Riverfront Stadium, my first time in a Mets clubhouse, talking to guys like Gooden and Mel Stottlemyre. Those times with Mickey were an amazing education about the game, and the players as real people. He forever changed the way I look at the game.
What Mets blogs do you read? And why should our fellow Mets fans who don't partake read them?
Well, Faith and Fear in Flushing, of course! I read a lot of them, and for different reasons. I don't want to offend folks by leaving them out, but certainly Metstradamus is a must because he's so darn funny. I like Matt Cerrone's MetsBlog and The Metropolitans as a daily briefing on all the Mets news. I share a bond with Lonestar Mets and Tales of a Transplanted Mets Fan. I think the folks behind Miracle Mets and Mike's Mets are good writers, and of course the insight provided by Bob Sikes at Getting Paid to Watch is just fascinating. There are more. I try to check out everyone on my links section. My buddy Will is an expert baseball analyst, and I'm grateful that he allows me to contribute to his site, baseballtruth.com.
I like the people who tell stories and make be feel like I am part of a community. The game recaps I can get in a million different places. But the Mets are the common thread in all of our lives. I like hearing about the lives. Reporters are nosy people. We know the "what," we want to know the "why."
Why did you get into this little racket of ours?
Tony, my college roommate and close friend, is a great writer and I was reading his stuff and thought blogging looked like fun. Newspaper reporters get to do some neat things, meet some neat people and go to some neat places. For years I had been meaning to write down some of the experiences before I forgot the details, in case someday my kids wanted to know what their Dad did for a living. One day after reading Tony's writing I stumbled on the Blogger homepage, saw the "start your own blog" link and clicked it just to see what it would entail. I decided it would be a good place to jot down all those things I had been meaning to jot down. I had no idea anyone would read it or care.
Your blog always manages to touch on the Mets in some way but it often just cuts the bag, if you will. You don't post every single day and you don't react to every single game. Describe your blogging philosophy for the folks at home.
If I were a shortstop, I'd be making the old "neighborhood play" when it comes to including the Mets sometimes, for sure! But people who know me know that the references aren't forced, and the Mets really do creep into my daily life in some way. I write for a living, but the stuff that appears on the blog is a different type of writing than I get to do during the day. If I dropped a Jeter rant into a school board story, I'd be in big trouble. So while the work writing can be very rewarding, the blog writing can be more fun. The work writing has to come first, and having two active kids and church activities keeps me hopping during the off hours. My new laptop makes it easier to write when I'm away from the house, so I should be able to post more often now. I try to get something up at least twice a week.
I like your adventures in life, the ones that take you to other ballparks, Majors and minors, to hockey arenas with your kids to meet actors from Napoleon Dynamite, on bus trips to cover protest marches. What brings those out of you and how do you make them work in a Mets-related context?
The baseball team is intertwined with my life, and thinking about the Mets reminds me of other things. For example, the Mets were in Washington at the time of the illegal immigration protests, and that reminded me of the last time I was in DC, and that was to cover another protest that filled the National Mall and the strange things that happened on that assignment. You know the "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" game? You could play the "Six Degrees of the Mets" for me. Heck, who are we kidding? It would be the three degrees or less.
I also love your interpretations of history, including the greatest living pitchers (all one-time Mets), key Mets songs and tour of Mets hair through the years. How do those come to you?
Some of those are rants because the Mets don't get the love they deserve from the national press, and we need to set the record straight, like when Sports Illustrated rated the stadiums and put Shea near the very bottom. It's a chance to revel in fandom without getting too darn serious.
Talk a little about the stuff you collect from your adventures. If a Mets fan were coming to your home, what would you want to show off immediately?
My basement is a shrine to Metsdom. None of it is valuable, except to me. There are things I've had since childhood or picked up along the way. My most prized item is a Mets history book that my parents gave me in 1986. It's become filled with Mets autographs, everyone from owners Wilpon and Doubleday to guys who had a cup of coffee. And before anyone thinks I'm one of those freaks who hound players in hotels, I collected the vast majority of signatures at card shows and spring training games, where players don't mind.
You allude to your spirituality every now and then. To paraphrase from My Cousin Vinny, my initial reaction was "you were serious about that?" At the risk of being too personal, explain a little where you're coming from, specifically how your beliefs mesh with your ability to Gotta Believe.
Well, I'm not a good preacher, but my faith is important. I realized I'm blessed in many, many ways. That helps me keep things in perspective.
You were described by a fellow blogger once as "Massapequa savvy on Midwestern wry" (oh right, that was by me). Do you think your attitude or tone toward baseball has changed by being in the great out there? You seem to have retained your cynicism but it never comes off as harsh as what's spewed by some of us back east.
Reporters are cynical by nature. But I think being out here gives me a different perspective. I see what it's like for other fans in other cities. Mets fans suffer in doses, but until this year, the Tigers haven't had a decent season since I moved to Michigan in 1990. Those fans have suffered. And while the Yankee presence is here, it's not a suffocating as it is in the Apple. I can shut them out a little. You guys are in the trenches, with idiots like Mike and the Mad Dog in your face every day. That intensity is going to sharpen your blades a little.
You're a little promiscuous in terms of liking some other teams. Who are they and do they ever get in the way of the only team that really counts?
I started checking out the White Sox after Seaver was snatched away in 1984, and went to a game at Old Comiskey in 1988. I think the Mets and the Sox have some things in common, perceived as being second teams in their cities. And I've bonded a little with the Marlins, having been to their first game in 1993 and one of the World Series games in 1997. I have a healthy respect for the Cardinals after going to college in Missouri and witnessing how much baseball is loved there. The Marlins and Cards share a spring training site in Jupiter, Fla., where my folks live. But make no mistake; these are second-tier teams posing no threat to Mets fandom. When they go head-to-head I'm pulling all the way for the Mets.
Let's do a little lightning round. I'll give you a subject, you give me a sentence or two. First off: Worse scourge of the earth, Braves or Yankees?
Clearly the Yankees. The Braves aren't evil, they just beat us. A lot. The Yankees have been the cause of pain and abuse since I've been a kid.
Chipper or Jeter?
Chipper is redeemable, he just beats the stuffing out of us. Jeter is the Yankees personified, over-hyped, over-paid and too damn lucky. He represents all the kids who taunted me growing up, Reggie Jackson banging my Hall-of-Fame ball on a table, all the people all over who put down the Mets.
Al Leiter: Great big-game Mets pitcher or weaseling front-office meddler turned traitor?
Al has clearly lost his way. He needs an intervention.
Doc Gooden: Mets Hall of Famer or not welcome here?
Gooden needs to be in the Mets Hall of Fame, once he's out of jail. That magical 1985 season can't be forgotten.
Jose Reyes: Obviously never going to make it as a leadoff hitter or one of the most dynamic players in the game?
He's still a kid. Give him time and he'll get even better.
Shea Stadium: Beloved playground of our youth that with a few nips and tucks could serve another generation of Mets fans or where's the button, I wanna blow it up myself?
I love Shea and have tons of memories. But after seeing a number of the other new stadiums around the game, it's time for Shea to be replaced.
1969 or 1986?
Nothing can surpass the 1969 team that captured the nation's attention. I have a baseball magazine from 1970 and the cover story is "How the Mets saved baseball."
David Wright: Great third baseman or greatEST third baseman?
Stinking Sports Illustrated and it's football/Yankee bias. It's got a wonderful story about Wright with great art. And who is on the cover? An injured football player, from the Bengals, no less.
Are our boys going to do it this year? How far might they go?
All. The. Way.
Willie manage to your satisfaction? What about Omar?
I think Omar has done amazing job. Willie, not so much. But he's getting better. Dude was a Yankee for a looooong time.
Does it strike you as it strikes me from reading blogs like ours, including some of the thoughts from the regular commenters, that there's something, well, special about the Mets fans who came of age when we did in the early '70s? Maybe every "generation" of Mets fan thinks of itself that way, but I sense we came up when the Mets were IT and the Yankees barely existed and it colors the way we see the baseball world. Any feelings on that?
We're scrappy and we don't take the good times for granted. I think we don't buy into the Yankee hype because we remember a time when they weren't spending twice as much as everyone else and they were a national joke. Even when they were winning in the late 1970s, the whole Billy-Reggie-George stuff was embarrassing.
Have you raised your children in The Principle? Are they growing up Mets fans in Western Michigan?
I'm trying, but it's tough. My son likes the Diamondbacks because he uses the team to kick my butt when we play MLB Slugfest on PlayStation. It's based on stats from 2003 and 2004, and I'm always the Mets. I hold out hope for my daughter, who keeps score when we go to ballgames.
Finally, what's better to wake up to: News of a Pedro three-hit shutout at Dodger Stadium or a warm poppy-seed bagel shipped directly from Long Island?
Nothing, and I mean nothing, beats a warm poppy-seed bagel shipped directly from Long Island!
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If you watch your Mets with emotions running full-tap, perhaps screaming and cheering at the screen as your beer spills out onto a summer Sunday, the Ed Kranepool Society probably has a place for you. In fact, we finished up this conversation shortly after the Society returned from Shea on Saturday, presumably having witnessed the coughing up a four-run lead in the ninth flipping into an 11th-inning loss. I’ll admit that I was not a little relieved to hear from him. I wrapped up my conversation as quickly as I could, not having the heart to ask him about the game. I figure I’ll find that out his response in the blog.
and I got to see Bob Gibson beat the Mets. 
You seem to wear your heart on your sleeve in your blog, with your initial reaction after a game or a transaction being emotional — see your semi-serious suggestion that Tim Tschida had money on the Brewers — and then introduce reason to your blog as you go further. Is that a fair — if perhaps overbroad — assessment? 
I'll keep a safe distance then.