Meet the Mets! Step right up and greet the Mets!
Brooklyn turned out to celebrate its love for the orange and blue on Saturday at a Mets–themed shindig in Brooklyn Bridge Park called Mets Jam. One mega fan said she just had to come down to support the parent team of our Brooklyn Cyclones.
“We’re huge Mets fans,” said Veronica Nieves, of Bedford–Stuyvesant who came out with her husband, two kids, and her niece, and boasted that she has been a fan since the glory days of the Mets’ last World Series win.
“We go back to ’86,” she said.
Sponsored by a half-dozen local radio stations, the free event included games for kids, such as a pitching booth that measured how fast they could throw and a batting cage. And in spite of the annual September sunset of any hope for their team making the postseason, Mets fans arrived showing their pride.
Former Mets were on hand to sign autographs, including Dwight “Doc” Gooden, Ed Kranepool, and John Franco. Mr. and Mrs. Met were also on hand to greet fans. But for a pair of young brothers, the best part was the home run derby.
“They were more interested in doing the activities than anything else,” said Paul Casey about his sons Sean and Evan. “They had a lot of fun with the home run derby.”
Casey has been a Mets fan since the late 1970s, and said there was no question about which team his kids were going to root for.
“Being a Yankee fan was out of the question,” he said. “Not in my house.”
Nieves said the day went off without a hitch, and that watching the kids enjoy themselves was the best aspect for her.
“Seeing the kids have fun was my favorite part,” she said.
Nieves is such a big fan she gave her son Ayden the middle name “Shea,” after the former home of The Amazins, which was torn down the same year he was born. She said there was not even much discussion about it with her husband.
“Of course I married a Mets fan,” she said.
