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It happened in 1973...I was there. The Mets pitching staff had halted the attack of the Big Red Machine and the Reds had their backs against the wall in the National League Championship Series. Something had to give. Someone had to light a fire and get the Reds back in the series. That's when Pete Rose went in hard...VERY hard...into the Mets beloved shortstop Bud Harrelson to break up a double play. It did not break up the double play but it DID incite a riot at Shea Stadium.
Even after the players returned to their respective dugouts and bullpens, the raucous fans at Shea would not let up. When Rose went to take his position in left field, he was showered with all kinds of debris. It was actually a horrible display. The public address announcer made an announcement telling the fans that the game would be forfeited if they didn't stop. Finally, Tom Seaver, Cleon Jones, Willie Mays, and Rusty Staub - acting as goodwill ambassadors - walked out to left field and appealed to the fans to halt. The game resumed, the Mets won, but not before Rose claimed the title for the most hated athlete in New York...long before he became the most despised person in baseball period.
And now another has claimed the title that Rose so eloquently carried for so many years...and under some somewhat similar circumstances.
Last week Jose Reyes made headlines saying that he would love to finish his career with the New York Mets. This coming while he was with his third team since leaving the Mets, having been traded for the face of the Colorado Rockies franchise, Troy Tulowitski, just a couple of weeks ago at the trade deadline.
Alan Karmin is an award-winning journalist and author. He was born in Brooklyn, New York and spent most of his life growing up in the New Jersey suburbs. Alan's family were avid Brooklyn Dodgers fans and when the Dodgers moved west, the Mets became the team to root for. The Mets have always been a true focal point, Alan even wrote a term paper in high school to analyze what was wrong with the Mets. While at the University of Miami, Alan honed his craft covering the, gulp, Yankees during spring trainings in Fort Lauderdale for a local NBC affiliate, as well as the Associated Press and UPI. He broadcasted baseball games for the University of Miami, and spring training games for the Baltimore Orioles and Montreal Expos. New York Mets Mania is a forum for Alan to write about his favorite team and for baseball fans to chime in and provide their thoughts and ideas about New York's Amazin' Mets.
