A certain feeling prevailed as Mets fans packed into Citi Field on Thursday to watch the Amazons tie the game in the National League Championship Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. “This is everything.”
Crisp air and cool breezes accentuated the frenetic feel of October baseball in Queens as teams try to clinch a ticket to the World Series.
Before the gates opened, fans wrapped around a statue of iconic Mets pitcher Tom Seaver and chanted, “Let's go Mets!” — My heart is pounding with both anticipation and anxiety for the match that will unfold over the next few hours.
One of those fans, Cindy Stanimirov, 37, was walking to Citi Field with a colleague and her brother.
Stanimirov is the operations manager at the Red Hook Lobster Pound in Brooklyn and said he skipped work today to play.
“My restaurant might catch fire, I have no idea,” said one die-hard Mets fan. “But I don't care, and I just don't say anything about this.
“It’s unbelievable to come here – the last time we won was in ’86. I was born in ’87. We’ve never experienced this in our lives. Everything. We want to be here. We want to win,” she implored.
“This city, this country, is dying for one of these things.”
Stanimirov said her connection to the Mets spans generations and the team means “everything” to her family. Her mother worked in the concession stands at Shea Stadium in the '80s and '90s.
She took her mother to Citi Field for the Philadelphia Phillies game last week and said of a possible World Series appearance, “I'm 100% going to figure out how to manage the money and bring her back.” Ta.
Her colleague Rob Enriquez, 37, is trying to reach out to Mets fans his own age.
“I'm a hardcore guy. I have orange and blue blood in my veins,” he told the Post. “I'm so passionate that I named my daughter Shea after Shea Stadium and the place that holds some of the biggest memories of my life.”
Henriquez said he became a Mets fan shortly after moving to New York in 1994 after his uncle won a nosebleed ticket in a radio giveaway.
“From then on, I fell in love with the game and the team.”
Irish immigrant Rob O'Neill, 41, never imagined he'd become a baseball fan when he moved to Astoria from the Emerald Isle in 2004, but he's become “addicted” to watching the Amazons. It has become.
“In Ireland, we support our local team,” he explained, standing in the shadow of Seaver's statue.
“I never thought I would be a Mets fan, but then I moved here and I was near Citi Field (then Shea Stadium), so I became a Mets fan…my friends. took me to the game and that was it.”
Asked if he had any superstitions before the match, the Irishman quipped: “I don't have any talismans.”
Jesse Friedman, 33, a full-time baseball coach and Mets superfan, wears head-to-toe team gear, including a Mets necklace, a lucky Mets jacket, and custom Nike Airs, while in left field. The Force Ones, who looked ready to take their seats, feature team mascot Mr. Met.
“I'm the Mets' Superman,” Friedman said. “I grew up at Shea Stadium. I had season tickets from age 7 to 12. I saw all the great moments here. Mike Piazza's home run on September 11th. Robin. Ventura's grand slam single [the] Comeback against the Braves. ”
Friedman attended last week's game in which the Mets defeated the Phillies to earn a spot in the championship round, and won 6-4 in Game 4 on Thursday with Mets second baseman Jose Iglesias scoring the game-winning run. I expected it.
“The atmosphere is great. That's the power of New York City,” Friedman said.
“Yankees fans can't even match something like this.”
Sadly for Mets fans, Friedman's prediction didn't come true. The team lost 10-2 to the Dodgers, and Iglesias struck out.
They currently have 3 wins and 1 loss in the series.
