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Traitor Brooks

Blogger has been down for much of the last day, so I was unable to immediately post about David Brooks's column in yesterday's New York Times. I'm too busy to post in detail now, but will offer quick thoughts.

Brooks writes that he has been a lifelong Mets fan, and invokes the 1969 and 1986 seasons of glory. He also writes that "during the 1970's" the Mets gave him "some of the worst years of [his] life." That claim is a bit dubious, since from 1970-1976, the Mets had a winning record in each season except 1974, and almost stole the World Series in '73.

In any event, Brooks lives in the DC area now, and is "contemplating the uncontemplatable: that I will switch my allegiance from the beloved Mets to the new team of my adopted town. I will become a fan of the Washington Nationals." Brooks writes that "I have endured this spiritual crisis because the Mets, with all their big-money signings, have come to seem less like darlings. Perhaps the young players José Reyes and David Wright will rekindle the flame, but I go into the season adrift and uncertain, tempted by my lowdown cheating heart, caught between a lifetime love and an enticing new fling."

In other words, if the Mets hadn't sucked for the last four seasons, Brooks might not be trading them in for the new Washington Nationals.

From a rational perspective, there is no real reason to care much whether the Mets win or lose, and certainly not whether someone switches his allegiance to another team.

From the perspective of an avid sports fan, Brooks is a traitor. And as a traitor, he is due the death penalty. Not the real one, but capital punishment removing him from the world of Mets fans.

There is nothing wrong with a Mets fan living in DC being excited at the arrival of the Nationals, but dropping the Mets - especially when they've been way down - erases Brooks's entire history as a purported Mets fan. His baseball team has never won a World Series and he has never suffered through the dark days of Jeff Torborg, Art Howe, Dallas Green, and ... lest we forget ... Joe Torre, who managed the Mets during the dismal 1977-1981 seasons. His status as a Mets fan is ended, and he is to be placed on the Mets Ineligible List, never to be eligible for reinstatement.
posted on 3/30/2005