Customer Reviews

Faith and Fear in Flushing: An Intense Personal History of the New York Mets

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Greg Prince's Faith and Fear in Flushing: an intense personal history of the New York Mets is a must-read for any Mets fan you may know. Not unlike Nick Hornby's book Fever Pitch, Prince writes passionately about his unabashed love of his favorite sports team in a way that is remarkable yet relatable. Mets fans will live and die with Prince's descriptions of pivotal games in Mets history. But just as Hornby created worldwide awareness of Arsenal (his favorite football/soccer team), Prince's love of the Mets is infectious - anyone who has ever shouted, "Go Team!" at any point in his or her life will appreciate just how Prince lives and dies with the Mets' fortunes.

Faith and Fear in Flushing also features as an afterword an entertaining conversation between the author and Mets announcer Gary Cohen.

As an added bonus, Faith and Fear in Flushing features several photographs that were taken by David G. Whitham. Whitham's own passion for the Mets and for Shea Stadium are evident in the gorgeous images within the book and on its back cover.

If you are a Mets fan, buy this book. If you know a Mets fan, buy this book. And if you have ever given your heart over to a hobby with passion and dedication, buy this book.

Years ago, Joel Oppenheimer penned a personal diary on a Mets season gone awry entitled ''The Wrong Season.'' It was a mini-classic interweaving humorous anecdotes with the exasperation of rooting for an endearing near-miss baseball club (the 1972 Mets). Greg Prince has taken Oppenheimer's season and gone one better in this tour de force on Met fandom, examining 40 years of mostly exasperation in Flushing, not through the eyes of the team, players, the media or owners ... but through that of a diehard fan.
What won't you find in this non-objective easy-to-read, always-fun rant? Too many stats. This isn't for the SABRmetricians or one looking to put the Mets' 1986 championship run or 2007 collapse in a historical context. Instead we are treated to the parent who admonishes Prince for staying up late to watch the famous Ball on the Wall Game in 1973, the phone call from a buddy announcing that he is leaving Met fandom in 1977 ... and taking two pals with him, the joys and tortures of 1985 culminated in the beating up of a Whitey Herzong likeness.
In short, Prince has not only kept Oppenheimer's flame alive, but given every Mets fan a welcome addition to their library.

I have been laughing and crying at Greg Prince's on line musings for several years now. He must be channeling my blue-and-orange-dyed soul. Greg puts into words what real Mets fans feel down deep in their bones; even if they have never put these thoughts and emotions into actual words, they will be reading them on the pages of FAFIF. This wonderful collection of essays is an autobiographical study of a fan's love affair with a baseball team that can be a sometimes teasing, sometimes tantalizing, and ofttimes downright cruel and nasty mistress. No matter what the outcome, you are left aching for more. Can you relate to the term Mets-oholic. If you can relate my words, BUY THIS BOOK. If you have bookmarked every NYC newspapers' website Mets team page on your internet browser, BUY THIS BOOK. If you would be at least a decade younger if time stood still for every moment you were watching, listening to, or reading about the NY Mets, BUY THIS BOOK. If you secretly flip the bird at every rube you see wearing a Crankees ball cap, BUY THIS BOOK. If you are studying Ericksonian stages of psychological development and want to see their parallel in a fan's relationship with a sports team, BUY THIS BOOK. Heck, if you are doing an anthropological study of idol worship, BUY THIS BOOK!

As a baseball historian who happens to be a St Louis Cardinals fan, this is a nice look into one of baseball's most colorful franchises; the good old New York Mets. I must confess, the reason I bought the book was I loved the bottom of the cover; no need to elaborate.

As my beloved Cardinal team of the '60s slowly aged, I went from being mildly amused at the antics of those less than amazin' Mets, to being shocked by their sudden dominace in '69.

By September of that year, the handwriting was on the wall; Cards pitcher Steve Carlton struck out 19 Mets in a single game, but somehow managed to lose it, 4-3, on the strength of two two run home runs by Ron Swoboda. The Cards wouldn't be heard from again until 1982.

In the meantime, when the World Series rolled around, I was pulling for the Mets, but didn't really give them much of a shot of actually winning it against the Amerian League champion, Baltimore Orioles; but of course, win it they did. Four years later, they nearly pulled off the impossible miracle of beating Oakland in the '73 World Series.

This is a team that has a 40 year history of being a never-say-die bunch of scrappy ballplayers, and have had their share of success. The '86 World Series victory over Boston was nothing short of miraculous.

Still, this is a team that has been dogged by ill-fortune at times, and frustrating season ending nightmares; their recent past has been beset by bitter disappointment, but each year they never seem to let the previous year bother them. I like that in a team.

Although I hated the Mets in the mid '80s, I respected them. Now that they're no longer in the same division as St Louis, I'm pulling for them each year to win their division; the Braves were getting annoying and the Phillies; well, they're the Phillies. No thanks.

The Mets history has been rich in the relatively short period of time they've been in existence. Without a doubt their fans are terrific; a combination of old Dodger blue and Giant black and gold heritage; and that spells loyalty.

The Mets are indeed an amazing franchise, and this book does a great job of capturing many memories, whether you're a diehard Mets fan or simply a fan of the game.

Greg Prince--you might say--is an everyfan. His stories, from cheering on the Mets at Shea to being punished and therefore unable to watch World Series games in 1973, transcend Met fandom. We've all been there at some point, in one form or another.

I flew through this book like no other. I would read it on the 7 train to and from work, where I'm sure other commuters caught me smiling, wincing, and rolling my eyes over the triumphant and tragic memories that fill the heart of every Met fan, beautifully captured by the author.

This book is an absolute joy to read. I only wish that it could have come out sooner, as each night when I got closer and closer to Flushing on the 7 train I would look out the window expecting to see my good friend throughout all the wonderful memories, Shea Stadium. Alas, it was no longer there in physical form, but this book helps make sure that Shea Stadium will stand forever in our minds, ready for a 7:10 start on a cool summer evening.

Faith and Fear in Flushing is a purchase you will not regret. As any Met fan will tell you, smiling while reading about the Mets is a nice change of pace.

Sports books are usually published by the player or sportswriter perspective but when before did we ever get a great read from that of a fan?

A must-have any die-hard Met fan can relate to. It is so real that don't be surprised to find you are also reading a lot about your own self.

I was so excited to receive this book from one of the authors of one of my favorite blogs. Greg Prince captures what it is truly like to be a Mets fan. I see myself in this book and I am sure other fans will feel the same way. Mets fans have experienced extreme highs and extreme lows through the years, and Greg documents his thoughts, feelings, and actions, which eerily mirror my own. It is a must-read for all Mets fans.

Greg Prince does a great job in his book, as he does on his blog, of weaving our painful devotion to the Mets into the fabric of our lives. A real fan (of any team, to be fair) knows what this is like - who pitched the day you got married, the first time your kid pretended to be his/her favorite player, the last baseball conversation you had with a deceased relative. Faith and Fear isn't as philosophical as Richard Grossinger's The New York Mets Ethnography, Myth and Subtext, but does an equally good job of capturing how life and the Mets are intertwined and inseparable for their true fans. If you cried on September 28 as you watched Seaver throw that last pitch to Piazza, you must read this book.

And the cover says it all...there is no other team for whom a huge fan would celebrate the franchise with a book showing a moment of glory combined with a moment of pure agony. As I often say, rooting for the Yankees is easy, anybody can do that. Being a real Mets fan takes a lot more courage, guts and stamina. Can you imagine a Yankee fan writing a book and putting a Red Sox celebration on the cover?

Greg W. Prince has written a book for everybody who wonders if they're the only person that thinks that they have to stay seated, or remain standing, so as not to stop a rally. This is a book that captures the heart of a true fan. You don't have to be a Mets fan to appreciate this book as it speaks for fans of every team. This is a beautifully written book that belongs in the library of all fans everywhere.

This is a WONDERFUL read!

Greg Prince channels what Metfandom actually MEANS to those of us with the experience. In a relaxed -- but never EVER lazy -- prose style, he takes us though what it's like to rootrootroot for the home team, come Throneberry or Strawberry.

He interweaves personal -- sometimes even painful -- reminiscences with the intermittently rising and frequently falling fortunes of New York's National League team. To quote Roger Angell, "There's more Met than Yankee in all of us." Prince captures that sentiment brilliantly and truly speaks the argot of everyfan.