Full Count: The Book of Mets Poetry takes us inside the mind of a diehard Mets fan, who uses poetry as the means to express his love, angst and suicidal delirium for America's favorite pastime...and particularly for his team, the New York Mets. From sheer panic to utter joy, this action-packed volume of hilarious, sad and poignant verse about fathers, sons, crushed beer cans and fed-up girlfriends grand-slams its way straight to the heart of anyone who understands what it's like to be a true fan.
Full Count: The Book of Mets Poetry
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
“No one would question a poet writing about love for a woman, but when you’re a fan of a team, the emotional attachment is even stronger, because women come and go, but your team never changes.”—Joe Benigno, WFAN (Sports Radio 66), New York City
“He's the Poet Laureate of the Mets.”—Sports Illustrated
“Frank Messina has become a classic.”—The New York Times
“Charming and daunting…this is a wonderful book about baseball that transcends loyalty to a favorite team…Full Count: THE BOOK OF METS POETRY is a grand slam with two outs in the ninth inning for all the marbles."—Robert M. Zoschke, PRO Magazine
“An amazing collection of Mets poetry…This is no wannabee sportswriter trying to muscle his way into the press box by penning something that resembles a sports book. This is a “classic” poet, as the New York Times calls him, and he just happens to be an insane Mets fan….It’s a treasure chest of the written word…eminently accessible to any sports fan. It’s also a master work from a brilliant poet.”—Mark Healey, Baseball Digest
From the Back Cover
Full Count: The Book of Mets Poetry takes us inside the mind of a diehard Mets fan, who uses poetry as the means to express his love, angst and suicidal delirium for America's favorite pastime...and particularly for his team, the New York Mets. From sheer panic to utter joy, this action-packed volume of hilarious, sad and poignant verse about fathers, sons, crushed beer cans and fed-up girlfriends grand-slams its way straight to the heart of anyone who understands what it's like to be a true fan.
Internationally recognized poet and performer Frank Messina has appeared on SNY-TV, the station that broadcasts Mets games, in video montages that feature him reciting his poetry against the visual backdrop of glorious moments in Mets baseball. As a result, baseball fans refer to Messina as "The Mets Poet". His Mets-related poetry has seeped into the realm of pop culture, being the subject of debate and commentary in the pages of the New York Times, Sports Illustrated and on such programs as Jimmy Kimmel Live and CBS's The Early Show.
Messina has authored four books of poetry including the well-received Disorderly Conduct, and recorded over a hundred spoken word & music compositions including works from Walking Home (2007), The Long Road to Nowheresville (2004), Absorb (1999), Rage (1999) and Biting the Tongue (1998). Messina is a recipient of the Woolrich Poetry Award and Fellowship of Columbia University and was nominated for the 1995 Allen Ginsberg Poetry Award.
A resident of New Jersey, he travels worldwide giving poetry readings and readily admits that much of his Mets poetry is driven by the passion of being a diehard fan of a team that repeatedly endures dramatic victory and defeat like no other team. An example:
Do you know what it’s like
To be chased by the Ghost of Failure
While staring through Victory’s door?
Of course you do, you’re a Mets fan!
"Frank Messina has become a classic..." (New York Times)
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By HelgaT
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Full Count by Frank Messina, is a fantastic read for baseball fans, whether you love the Mets or hate them, for anyone who was a kid in the city, for anyone who didn't grow up in the city, for anyone who has friends and family and for anyone who doesn't have any of the above. Simply put it is a must read for anyone who has a heart/pulse or had one and needs to find theirs again. The book ranges in diversity of style and emotion. With a distinctive style his own, he starts off with childhood memories and feelings, but he grows up and you grow up with him. Yes, with all the emotions; the joys, hurts, disappointments, hopes, fears and love that cannot be avoided growing up. Let me not forget, it covers baseball also.
The writing, to me, is a little reminiscent of three gifted and great U.S. writers Twain, Poe, Vonnegut. As in Twain, Frank gives you childhood lightheartedness and adventure, but turn a few more pages and some of his verses become absurd, dramatic and eerie, reminding me a bit of Poe. Similarly, as the brilliant Vonnegut does, Frank with his work uses his poetry to draw you into a social and cultural awareness that to the unsuspecting reader usually ends with a slap in the face to make you think. In this book he has used baseball as a forum, but his writing brings you into a strange journey of the highs and lows life.
The writing, to me, is a little reminiscent of three gifted and great U.S. writers Twain, Poe, Vonnegut. As in Twain, Frank gives you childhood lightheartedness and adventure, but turn a few more pages and some of his verses become absurd, dramatic and eerie, reminding me a bit of Poe. Similarly, as the brilliant Vonnegut does, Frank with his work uses his poetry to draw you into a social and cultural awareness that to the unsuspecting reader usually ends with a slap in the face to make you think. In this book he has used baseball as a forum, but his writing brings you into a strange journey of the highs and lows life.
Format:Paperback
This is NOT a book of New York Yankees poetry from a Hoity Toity poet. It's a book of New York Mets poetry from outsider, other-side-of-the-tracks Frank Messina. On the surface of things, I suppose I am part of the target audience for this charming and daunting book. For I am, after all, a human being with a beat not beaten human heart, a second-class-citizen White Sox fan from Chicago. And no two teams and their fans--in the history of Modern American Baseball--share such similar glory and anguish, in their respective cities, as Chicago's White Sox and New York's Mets.
I also happened to grow up to be an outsider, other-side-of-the-tracks writer. And from that vantage point, a nationwide mass-market book of Frank Messina's poetry is a beautiful thing to witness, at a time when sports fans and book readers in general all really need a book like Full Count.
As this book makes clear, there are no more trying times for a sports fan than the constant shenanigans of glory and anguish inflicted upon Mets fans through following their beloved team. What this book also makes clear is that there are no more trying times for the human heart than the times we have been living through in America since 9/11, and it is the poetic heart and craftsmanship of Frank Messina that makes this clear, through the narrative metaphor of America's national pastime, from cover to cover through this magical book.
This is a special book about baseball and the unique kinship that the game of baseball has always shared with the games inflicted upon the human heart. Full Count proves that nothing finer can be written than that which comes from the beat not beaten heart of a true poet.... Read more ›
I also happened to grow up to be an outsider, other-side-of-the-tracks writer. And from that vantage point, a nationwide mass-market book of Frank Messina's poetry is a beautiful thing to witness, at a time when sports fans and book readers in general all really need a book like Full Count.
As this book makes clear, there are no more trying times for a sports fan than the constant shenanigans of glory and anguish inflicted upon Mets fans through following their beloved team. What this book also makes clear is that there are no more trying times for the human heart than the times we have been living through in America since 9/11, and it is the poetic heart and craftsmanship of Frank Messina that makes this clear, through the narrative metaphor of America's national pastime, from cover to cover through this magical book.
This is a special book about baseball and the unique kinship that the game of baseball has always shared with the games inflicted upon the human heart. Full Count proves that nothing finer can be written than that which comes from the beat not beaten heart of a true poet.... Read more ›
Format:Paperback
This is a lovely, well-written collection of poems and stories balanced with childlike innocence, humor, strong sentiments and mixed emotions for the people and things that we share as part of any team.
