Customer Reviews

Tales from the Mets Dugout

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Tales from the Mets Dugout understands the history and hysteria that come with being a Mets fan. The book has some nice but not overused photos and it packs a lot of information in less than 200 pages. Living in the shadow of the monolithic Yankees, Mets fans know they have ruled the city for just a handful of seasons over the last 43. While the next 1969 or 1986 seems a lifetime in the coming, Mets fans can at least embrace a team that's seen more excitement than some franchises have experienced in a century of play. The Mets have never had a no-hitter, but look at the pitchers who came up through the system and tossed them with other teams: David Cone, Dwight Gooden, Mike Scott, Tom Seaver, Nolan Ryan . . . The Mets drew 700,000 people in 1979, and eight years later were the first New York team to draw 3,000,000 . . . the Mets have won three NL pennants but only one Met has been Championship Series MVP. Obsessing over the Mets for a lifetime, I thought there was nothing I didn't know about the club, but Bruce Markusen came up with new stories and new angles, including several trades that never happened: the Mets almost traded Jerry Koosman for Fred Patek, Tommie Agee almost went to the Red Sox (instead of the Mets) in a deal for Carl Yastrzemski, and the Mets could've had Dickie Thon for Elliott Maddox, but owner Linda de Roulet thought the Angels' top-notch prospect had too much of a baby face! Perhaps the most shocking nugget of all unearthed by Markusen was a telegram from the president of the Yankees congratulating the '69 Mets. The man even said he was rooting for the Mets. Now that's amazin'. The book's pretty good, too.

An uneven collection of small articles about Met history compiled as a book. This book will only appeal to die-hard Mets fans who will read anything with a Met logo on it. It covers the Mets entire history, but is heavily biased toward the early years with almost nothing after 2000. The 2000 World Series is hardly mentioned. Most serious fans will already know most of what is in this book.

Several Mets favorites, like Howie Rose and Gary Carter were interviewed for the book. They are mentioned constantly and always in a positive light. Other Mets like Mike Piazza, and Daryl Strawberry, who was not interviewed for the book, are barely a footnote. I was able to get through the book in about two hours. While there was a few interesting facts, there was nothing that was Amazin.

This book had some good stories and was a quick read, but to barely mention Mike Piazza doesn't make any sense. He was the face of the franchise and led them to the subway series in 2000. The book mentions him in passing and basically notes that he wasn't a good fielder. Strawberry is hardly mentioned as well. It makes no sense.