Gang,

Do you think the last two seasons were terrible?  So do I, but 2008 and 2007 were not the only seasons that made the New York Mets a joke.  Think about 1962.  That year pretty much set a standard for Mets - and Mets fans - for all time. 

After that terrible season, Jimmy Breslin wrote a book, "Can't Anybody Here Play This Game?"  I would call it essential reading for any Mets fan - especially before the start of a season.  Here's a quote from the first chapter:

"This, then, is the way the first year of the New York Mets went.  It was a team that featured three twenty-game losers, an opening day outfield that held the all-time major-league record for fathering children (nineteen), a defensive catcher who couldn't catch, and an over-all collection of strange players who performed strange feats.  Yet is was absolutely wonderful.  People loved it.  The Mets gathered about them a breed of baseball fans who quite possibly will m ake you forget the characters who once made Brooklyn's Ebbets Field a part of this country's folklore.  The Mets' fans are made of the same things."

I first read this book back in the late-80's.  It was on the bookshelf at home.  Neither of my folks are Mets fans, but my Dad is a New Yorker, and probably read Breslin for years.  Being a Mets fan, I pulled that book out and gobbled it down.  Since then I may have read the book once or twice.  After the mess that was 2008, I think it's time to read it again.

After I'm done, I will post a review for you folks.  Then, I would like to read another Mets related book.  The only other Mets book I own is "Bats" by Davey Johnson (about the 1985 season.)  Are there other good books about the Mets - early days or modern-times?   Sure, I could look it up on the Internet, but I'd prefer to get some recs from the gang at AA.  Thanks in advance, people.