Billerica Public Library

So many ways to lose, the amazin' true story of the New York Mets, the best worst team in sports, by Devin Gordon

eng

index present

non fiction

So many ways to lose

1228511665

by Devin Gordon

the amazin' true story of the New York Mets, the best worst team in sports

The Mets lose when they should win. They win when they should lose. And when it comes to being the worst, no team in sports has ever done it better than the Mets. In So Many Ways to Lose, author and lifelong Mets fan Devin Gordon sifts through the detritus of Queens for a baseball history like no other. Remember the time the Mets lost an All-Star after he got charged by a wild boar? Or the time they blew a six-run ninth-inning lead at the peak of a pennant race? Or the time they fired their manager before he ever managed a game? Sure you do. It was only two years ago, and it was all in the same season. The Mets have an unrivaled gift for getting it backward, doing the impossible, snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, and then snatching defeat right back again. And yet, just ask any Mets fan: amazing and/or miraculous postseason runs are as much a part of our team's identity as losing 120 games in 1962. The DNA of seasons like 1969, the original Miracle Mets, and the 1973 "Ya Gotta Believe" Mets, who went from last place to Game 7 of the World Series in two months, and the powerhouse 1986 Mets, has encoded in us this hapless instinct that a reversal of fortune is always possible. It's happened before. It's kind of our thing. And now we've got Steve Cohen's hedge-fund billions to play with! What could go wrong? In this hilarious history of the Mets and love letter to the art of disaster, Devin Gordon presents baseball the way it really is, not in the wistful sepia tones we've come to expect from other sportswriters. Along the way, he explains the difference between being bad and being gifted at losing, and why this distinction holds the key to understanding the true amazin' magic of the New York Mets

The original original Met -- Casey at the mic -- M is for VRAM -- The house that a well-connected lawyer built -- Tom Terrific and the midnight massacre, part 1: the terrific part -- Who needs Nolan Ryan anyway? -- Gilly and Yoge -- The voyage of the Clotilda -- Tom Terrific and the midnight massacre, part 2: the massacre part -- This call to the bullpen brought to you by: Mettle the Mule -- The decapitated cat -- Fuck the Yankees, part 1: Doc and Darryl in the Bronx -- How Mackey Sasser got the Yips -- Bobby Bonilla Day -- The Grand Slam single and the walk-off walk -- Fuck the Yankees, part 2: the Subway series -- The legend of Endy -- Bernie Madoff stole this chapter -- The evidence points toward dupe -- Seventh-inning stretch: the other guy who was conning the Mets while Madoff was conning the Mets -- A big sexy day to remember -- Bring in the exorcist -- The last polar bear