Jon Pickstone

Why Blue?

Just wanted to e-mail in to say how much I enjoyed Bill Jensen’s article in MCIVTA 1109. It was of particular relevance to me as I too support City and the New York Mets.

Why City? Well, I grew-up in Manchester, and with my dad being an armchair Burnley fan, back in 1983 when I was 6, I, like so many other kids, picked a local team to support. And who did I pick at that naïve and unrefined age? Man Utd of course! I supported Utd through to the spring of 1986, when an incident in the playground was to change the course of so much of my life.

As usual, we were playing football at lunchtime, and that day’s game was City fans vs. Utd. fans. City were short of players, so I switched to the City side, much to the mirth of my fellow Reds whose taunts gave me my first taste of being on the receiving end of that rich verbal eloquence that so typifies Man U fans – they jeered “aaah you’re a City fan” – genius. “Fine”, I said, being an obstinate sort of lad, “I’m a City fan” and so it was to be. Do I wish I missed school that day? Of course not, I wouldn’t change it for the world.

And The Mets? Well, two friends and I were in New York in June 2003, and whilst there, we wanted to do there was to watch some American sport. The main attraction that week was the Mets vs. the Milwaukee Brewers. At the time, I have to admit that I was disappointed that the Yankees weren’t in town, but once I got caught up in the atmosphere around Shea Stadium, I found myself becoming increasingly attached to the Mets.

It had occurred to me before the game, that to be supporting a team who had spent a lot of money failing to climb out of the shadows of their more illustrious neighbours would remind me of City, and it did. The reactions of the Mets fans watching their team again succumb to “inferior opposition” were all too familiar. We decided that if we adapted some English football songs to baseball, it might stir the crowd to extend their repertoire beyond their only two chants – the repetitive “Lets go Mets”, and the comic take-off, specific to our tier of the ground “Lets go Mezzanine”.

“Roger Cedeno’s disco pants are the best”, “There’s only one Mike Piazza”, and “New York Mets, New York Mets, New York Mets” sang to the tune of “Here we go” rang out from the Mezzanine level, but unfortunately only because three English lads were singing at the tops of their voices. Although we raised a few smiles and a couple of laughs, the Americans seemed all too satisfied drinking their Buds and chomping on their ‘dogs’.

Although our songs never caught on, we’d picked up the ubiquitous “Let’s go Mets”, and a bemused bloke on the Subway was treated to a rendition of it from three English guys in Mets baseball caps. His crime? Wearing a Yankees baseball cap. It had taken us a mere four hours as Mets fans to settle into the local rivalry. I’ve not been back to New York since, but when I’m next over, I’ll definitely be trying to go when the Mets are in town.

First printed in: MCIVTA Newsletter #1110 on