19th Hole: The Readers Take Over

MARVELOUS METS
Sirs:
I have read SPORTS ILLUSTRATED ever since it was published and I can't remember ever having enjoyed an article so much as the one by Jimmy Breslin on the New York Mets (Worst Team Ever, Aug. 13).
HARRY F. KLINEFELTER JR.
Baltimore

Sirs:
Very funny reading, but the fact that it's true makes it sad.
CLIFF BROWNE
Jefferson City, Mo.

Sirs:
The most hilarious story I've ever read in your magazine! The photographs were very revealing, too, particularly the one which shows a Bromo-Seltzer sign on the fence that seems to be speaking especially to Casey Stengel—"stomach upset...headache..." It is gratifying to read about a team worse than our Cubs.
MARK WILMOT
Glenview, Ill.

Sirs:
The story not only symbolized the Mets, it echoed Von Steuben drilling stupid farm-boys at Valley Forge, President Grant being told of the chicanery of his colleagues in the executive department, General MacArthur being told by an ex-haberdasher that the war we are fighting is not to be won, and Billie Sol Estes being told he may not have an autographed picture of Thomas Jefferson for his office wall.

Make no mistake about the matter, I loathe the Mets, for this travesty of a ball team tramples the greensward over which strode such majestic and unerring figures as Larry Doyle ("It's great to be young and a Giant"), Dave (Beauty) Bancroft, Ross Young, Mel Ott and the incomparable Willie Mays. May the Lord be blessed for the building of that stadium in Flushing Meadow (a name which bears in it the fulfillment of the Mets). In fact, I am only thankful that their existence allowed me to view a few more times that esteemed personage mentioned above as "incomparable."
ROBERT L. KIMMERLE
Ridgewood, N.J.

Sirs:
I am a member of what Breslin called the "New Breed" and I am proud of it. Give the Mets a chance and they will be the best team in baseball in five or six years.
RICHARD P. WEBER
Queens Village, N.Y.

Sirs:
How can Casey Stengel be looking so tragic in connection with the Mets when he is wearing a New York Yankee cap?
M. J. O'CONNELL
Milwaukee

?It's a Met cap. As a Yankee, Manager Stengel wore a slightly different monogram—and a slightly different expression (see below).—ED.

Sirs:
My blood is just about boiling. Mr. Breslin mentions that in the second game of a doubleheader in St. Louis Roger Craig, the Mets' starter, gave up so many runs so quickly in the seventh inning that Casey didn't even have time to warm up a reliever. This may indeed be true, but what about all the games in which Craig pitched well, some of which he lost?

To answer Bill Veeck's query, "How many Mets do you think are going to be around even two years from now?", I'd like to answer: Frank Thomas, Roger Craig, Jay Hook, Al Jackson, Charlie Neal and Rod Kanehl, all major-league-caliber players with many playing years still stretching ahead of them.