The Simon family. My sister, Lisa, and my mom Donna in the front. My dad and I in the back.
The 1986 Mets Rewatch Newsletter is a newsletter for Mets fans who had parents to bond over baseball with.
You might have noticed that I sent out two newsletters last week. One was about a great Mets win over the Astros and the other was about a Mets romp/brawl against the Braves. That was actually supposed to be this week’s newsletter, but I sent both of them by accident.
I wasn’t going to publicly celebrate my dad’s 80th birthday, which comes up this Sunday. But I took that accidental newsletter send as a sign to do something to commemorate his birthday.
What I decided to do is interview him about his fanhood and his recollections of the 1986 Mets, along with why 1986 was a turning point year for the entire Simon family.
What is the origin of your baseball fandom?
When I was 7, my father at first and then my uncle Sam, took me to the Polo Grounds to see the Giants play. They were Giants fans. Sam lived with my aunt Gussie and my grandfather, Morris. You're named after Morris, the Jewish tradition being to take the first letter of his name to become your name.
My dad was a big sports fan. He took me to Track and Field meets at Madison Square Garden. He got me started on hockey.
Did you have a glove?
I remember two baseball gloves. The first one went bad because I played so much, it had a hole in it. The next glove was a black glove, I'm afraid to say it was a Duke Snider glove. My father probably bought it. I played every day in the neighborhood because that's what kids did back then. We played in the P.S. 6 schoolyard. We played in Crotona Park, and we played at an actual ball field next to the Bronx Zoo.
You went to the Polo Grounds but not Yankee Stadium
The first memory I have of Yankee Stadium is after the Giants and Dodgers already had left, and the Giants came back to play the Yankees in the Mayor's Trophy Game. My dad took me and my friend Steven. I think it was 1961. Bob Bolin was pitching for the Giants. The Yankees outfield played him really shallow. My friend would say "Hit it over Mantle's head, you'll get a triple.” And he did and got a double!
What games do you remember being at?
The first night game I ever went to was at the Polo Grounds. The Giants beat Cincinnati. I don't remember the score. But Ruben Gomez was the pitcher, the starting pitcher. I remember that.
I was at the very last Giant-Dodger game ever played in New York City. Home game number 75 for the Giants. I have two stubs. One must have been my dad's, and one was mine. My dad, who seemed to know the whole world, knew someone who worked for a Knickerbocker Beer, which was one of the Giants' sponsors. And if we paid full price for one general admission ticket, which was $1.30 at the time, we would get the second ticket for 50 cents. On the back of the general admission stub, I wrote the whole story of the game, as much as I could write in.
Giants won, 5 to 4. Hank Sauer home run. Curt Barclay starting pitcher.
When did you start rooting for the Mets? I can't pin an exact time. Somewhere in the mid-'70s, I would guess.
It started a little bit when the Giants traded Willie Mays to the Mets. I was still a Giants fan. But gradually it just became difficult and annoying to follow a team 3,000 miles away. You couldn't get the box scores in the paper because many of their games were at night, started too late for the Daily News or The Post or whatever paper we would get to get the box score.
So, it was hard to follow them, and it was a gradual shift over to the Mets.
You did go to games though. You went to Jim Bunning's perfect game. You went to the 23-inning game. You went to the first Mets-Giants game.
The first Met-Giant game was amazing. Willie McCovey hit two home runs. The place was packed. I don't know if there was one Met fan in the place.
I remember going with my friend Steven to Bunning's game, but not my father, even though it was Father's Day. I remember sitting through it and knowing what was going on. The funny thing was that it was a double header and Rick Wise pitched the second game and he had a no-hitter for two and two-third innings. Yeah. We were sitting there thinking, "Are we gonna see two no-hitters today?"
I took my brother Zachary5 to the 23-inning game vs the Giants. We had kids sitting a couple of rows in front of us and every time Orlando Cepeda came up, the kid would jump up and say, "Orlando Cepeda is my uncle. Orlando Cepeda is my uncle." I didn't know if it was true or not, but that's what he was doing the whole game. Yep. We left after 21 innings. I couldn't take it anymore.
You went to James Monroe High School at the same time as Ed Kranepool.
I was at every game. Okay. We had a really good team. We had another guy who made the Twins, Danny Monzon, who was the No. 2 star behind Kranepool, who played first base and pitched. We played Curtis High for the city championship. Ed went 0-for-4 and left men on base every at-bat. He couldn't get the ball out of the infield.
When he signed with the Mets I was walking to school, and I heard a ZZZ go by me. There was Ed Kranepool. He just signed his contract and bought a sports car.
Your favorite player was Hank Thompson, and you met him.
My dad had minor surgery, and he had to stay in the hospital, and he was in a semi-private room and shared the room with Hank Thompson, the third baseman for the New York Giants, which was amazing. Hank got in a fender bender with a taxi, got out of his car and the cab driver saw a big Black man walking towards him, he took out a baseball bat and hit him over the head with it.2
This happened in the early morning hours of Jan. 31, 1953. Twenty two years later to the day, I was born!
The next season, the first game we go to, my dad, myself, and my brother marched down to the chicken wire fence protecting the fans from balls over by the Giants dugout. My dad says to a security guard, "Tell Hank Thompson that Ben Simon3 is here to see him." Hank came out to chat with him and put his hand up against the fence so we could shake hands. Now, I have two pictures signed by him and a Thompson model glove.
What is the origin of you passing baseball on to me.
Baseball's a father-and-son thing, that's how I got started. I gotta take my son to baseball games. Let's find out if he likes it. And the first time I did it (I was 4). You turned around to me after a couple of innings, and said “They're just going like this,” and you make that throwing motion I just laughed and thought, "Oh shit." I said to myself, "I hope that's not the way he's gonna be."6
But eventually we saw somebody who was very statistical-oriented, even at that age. And we saw somebody who was developing a love for baseball, so we put them together.
And is that why you bought Strat-O-Matic and taught me platooning and understanding matchups before I knew how to tie my shoes?
I think I had it as a kid even before we started to play. I thought it was something that the two of us could do together. I had played it myself as a kid and I would have played the advanced way.4
Speaking of Strat-O-Matic. Keith Hernandez plays. Why is he your favorite Mets player of all time?
He played defense like nobody I ever saw before. And he was a clutch hitter. He was a team player. And he was the glue. He was the glue just like Josh Hart was the glue for the Knicks.
Why is Mookie Wilson running the bases your favorite Met thing?
I like that question 'cause it just brought back memories. Mookie didn't run. Mookie flew. Mookie going for a triple was a sight to see. I don't think Jose Reyes was as fast as Mookie. Mookie was the fastest Met ever. He was like a ballet dancer. Nobody ran on the Mets before then or since the way Mookie could run.
It was just a joy to watch him run. It really was. What's the French term? Joie de Vivre? He had that. He played with joy. And his running was the most joyous thing he did.
On July 4, 1982, you bought a 1975 Topps set for $100 at a baseball card show at Shea Stadium. Why did you do that?
To get more serious about cards. We hadn't gotten serious until I did that. It was something for us. We were both involved in enjoying the hobby. I just thought it was something to do.
Along with writing favorite players for autographs?
That was a lot of fun. That really was. I still have the charts we kept of how long it would take them to sign. I remember we would get really excited when the mailman came.
Ted Williams took months but signed because you put American flag stickers on the envelope. Joe DiMaggio always took 30 days
30 days and you'd always get one autograph.
I remember you got a bunch of 1951 Giants. I knew that Clint Hartung and Don Mueller were on base for Bobby Thomson's famous home run at an early age.
I used to sit at the Polo Grounds right over Don Mueller in right field.
1986 was a turning point in your business and our lives. What happened?
I made a couple of big baseball card finds. There was a woman named Mrs. Dresser who had her husband's collection. I remember one with years and years of near-mint Topps cards. I spent a lot of money, but I knew I had to buy them.
I had a successful full-time business selling cards and then memorabilia for 30 years. It paid for a lot of yours and your sister's college.
That was right around September of 1986. Why was it important that we go to the 1986 Mets division clincher?
We didn't go to many games that year because things were not just the way they would become. I felt bad that we hadn't been going. And as things turned out, we wound up getting partial season tickets and mini-plans and going to games a lot because of my business. It was Dwight Gooden pitching, and it was to clinch the division. That was a big one to go to.
What do you remember about the 1986 postseason?
My strongest memory of that postseason was being scared shitless of Mike Scott. Especially during Game 6 of the NLCS, thinking he was gonna be there for the next game. Mike Scott was just crazy unhittable.
Certain other things stand out. The Jesse Orosco strikeout to clinch the pennant, the Strawberry home run in Game 3.
What about Buckner?
I remember jumping up and down and screaming and waking my friend Joel up. He had nodded off. And I remember after Game 7 when it was over, I said "Always remember to enjoy it now, because you never know when you'll have it again."
This is funny, the weird things that you remember. I remember the Sid Fernandez game the next year. He had a five-inning no-hitter against the Giants and that might have been the best shot we had at a no-hitter. I can close my eyes and picture him injuring himself hitting a triple. You know how many times I've told that story?
You’ve told it hundreds of times!
I remember Game 6 and you having to go to Hebrew School …
Well, since you brought it up, yes … for those who haven't noticed my many other references to it, my mom made me go to Hebrew School for Game 6 of the 1986 NLCS.
That just irritated the hell out of me. She knew how important baseball was to you. I'm still carrying a grudge. It wasn't like you were getting bar mitzvah lessons.
Now all the readers can see where I get it from (sorry mom!!!1)
There were a lot of other great games that we went to. When we left Game 4 of the NLCS in 2000 I told you that Mike Hampton was going to pitch the game of his life in Game 5 and I was 100% correct.
You did. A lot of other games too. Bobby Jones one-hitter, Robin Ventura's grand slam single.
In the rain! I still remember being shocked looking at the scoreboard as we were walking out and it said they won by one run. That one will always be the best memory I have of going to a Mets game.
Going to a game has always been an intense experience for you and I, and now your daughter/my sister too, as her fanhood has evolved.
We are dissecting every at-bat and every situation and every decision, from positioning to stealing bases to pitching changes. I had to come up to your level to do that as a 10-year-old.
How would you describe what the Simon family game-going experience was like in its most avid days?
We were big fans, and we really got into the inner parts of the game, and it was just fun to do that. It was fun to talk to someone at that level who knew what I was talking about and knew how to discuss it.
What are the values that you try to instill in your children with regard specifically to things related to rooting for a baseball team?
That wasn't on your list of questions!
Stay loyal to your team.
That seems like a good message to end on, especially given the state of the 2026 Mets. My dad taught us a lot of other values too, most notably the importance of having a strong moral compass. I hope we’re able to get to a few more games in the coming years.
You can contact me on Bluesky or via e-mail ([email protected]). You can find my other newsletter, which summarizes interviews I do with journalists, here.
1 I think I’m going to have to give my mom a chance to rebut this, since I’ve brought it up so many times. Let the record reflect that two things can be true. She can be right and I can still be mad 40 years later.
2 This is why I love Newspapers.com
3 My grandfather was named Ben Simon. The Mets have a pitcher at Triple-A named Ben Simon and I’m hoping that somehow he finds his way to the majors this season.
4 When I learned Strat, I also learned scorekeeping and I also essentially learned ‘official scoring.’ This meant learning and understanding unearned runs vs earned runs. And when I was 10, we went to a Mets game in which the Mets scored 16 runs, all unearned (and some of it not easily calculatable) but I scored it correctly.
5 In the 1980s my uncle and his then-wife Carol used to take us to Mets games. We had amazing seats right behind the third base dugout because she worked for an ad agency that had season tickets. My uncle still roots for the Giants.
6 None of us can remember when baseball turned into an obsession for me. Though I learned one thing during this interview: One of the books that changed my life, This Date in Mets History, was a gift from my grandmother (RIP) and not my parents and I’m amused by this because I can’t picture her purchasing it for me.