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Jews Who Love the Mets

The Amazin’s are in the World Series. Here’s who’s pumped.

by
Hannah Vaitsblit and Jonathan Zalman
October 28, 2015

The New York Mets—The Amazin’s—are in the World Series for the first time since 2000, when they lost to the New York Yankees in the “Subway Series.” And these Mets are good (meet ’em!) loaded with a deep, hard-throwing pitching staff and a veteran line-up that boasts Mr. Met himself, David Wright, ex-Yankee speedster Curtis Granderson, and Daniel Murphy whose six-game home run streak was the stuff of legends. Baseball baby!

The Mets are facing a stacked Kansas City Royals squad—the American League Champions who lost the World Series last year, and who beat the Mets Tuesday night in game 1, a 14-inning up-and-down epic. Game 2 is Wednesday night, and each game should be a doozy. I give a slight edge to the Royals simply because they’ve been there before, but I’m rooting for the Mets because—New York, and it’s simply the Jewish thing to do or something like that.

The Mets’ fanbase, an unabashedly stricken one, a totally New York one, boasts lots of Jewish celebrity fans (surprise, surprise). And they’re pumped. Here’s what’s up in their world.

#METS YES!!!!!



— Ben Stiller (@RedHourBen) October 16, 2015

And there’s Jerry Seinfeld, who immortalized former Met Keith Hernandez, and has been called a “Mets superfan.” This Spring, he even custom-designed a pair of Nikes in orange and blue, and has since renamed them the “National League Champion Shoes,” assuring his own fans today that, “Yes, they’re on. Don’t worry Met land, we got this.”

And there’s Hank Azaria, calling Mets highlights in the voice of The Simpsons characters:

In August, liberal lion Jon Stewart, who popularized “the seventh inning kvetch,” devoted a solid part of his retrospective segment to a reflection on coverage of his “beloved New York Metropolitans,” including their dismal ranking in the Arab League, continuous subjection to deeper “insuckenment,” and finally their incredible resurrection this year. (Segment begins at 8:42)

And how about Jason Alexander, Mr. Constanza himself, who so expertly taught the Yankees how to play baseball, clothing them in cotton uniforms. He once said in an interview: “The Mets are in my blood. George worked for the Yankees, but Jason cheered for the Mets.” On Wednesday, The Howard Stern Show shared this unapologetically ’80s music video (in which he appears) as a throwback to the last time the Mets won the World Series in 1986 (against my beloved Red Sox, boo hoo), with all enthusiastically singing “Let’s Go Mets!” (Stern at 3:39)

And what about everybody’s favorite disgraced Jewish politician, Anthony Weiner, who is a diehard Mets fan. He tweeted bitter-sweetly on Thursday:

That moment when you realize you can’t be called a “long suffering fan” anymore. — Anthony Weiner (@anthonyweiner) October 22, 2015

After losing a bet to Congressman Steve Israel of New York, California Congressman Adam Schiff sang “Meet the Mets” on the House floor, assuring us all that even hard-working Congress takes baseball breaks:

And there are plenty more Jewish celebs who love the Mets, such as Charles Grodin, Adam Sandler, author Lauren Grodstein, and ESPN’s beloved sportscaster Linda Cohn, who has been tweeting about the Mets all week!

Let’s Go Mets!