FOONYAS rock!

Carlos Pinero of Santa Monica, CA emailed us
after watching the film. He included some great info about how "FOONYAS" like him follow the Mets from a far...





Left: Carlos riding his "Metsmobile" which he used to commute to work for 2 years in Dodgertown. Right: Carlos's dog Mookie.




Dear Kathy and Joe,

I hope the film takes off with the 2008 season in full swing. It's a great movie. All I have out here are the games in LA & SD (SF is too far for a day trip), but I get to every one of them on TV. Here's some Mets stuff from one more fan; me.


On the Mets forums out there, I coined the phrase FOONYA a few years ago. I am a FOONYA. FOONYAS are the Fans Out Of the New York Area. The out of market Mets fans who can't get to Shea everyday or for that matter, any day. We fly planes and take trains to get to Mets games, and we're always wearing our Mets gear in some other team's town and at other team's ballparks. When the Mets finally come to the town we live in, the whole world stops for three magical days while we take Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday off from work to the total bemusement of our co-workers.

We search the internet for Mets forums, drive to newsstands to find copies of the New York Post for $2, and TIvo expensive MLB packages just to get a taste of Mets. We FOONYAS are the Mets fans that no one notices back in New York, because they never see us. We can't just pop our head into a tavern to see the score on TV where we live, because no one is wearing orange and blue in those games. If you ask a cab driver what the score is, neither of the two cities he mentions are New York. And on the rare occasion that we see the Mets on TV in a public place, it's a national game with no Keith, no Ron, and no Gary, and no one in the joint cheers when Reyes steals second. Half the time, you don't even get a replay; all you get is a highlight clip from another game in another city.

In our towns, we are known as the biggest Mets fans our friends know, mainly because we are they only people the've ever seen wearing a Franco Mets T-shirt every day. There is always a Yankee cap in the room somehow, usually the fashionable all-black version, worn by someone who doesn't follow the team, but on the rare occasion you see another Mets cap in a store or across the street, you smile and wave lioke you know them, and somehow the person in the Mets cap always smiles and waves back or thumbs up back because we are not only Mets fans, we are a special kind of Mets fan.

We are FOONYAS.

Lets Go Mets.

Carlos Pineiro
Santa Monica, CA