My Book Launch Party
The Community of Bloggers. From L to R: Zoe Rice of PickMeUpSomeMets, Mike Steffanos of Mike’s Mets,Stefi Kaplan of YouCan’tScriptBaseball, Dana (me), Kathy Foronjy of MathematicallyAlive, Taryn Cooper of MySummerFamily, Caryn (MetsGrrl), Steve Keane of The Ed Kranepool Society
Schmoozing. On the right, with his chin in his hand, is Mike Silva, of NY Baseball Talk on Blog Talk Radio, soon to be the host of Gotham Baseball Live on Gotham Baseball Magazine.
More of the same. That’s Kathy Foronjy to the left of me. The film she and Joe Coburn just made about the culture of Mets Fans, Mathematically Alive, premiers next week at the Coney Island film festival.
If anyone had told me, on my 50th birthday, that I would be celebrating my 53rd birthday with a book launch party in the East Village for a book I had written about being a fan of the New York Mets … I would have thought that they were crazy. But it actually happened on Sunday and I had such a wonderful time.
The turnout of fellow bloggers was particularly moving to me. I felt like a kid in a cartoon whose imaginary friends have come to life. Sure I knew that people I knew from the Internet really existed, but you’re never really sure, you know what I mean? For all I knew, these people were inside the worn laptop with the F8 key missing on which I had written my book, and on which I compose my blog and my website. It seemed that way, until yesterday.
Everybody was so nice and so supportive. Everybody made me feel as if I had done something worth doing. Everybody made me feel as if we were all in this together, trying to build an alternate world of blogs, podcasts, and films about the Mets; an alternate world in which the hopes and dreams of millions and the joys and sorrows of fandom, are treated with respect. The Mets do not exist simply to soak up fake and irritating condescension from Mike and the Mad Dog. They are part of a family that includes the fine, generous, imaginative people I met at my party.
I’ll go so far as to say that the most amazing thing about the New York Mets is not the inconsistent baseball franchise by that name. It is the millions of people who continue to root for them, through years of frustration and disappointment, even though they are geographically entitled to root for the most successful of all baseball franchises. We are stubborn. We are millions. We have been dangling on a precipice for over a week. Who knows how we’ll remember this strange, awful, but maybe promising moment in Mets history? We’ll find out soon enough. All I know is that I will never forget my 53rd birthday. Thank you to everyone who was there, and to everyone who was there in spirit.
If you want to read more about the party and see more pictures, please check out these other sites and accounts:
“Mets Fans Gather for ‘Mets Fan’” on PickMeUpSomeMets.com
“Sunday in New York” on Mike’s Mets
“Another Easy Win” on You Can’t Script Baseball
“Around the Blogosphere” on Hotfoot
“Paperback Writer” on MetsGrrl
And if you’d like to read about the book, read samples of it, reviews of it, find out about appearances, or get ordering information and even find out how to get personalized signed copies at no extra cost, please visit my website by clicking here:
September 25th, 2007 at 2:42 pm
Dana:
Sent you a private e-mail. My sincere apologies for missing the event. It looks like it was a terrific party.
JD
September 25th, 2007 at 7:57 pm
Sorry I couldn’t make it up to NY for what was obviously a wonderful time (my wife and I had tickets for the last game at RFK in Washington against the Phils).
To anybody Mets fan who hasn’t gottent this book, two words: Get it! It’s terrific!
September 26th, 2007 at 5:06 am
Hi Dana,
The party looked like a lot of fun. I wish I could have gone, but I enjoyed reading about it and the pictures. Happy belated birthday. Thank goodness the Mets won on Sunday!
September 26th, 2007 at 7:03 pm
Congrats on the book!
June 1st, 2008 at 5:04 pm
[…] I met Lynn, and her son Zach, and Zoe Rice, one of the bloggers I recommended, whom I had met before at my book launch party, in a seat by the window of the real Diamond Club, not the imaginary one. I had a terrific dinner and a fine time. Lynn is really something else. I’d never met her except in e-mails and yet I felt immediately as if I’d known her for a long time. We have similar backgrounds and many of the ideas and perspectives associated with those backgrounds. We live somewhat similar lives in the same area of Connecticut, with adolescent children going through a lot of the same bullshit (Zach reminded me a lot of my daughter’s nicer male friends). We have the same favorite movie theatre and fifties-style diner. The biggest difference seemed to be that her husband has this incredibly demanding job which required him to be away from home a lot, leaving her with the bulk of the eternal work of the Connecticut parent (driving, being in specific places at specific times to watch specific things). My wife has a less demanding schedule and we get to go places and do stuff. Lynn and Gary have to squeeze their vacation into the All-Star break. […]