Poll: How do you consume Mets games?
Some fans go to great lengths to keep up with the team throughout the season
Being a father of two kids under 5 means I have very little time to myself. Bedtime routine starts at 7:30pm, and I'm usually trapped under a tangle of small appendages by 8:30pm. Parenting life doesn't mesh well with being a diehard Mets fan, especially if you enjoy watching the games live. Last year, I cancelled cable right around the time the Mets season was turning around in June, because why waste money on a service I can't take advantage of? I tried to convince my friends that Grimace had nothing to do with the Mets turnaround, and it was in fact me they had to thank for cancelling cable. Needless to say the Mets dedicated a permanent seat in the stadium to Grimace, a fictional character from a fast food chain who gets to go to more Mets games in one season then I do in a decade, but I'm still without cable, just in case.
Being a consumer of Mets games has had to look a little different for me since having kids. Do you remember where you were when Pete Alonso hit arguably the biggest Mets home run in franchise history? I do. I was laying in bed next to my youngest son, watching pitches on MLB Gameday, listening to Howie Rose on the Audacy radio app (which is on a solid 30-40 second delay from the actual game). I remember laying there, having just texted my Mets group chat that this at bat for Alonso would make or break his career as a Met, when all of a sudden the little blue circle appeared on my screen with the caption “Homerun”. I leaped from my bed, and, abandoning all effort to attempt to keep my family asleep, ran into my older son's room where his mother has fallen asleep after reading to him, and I loudly woke them both up shouting, “HE DID IT, CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?! PETE ALONSO HIT A HOMERUN!” I get chills just remembering it. Needless to say I spent the next 3 hours watching and rewatching highlights and instant reactions from my favorite commentators on YouTube after the game was over, just reveling in the moment for a little longer while my family slept on.
Or where were you on April 28th when Mark Vientos was called up from AAA and hit the walk off Homerun in the game against Cincinnati in the bottom of the tenth inning? I was driving back from family vacation in Hershey Park watching pitches on MLB Gameday. I calmly turned to my wife and said, “I knew he could do it!” and then put my phone away.
Despite not watching a single game from June 11th until the first game of the Brewers series (I convinced myself that the good fortune associated with me consuming games in ways other than TV no longer applied once the playoffs arrived), I still managed to stay actively involved in every game. Thanks to radio, MLB Gameday, and 12-minute recap videos on YouTube, I rarely have to miss a game.
Back in late 2024, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred expressed publicly his desire to consolidate broadcasting rights for all 30 MLB teams. He believes it will give more leverage to negotiate with national broadcasters and would eliminate local blackouts. In the Mets case, SNY owns the broadcasting rights for the Mets through the 2030 season. I’ve always been interested in how a move like this from the MLB could make games even more accessible for fans who don’t have 7:30 - 10:00pm open in their schedule every night.
How do you consume Mets games? Take the poll below.
"Thankful" for my very expensive Spectrum cable that basically gives me nearly every Mets game with outstanding reception as well as having an SNY app on my phone and iPad. I watch too many games but at my stage of the game it gives me joy, well at least some of the time and I am not nearly ready to cut the cord and listen to games on the radio. Fortunately, my kids have long flown the coop and the grandsons are way to young to care about anything but getting a new Met shirt once they outgrow the old one. Actually to them its just another shirt, but one of the 3 year-olds does know the shirt says Mets. Holding onto their new Soto shirts until the season starts.
I stream the internet with my computer or tablet every game. When my wife watches, which is often, I cast it to my television set so that we can watch it together. Almost every game I also join the Chatter with my "Imaginary Friends".