The Daily News’ Flip Bondy took a tour of the Mets’ new Hall of Fame inside Citi Field, and it sounds pretty nice:
There’s something about the words “Hall of Fame” that causes everyone’s sphincters to tighten. Cooperstown does a good job because it’s dealing with the weight of all of baseball history, but most other halls of fame I’ve visited -- baseball and otherwise -- seem to go way too heavy and serious. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame may be the worst one around. When you’re taking torn up jeans and scrawled lyric sheets that once belonged to the Clash and displaying them in hermetically-sealed glass cases in a pristine and antiseptic room, you’ve sort of lost the connection to the history you’re trying to venerate.
It’s hard to be pompous when you have the Mets’ modest history. Luckily, that isn’t the feel or intent of this Hall of Fame, which has a refreshing, lighthearted feel. The Mets aren’t the Yankees. They don’t hit you over the head with their two championship teams, with their eulogies, or with their pronouncements about being the greatest sports franchise in the world.
That would be silly, instead of fun. And this museum is a lot of fun.
The Mets’ place sounds fun. Which, recent drama notwithstanding, the Mets usually have been throughout their history. Good for them for getting it right.
