New York Mets are wonderfully goofy, as they have been since franchise’s beginning

The weather could be warmer and the home team’s pitchers could do a better job of throwing the ball to first base, and yet neither of those items changes the fact this has become a disinterested baseball market when only a few thousand people will show up to watch the New York Mets at splendiferous Target Field.

The Mets started in 1962 with the grandest celebration of ineptitude in American sports history, they performed as much of a miracle in 1969 as anything that would take place upstate in Lake Placid and their followers hate the Yankees even more than did Minnesota’s baseball fans, back in the days when we had a sizable number of those.

What’s not to get you to the ballpark when the Mets drop in here from the National League, which has been annually starting in 2023?

They might be having a good season, they might be having a bad season, but there is always drama — and loyalists in the stands ready to express candid opinions.

“If they think you messed up, our fans don’t call out to you by name,” said Jeremy Hefner, the Mets pitching coach. “They usually come up with another name.”

Hefner wasn’t complaining. He enjoys the rabid nature of the Mets audience, particularly during those now six games per regular season vs. the haughty Yankees.

As a newspaper reporter who covered 25 World Series, local prejudice makes it impossible to put any of those October tournaments ahead of the Twins’ two championships: the epic seven-gamer vs. Atlanta in 1991 and the first one in seven games over St. Louis in 1987.

The only outside contender for first place would be the Mets vs. the Boston Red Sox in 1986. The sixth game ended after midnight at Shea Stadium, with the Mets rallying for three runs in the bottom of 10th after there were two outs and no base runners.

The bouncer that went through Boston first baseman Bill Buckner followed him for 18 years — until the Red Sox finally won a World Series in 2004 to end “The Curse of the Bambino” after 86 years.

Legend had it that Mets star Keith Hernandez had headed for the home clubhouse after flying out deep for the second out in the 10th. Once there, he opened a beer, lit a cigarette and stewed while waiting for Boston closer Calvin Schiraldi to get the third out.

Hernandez was working as the analyst with play-by-play great Gary Cohen on the Mets telecast Tuesday. He was asked to confirm those actions after the long flyout in Shea Stadium.

“I had a half-a-beer in the clubhouse before we started to rally,” Hernandez said. “I was smoking a cigarette, of course. I smoked an entire pack during that game.”

The National League’s 1979 MVP smiled and said: “It took me three years after I quit playing to kick the cigarette habit, but I did.”

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Those were the Mets then. These are still the Mets — wonderfully goofy. For instance: 77-85 out of the pandemic in 2021, 101-61 in 2022 with new manager Buck Showalter, 75-87 with Showalter getting fired in 2023, 89-73 with new manager Carlos Mendoza in 2024, winning two playoff series and losing in six games to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLCS.

Hefner has been through that roller coaster and more. He ended a pitching career after 2016 that had included brief time with the Mets. He had a roundabout connection with Jeff Pickler, added to the Twins coaching staff that season.

The Twins hired Hefner as an advance scout — meaning endless study of video — for 2017.

A year later, he became assistant pitching coach to Wes Johnson.

“There was always energy with Wes,” Hefner said. “He was a non-stop guy.”

The Mets decided manager Mickey Callaway needed a new pitching coach for 2019. Hefner interviewed — and got the job. He turned 33 in spring training that year, a long time in the minors but very inexperienced for a No. 1 pitching coach.

Hefner has worked for four managers (Callaway, Luis Rojas, Showalter and now Mendoza) and three previous baseball bosses with the Mets. Now David Stearns is solidly in place running the team.

Hefner was sitting in the visitors’ dugout early Tuesday afternoon.

“I didn’t have an idea about staying in the game when I retired, until the Twins called me,” Hefner said. “I didn’t know what my chance was two years later when the Mets gave me an interview. Something convinced them.

“The Twins were outstanding with me. And now it’s been great being at the ballpark with the Mets every day.”

Too bad Minnesota’s lost legions of fans don’t feel that way about the Mets. They’re always fun, darn it.