NEW YORK METS

New York Mets

The New York Mets is a professional baseball team and one of America’s most revered baseball teams based in Flushing, in the borough of Queens, New York. They are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball’s National League. The Mets have won two World Series championships (1969, 1986) and four National League pennants (1969, 1973, 1986, and 2000). Since it opened in 1988, the New York Mets have trained at Thomas J. White Stadium and they have had only two spring-training venues in team history: St. Petersburg's Al Lang Field (1962-1987) and Port St. Lucie (1988-present). They have played in Shea Stadium since 1964 and plan to move into their new home, the Citi Field in 2009.

The New York Metropolitans was certainly known as the original Mets. The modern Mets are also nicknamed the “Amazin’ Mets”, or simply the “Amazins”. In 1962, with an expansion franchise, the club was founded in Manhattan and the Mets came into existence to replace what had been New York's two oldest clubs, the Dodgers and Giants, when both clubs left for California. On the same year, they started their on-field play and lost their first nine games en route to a 40-120 record. Their .250 winning percentage was considered the third worst by any major league team since the beginning of the 20th Century, and the fourth-worst in baseball history.

On June 12, 2005, they planned to construct a new Mets ballpark which is adjacent to Shea Stadium in Flushing, Queens. Construction of the new stadium is being paid by the Mets, while "infrastructure improvement" costs at the site are to be paid by the city. The stadium was originally dubbed Mets Ballpark, before a corporate sponsor was found. Many fans had hoped the park would be named in honor of Jackie Robinson. The naming rights of the stadium were sold to Citigroup and the name Citi Field was officially announced at the November groundbreaking.

The Mets held the New York baseball attendance record for 29 years. In fact, they broke the Yankees' 1948 record by drawing nearly 2.7 million in 1970. The Mets broke their own record five times before the Yankees took it back in 1999. Their traditional colors are blue, orange, and white, symbolic of the return of National League baseball to New York after the Dodgers and Giants moved to California. They also adapt the colors of the New York City flag. Today, the Mets wear a variety of uniforms. One distinction includes solid gray road jerseys with blue trim on the sleeves, the jersey front, and down the side of the pant legs. "NEW YORK" is printed across the front of road jerseys in old English style font. Another uniform combination includes a white home jersey with blue pinstripes and "Mets" written across the front in script.

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