May 8, 1961

Posted on May 8, 2020 by Joel Byers

On May 8, 1961, native New Yorkers selected a name for their new National League baseball team. They chose the Mets, which was short for Metropolitans. If like the majority of the world and you think “Mets” lacks any sort of punch or kick as a name for a sports team, you should be aware it could have been worse, or in a couple of cases, gloriously better. On the worse side, they could have been named one of the following; Avengers, Bees, Burros, Continentals, Rebels or Skyscrapers. Really, these were official entries for the name of the team. On the “why oh why couldn’t they have chosen one of these names instead” included Addicts, Beatniks, Cousins, Midgets, Mothers-in-law, Muggers, Queens, Slumlords, Uncles, and Zorros. Any one of these names would have been extraordinarily and gloriously inappropriate. The New York Mothers-in-law or the New York Muggers would have struck fear into the hearts of all opponents. Think about it. We could have had a team called the New York Queens. On the one occasion where the Mets played the New York Yankees in the World Series, it would have been the Queens versus the Yankees. The inappropriate jokes would have written themselves.

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About Joel Byers

Born in North Georgia and educated at some very fine public institutions. Real education started after graduating from college and then getting married and raising two boys. Has the ability to see the funny and absurd in most things and will always remark on it, even if it means getting the stink-eye from his victims.
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