Local Mets fans are hopeful

Mets fever is sweeping the region as the hard-luck team plays its first World Series since 2000, and local fans are in a state of exhilaration. The cheering at Charlie Meaney’s Restaurant in Valley Stream was deafening after the last win over the Cubs, and fans from around the county gathered in Mineola on Monday for a rally that featured Mets legend Doc Gooden and a blue-and-orange-lit dome of the Theodore Roosevelt Executive and Legislative Building.

Waldinger Memorial Library Director Mamie Eng has been a “suffering Mets fan” since she was a child, she said. She saw a turning point this season when the Mets swept the Washington Nationals in September, though she credited manager Terry Collins with keeping “an even keel throughout the whole season.”

Eng said she was confident that the team is “all on the same page” and ready to do their best. “I’m very happy,” she said, “but I know it will be a tough fight, because the Royals are a scrappy team.”

Resident Richard Infield, president of Friends of Valley Stream Dogs, worked in the shadow of the old Shea Stadium as an employee of British Airways when he moved to the U.S. from his native England 25 years ago. He’s been a Mets fan ever since.

“I’m actually amazed,” he said, “because when you’re a Mets fan you always expect the worst, so when something good is happening, you wonder if it’s a trick.”

Infield made the pilgrimage to four games at Citi Field this season, early on and then later “when the hitting was better, so I’ve seen the best and the worst.” He said he thought the Royals would present a formidable challenge, and expected the Series to go six or seven games, but was confident that the young Mets team could compete, especially the bullpen.

“Good pitching beats good hitting, and we have the best pitching in the National League right now,” Infield said. “It’s the first time I’ve felt like they were going to go the whole way.”

Mayor Ed Fare worked for the Mets organization for two years, handling customer complaints at Citi Field from 2009 until he took office in 2011. His roots run deep with the club — he was born in 1962, the same year the team was founded.

“My family is all Mets fans,” he said. “My father used to bring us to Shea when we were little.”

Fare’s bulldog-Shih Tzu mix is named for the original stadium. His children are all fans as well, and he and his daughter, Jessica, made it to one of the National League Divisional Series games against the Los Angeles Dodgers. His last playoff game at Citi Field before that was in 2007, when the team collapsed in a playoff loss to the Florida Marlins.

“I left so depressed,” he remembered. “We missed greatness by one swing.”

This time around Fare is more optimistic. He’s been wearing his Mets gear to his classes at South and Central high schools, and his family shares his excitement. “It brings me back to the ’69 series,” he said. “We’re like little kids.”

Bob Inzerillo, president of the Valley Stream Sandlot Little League, took Fare’s position at Citi Field when Fare left. He held the job until last year. “Sure enough, they make it to the World Series and I’m not working there,” he lamented.

Inzerillo, whose appearance is often compared to his second-favorite Met, Keith Hernandez, remembered seeing Yoenas Cespedes “crushing home runs into left field” for the Oakland A’s when Inzerillo worked at Citi Field. He thought Cespedes would be a perfect fit for the team, particularly at home, where he seemed to have a knack for homers. When he joined the roster, “that changed the whole team,” Inzerillo said.

He’s also excited about Daniel Murphy. “Murphy — forget about it,” he said. “Murphy is unbelievable.”

Inzerillo said he was glad to see the Royals in the championship as well, and was equally glad to not see another team. “The evil empire over there in the Bronx,” he said. “I’m tired of them.”

Village Trustee John Tufarelli is another lifelong fan. His passion started when he went to games in the late 1960s with his grandfather. His family’s loyalties belonged to the Brooklyn Dodgers before their departure for the West Coast in 1957, so the passion shifted to the new Queens team.

Tufarelli has seen the Mets make history in person: He made it to playoff and World Series games when Yogi Berra managed the team to an American League pennant but they were ultimately defeated by Oakland. He was at game 7 of the 1986 World Series and saw them beat the Boston Red Sox for the title.

“I think this is the best pitching staff on any Mets team,” he said. “These young arms are great.”

Tufarelli said he has been pessimistic about his team in the past — “as Mets fans are” — but he thinks this team could win it. He said he exchanges texts with Fare during games, and plans to watch the remaining World Series games at home.

“I’m just happy to be in the game,” he said.

Another familiar fan has been getting considerable attention for his impassioned Mets support — comedian and Central High School alumnus Jim Breuer, whose videos of his enthusiastic, ski-goggle-clad post-game celebrations have attracted well over a million views on Facebook.