Brooklyn’s youth will serve Nets and Isles best
Generation of Young Fans to Determine Fan Loyalty in Our Borough
Mets fans were ushered in on the coattails of the old Giants and Dodgers, National League teams that had fled Manhattan and Brooklyn, respectively, in search of more earning power along the West Coast.
There was little to no interest among those who had rooted for those franchises from as far back as the 1880s to suddenly turn their affections to the hated Yankees of the rival American League.
So naturally, when the “Can Anybody Here Play This Game?” Mets took the field at the Polo Grounds in 1962, they had a built-in following: Dodgers fans, Giants fans and everyone else who happened to hate the Damn Yankees.