THE DAY THE FRANCHISE LEFT

(Seaver traded away on June 15, 1977)

The day the Franchise left the team,
I felt a painful, thunderous scream
Emanate from my bare soul:
The move had ripped a giant hole
Into my heart; that’s when I knew
That my love of orange and blue
With whom I’d lived and died for years
Had been reduced to grief-filled tears.

Tom Terrific was now gone;
There was no way we’d carry on
As if it were a minor move:
The New York Mets had lost their groove,
And of those recent glory years
All that was left were bitter tears.

They say when Casey did strike out,
The fans refused to ever doubt
That he’d return to win each heart
Of saddened supporters with his next start,
But Casey was never traded away —
A dreadful decision I regret to this day —
And so Casey played for many years
For the same team; there were no tears.

But when the Franchise became a Red,
A piece of me began to shred;
I loved the man – I loved the team,
But now the Mets could not redeem
Their honor for the Founding Fans,
The ones who filled Shea’s noisy stands.
The future held just empty years;
My heart and soul were drowned in tears!