# 446: The People's Team: The Strange History of New York's Mets - With Andy Gittlitz Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/good-seats-still-available-7112953/446-the-people-s-team-the-strange-history-of-new-york-s-mets-with-andy-gittlitz Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/good-seats-still-available-7112953/446-the-people-s-team-the-strange-history-of-new-york-s-mets-with-andy-gittlitz.md Podcast: [Good Seats Still Available](https://stenobird.com/podcast/good-seats-still-available-7112953) Published: 2026-05-18T01:44:12+00:00 Episode link: https://goodseatsstillavailable.libsyn.com/placeholder-384 Audio file: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/traffic.libsyn.com/secure/goodseatsstillavailable/GSSA_446.mp3?dest-id=480273 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/good-seats-still-available-7112953/episodes/446-the-people-s-team-the-strange-history-of-new-york-s-mets-with-andy-gittlitz Duration seconds: 4701 ## Resource For more than six decades, baseball's New York Mets have occupied a singular place in American sports culture: eternally overshadowed, perpetually chaotic, strangely lovable, and deeply woven into the identity of New York itself. Born in the aftermath of the departures of the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants , the Mets quickly became something far more complicated than an expansion baseball team. They became a vessel for outer-borough pride, working-class frustration, inherited heartbreak, and the emotional DNA of National League baseball in New York City. In this episode, we dive deep into that history through an expansive conversation with author A.M. (Andy) Gittlitz about his widely acclaimed new book, " Metropolitans : New York Baseball, Class Struggle, and the People's Team ." Rather than telling a conventional franchise history, Gittlitz explores the Mets as a social, political, and cultural institution — one shaped by class struggle, labor history, media narratives, urban change, and the shifting identity of New York itself. From the lingering ghosts of the Dodgers to the miracle of 1969, from Shea Stadium dysfunction to the strange mythology of Mets fandom, this conversation explores why the franchise has inspired such fierce loyalty despite decades of collapse, disappointment, and absurdity. We also examine the Mets' complicated relationship with the Yankees, the meaning of "the people's team," and whether the franchise's identity can survive the billionaire-era ambitions of owner Steve Cohen . + + + SUPPORT THE SHOW: Buy Us a Coffee : https://ko-fi.com/goodseatsstillavailable The "Good Seats" Store : http://tee.pub/lic/RdiDZzQeHSY BUY THE BOOK: " Metropolitans : New York Baseball, Class Struggle, and the People's Team " : https://amzn.to/42BQSHI SPONSOR Tâ€Ĥ ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/good-seats-still-available-7112953/episodes/446-the-people-s-team-the-strange-history-of-new-york-s-mets-with-andy-gittlitz/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/good-seats-still-available-7112953/446-the-people-s-team-the-strange-history-of-new-york-s-mets-with-andy-gittlitz.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.