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Al Jackson knows how bad Mets can be

Mark Herrmann

June 29, 2008

After all these years and so many tries, the perfect slogan for the Mets has just bubbled to the surface. It succeeds where "The Magic Is Back" and "Your Season Has Come" failed. Here, finally, is the one phrase that encapsulates being a Met or Mets fan:

"I've Seen Worse."

Let's face it. That's what rooting for the Mets is all about. It's not reminiscing about what you have achieved, it's reviewing what you have endured. Rooting for the Mets is not only chronic, it is cathartic. It makes a person adjusted for anything else that might happen in life.

That is the considered opinion of Marc Gold, who proudly admits to having been the first president of the Mets Fan Club and the first editor and publisher of Met Maze, a monthly publication for people helplessly devoted to a club that has had a lot more downs than ups.

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So it was no small matter when Gold, now an executive of a very successful third-generation family company, made a special presentation this past Monday. It was an unceremonious ceremony at the Gold's Horseradish plant in Hempstead, but to Gold, it was as joyous as if someone had let him have a catch with Rod Kanehl.

He officially bestowed on Al Jackson a copy of the September 1962 Met Maze, in which Jackson was honored as Met of the Month.

"This is surreal, a hero from 46 years ago ...," Gold said, standing near a copy of the 1962 Mets yearbook, which was somewhat glossier than Met Maze - a periodical printed by the 14-year-old Gold on his dad's mimeograph machine.

There was no anniversary to celebrate or occasion to mark, other than the fact that Gold figured it was time to finally meet Jackson (in town for a golf outing) and salute him for handling the awful years with class. No matter how bad things might get for the club now, Gold and Jackson have seen worse.

"He was so tenacious; he never let up," Gold said Monday in his memorabilia-bedecked office. He explained that his company, which he runs with three cousins, is a business partner of the Mets. Gold recalled a team executive telling him, "We want your mustard." So now Gold Pure Food Products is the official condiment provider for Shea Stadium and sponsors the annual bobblehead day (this year, it's Johan Santana).

Gold and Jackson exchanged stories. The fan remembered the day the 1962 Mets used five first-base coaches, one of whom was Marv Throneberry, who hit the walk-off home run. Gold also recalled Jim Hickman winning a game with a home run on what would have been an easy fly if it hadn't clipped the overhanging upper deck at the Polo Grounds.

The fan proffered an old scoresheet of a game in which Jackson, 8-20 in 1962, pitched a five-hitter and lost. "Hey, that happened a lot," Jackson said.

Jackson recalled becoming the first Met to win a game at Shea Stadium, a six-hit shutout. "Somebody asked me [recently] what I thought about when we first moved in. I thought it was heaven," he said. "Coming out of the Polo Grounds ..."

(Say what you will about Shea, but Jackson has seen worse.)

The former lefthanded pitcher remembered how Casey Stengel saved him to open the last series of the 1964 season against the Cardinals, and how he beat Bob Gibson, 1-0 (temporarily preventing the '64 Phillies from being the precursor of the '07 Mets). He had to go through the Cardinals' clubhouse to appear on Harry Caray's postgame show.

"Oh, did they call me a bunch of names," he said. "They said, 'You guys are 59 games out of first place and you've got to pitch a game like this?' Man, did they rip me."

He talked about being on the 1967 champion Cardinals, then returning to the Mets for 1968 and a touch of 1969. Yes, Tom Seaver and Jerry Koosman used to seek his advice. Thirty years after that, he was a Mets coach. To this day, he is listed as a pitching consultant. "They call me a lifer," he said.

And that was about the extent of the ceremony. No loudspeakers, no crowd. Don't laugh. The fact that Jackson showed up for no fee (other than a box of Gold's products and some bobbleheads for his grandchildren) showed he is touched that someone cared enough to appreciate and remember him, 20 losses notwithstanding. It was a glimpse into the soul of the relationship between the Mets and Mets fans, or at least (to paraphrase yet another slogan) the way it ought to be.

Sad to say, lately, we've seen worse.