One sentiment prevailed as Mets fans flocked to Citi Field Thursday to watch the Amazins’ try to even up the National League Championship Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers: “This is everything.”
Crisp air and a cool breeze underscored the electric sensation of October baseball in Queens as the team tried to punch its ticket to the World Series.
Fans engulfed the statue of iconic Mets pitcher Tom Seaver ahead of the gates opening — chanting, “Let’s Go Mets!” — flush with both hope and anxiety for the game that would unfurl in the coming hours.
One such fan was Cyndi Stanimirov, 37, who was walking into Citi Field with a co-worker and her brother.
Stanimirov is the director of operations at Brooklyn’s Red Hook Lobster Pound and said she ditched work today to be at the game.
“My restaurant might be on fire and I have no idea,” the diehard Mets fan said. “But I don’t care and I’m only giving a s–t about this.
“It is wild to be here — ’86 was the last time we won. I’m born in ’87. We’ve never experienced it in our lifetime. This is everything. We want to be here. We want to win,” she implored.
“This city, this country, is dying for one of these.”
Stanimirov’s connection to the Mets is generational, saying the team means “everything” to her family. Her mother worked the concession stands at Shea Stadium in the ’80s and ’90s.
She brought her mother to Citi Field for the Philadelphia Phillies game last week and said of a potential World Series berth, “I will 100% figure out how to manage my money and bring her again.”
Her coworker Rob Henriquez, 37, is working on his own generation of Mets fans.
“I’m a diehard. I bleed orange and blue,” he told The Post. “I’m such a diehard I named my daughter Shea after Shea Stadium and the place where I had some of the greatest memories of my life.”
Henriquez said he became a Mets fan soon after moving to New York in 1994 after his uncle won nosebleed tickets from a radio giveaway.
“I fell in love with the game and the team since.”
Irish transplant Rob O’Neill, 41, never imagined he’d become a baseball fan when he moved from the Emerald Isle to Astoria in 2004, but he’s become “addicted” to watching the Amazins.
“In Ireland, you support the local team,” he explained as he stood in the shadow of Seaver’s statue.
“I never thought I’d be a Mets fan. But then I moved here, and I was close to Citi Field — Shea Stadium at the time — and I became a Mets fan… a friend of mine brought me to a game, and that was it.”
Asked if he had any pregame superstitions, the Irishman quipped, “No lucky charms.”
Jesse Friedman, 33, a full-time baseball coach and Mets superfan looked ready to step into left field as he was decked out in head-to-toe team gear – including a Mets necklace, his good-luck Mets jacket and custom Nike Air Force Ones emblazoned with team mascot Mr. Met.
“I’m the Mets Superman,” Friedman said. “I grew up in Shea Stadium. I had season tickets from, like, ages 7 until 12. I watched all the great moments here. The Mike Piazza Sept. 11 home run. Robin Ventura grand slam single, [the] comeback against the Braves.”
Friedman was also in attendance last week when the Mets clinched the championship round berth by besting the Phillies and predicted a 6-4 win in Thursday’s Game 4 — with Mets second baseman Jose Iglesias scoring the winning run.
“The vibe is amazing. It’s New York City electricity is what it is,” Friedman said.
“Yankees fans can’t even match stuff like this.”
Sadly for the Mets’ faithful, Friedman’s prediction didn’t come true — the team was trounced by the Dodgers 10-2, and Iglesias struck out.
They now trail 3-1 in the series.
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