Howie Rose barely avoided summer school when he was 15, narrowly passing geometry despite being sidetracked by the 1969 Mets’ trek to their first World Series title. He had slacked on his school work to absorb his first bit of ammunition in a rivalry that pitted a teenage Rose against his Yankees fan of a father.
At the same age in 1973, Gary Cohen stood in line for every postseason game at Shea Stadium with his friends. Though the Mets’ World Series bid fell just short against the Oakland Athletics, each outing gave a young Cohen his first memorable taste of the peaks that have been interspersed among the Mets’ sufferings over the past 50-plus years.