So Many Ways to Lose

The Amazin’ True Story of the New York Mets—the Best Worst Team in Sports

By: Devin Gordon

Narrated by: Jeremy Arthur

“This is a weird, wonderful, and essential book about both America and its pastime. It’s about a place as vast as New York City and as intimate as the human heart. Fred Exley meets Richard Ben Cramer—a funny, wild, heartfelt, and keenly observed portrait of yearning itself.”—Wright Thompson, New York Times bestselling author of The Cost of These Dreams

“Mr. Gordon’s ability to explain the Sisyphean plight of all Mets fans is truly remarkable. Bravo!”—Ron Darling, New York Times bestselling author of Game 7, 1986

The Mets lose when they should win. They win when they should lose. And when it comes to being the worst, no team in sports has ever done it better than the Mets.

In So Many Ways to Lose, author and lifelong Mets fan Devin Gordon sifts through the detritus of Queens for a baseball history like no other. Remember the time the Mets lost an All-Star after he got charged by a wild boar? Or the time they blew a six-run ninth-inning lead at the peak of a pennant race? Or the time they fired their manager before he ever managed a game? Sure you do. It was only two years ago, and it was all in the same season. The Mets have an unrivaled gift for getting it backward, doing the impossible, snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, and then snatching defeat right back again.

And yet, just ask any Mets fan: amazing and/or miraculous postseason runs are as much a part of our team's identity as losing 120 games in 1962. The DNA of seasons like 1969, the original Miracle Mets, and the 1973 “Ya Gotta Believe” Mets, who went from last place to Game 7 of the World Series in two months, and the powerhouse 1986 Mets, has encoded in us this hapless instinct that a reversal of fortune is always possible. It’s happened before. It’s kind of our thing. And now we've got Steve Cohen's hedge-fund billions to play with! What could go wrong?

In this hilarious history of the Mets and love letter to the art of disaster, Devin Gordon presents baseball the way it really is, not in the wistful sepia tones we've come to expect from other sportswriters. Along the way, he explains the difference between being bad and being gifted at losing, and why this distinction holds the key to understanding the true amazin’ magic of the New York Mets.

©2020 Devin Gordon (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers

Amazin’

This book was amazing, and really captured what it feels like to be a Mets fan. It’s funny and it’s got heart which is really what it’s all about.

My only... let’s not say complaint, but head-scratcher— how can you write a book about the Mets, with so many insightful stories about so many bit players, and somehow not include even a mention of Murphy, Wilmer, or Santana’s no-hitter??

Unexpectedly Amazing

A fun read about a hapless expansion team that won 4 straight games from the heavily favored Baltimore Orioles to win the Wotld Series

A MUST FOR METS FANS!

Full of great Mets stories and a ton of baseball history in general. Absolutely loved this book!

Brilliant, Entertaining and Enlightening!

I’m a lifelong, cradle Mets fan. It’s not easy. Disappointment, defeat snatched from the jaws of victory, long waits for a winning season… When the girding of loins is called for my standard line is always “Hey, I’m a Mets fan, you can’t scare me”! As I listened to “So Many Ways To Lose” I was alternately laughing, crying and shaking my head as the memories came flooding back! This beautifully flowing, magnificently narrated story is the all too true, at times hysterical, at time poignant, at times painful to remember story of the team that will forever be a part of my soul. Along the way I learned a few things about “my guys”, gaining a whole new appreciation for a few, a ton of respect for some, and for a few, well my mother always said if you have nothing good to say … so I just leave off here! If you, like me, love the Mets, THIS is the story you need! Five star fantastic from the first words to the last! I am so glad I listened, and I’m sure this one will be a frequent repeat! It’s that good!

Even if you’re not a Mets fan…

Even though I am a diehard Red Sox fan, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It is well written, well research, with excellent narration. Anyone who has loved baseball over the last 50 years will get a kick out of this book.

A must for Mets fans

I love this book. Devin Gordon is a true Mets lifer, and he provides a beautifully comic and tragic look at the fan experience. he goes back to the beginning, before he even was alive, and provides a well researched review of the origins of the Mets, A topic near and dear to me, with wonderful comic timing. I can’t recommend this book highly enough to any Met fan, whether true blue or casual. Did I mention that I love this book?

MARV THRONEBERRY

I’m a Yankee fan. I’d like to think I have a valid case for fandom, and the author apparently agrees. I inherited my fandom, and it was strengthened by my mother being invited to the the White House when the Yanks visited after the ‘98 WS win, where she got me balls signed by a bunch of the guys and Torre (and Clinton but who cares).

Anyways, coming from this elitist position of coming of age during the dynasty years, I never paid much mind to the Mets. I watched their games on off nights (no idea why but I loved Robin Ventura), but felt little for the team.

That changed a few years ago when I became really interested in the Mets pitching staff. I became Mets-curious you could say. Thus when I saw this book I knew I needed to get it.

For a team I didn’t grow up loving, I’m amazed what a good job the author did getting me to buy emotionally to the Mets’ history. I learned a ton, found out I’ve been living without Marv Throneberry in my life for way too long, and gained a knew appreciation for the franchise and their fans.

You don’t need to love the Mets to love this book. I didn’t love them. But now I kind of do. Even if they will never quite take the place of the team of my childhood, they’ve become special to me now. This book had a ton to do with it. And even if you aren’t looking for a new team to support in the other league, you can still have a lot of fun with a great baseball book.

Mets Fan Must Read...

If you are a diehard Mets fan or not, this is a must read. You can learn about the early years up to Polar Bear.

SportsTalk Fan Fare

Overall, I enjoyed the book and found it engaging. The author gets the history right but speaks with the first-person snark echoes the tone of NYC’s WFAN/New York Post-driven sports media.
I was expecting something more along the lines of Lawerence S. Ritter or Roger Kahn, but that’s my personal preference. The narration was very professional and polished but dead-paned in a way that could’ve just as easily fit a true-crime podcast. Perhaps a different reading could’ve brought some light-heartedness to the text.
(Bonus points for making me aware of the unintentionally hilarious 1986 rap song “Get Metsmerized” though.)

Leave the liberal politics out

This story is great. It’s a fun book. It’s accurate.

BUT, the writer could’ve left the liberal bullshat politics out of it. He comes off as lame when he did that.