Metropolitans
New York Baseball, Class Struggle, and the People's Team
by A.M. Gittlitz
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Pub Date Mar 31 2026 | Archive Date Mar 24 2026
Astra Publishing House | Astra House
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Description
A love letter to a franchise and a thrilling study of New York City, Metropolitans traces the electric and calamitous history of the New York Mets.
Metropolitans is for Mets fans, New York partisans, and everyone interested in the Mobius strip dynamic of sports and politics, the history of the national game, or the beautiful contradiction of baseball itself: a middle-class game owned by billionaires, in which the players—like the spectators—look to traverse the diamond and ultimately safely escape its many dangers. Along the way, A.M. Gittlitz re-introduces us to an eccentric cast of Metsian characters: Joan Payson, the first woman to buy a Major League Baseball team; a young Tom Seaver with an interest in progressive politics; and the contentious but beloved Mike Piazza.
Gittlitz leads us through baseball’s amateur beginnings to the Mets’ first heady World Series on the heels of the Civil Rights and anti-war movements that many Mets players participated in. He guides us to the bad boy years, the exploitative development of farm academies in developing nations, and their inglorious purchase by a new breed of capitalist—even after which they remained lovable losers.
Metropolitans brilliantly shows us that sports have long been a site of political struggle, rousing class consciousness, and animating fights for racial equality. From purportedly calming riots in ’69 to producing some of the greatest chokes in sporting history, from integration to desperate labor struggle against franchise owners, Metropolitans makes a deeply humane and convincing argument for the fascinating singularity of the New York Mets—and why they are not just the team of the counterculture, the freaks, and the losers, but the beloved team of anyone with a beating heart.
Advance Praise
“Metropolitans expertly unpacks the ‘cruel optimism’ linking the yearning of a fanbase whose suffering is alleviated by sporadic miracles to the genuine dissident legacies that surrounded the team’s creation and which have occasionally, miraculously, come back to life. How appropriate that I write these words while watching the Mets being no-hit through 8 innings—precisely the situation of the U.S. left at this moment. How will our heroes survive? Stay tuned!” —Jonathan Lethem, author of Motherless Brooklyn and The Fortress of Solitude
Marketing Plan
MARKETING AND PUBLICITY PLANS • Events at a local Mets bar and city venues like the Queens Museum and The New York Historical in collaboration with independent bookstores • Big mouth outreach targeting high-profile Mets fans • National and local NYC book review coverage • Interviews and profiles by sports and culture writers at The New Yorker, The Athletic, Defector, GQ, & more • Local media interviews with WNYC, NY1, Hell Gate, The City, Gothamist, amNewYork, and the Queens Daily Eagle • Podcast interviews on sports, culture, and leftist political podcasts • Leftist coverage: reviews and interviews in Jacobin, The Nation, The New Republic, and Mother Jones • Social media campaign • Collaboration with Mets fan groups • Preorder campaign • Giveaways
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9781662603006 |
| PRICE | $30.00 (USD) |
| PAGES | 352 |
Available on NetGalley
Average rating from 4 members
Featured Reviews
Michael A, Educator
A great social history of the Mets. If you loved "Ladies and Gentleman, the Bronx is Burning", this will be for you. This is a thoughtful examination of the interplay between a team and its times. The interconnectedness between the urban history of New York City, the national concerns of the era, and immortal game are wondrously weaved together. This work shows why a team means so much more to a community than simple entertainment - it represents the soul of a place and it's people.
Cortney H, Media/Journalist
As a Mets fan and a lefty, I feel like this book was written just for me and maybe Mayor Mamdani. A fascinating look at labor history and how the Mets become the team of the underdogs. Even when they have winning seasons and extraordinarily rich players and owners, the Mets are still comrades. This book is obviously for a pretty niche audience, but that small group will find a lot to like.
Dave W, Media/Journalist
I wasn't sure what to expect from a book that talks about the Mets through the lens of NYC and working/middle class.
What I got was a really interesting history of professional baseball with a lens on the history of the game in NYC. I never knew all of the history of the Metropolitans before the team gave way to the Dodgers, Giants, and Yankees.
Learning the origin of the Dodgers' name was worth the time to read the book.
The biggest thing that stood out to me is how the Mets are the people's team. I always felt/feel that in NYC when the Mets are doing well, the city hits different.
Now I know why.
The Mets history is rooted in the middle class, the people. The Wilpons tried to change that, but eventually the Mets return to the people.
Reviewer 987461
I am a Mets fan (I know, I’m a glutton for punishment), so take my review with that grain of salt. This is a great book! It’s approachable labor history, interwoven with baseball history generally and Mets history more specifically. I’m around the same age at the author, so I appreciated his personal ties to the team and the highs and lows he experienced at different stages of his own life - I too have vivid memories of being a Mets fan in a sea of Yankee fans in middle school during the 2000 Subway Series. However, I don’t think you need to be a Mets fan to appreciate this book. The tie-ins to social movements throughout the last 150 years seem natural (sometimes in books like this there is at least one relationship that seems a little forced!). Overall a well-written, entertaining book for any Mets fan, baseball fan, or just someone interested in the underdog stories of “the people’s insert-object-here”.
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