5 kinds of Mets fans you'll encounter when you open Twitter

If you’re a New York Mets fan who recently joined Twitter or another social media platform, you’ve come to the right place for lively, entertaining, sometimes irrational discourse. I can’t speak for the other 29 fanbases across MLB, but I know that Mets fans love to show their personalities on social media. The team is often so entertaining that fans don’t have to do too much work to make engaging Mets content on Twitter, Instagram, et. al.

As you dive deeper into the depths of Mets Twitter, you might start to notice patterns emerge across the accounts you follow. These patterns sometimes overlap for certain users, but when Mets fans find their unique social media brand, they tend to stick to it pretty closely. In no particular order, here are a few different categories of Mets fans that you can expect to find on social media.

Mets fans who only tweet about one specific player

There’s some Mets fans out there who, at some time or other, developed a notable affinity for one player in particular, and their liking for that player becomes their entire social media brand. They tend to respond very enthusiastically to social media posts about that player and tweet whenever that player does anything remotely notable (say, a mildly good defensive play or a single up the middle). For some of these social media users, their brand is so prominent that they frequently get tagged by their followers whenever other accounts post about this player. Following these fans can be fun, but be warned: if their favorite Mets player leaves for another team, they may become inconsolable.

Mets fans who only tweet cherry-picked stats

While endlessly scrolling through social media, you’ve likely come across Mets fans who would consider themselves “statheads.” I enjoy tweeting out interesting stats as much as the next person, but these fans REALLY love their stats. So much so, they sometimes post stats containing qualifier after qualifier, just so the Mets player they want to highlight can be included on the list. If you’ve ever seen tweets that go something like, “Out of the 540 MLB players who were born on a Thursday and eat grilled chicken for lunch, [insert Mets pitcher here] is the only one to throw a curveball averaging over 3,000 rpm AND a fastball averaging over 2,486 rpm,” you know exactly the people I’m talking about.

Mets fans who immediately make memes and gifs out of funny Mets moments

Sometimes I’ll be watching a Mets game, see a funny sequence play out on the field, laugh, and then open Twitter, and the moment I just saw happen in real time has already become a GIF or a meme in under 10 seconds. These Mets fans are quick to jump on any remotely meme-able or GIF-able in-game moment faster than most of us can blink. Thank goodness for them, because the fans who snip amusing in-game moments that conventional highlights might not capture help create meme templates for the rest of us (slightly lazier) fans to use later.

Not only that, but if any remotely amusing news comes out about the Mets that is ripe for virality, you can bet that within 30 seconds they’ve thought of a clever, shareable take that the rest of us can only attempt to top.

Mets fans who always find something negative to say about objectively good news

Though a sector of Mets fans are mostly optimistic (and God bless them), there’s also a faction of Mets Twitter users who always seem to be playing devil’s advocate, or finding whatever the opposite of a silver lining is, in any situation. Mets hire experienced, proven manager Buck Showalter? These fans would say that he’s too old or “out of touch.” Mets sign Max Scherzer, future Hall of Famer and objectively the best pitcher available? These fans might grumble about how the Mets made a fool of themselves giving such a huge AAV to a 37-year-old pitcher. Mets win the World Series? These fans would probably immediately post about how sad it is that David Wright never got to win a World Series. And so on and so forth.

Mets fans who live near Citi Field and are constantly at the ballpark for games

Many people who tweet about the Mets don’t actually live in New York or attend games frequently, even if they watch them every night on TV, but some fans who are fortunate enough to have season tickets and attend lots of games per season make sure their followers are well aware of every time they’re at the ballpark. I do love seeing people’s excited tweets about meeting former Mets players or fellow Mets Twitter users at the games they attend, but sometimes I wonder how people have enough time in their schedules to physically attend all of these games. 

Still, I admire their commitment to the Amazin’ brand, along with all of the other Mets fans who make social media so entertaining.