Believeniks! 2005: The Year We Wrote a Book About the Mets by Ivan Felt and Harris Conklin is not your average book about the Mets. The book is made up of a series of letters from each of the authors to each other during the 2005 season. When reading this book now, there is a definite feeling of nostalgia. 2005 feels like such a long time ago when reading this book. This was pre-Wagner with Looper “anchoring” the pen. Many of the games they write to each other about you will remember. I felt those days of being mad at Looper and proud of Pedro during those letters. There is a great glossary in the end that gives humorous descriptions of each of the players on the Mets.
Sample Selection (Felt and Conklin 270):
“Piazza, Mike (1998-2005): Straight catcher for the Mets and Dodgers”
The book starts to fall flat midway through because their letters start to turn more to their personal life and the novelty of reliving the 2005 season starts to die out. Believeniks is not a bad read, but it is also not a book to rush out and get either. Overall, it is entertaining but not a standout as a great baseball book.
