DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER: Rebecca Lazofsky (left) and her daughter Miriam, fans since 1962, finally attend their first Met game yesterday. (Neil Miller)
It really was old-timer’s day at Citi Field yesterday.
Rebecca Lazofsky, 102, and her daughter Miriam, 83, have been rooting for the Mets since the team’s 1962 debut, but yesterday marked the first time either got to see them in person.
“It’s wonderful to be here,” Miriam said, shortly after taking her seat behind home plate.
“This is absolutely great. You get a much better view than when you watch the game on television.”
Miriam started out rooting for the Brooklyn Dodgers as an act of rebellion against her father and brothers, who were diehard Yankee fans, and she soon converted her mother.
“That shows great character on their part,” joked Met Vice President David Howard, who arranged for the women to have primo seats after he heard their story.
The mother and daughter snacked on classic ballpark fare — hot dogs with onions, sauerkraut and mustard — and cheered, “Let’s Go Mets.”
They smiled and waved to the crowd as they were shown on the stadium’s Jumbotron being presented with a cake-shaped floral arrangement.
“I would like to catch a ball,” Rebecca said through a grin. “If they give me a glove, I’ll try!”
Although she still practices law out of her Canarsie home, Miriam said she never made it out to the ballpark because she has been confined to a wheelchair since having polio as a child.
“It’s gotten harder for me to remember the players’ names, but I always know when they win or lose,” she said.
“And when they lose, I close my eyes [and] I pretend I don’t see anything. As a Mets fan you always keep hoping and wishing.”
Her mother had previously seen only one other game in person — she saw the Yankees with her then-boyfriend, who later became her husband and Miriam’s dad, on a date in 1926.
When Sandy Pitofsky, 56, a friend and client of Miriam’s, heard the mother and daughter’s story, he promised to take them to a game.
“They’ve attained so much, even with all their challenges,” he said. “I wanted to do this for them because they’ve given so much over the years.”
Even though the home team lost to the Los Angeles Angels, 7-3, they were thrilled with the experience and stayed until the final out.
“It was a beautiful game,” Miriam said.