Top 10: Celebrity Met Fans

I wasn't really sure how to go about ranking celebrity Met fans. Should it be based on how famous the celebrity is? How successful? How devoted a Met fan? My ultimate criteria was a combination of these factors, with preference given to those who reference the Mets in their work. Here goes:

10. Julia Stiles

The star of "10 Things I Hate About You", "Save the Last Dance", and the Jason Bourne trilogy threw out the first pitch at Shea in a game vs. the D-Backs in 2006. She is the first of 2 female fans on the list.

9. Matt Dillon

The brother of Johnny Drama was born in New Rochelle, NY, and has starred in some big time movies like "Crash", "There's Something About Mary", and "Wild Things." He is Oscar nominated, for his role in "Crash", and threw out the first pitch of Game 6 of the 2006 NLCS.

8. Viggo Mortensen

One of my favorite actors, the Oscar nominated Mortensen (for the great film "Eastern Promises") is less public about his Mets fandom. He was born in Manhattan, and is inexplicably a fan of the Montreal Canadiens and Argentine soccer team.

7. Ray Romano

Ray played a Newsday sportswriter who never seemed to be working on his show "Everybody Loves Raymond". His character on the show had a dog named "Shamsky", named after former Met Art Shamsky, and lived on Long Island. In real life he is from Forest Hills.

6. Jon Stewart

The host of "The Daily Show" played soccer for William & Mary and frequently references the Mets (and their struggles) on air. I remember after the Mets won on opening day one year, he pointed out they were on pace to go 162-0. An unoriginal joke, but I'm all for discussion of the Mets on Comedy Central. He may have inadvertently jinxed the Mets in this clip prior to the final weekend of the 2008 season.

5. Glenn Close

The talented Miss Close sang the national anthem before Game 1 of the 1986 World Series, and sang God Bless America during the 7th inning stretch in the final game at Shea. The Mets lost both games in heartbreaking fashion, so maybe she should stay away from the microphone at Citi Field? She's been nominated for an Oscar 5 times (with zero wins), and is a pretty good singer.

4. Chris Rock

Chris was raised in Brooklyn, NY and his upbringing is the subject of the underrated show "Everybody Hates Chris." He is very public about his support for the Mets, and appears in a video shown at Shea Stadium leading a "Let's Go Mets" chant.

3. Tim Robbins

After watching his awful pitching mechanics in "Bull Durham", I'm glad the 6'5" Robbins is a fan and not a member of the pitching staff. He can frequently be seen attending Mets games, and pulled the number off the Shea outfield wall before game #57. (Side note: Did you know that Roberto Alomar pulled down #49, along with his father and brother??? ROBERTO ALOMAR pulled down a Shea number!! Think about that.)

2. Kevin James

Kevin made frequent references to the Mets on his great show "The King of Queens", and was seen wearing a Mets jersey in his 2007 movie "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry." He pulled a Chipper Jones, and named his daughter Shea. Like Chris Rock, Kevin has a "Let's Go Mets" video shown on the Diamondvision, but it is more frightening than inspring...

1. Jerry Seinfeld

Jerry is the undisputed #1 on this list. The early "Seinfeld" episodes frequently had Mets references, which I give Jerry credit for given that the early '90s Mets teams were not very good. The 2 episode arc with Keith Hernandez is my favorite storyline from any episode, and that's saying something. Jerry immortalized Roger McDowell as "the 2nd spitter", and frequently attends Mets games.

Honorable Mention: Matthew Broderick (probably should've made the list), Bill O'Reilly (I considered including him to counter the presence of raging liberals Robbins, Mortensen, Rock, and Stewart), Hilary Swank, Hank Azaria, Howie Rose, Steve Somers, Gary Cohen, Patrick Bateman (Bateman isn't a celebrity, and is fictional. However, in the book "American Psycho" Bateman is said to be a Mets fan, and has a Mets poster in his apartment. I'm thinking he was a fan of the 1980s Mets simply because he "wants to fit in.")