Critic Ivan Felt and poet Harris Conklin are the Don Quixote and Sancho Panza of baseball fandom. Or, perhaps, the Felix and Oscar of baseball fandom. Or the Pollock and de Kooning. Or the Bugs and Daffy.

The New York Mets are, of course, the New York Mets of baseball.

In 2005, Felt and Conklin, lifelong friends and lifelong fans, determined to change the course of their own careers and of baseball history by doing what had never been done: writing their beloved team to a World Championship. The 2005 Mets, with a new manager and some of the spiffiest free agents on the market, seemed ready to take the world by storm. Felt and Conklin believed themselves up to the task. It is, after all, Belief (and free agents) that makes such dreams come true.

Believeniks! is the record of a journey. Felt and Conklin would, alas, fail to see their team attain that golden pinnacle in the clouds of baseball glory. As Believeniks! reveals, however, the season’s unfolding drama would leave two of baseball’s most erudite and excitable fans forever changed.