Thursday, January 24, 2008

R.E.M. AND BASEBALL SONGS!

Yeah, it was an egregious headline, because the instigator is Steve Wynn (late of Dream Syndicate), along with Peter Buck from R.E.M. and Seattle Superstar Scott McCaughey (and Linda Pitmon from Golden Smog.) McCaughey is the kind of guy who has such an encyclopedic knowledge of rock and roll that it doesn’t surprise me he’d be a baseball geek. (He’s the guy that Peter Buck follows onstage when they’re up there playing Dylan covers with Robyn Hitchcock.)

A baseball record! Why?

I’ve wanted to do this record for years. I’m a big baseball fan — and former sportswriter — and always thought the game and the colorful characters throughout history would make an interesting platform for spinning yarns and making statements and metaphors for bigger things in life — assuming, of course, that there are bigger things. I kept putting off the project until I got into a long conversation with Scott McCaughey at the party before R.E.M.’s induction to the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame. Turns out he was as big a baseball geek as me, and we immediately decided to do the record as soon as possible.

The fabulous (and much missed) KEXP has an interview with Wynn and a preview of one of the new songs, titled “Pasttime”.

Of course, none of this will change the fact that every ballpark in America will keep playing “The Final Countdown” and that ilk at every opportunity possible, no matter whether there might be more suitable music at hand.

*sigh*

p.s. If anyone has a copy of the Bob Dylan Radio Hour baseball segment, PLEASE WRITE. So I don’t have to spend $50 to buy it on ebay or somewhere now that I know it exists. *sigh* again.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

THE METSGRRL.COM GUIDE TO SPRING TRAINING

Tickets for the 2008 Spring Training season go on sale January 19th. Although I only went to Spring Training once, since it pleases me to think that I am an excellent traveler (having gone 3/4 of the way around the globe) and so in that spirit, I offer these tips that will hopefully benefit the new spring training visitor as well as offer additional perspectives to veterans.  If you are on a budget, this guide is definitely for you.

YMMV, do not taunt happy fun ball, et cetera. Feel free to offer your own suggestions in the comments.

[hello metsblog readers - click on the link to below to go to the full article!]

Friday, January 11, 2008

A TICKETING MANIFESTO.

WHEREUPON, THE FANBASE DOTH DECREE THAT THE METS TICKETING OFFICE (HEREINAFTER MTO), SHALL DO THE FOLLOWING:

#1: SINGLE GAME TICKETS SHOULD GO ON SALE THE OLD FASHIONED WAY. This shall include The Last Opening Day and The Last Regular Season Game at Shea.

2: TELL SEASON AND PLAN HOLDERS WHEN YOU EXPECT TO PROVIDE INFORMATION ABOUT THE CITIFIELD TRANSITION.

Might I remind you that we are PAYING customers?

[more after the jump.]

Wednesday, January 02, 2008

NEW YEAR’S EVE, A ONE-ACT PLAY.

New Year’s Eve chez MetsGrrl and TBF:

*alcohol*
*hors d’oeuvre from trader joe’s*
*baseball scrabble*
*more alcohol*
*more hors d’oeuvres*
*tv countdowns*
*flip to channel 1*
*flip to channel 7*
*flip to channel 4*
*11:57pm: “OH MY GOD! TURN IT OFF!! OFF!! OFF!! RIGHT NOW!! OFF!! I CAN’T LOOK AT HIM!!”*
*flip to the hindi movie, not because i actually wanted to watch the hindi movie, but because that’s what numbers my fingers hit when i was trying to get a-rod off our television screen before TBF had a coronary*
*flip back to channel 7*
*happy new year*

Sunday, December 30, 2007

HAPPY NEW YEAR.

I know, things have been quiet around here. That isn’t a sign that I’m giving up, or even a sign that the new job is hellish. The truth is that it’s a symptom of me learning how to deal with the aftermath of the 2007 season, and the fact that with the 30 million people writing about the offseason, there was very little added value I could possibly offer you.

The whole point of this blog is that it’s a chronicle of me growing into being a baseball fan. And although while in many ways my evolution has and continues to be rapid, there are still some lessons that are only learned through time. Even with seeing 13 games in 2005 (which is a lot for a non-fan), it was all one big blur and I had enough trouble learning about things like how the schedule is put together and why do they play the teams they play and learning some very basic rules I’m almost embarrassed to admit I didn’t understand. I remember the day TBF mentioned that he was a little sad because that was the day the Mets were officially eliminated from any hope of post-season play, but it didn’t register, or rather, it registered as - post-season? This is the Mets we’re talking about, right?

It was almost unfair in a way that 2006 was my first “real” season. Even being there for Game 7 and having my heart broken - well, at least there was a Game 7 for me to be at. I keep telling TBF that in some ways, 2007 was worse for me than 2006, because it was so utterly devastating to watch them go from the top to the bottom. It wasn’t like other years where they were nowhere near the top - they had it within their grasp and they just not only lost it, they lost it because they didn’t give a rat’s patootie.

It’s that last bit that’s been the hardest for me to deal with. I could deal with them being outplayed (which, I realize, they were), but they were outplayed because they didn’t even bother.

TBF is starting to be excited about baseball again, even with his white hot anger at the Mets ticketing department. I’ve omitted recounting those details here, because it is his fight, not mine; what are they going to do, lower prices because we called and complained? They don’t care about people like us. I mean, it would be like me telling the Rolling Stones, “Hey, guys - you know I love you to death but those $450 prices for floor seats are out of control. I am one of your most loyal fans, if you don’t lower the prices I won’t go to the shows.”  It doesn’t matter because if I don’t buy them, someone else will. It may be some investment broker asshole who can’t name more than 10 songs, and who will spend the entire show talking on his iPhone and going out for a hot pretzel during Keith’s solo set. But the seat will be filled, the ticket funds will be in Mick and Keith’s offshore bank accounts, and that’s all that matters at the end of the day. The Wilpons don’t care who’s buying the tickets in Citi Field, they only care that they’re bought. Cold hard reality? Welcome to 2007.

So much for me saying that it isn’t my fight. I guess a more accurate statement would be that while it causes me pain, I have no energy to tilt at windmills.

Anyway, the invoice has been received (not that we will pay it one second before it is due) and we are back in Section 12, and as far as I know, the regulars will be back there, too. The redheads in Row F attempted to stage some kind of mutiny by trying to convince the sisters next to us that we should all move to the loge - the LOGE? - in some misguided thought that if they moved to the loge and sat in what would effectively be the bullpen, they would somehow have some kind of added priority in Citi Field that our lowly mezzanine seats would not grant us. TBF made some half-hearted tries to have a discussion about trying to upgrade our seats, but I see no point. I picked out those seats and I love them. I would buy them from the Mets at the end of the season and put them in the living room if I could. I like my view of David Wright leaning in, my vantage point into the Mets dugout, my ability to peek in at Ron and Keith and Howie Rose down on the press level, the fact that we are sheltered from the elements and that I have a ladies’ room right outside the tunnel, close enough to run there and back between sides. It is my view, and I will miss it at Citi Field, so I am going to enjoy it now. And, despite the price increase, I am happy to pay it.

What is also different about this year is that last year we spent December planning for Spring Training. There was a household decision that because of the debacle of 2007, the Mets were not getting any additional money from us this year. No Spring Training, no out-of-town roadtrips, not even Philly. That may change, but it is not likely, given that they are also competing with the continual Springsteen tour, it is likely our additional dollars will go there (where there are also outrageous ticket prices but it’s rare that the people we pay to see ever phone it in the way the Mets did last year). And there may be a trip to Cooperstown (my first, TBF’s second) this winter. It may seem childish, and it’s not like the Mets would really suffer from our absence in Port St. Lucie or Citizens Bank Park or Chase Field or Petco Park or any of the other stadiums that have been on our list of Places To See The Mets Someday.

But, dammit, it’s a matter of principle.

Anyway, happy new year. I promise that the frequency of posts will start picking up.

Saturday, December 15, 2007

THE 2008 TICKETING SEASON HAS BEGUN.

I grabbed the mail out of the mailbox as TBF and I were running out to Long Island for Christmas shopping. As he is heading for the LIE, I sort through it: “Bill…junk…wrong address…R.E.M. fan club newsletter… hey, you got your invoice from the Mets!” I rip it open and start reading, and TBF does the same at the next stoplight.

At some point I grabbed everything and put it in the back seat so we didn’t have an accident from a) trying to read while driving and b) getting pissed at the Mets for ripping fans off after the disaster known as the 2007 season.

1) PREMIUM GAMES: Opening Day (which is a Tuesday this year, so thankfully, you will all be spared that drama again), Subway Series, and The Last Game At Shea.
1a) Season and plan holders are entitled to participate in the presale for single game tickets, but, once again, Opening Day and The Last Game are NOT included.

[William from Row F wrote me a while ago, wanting to know what I thought about The Last Game, because his father (aka “the old guy who comes to the games with us”) was at the first game at Shea, and his sons would like to make sure he was at the last game. The Mets, of course, sent him the email equivalent of a form letter that basically told him nothing, and, in fact, probably lied, because they said they didn’t know what they were going to do about The Last Game. To that, I say BULLPUCKY.]

2) PRICES APPEAR TO HAVE GONE UP.  No, you aren’t reading that wrong. The business geniuses behind the Mets have decided that although the team completely crashed and burned last season, and this season has not produced any miracles (nor will it - I [heart] Johan Santana probably more than your average Mets fan but we’re not getting him this year)—AND Citifield tickets will require a mortgage on one’s first born - BUT LET’S RAISE 2008 TICKET PRICES!!!!!!! No one will mind! Everyone will consider it fair value for money!

TBF ran the numbers based on his Saturday plan invoice and here’s what we figure seats are going to be.

Platinum -  2007: $35 2008: $41
Gold - 2007: $31 2008: $37
Silver - 2007: $29 2008: $35
Bronze - 2007: $27 2008: $33
Value - 2007 : $21 2008: ??

Again, these are guesstimates based on TBF’s Saturday plan renewal. He could be off somewhere. If you have other data, please share.

3) THERE ARE LESS GAMES IN THE MORE INEXPENSIVE CATEGORIES. Well, I guess that one goes without saying.

YOU ARE RAISING PRICES FOR 2008? ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?

We’ve been saying this since the end of the season: no one expects you to lower prices, but an INCREASE after that year??? What, exactly, is our additional sum of money going for? No, seriously. They’re not going to improve ANYTHING about Shea this year. The broken seats will stay broken, the flooded bathrooms will stay flooded, the creaky escalators will still cause me apoplexy every time I go up them. The food will be just as bad, the service will be just as cranky, the ushers will be attempting to hondle me for a tip every time they insist on checking my ticket for the seat I sit in every Tuesday and Friday.

The fact is that in the NYC Metropolitan area, the individual ticket plan holder is an anarchonism that the Mets would rather not deal with. They would rather be selling full seasons and then individual game tickets. In other locales, if you buy a plan of any kind, you get a discount on your tickets! You get members-only events!

Here, you get bupkes.

And of course we’ll still be there. Of course we will. And they know this, which is why they do it.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

A LITTLE LIGHT BEDTIME READING.

Yeah, we’re geeky enough that we printed it out.

Player Originally Rumored To Be On The List That I Am Most Glad Is Not On The List: Mike Cameron
Player Not Originally On The List That Is The Most Devastating: Paul Lo Duca
Player Who Can Rot In Hell And Hopefully Now Not Get Into Cooperstown: The Great Satan

Monday, December 03, 2007

THE LAST DAYS OF GLORY DAYS.

DISCOUNTED ADMISSION TO MCNY! READ BELOW.

So you have read my wonderful reviews of this equally wonderful exhibit, and now you’re realizing, “Oh, crap. It’s December, and the exhibit is going to end soon. I better get myself uptown to the Museum of the City of New York before the exhibit is gone and I feel like an idiot.”

Roger Kahn, considered the dean of American sports writers, moderates an examination of the forces and personalities that led to the departure of the Dodgers and Giants 50 years ago this season. Kahn is joined by Pulitzer Prize-winning columnists Dave Anderson of The New York Times and Jimmy Breslin of New York Newsday, and Michael Shapiro, author of The Last Good Season: Brooklyn, the Dodgers, and Their Final Pennant Race Together (Doubleday, 2003). Reservations required. $9 for non-members of the Museum; $5 for members, seniors, and students.

And if that’s not incentive enough: if you’re tired of yelling invective at the television screen every time Steve Phillips says yet another idiotic thing on ESPN, he’ll ALSO be at MCNY:

TUESDAY • DECEMBER 11 • 6:30 PM
Wait ‘till Next Year: What’s the Future of the Yankees and the Mets?

For New York fans, the 2007 baseball season was full of heartbreak (the Mets’ regular-season collapse), redemption (the Yankees’ struggle to the post-season) and consternation (Joe Torre’s move to the LA Dodgers). But what about next year? Len Berman, sports anchor for NBC 4 News, will moderate a discussion about the past and future of the Yankees and Mets with fellow sports anchors Ducis Rodgers, of CBS 2 News; Steve Phillips, ESPN Baseball Analyst and former General Manager of the Mets; and 40-year New York sports veteran Sal Marchiano, of CW11 News. Reservations required. $9 for non-members of the Museum; $5 for members, seniors, and students.

But here’s the kicker: Metsgrrl.com readers can get reduced admission to MCNY! You can get admission to both of these talks for the low, low price of $5. That’s what members, seniors and students pay. You can get the reduced admission by calling MCNY to make a reservation and when you do, mention metsgrrl.com and you’ll get in for $5!

Museum of the City of New York
1220 Fifth Avenue at 104th Street
For reservations and program information: (212) 534-1672, ext. 3395

Monday, November 26, 2007

FENWAY IN WINTER.

We were in Boston on Sunday and Monday the week before Thanksgiving to see Springsteen, and on Monday we had a couple of hours between checking out of the hotel and having to meet friends at the venue. So I said, “Why don’t we take the Fenway tour?” TBF is still cranky at baseball in a major way, but it didn’t take much to persuade him. And, we thought, a random Monday in November, the tour will be empty, right? So it was a plan.

As we drove into Boston on Sunday, I realized that despite having been in Boston at least two dozen times in my youth, I had no freaking idea where Fenway Park was in relation to everything else. “You’ll see it from the highway,” TBF said, as we got closer to the city. And then - there was that John Hancock sign and Fenway green and - holy crap, there’s Fenway. Not only did I not have any idea where it was, but I had driven by it more than a few times and it never registered. Never.

(It’ll be worse if I tell you that before I got into Fordham, I was originally hoping to go to Boston University, right? Give me a break, I could tell you where every seminal rock club in Boston was back in the day. Baseball just wasn’t my thing.)

Sunday, November 18, 2007

EASY COME, EASY GO.

I thought we escaped disaster when Posada re-signed with the Yankees, and when A-rod didn’t have every team lining up outside his door with gold, frankincense and myrrh, when I stopped hearing the words “Ronnie Paulino” mentioned as though it was some kind of sure thing.

I’ll make the obligatory, “Ah, Yorvit, we hardly knew ye,” comment that someone surely has made besides me already. But what I do say is: what, exactly, HAPPENED? And - now what?

And the dreaded David Eckstein discussions are happening, again. (I would like to know what the Mets’ standard tour of Greenwich, CT, for prospective team members consists of, exactly. And there’s a joke somewhere about Greenwich still being restricted and Mr. Eckstein having to constantly explain that he’s NOT Jewish, and Gentlemen’s Agreement but I haven’t found it yet.)

I do not want David Eckstein. And I realize that it’s hypocritical because the things I value in, say, Paul Lo Duca and Luis Castillo, the grit (to use a baseball cliche) and the determination and the showing up to play are what have made David Eckstein successful. I’m not even sure it’s because he’s one of The Guys Who Beat Us In 2006 (and I have to say, this is one of the things about being a baseball fan that is still weird to contend with. I don’t know how y’all do this for years, because I sure as heck hold grudges). I mean, what is it about David Eckstein except that he’s available?

I feel better that I am not the only one who does not want Eckstein on their team, either.

We are off to Boston for two days to see Springsteen, and plan on going on the Fenway tour on Monday - even if it does snow. TBF was there a few years ago when Springsteen did play there, and as he put it, “I walked everywhere they would let me, and a few places they definitely didn’t.” Friends of ours smuggled in spice jars to get dirt from the infield. TBF claims he has some grass, somewhere. It’s not very baseball-y to do this in the winter but I would rather do it on a random Monday in November than during the height of tourist season.