Friday, October 05, 2007

weekend.

We’re off to see the Wizard, although it will require a trip to Philadelphia to do it. Nothing here to see until Monday. Enjoy your weekend. Go Rockies.

GIRLS JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN.

If we still had these, they would represent $2.

If everyone who read this blog regularly donated $2 to DonorsChoose, we would be able to buy some baseball equipment for an underprivileged high school in Brooklyn that wants to start girls playing softball. The teacher who’s sponsoring one of the programs describes her dream in her own words:

In order to ensure not only our success as a team but also the confidence of each player at bat, we are in need of a pitching machine. This would be a great help since I will be the only coach and cannot pitch while assisting the girls with other skills. I hope that the machine will help find our next “Michele Smith” or even our next female “Hank Aaron”!

$2. I know, money is tight. But $2 is HALF of what you would have spent to get to Shea for the playoffs just for one game.

I don’t see this money. I don’t touch this money. I get nothing from it. Everything is handled through a reputable 501(c)3 charity. You can send in a check, you can use a credit card. Please, at least click through and read about the two projects before you decide it’s not for you. Just $2!

Next week, we return to content, as I review 2007: The Year That Wasn’t.

Thursday, October 04, 2007

request to my readers.

Last year, after game 7, to cheer myself up I asked certain frequent fliers if they would out themselves in the comments - folks with distinctive enough IP addresses and/or domains that they were noticable. A lot of you de-lurked last week but I would love to hear from more folks. You don’t have to enter a real email address in the comments field & you don’t have to use your real name, but I would love to know who you are, how you found metsgrrl.com, and where you’re from (if you’re not from around here) - especially if you’re not a Mets fan and came here from another site. So, c’mon, delurk! Just once.

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

THE REFUND SAGA.

TBF is pissed.

He called the Mets Monday morning, inquiring about his refund for his post-season tickets.

We already knew the answer from last year. Single game tickets will be automatically refunded to your credit card “in a few weeks.”

IN A FEW WEEKS? WHAT ELSE COULD YOU PEOPLE POSSIBLY BE DOING WITH YOUR TIME RIGHT NOW?

<-- TBF

You get to make money off the interest from the money we paid you when you LOST in spectacular fashion? <—MG

No one in the ticketing office has ANYTHING else to do EXCEPT PROCESS REFUNDS. I am quite sure that the phone is not ringing off the hook from people wanting 2008 season tickets, and even if they were, YOU PROCESS REFUNDS FIRST. Quickly. Immediately.

HOW MUCH MORE COULD YOU POSSIBLY WANT TO PISS US OFF?

Of course, you can always have your post-season payment roll over towards your 2008 plan. Which would be fine, but it’s not due until DECEMBER, and I am not quite sure, again, why the Mets are entitled to make money off of my money. In order for me to get a refund, I have to send them a letter requesting one, which, of course, most people won’t do. I, myself, am weighing the opportunity cost of the time and effort involved to write the letter, send the letter, follow up on the letter, and wait for the check, when I will have to turn around and send it right BACK to them, versus the interest I could make for that period of time. It’s probably not worth it, but it’s the principle of the thing.

Some people call WFAN, others call the Mets. *sigh*

Monday, October 01, 2007

MetsGrrl’s Make A Difference World Series

This post is actually not about the New York Mets, but I’m hoping you read it anyway.

I’m joining the DonorsChoose.org Blogger Challenge. I don’t know if you’re familiar with DonorsChoose.org, but it’s an organization that facilitates fund raising for teacher-initiated projects in public schools. I personally think that public school teachers are 1) brave and 2) saints, and know how positively my life was impacted by great teachers who tried to make a difference.

The entire fund raiser is facilitated through DonorsChoose.org. This is a small, modest fund raiser, with two projects that are 1) in Brooklyn and 2) involve baseball as a tool to help motivate students, and help them learn and grow.

Think about what you would have spent at Shea during the playoffs on food and beer. Think about what you would have spent on one night at a sports bar, watching the games. If you’re getting a refund from the Mets for playoff tickets, would you miss $20 from it? Then read about what these teachers are trying to do with baseball, and consider making a donation to one or more of the programs.

I’m doing this because I believe in the organization and because I selfishly wanted to do something to make me feel better about not going to the playoffs. Small-minded as it may seem, the end result is all that counts. Even $5 can make a difference.

Mets bloggers, feel free to drop a line if you want to join in this challenge, or go ahead and start your own! The more the merrier.

Click on the graphic below to get started, and thank you for your support.

LAST TO DIE. [09-30-07]

The MG+TBF house was in a fever pitch from, well, the last pitch last night, and we were up early, at Shea just shy of 11, parked under Northern Boulevard for the first time in over a year. I wanted to wander around and take pictures, and hoped we could find the “Meet the Mets” camera and tell them, We know the second verse, let us sing! I want to say that people were cautiously optimistic, not quite ebullient, but hope. There was plenty of hope. There was a drop line at the box office, and plenty of people looking for tickets. I saw one group of three boys with a sign asking for 1, and took their photo - only to see a father with a stroller and two other young children in tow stop, ask them, “You’re not selling, are you? Just don’t sell it,” and handed them a ticket, gratis.

And the signs. There were signs everywhere. I considered a sign, but we were in UR1, Row O, which means no room to hang a sign, and with a camera and a notebook there is no extra hand to hold a sign. But I thought about it, hard. We were in WRIGHT and FLOYD (it seemed the right thing to do), and TBF was wearing the crappy hat he used to wear to work on playoff days and I was in the stylin’ hat he refers to as my “big pimpin’ hat,” but I prefer to think of as my special occasion hat, which he bought me at the New Era store on 4th St., paying far too much money for a baseball hat, but he cannot resist being able to buy me things that say METS on it.

We were quiet, though, very quiet, after our initial ebullience, when we settled into our seats and realized the Mets were, indeed, quite serious about providing pre-game entertainment from - no, seriously - The Yiddish National Theater. While I appreciate that Sundays are usually the days that The Mets Welcome… the various yeshivot and B’nai Brith and JCC’s of the Tri-State area, but, speaking on behalf of my people, I assure you that EVERYONE would have understood if the Mets had made the last-minute decision to jettison “Bei Mir Bist Du Schein” for “Living On A Prayer” and “Welcome To The Jungle” at full volume through the PA.

As the entertainment began, we sat there with our mouths open (think Beavis & Butthead watching Milli Vanilli) and then, very quietly, TBF suggests:
“How about… in honor of Yiddish Day, here’s a song by someone from David Geffen’s record label?”
When I picked myself off of the floor, I was still laughing, and continued:
“Here’s a song by a band whose A&R guy uses the word ‘schmuck’ a lot.”
“Here’s a song by a band whose members really, really like matzoh ball soup.”
Maybe it’s not that funny now, but it was much-needed hilarity to cut the undertones of solemnity.

Sunday, September 30, 2007

AND THE 2007 MVP IS…

The fans.

I’m still not ready to write about today’s game, but I wanted to put up something, and what I decided I wanted to put up was photos of everything EXCEPT the players. We were there all season, giving the Mets the highest attendance record in the history of the franchise, and making them untold amounts of $$$$$ in the process. The fans, who were waiting in line, begging for tickets; who brought signs and banners and whistles; and, when they couldn’t get into the stadium, stood on the steps to the 7 train rotunda just for a glimpse of the field.

Some highlights are below, but please check out the rest of the set, too. (I’d put a slideshow together but it slows down the main page of the site too much when I do.)

I’ll write about the game later, for closure if nothing else.

Saturday, September 29, 2007

CHICO AND THE MAN.

Praise the baseball deities. It’s down to tomorrow. See you there. Sunday in the Upper Deck. Seems right and fitting, no matter how it plays out.

RIDE THE LIGHTNING.

SHUT UP

RON AND GARY! SHUT UP! SHUT UP NOW!