This headline - from the Daily News - is causing a lot of outrage today. It’s causing fans to be angry and either harass Martino - known as @surfingthemets on Twitter - or to post collective grar at him. Who does he think he is! How dare he! What a douchebag! I myself stopped following Mr. Martino after a tweet during spring training in which he referenced “Future Yankee Jose Reyes” (and in the interests of full disclosure, I probably hurled some grar at him before I did).
The problem is: Martino’s story isn’t a bad story. It’s accurate. It’s well-written. It reads more like a well-written fan blog than it does a story filed by a professional sportswriter, but as someone who writes a fan blog, and who can skip writing about a particular game if I feel like it, I get where he’s coming from. The problem is that no one is reading the story. They’re RT’ing the link and people are clicking through and I’m sure his editor loves the pageviews he’s getting, but no one is reading the actual story. People are talking about him, but they’re not talking about how the story is oddly empathetic with the plight of Mets fans. They’re just calling him a douchebag.
This, my friends, is what the Mariners gave out to fans. Free compost.
The promotion was distributed as fans left the ballpark - “Especially in light of an 8-3 loss to Detroit,” says the friend who sent me this image - but I would hate to think about what the Citi Field parking lot would look like if someone decided this would be a good idea out in Flushing.
I no longer have to complain about not having photographs of Terry Collins or Sandy Alderson.
It was the first credentialed blogger day of 2011. We were invited to watch (not participate in - yet) the pre-game manager’s press conference, attend BP on the field, and then watch the game. Nothing about this sucks. Everything about this is, quite frankly, pretty amazing. I won’t lie.
I have sworn to myself that I am not going to be fatalistic, that I am not going to be negative, that I am not going to wear sackcloth and ashes and rend my garments and act like the 2011 season is over with each Mets loss in 2011, not when we are 12 games into 162 and there is a lot of baseball to be played. I promise myself this. I promise, and I sit down to watch or listen to each game with a positive attitude.
Which is then promptly dashed to pieces and I feel like an idiot.
They didn’t come in a little book, they didn’t come with a gift - even if we’d ordered them ourselves, they wouldn’t have come with a media guide or anything else (and the promised perks have not yet been sent to full STH). But they’re still a thing of beauty and they will serve us well this season, every Tuesday and Friday home game.
There was so much I loved about today. I loved not going to work, I loved the 4:10pm start time that allowed me to make my leisurely way to the ballpark. I loved the ride on the 7, blue and orange everywhere. I loved pulling into Willets Point and seeing Citi Field from that angle for the first time in months, the parking lots full, tailgates going strong. I loved coming down the stairs and seeing the apple and the rotunda and people posing for photos everywhere you turned. It was hope. It was reprieve. It was full of optimism.
It’s finally here! I can’t wait to get on the 7 train and head out to Queens tomorrow. A few helpful reminders:
All gates open 2 1/2 hours before first pitch. If you want your Mr. Met bobblehead (and who doesn’t), get there early.
Weather: “A chance of rain after noon. Increasing clouds, with a high near 54. East wind 6 to 9 mph becoming south. Chance of precipitation is 30%.” So bring a rain poncho.
The lines for food will be insane. New staff, people have been gone a long time, tomorrow is not the day to get your Shake Shack fix. Eat beforehand, bring some snacks, go to Madison Square Park after the game if you must have a Shack fix tomorrow.
Allow extra time, people walk slower on Opening Day than they do any other day of the year (or so it seems)
The Mets claim that there are R.A. Dickey shirts for sale at the ballpark. There is also the lovely Opening Day commemorative pin. If you want to shop, allow extra time.
Remember, the game ends during rush hour so there will not be a 7 Baseball Express after the game. We’re all on the milk train back to Grand Central.
Other questions are likely answered in my Citi Field Guide (which will get updated for 2011 after I’ve gone to a couple of games next week).
Today’s guest post is from Metsgrrl.com reader Brad Jasper
I always get so jealous when I see fans of other baseball teams tweeting these hilarious promotional commercials starring the team’s players and mascots. It’s usually some clever inside joke or a humorous language barrier issue amongst the players that really hypes the fan base. Personally, I love these commercials, after all, it’s only a game and we should constantly remind ourselves that it should be fun to play and fun to watch. So here I am, an outsider, watching these commercials laughing at what I think is the punch line, but deep down I am wishing that my team, the team that plays in the media capital of the world, could have these types of commercials.
