Sunday, May 11, 2008

MAPS AND LEGENDS.

I sat down the other day to give an update to my first review of this season’s Mets Weekly and Kids Clubhouse. I still feel like Kids Clubhouse remains the superior of the two programs, especially after the most recent MW debacle with its 20 minute feature of a fan called “The King of Brunch” whose claim to fame is that one of the SNY camerapeople caught a shot of him in the field boxes and Keith and Gary made a comment about his hair.

That segment made me sad because it seemed like such a waste. Because there are thousands of stories at Shea. Every game I see someone that I’d like to know more about. Instead we get footage of more drunk Mets fans going “LET’S GO METS” in the parking lot or at a bar. I realize that this will be taken as me “slamming” them again, but I’m not the only who feels this way - I’m just the only one who actually cares enough to think about the program and review it.

I got this email the other week from the producers of the Mets fan documentary “Mathematically Alive”. Now, this is the kind of thing I’m talking about:

We want to hear about your most memorable days at Shea.  Maybe it was Buckner’s goof. Tom Terrific’s near perfection or Ventura’s grand slam single. Or more memorable still was your 1st opening day.

We want to hear all the stories. Join us in creating Heckuva Day: Stories from Shea Stadium

“The Directors of Mathematically Alive: A Story of Fandom have just announced that they will be working on a tribute video to Shea Stadium called Heckuva Day: Stories from Shea Stadium. The best part of this video is that everyone makes the cut! According to the filmmakers, there will be no time constraints for this project so everyone who is interviewed will be included in the video. The directors said that they shot over 150 hours of video for Mathematically Alive and the worst part about it was making the cuts. They said they plan to use some of that extra video, but want Mets fans to meet up with them to talk about their best memories of Shea. Again, any fan who would like to be a part of this video should email the filmmakers to find out where and when they will be conducting the interviews. 

They plan to unveil the video at a “Mets Everything” event that they will host in September 2008. This event will be filled with Mets fans, bloggers, authors, etc.  The event is set to happen before the last game at Shea and will be a celebration of the wonderful memories that Shea has given to so many people.

Hope you’re all in and please feel free to pass this on to every Mets fan in the world. Check out the trailer on YouTube.

Email me at if you’d like to be included in the video

This also compliments Steve’s rants over at The Kranepool Society about how he can’t fathom that the Mets aren’t sponsoring anything to commemorate the end of Shea - no old timer’s day, no chance for fans to get on the field, no recreation of Banner Day, nothing, at least nothing that we know about, which leads him (and me) to believe that they don’t plan on anything.

Think about this: you have a day when the Mets are on the road. You open up the stadium to allow fans to have photos taken on the field, in the dugout, with Mr. Met, with their name on the scoreboard, and all the money charged for this (depending on what you want) goes to charity. That would go a lot further than, say, charging fans to get onto the back fields at PSL for open workouts, or donating $100 to have your name on the sidewalk in front of Citi Field. (We want to get a brick that says, ‘THIS IS ALL WE COULD AFFORD AT CITI FIELD’ but we are pretty sure the Mets will say ‘no’.) And before you say it can’t be done - The Mariners do this for Christmas, and as a result, my friends have a photo of their family with the Mariner Moose in a Santa suit with their names on the scoreboard behind them - all for a donation to charity. I realize more people would want to do this than they probably want to do in Seattle (although I’m not so sure) - so what? The Mets could make it happen. They just don’t care or want to.

Get the stories. Get the history. Get the memories. Get it now.