Saturday, March 12, 2011

“MR. MET’S LANDING”.

This just in:

The Mets have also announced “Mr. Met’s Landing,” a new, specially priced area of the ballpark. Tickets in sections 338 and 339 in Citi Field’s Left Field Landing are $10 for kids 12 and under and $20 for adults ($20 and $30 respectively for four Marquee dates).  Mr. Met will visit both sections during every home Mets game.

For a family of four - two adults and two children - the real price of this section will be $81, because of the $4 per ticket and $5 per order service charge. (Yes, I am going to be tiresome about this this year.) More after the jump.

Wednesday, March 09, 2011

THE METS TICKET SITUATION, 2011.

The team has recently initiated a broad shake-up of its ticket operations. Over the last several months, Bill Ianniciello, the longtime head of ticket sales, was replaced by Leigh Castergine, an executive brought in to overhaul the department in the wake of last year’s steep decline in attendance.

Mets Could Feel Financial Squeeze Beyond Opening Day, New York Times, 2/26/11

In all of the Madoff/Wilpon madness over the past few weeks, this particular bit of news appeared to be glossed over. It doesn’t surprise me when issues regarding ticket sales get ignored; beat writers don’t buy tickets and they sit in the press box. Issues of pricing, obstructions, and how many people are actually in the ballpark vs. the idiotic attendance figure (which is tickets sold, not bodies through the turnstiles) get ignored.  But there is a potential story here.

Tuesday, March 08, 2011

A STATEMENT FROM CARLOS BELTRAN.

“I felt a little discomfort in my left knee last week.  I spoke to the doctors today.  They advised me to just give it a rest for a couple of days.  I can hit and do everything, but back off the running part of it.  I feel fine.  I think I just overcompensated from all the work I did on the other knee and I just need to give it a little break.”

—A Statement From Carlos Beltran, as emailed by Mets PR

I already miss him.

THIS CALL TO THE BULLPEN, TONIGHT, 11PM.

In honor of International Women’s Day, I’ll be appearing on Steve Keane’s (of The Eddie Kranepool Society) podcast, THIS CALL TO THE BULLPEN, tonight at 11pm.

Steve is a funny guy with tremendous baseball knowledge and is a huge music fan, so it’s going to be a hoot.  It’s also available for listen or download after the fact.

Monday, February 28, 2011

COMMENTING IS BACK.

Thanks to the Kind Reader who let me know that commenting was broken. I don’t know that I will get native commenting fixed any time soon, and this site has a Wordpress migration in its very near future.

So for the time being, I’ve installed Disqus, which you probably recognize from other sites.  Older comments are still here.

Comment counts aren’t going to work until I get some more time to tinker with things, but for now, at least commenting is available again.

Thanks for your patience.

REASONS WE LOVE R.A.

R.A. Dickey had more money to spend than at any point in his life. And yet, after signing a $7.8 million contract with the Mets on Jan. 31, he allowed himself only one small extravagance.

The day the iPhone for Verizon was released, Dickey went to an Apple store near his home in Nashville at 5:30 a.m. and, when the store opened at 7, bought a pair of phones for him and his wife.

I’m almost ready to buy the jersey. If nothing else, I need to find someone to help me design my “I <3 DICKEY” shirts (where the heart has seams like a baseball) for this year.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

THE SECOND-BEST DAY OF THE YEAR.

Pretty soon, we’ll be heading there again.

Happy Pitchers & Catchers!

If only Tiffany’s made a line of baseball jewelery for these yearly occasions. I believe they are missing out on a great opportunity.

Tuesday, February 08, 2011

A METS FAN’S GUIDE TO READING THE WILPON COMPLAINT.

“I’ve got the complaint,” TBF said on Friday afternoon. “All 360 pages.” There was some grumbling in his voice, that he hated that he felt he had to read it, but he also felt that he had to read it. There was no way there would be an important legal decision surrounding the New York Mets that he had access to, and wasn’t going to read and form his own opinions about. I was curious myself, given the drama and the volume and general tone of the internets Friday afternoon after the document was unsealed.

By the time I got home on Friday night, around 10 pm, his tone had changed. “There’s a lot of dramatic liberties being taken with the interpretation of the document. It’s called a ‘complaint’ for a reason.” 

I picked it up on Sunday, and I will say this: Friends, I come not to bury the Wilpons, but not to praise them either. But don’t take my word for it, and don’t take the media’s word for it either. Here’s a quick and dirty guide of how to make sense of this document, if you’d like to give it a go.

Monday, February 07, 2011

WHAT IF.

Saturday night, we drove down to Midwood to have pizza at DiFara’s. We always take the same route from North Brooklyn, cutting over to Nostrand, taking Nostrand down to Empire, a right on Empire, and so on down to Avenue J.

When we passed the corner of Empire and Bedford, with the looming towers of the Ebbets Field housing project standing there against the sky, I started Tweeting how it always made me sad to drive by there at almost the same moment TBF raised his middle finger in the New York State salute and said, “Fuck you, Walter O’Malley, where’s my ballpark.”

Monday, January 31, 2011

THE WINTER OF OUR DISCONTENT.

Let’s not forget Dave Howard’s appearance (via telephone) on the Fox Business Channel in August 2009, where he confronted reports that the Mets would have to sell.
He called claims that the Wilpons would sell was “flat-out wrong,” “false,” “irresponsible,” “very disturbing,” “outrageous” and “unfounded,” noting that the team was “not for sale, in whole or in part.”

TBF and I communicate via text message when things are important during the day, since I live in email and he does not. Mostly it’s me sending him news, whether it’s alternate side parking being suspended, Bruce Springsteen being spotted somewhere, Supreme Court decisions, and, of course, the Mets. The quote above is what I got back in email less than five minutes after alerting him to the latest Wilpon situation. Elephants and TBF, they do not forget, not when it comes to the New York Mets.