The all-black jerseys (spit spit) do look marginally better when the blue is totally stripped out, a la these ‘fashion jerseys’ on the Mets shop:
http://shop.mlb.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3204256
Still, if it isn’t pinstripes, don’t take to the Field in it.
I’ll say it yet again: HoJo’s performance needs to be evaluated. The strikeouts may say otherwise to the uninformed, but Wright’s aggressiveness is gone. As the above snippet implies, the reason he’s striking out so much is because he’s watching pitches he used to hammer and it’s putting him in a bad position. That Wright has changed his style so much (as noted by numerous TV commentators and himself in interviews) just because of Citi Field is just plain silly. Just let him do his thing, and he can be successful anywhere. Last year’s David Wright in the new park would still have better power numbers than he has now. Sheff is one of the few players regularly producing some RBIs, and you haven’t seen him adjust his swing to play the park, have you?
It’s team-wide, too. I forget which game is was, but just recently an opposing pitcher was grooving 1st-pitch strikes in there and no one on the Mets were attacking them. I understand trying to work the count, but you’re already behind the 8 ball talent-wise, you can’t afford to be passive. It’s bad enough you have a starting 2nd baseman who can barely get the ball to the outfield. Your power guys have to take their hacks.
And it’s not just HoJo, mind you. The entire staff is to blame, as I presume they share responsibility for the team’s approach.
That photo of Jackie Robinson is at — you guessed it! — LA Coliseum, the LA Dodgers’ first stadium when they moved west! Since Jackie was an LA native.
It’s not the only Los Angeles picture in the rotunda, either — there’s another one of him at UCLA.
We still have his wife coming to Dodger games. You know how thrilled Dodgers fans are at having our team’s history plastered all over a DisneyEbbetts Stadium?
Not.
Well I would disagree with that. It’s like the Yankee fan who wants Don Mattingly to manage, except that Maz has actual experience. See the disaster in Baltimore a few years ago. Personally, I’d love to see Mattingly manage the Yankees because he would cause no end of heartache to Yankee fans when it became obvious he needed to be fired. This is like a Mark Messier coaching the Rangers scenario. Other than fan nostalgia there’s no track record to show any ability to do the job.
If he wants to manage let him go work out the kinks with some small market team for a decade or two. I put Gary Carter in this same category. Willie Randolph, too.
Wally Backman, on the other hand, has shown he can manage. It’s a shame he’s also got a track record of fisticuffs with his wife (or was it his girlfriend?). The Wilpons will never give Backman a shot.
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RE: warming up to the snow whites, it's a very sharp uniform with the blue caps/sleeves/socks/belts. I'm firmly pro-pins, but if they wanted to wear that every day, it'd be fine with me. Just ditch the black lids at home, and I'm good.
It's probably no longer a factor with the advent of Cool Base, but having a field-authentic older version of both jerseys, I can tell you the plain whites are noticably lighter and more comfortable than the pins (I'm told the pinstripes had to be made of a heavier material to keep the striping from fading in the wash), so that may explain how the snows came to be the everyday default.