A big tip of the blue Mets hat to the boys in Flushing for the ceremony last night!
That ceremony was everything that I preach about on this blog. What a wonderful dose of tradition that really hit the spot and stirred the emotions.
It’s nice to see that the organization knows how to throw a ceremony, it was right in tone with the annual old-timer’s day ceremonies at a nearby stadium. Howie Rose did a great job and is clearly the right man to have out there.
Random thoughts:
it’s nice to see Seaver embrace his role as the guardian of history. He looked happy to be there, and although he rushed it a bit, the words of his speech were excellent.
Great to see Buddy Harrelson get a big ovation. I enjoyed booing him as a manager (especially when he stopped coming out to the mound) but it has been 20 years, so it’s good to see him appreciated.
It’s also nice to see Ed Kranepool increasingly being appreciated. His name had been the kind of name you’d throw out to make fun of the Mets, but he had a nice long career so it was good to see him placed near the end of the line.
After putting up with Gooden and Strawberry in pinstripes, it’s nice to see Yogi in blue and orange.
I don’t have to tell everyone that the ’69 replicas looked better than anything the Mets presently wear. You all have eyes. Hopefully they have eyes upstairs too. There have been lots of pinstripes this week – hopefully that’s an organizational shift that goes beyond the ’69 celebration.
How about Seaver mentioning how nice the players looked in their home whites! Was he speaking casually or is Tom on board with the rest of us (except Charlie Samuels and people named Wilpon) in hating the black.
Ed Charles had a black Mets hat. Why?
It was nice to see Nolan Ryan, and i think it was Gary Cohen who pointed out that it was nice to see Ryan in the context of what he accomplished as a Met instead of as the guy from the Fregosi trade.
The ceremonial first pitch(es) – again perfect with G. Thomas Seaver, Nolan Ryan and Jerry Koosman throwing to Berra, Grote and Duffy Dyer.
Koosman too is starting to be more appreciated than he has oh since 1979.
Koosman is saying he rubbed shoe polish on the ball on Gil’s instructions.
If anyone snapped pictures and can share – please send to [email protected]
Interesting from Newsday: His current duties as president of the Texas Rangers precluded him from attending Mets events in the past, including the Shea finale last September. But this time the Mets made sure Ryan would be in attendance. The organization went as far as to schedule the event around the former pitcher’s schedule, said a person familiar with the situation, and made sure – per Ryan’s request – that the ceremony didn’t occur on a day the Rangers were playing at home.
A good set of pictures is here (thanks Metsblog). Another here. And here.
I know the boys in Flushing peek over here at the Mets Police – great job. Keep it up. This is exactly the sort of thing that you need to do. Winning hides lots of sins, but tradition will also calm the savages.
What did everyone else think?
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I liked it. I thought the Mets actually did a good job (hard to imagine HOW they could have screwed this up, aside from omitting a player's name). I said in my blog that Howie Rose showed more joy introducing the event and players than I've ever seen in him, including at Shea Goodbye.
And that's a real interesting find by Newsday (good job finding it there) in the part about working with Nolan Ryan's schedule and job to schedule the event. It's an actual sign that Mets management "gets it" (and I never thought about his absence at Shea Goodbye at all before reading that story).
What is up with leaving out Boswell?
There should of been (well maybe there was) of a group shot of the '69 around home plate of Shea in parking lot. Think that would be real nice.