Next up for Five Questions with an Average Mets Fan…here’s Albert.
1. When did you start following the Mets?
I would say 1985, thanks to the hype about some phenom named Doc. I probably should blame him for all the years of teasing and suffering, but at least I had ’86.
2. What is your favorite Mets memory?
Obviously 1986, but aside from that, it would be the clincher in 2006 with my 6-WEEK old daughter. To this day, I still say she was the youngest person in the building that day.
3. What is your worst Mets memory or experience?
How long do I have? The list is long.
I would say blowing 7 in 17 is probably the worst. And then seeing my unused playoff tickets gather dust in a drawer.
The second, honestly, would be the disappointment when I walked up to my seats (3B in Promenade Infield, 4th row) in CitiField for the Red Sox exhibition and sat down and realized I could not see Daniel Murphy in LF. All in all, not seeing Daniel Murphy was actually a blessing in disguise; but it doesn’t take away from the fact that a brand new stadium could be so poorly designed.
4. If you could change one off-field thing about the franchise what would it be?
PUBLIC RELATIONS! Honestly, I don’t know how Jay Horwitz is still employed. In any other company/organization, he would have been let go years ago. Think about it…a GM (who can’t speak) is allowed to go in front of cameras over and over again w/o a plan. The team allows leaks about the Tony B and all kinds of off-the-field issues to permeate before any response. Dave Howard is allowed to insult fans on a radio station that reaches from Virginia to Massachusetts. No one thinks there is anything wrong with firing a manager at 3am EST after a win and a cross-country flight?!? How about countless fake apologies only after being crucified by the media? How about blaming another team for mis-diagnosing an injury? Or saying the fans “over-reacted” with criticism to the new stadium…or anything for that matter? Again, the list is long…but mostly it falls under the PR umbrella.
5. If you owned the team starting tomorrow, what is the first thing you would change?
CitiField. All of it. Obviously the structure we’re stuck with. I will even live with the Jackie Robinson Rotunda. But I’ll start with changing the name. I am a firm believer in Karma, and in my opinion the Mets took tainted money and consequently paid for it with their inaugural season at Bailout Field. I would might not change it back to Shea, to keep Shea’s identity, but I would try to give it some real name. Then as I walk inside, the annoying sponsorships on everything would be gone. Get better negotiators that work out contracts with companies so that everything doesn’t look so cheap and money hungry. Do we really need Nikon on every sepia picture? Which brings me to the sepia…there is a difference between classy and drab. I like the brick walls, thats classy over cinder blocks. I HATE the sepia. The Mets I remember were in technicolor…can we see a little blue? And that brings me to BLUE…get rid of the black wall. Give me the blue wall. Make this feel like home. Also, lower the wall so that our outfielders don’t need a cape to bring us another Endy moment. You have completely eliminated the possibility of ever seeing that again. And while we’re making things team colors, change the seats from that generic green. It looks like we got a discount for a bulk, in-stock color. Give us some blue and/or orange seats. Or go Shea style, Blue for Field, Orange for Promenade, and since the black is somehow now a team color, give it to the middle level, since there are fewer of those seats and I don’t feel they will be such an eye sore. Oh yeah, and I know most fans go to the game to WATCH THE GAME and not to eat a burger, so maybe fixing the sight-lines wouldn’t kill me either.
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