Happy 4th Anniversary to the Mets Police

April 15, 2008.  The Mets took the field, all wearing #42.  They wore no nameplates on the back.  I prefer the uniforms without nameplates, but if there was ever a day to have a name on the back it is when everyone is wearing the same number.  Stupid.

That April I had been thinking about starting a blog about something to keep myself sharp at social media (for my day job) and the Mets seemed like a good choice for a topic.  They were doing lots of stupid things back then, so I thought I’d use my blog to vent.

I picked a name using my favorite team and my favorite band.  The Police part really meant nothing other than I really like Reggatta De Blanc.

I used my “disposable” gmail account (the one in my dog’s name) to create a Blogger Blog and away we went.

Then quickly the site became the complaining blog.  Then the advocacy blog.  And interestingly people seemed to like it.

I found focus.  I decided to include a suggestion with every complaint.

I sat through the weirdest closing ceremony in the history of baseball.  We all packed up and moved over to the new place.

When we got there, we (you the readers and I) complained that our new home didn’t feel like the home of the Mets.  The Mets heard us.  #Mets50 has been great so far.

There were some obstructed views in the new place and there still are.   I don’t know what can be done, but don’t think I forgot.

One day I was invited to Citi Field (with some other bloggers).  Would Jeff Wilpon berate us?  Were the death squads going to gun us all down?

Nope, everyone was nice and we all shared some ideas, and some real friendships have been made with some of the folks within the organization.

I openly suggested that Dave Howard and I catch a game.  One day he invited me and we had a great night.  We’re quite friendly when we see each other at the stadium now and that’s cool.

I started an #imwith28 hashtag, and got totally embarrassed when one of the Mets media staff introduced me to Daniel Murphy and suddenly I was back in high school trying to talk to a cheerleader.

I mentioned four or five hundred times that the Mets needed to recapture their brand, and a big part of that was restoring the uniform.  The Treaty of Flushing was signed and the Mets once again look like a baseball team instead of a softball team and everyone seems quite pleased.

And here we are heading into the 5th year of spending two plus hours a day talking about the Mets.  All of this stuff is an extension of what I would have talked to my friends about anyway.  Now instead of emailing 7 knuckleheads I post my thoughts, and a bigger circle of friends enjoy my musings.  There have been millions of page views, and arguably some decent influence within the walls of Citi Field.

The stated mission of the blog has been for the Mets to win the World Series while dressed nicely.  One down, one to go.

Thank you for reading and following @metspolice on twitter and Facebook and G+ etc.

And with no disrespect to anyone else who ever wore the number, happy Ron Hodges day.