Anyone who was at the Hofstra conference was wondering why we couldn’t do this again next year? Sure 50 is a nice round number, but I think we saw a nice building block for what we used to call the hypothetical Fan Fear but now I will call Metsicon.
I felt like I was at New York Comic Con with all the cool panels to go see.
I couldn’t get out of work during the week and had to coach t-ball Saturday morning but when I got to Hofstra around lunchtime on Saturday I immediately dug what I saw.
Cool right.
I started to get distracted and realized I should probably let Greg Prince I was actually there, and I found him mid-panel.
That’s Greg sitting at the table in the blazer.
I debated dressing like an adult but I went pinstriped 2012 Mets jersey. If you’re me and “in character” you kind of have to show up in a pinstriped jersey.
Speaking of “in character” this came up a few times Saturday as I hung out both at Hofstra and at home. I don’t make stuff up for the blog or twitter just to do an act. But do I have fun with it? Yes.
Take for example the current twitter discussion about SNY’s scorebug. Do I dislike it? Yes. Does it confuse me? Yes. Do I let it ruin my day and make me kick my dogs? No. It’s just a scorebug.
So that’s what I mean by “in character.” You’d expect the Mets Police to wear a proper jersey. So I did.
Anyway it was off to the lunchtime casual panel. At real panels folks had prepared papers. That’s manly. At mine we just swapped stories.
Here’s the view from within a panel.
I spent most of the day with Matthew Artus from Amazin’ Avenue and we mutually decided we wanted to take in as much as possible. There were concurrent panels so we got in a quick routine of spending 20 minutes at each one.
In a panel called “Met-Life: the ’80s and Beyond” a man named Joseph Accordo did a brilliant recap of the 1985 Fireworks game. I lived through that night and remembered it well, but some folks are younger than me and it’s a great story which he told well.
As much as we were enjoying that panel we wanted to support the second best looking of the Mets bloggers (new rankings) Kerel from On The Black who was moderating a panel called Los Mets.
Arthur Molins told us his story of growing up as a Cuban-American Mets fan. Really well written and delivered and he choked up the room and himself when he told the story of finding his childhood jersey after his mom has passed away. He held up the jersey to share.
Around then I texted my wife that it amazed me how many people were telling stories about going to Mets games with their father. That’s what I do with my son, and I know I’m just trying to recreate 1977 for the little boy in me. What a powerful emotion.
I didn’t get to speak to Arthur but great job sir
…
In the next session we wanted to be in three places at once. We started with Chris D’Orso and 50 Years of Baseball Cards and the Mets.
Take a look at this 1962 card…
Note the uniform. That’s not a Mets uniform! Well think about it – 1962 cards used pictures from 1961.
How about these two guys. The latter set mimics the initial set..and when Don Zimmer was traded they didn’t update the image.
Some famous baseball players were Mets…
And who will ever forget this shortstop…
Unfortunately we wanted to support our friends and left that awesome panel to check out The Passion Of The Bloggers where Steve @kranepool Keane was on-fire and has good taste in t-shirts.
Finally we headed off to see our buddy @ceetar who was presenting The New Age Mets Fan and well..we walked in to hear him say “thank you.” I felt terrible.
But we did stay for the Q&A and it seems that there’s a feisty bunch of folks who think Gil Hodges is dissed a Citi Field. Ceetar pointed out the, you know, Hodges Gate, but for these folks it was not enough.
The day flew and then most of us headed off to a bar owned by a former Mets player (advertising welcome on Mets Police) but that’s a story for another time.
…
Which brings us to Metsicon.
When you attend Comic-Con type events there are several mainstays. Panels, cos-play (dressing up), merchandise and autographs.
I imagine Metsicon using the Hofstra conference as a base. Maybe some ex-Mets set up in a room and sell autographs, or maybe it’s built into your admission. Another area with merchandise for sale (baseball cards, t-shirts, “Mets stuff”) and then cos-play is easy – where your jersey.
Maybe some day.
Maybe if MLB ever tells us where the 2013 All Star Game is being held then the Mets can see how the All Star Fanfest is arranged, and maybe that will create a path to Metsicon. You never know.
