Author: Shannon Shark @metspolice

Shannon Shark is the founder of MetsPolice.com, tweets as @metspolice, is an avid fan of Lee Mazzilli and Daniel Murphy, hates black uniforms and is the author of "Send The Beer Guy" available at Amazon.com. #imwith28
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Thanks for a great year!

No don’t worry I’m not shutting down for the year – I usually do an end of year recap of the numbers and a thank you to all the readers..but with January 1 being on a weekend I figured I’d rather say thanks while a few folks are still killing time in the office.

I found this graph interesting because some of the big spikes came at the same times as last year, including an annual Thanksgiving-ish uniform news bump.  Naturally interest in the Mets picks up in March and then stays hot until the team cools off.  (Take a look at how jazzed people were in May when the scrappy team was hanging in there.)

Page views were up 69% again this year – just around 1.2 million for the year depending on how the weekend goes (1,117,542 right now if you are curious. Those are Google Analytics numbers, if you want me to wow you with some stats from other sources that are less accurate I can, but spyders don’t read articles.)

Here’s a cool ego-graph.  Using Alexa I punched in a few blogs you’ve heard of.  Mets Police is the one in blue.  So while that red site is still 60 times more popular, we’re kinda hanging in there with that one in yellow which ain’t bad at all.

These two make me laugh…

  • Relative to the general internet population, 25-34 year olds are over-represented at metspolice.com. Confidence: medium
  • Relative to the general internet population, 35-44 year olds are greatly under-represented at metspolice.com. Confidence: medium

I’m not sure what that means.  I guess “you kids” like listening to an old man (in his 40’s) rant, and the people my own age don’t?  Nope, must be a Mets thing because I pulled the same data for that red website and the yellow one and they have the same breakdowns.

The site is also over-indexed for people making over $100,000…I just mention that in case youre’a prospective advertiser and want to contact me at [email protected]

Thanks to our great partners at TiqIq, FanvsFan and the Mets Police Store on Amazon for helping me make a few bucks….as Media Goon says, it’s jersey money..we don’t get rich doing this.

Thank you for incoming links, especially Matt and Paul.

Thank you Mets for letting me be part of some cool events especially the uniform unveiling.

Thanks to Dan for writing here and there (great series with the old newspapers he found) and especially for Media Goon for always being on-call when all hell broke loose.

And most importantly thank YOU for reading the site.  It makes it fun to do when you know there’s a community on the other side of the router.

MP has come a long way from that first year of 8,000 or so visitors.  With the way information-sharing is changing and the old-guard media giving way to idiots in their own basements (my mom doesn’t have a basement) typing away, I find the future exciting.  When it’s easy to stream live video (or pictures or text…) from just about anywhere things are really starting to change.

Plugs:

Mets Police on twitter @metspolice.  Thanks if you are one of the 2391 (up from 700 in April!)  I miss the in-game hangouts and those will be back for 2012.

Mets Police on Facebook

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Mets Police rerun: Appreciating Ralph Kiner

Every year I take this week between Christmas and New Years Day to rerun a few posts..some to illustrate a point, some just because I like them. Here’s one from March that explains why Ralph Kiner truly is a Hall of Famer.

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Today friends, let’s celebrate Ralph Kiner. No, not for all his years of broadcasting. Nope, not for all those home runs.

Ralph Kiner is a Hall of Famer. A different kind if Hall of Famer.

SI: During your playing days you dated Janet Leigh and Elizabeth Taylor (below). Today we’d call you “a player.” Did they have a name for athletes who dated movie stars back in your day?

Kiner: No, they didn’t [laughs]. At that time few players got a shot at dating the movie people. One of the reasons I was able to was that Bing Crosby was one of the owners of the Pirates. But I met Janet Leigh at Forbes Field when she was working on Angels in the Outfield. She was standing at the batting cage, and I got to know her by talking to her. So that was all on my own.

(more with Ralph in Sports Illustrated)

Today, let’s reflect on who Ralph reportedly dated.

1. Marilyn Monroe. Hello? Marilyn Monroe. The icon. Right there Ralph wins.

2. Jane Russell

3. Liz Taylor. Don’t be distracted by old lady Liz.

4. Janet Leigh

5. Ava Gardner. I see Ralph and I like similar things…like baseball and the Mets.

Ralph even had awesome friends:

the Dreyfuss family sold the Pirates to a group that included John Galbreath and Bing Crosby. The Hollywood crooner would befriend Ralph. In the off-seasons, Crosby liberated Ralph from his old room in Alhambra and introduce him to the inner circle of Tinsel Town. Ralph found himself hobnobbing with movie stars, and his name popped up regularly in the gossip columns, linked to this starlet or that one. Ralph later built a house in Palm Springs, which would soon become a Mecca for celebrities. Soon he would count among his friends and neighbors the likes of Frank Sinatra, Phil Harris and Lucille Ball.

Ralph, if anyone deserves a statue it is you.

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Report: Mets spent 5th most in 2011

The folks over at Amazin’ Avenue remind us that…

The clubs lost a reported $70 million and has had to take out more than one loan, but the New York Mets actually saw player payroll rise 11.51%. At $142,244,744 they ended the season ranked 5th behind only the Yankees, Red Sox, Phillies, and Angels.

So remember while you are screaming about the payroll that just because you spend it doesn’t mean you win. The 2011 Mets, led by a batting title winning Jose Reyes, finished 4th.

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Report: Mets’ Stadium Rating Outlook Cut to Negative by Standard & Poor’s

The outlook on $695.4 million of debt issued to build the New York Mets’ Citi Field was cut to negative by Standard & Poor’s after the team’s third straight losing season and falling attendance.

Last night I was thinking that even if Fred gave the Mets to me I’d be afraid to take on all the potential responsibilities. That may be silly thinking on my part but all I read seems doom, gloom, and really big numbers.

I have no idea what the way out is, but I’m increasingly thinking of 1977, although the 2012 team has much more talent.

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Mets Police rerun: Trade Reyes (June 28th)

I’m having fun going through the archives. I totally forgot about the Twitter morons who were killing R.A. Dickey in May. I see I warned you guys about the math on April 19th (and I remember getting attacked for suggesting that the Mets were done!).

All that’s ok…but sooner or later you guys might want to start listening to me. Here’s a little something from June 28th. I hope you enjoyed those extra three months of Jose and what it got you.

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On 3 I rip the band-aid off.  One…two…

I know, I know…Jose Reyes and his kindly agent are definitely going to re-sign with the Mets at a price that allows Sandy Alderson to also add other pieces even though it has been said over and over that the Mets will cut payroll next year and K-Rod is well on his way to vesting.  Together, Wright and Reyes play together for years and finish 1-2 in all the offensive stat categories.

How long you been watching this soap opera?

Michael Baron from Mets Blog got me thinking yesterday when he wondered on twitter where the Mets would be without Reyes.  Well, WITH Reyes they are a 4th place team looking up at the Nationals and Pirates.  Up.

I know this all hurts Mets fans, but turn off your emotions for a second and think this through.

You may have heard of the Wilpons.  They own the Mets.  They have money concerns.

Reyes is going to make a lot of money.

The Mets are in 4th place.

Reyes is playing as well as any player has these first three months.  His value will never be higher.

The Mets could lose him after the season and just get draft picks.  Sometimes those picks turn into David Wright, Ike Davis or Mike Pelfrey.  Sometimes they turn into Lastings Miledge or Bobby Keppel.  You feeling lucky?