Author: Shannon Shark @metspolice

The Post wrote about the Phillies yesterday.


Read these first two paragraphs, then I will re-write them for you:

The losing culture that surrounded this franchise began changing when Larry Bowa, a popular shortstop on the 1980 championship team, took over as manager in 2001. He led the Phillies to three winning seasons in four years, but the volatile Bowa couldn’t get them over the hump and his irascible personality annoyed some players.

The player-friendly Manuel replaced Bowa in 2005 and Philadelphia came close to reaching the playoffs his first two years only to fall short in the final weekend of the regular season

The losing culture that surrounded this franchise began changing when Willie Randolph, a popular second baseman from the Yankees, took over as manager in 2005. He led the Mets to three winning seasons in four years, but Randolph couldn’t get them over the hump and his irascible personality annoyed some players.

The player-friendly Manuel (I didn’t even have to change that!) replaced Randolph in 2008 and New York came close to reaching the playoffs….only to fall short in the final weekend of the regular season

“One thing I can’t wait to do is go down Broad Street for that parade again and again and again,” Hamels told the crowd at Citizens Bank Park two days after the Phillies won the World Series last October.

“If you’re thinking about yesterday, well that means you’re not doing nothing now. Our ultimate goal now is to win again. Before, it was to win a World Series. Now, it’s to repeat. We’ve got the talent and I just want to keep the same way of playing, the same attitude and how we go about our business and we’ll be OK.”

The Phillies want to win again.  They want to play meaningful games in October not September.   I want to play meaningless games in September, the way the 86ers did.  A 20 game lead would suit me just fine.

Until the Mets can beat the Phillies they need to respect them.  Until the Mets can run off a sustained period of success (none of this one year followed by underperformers) I won’t be satisfied.

www.metspolice.com

Hi there and welcome to The Mets Police.   We’re seeing a lot of new visitors lately – welcome!

The Mets Police are a bunch of Mets fans who love their team, but also want the franchise to act honorably.   Treat the fans with respect, develop a culture of winning, and stop wearing dopey black uniforms.   Our unofficial motto is “calling the Mets (and frankly anyone else) on the carpet for the stupid things they do.” – so we tend to be cranky.   This is a Mets blog, but the Mets don’t live in a void so Yankees stuff pops up (especially when they open a new stadium or take steroids or charge a lot for tickets) and in the off-season our minds wander to other sports.

Like you, we’re geared up for baseball.  Here’s what the readers dug last week.

The top story continues to be the drive Get Opening Night changed to a 1:05 start.  More about that here.   We’re thankful to a few other blogs who banded with us in the cause – so please check out related stories on Amazin’ Avenue, The Eddie Kranepool Society, the ‘Ropolitans, and NJ.com


Citi Field curiousity also in full swing.   Check out Matt Cerrone’s pictures and these tons of pics of Citi Field, the picture the Wilpons don’t want you to see and the sad final home of the Shea scoreboard skyline.   I’d suggest checking out New Stadium Insider tonight, they were live video blogging from the stadium today!


I wonder who got stuck sitting in Citi’s Obstructed View Seats today.

As I said above we don’t live in a void, nor apparently do you – folks wanted to see 175 More Pics of New Yankee Stadium

Earlier today we had some early reviews of Citi Field drizzling in. (For you newbies, I’m using the name of the stadium to get you acclimated.  I usually call it C-Field or the like, as I hate that my taxpayer dollars go to naming a stadium.  It’s killing me to use it.).

I’m pushing for some New Traditions For The New Mets Stadium.

Wallace Matthews was right when he said the Yankees give the Mets cover when the Mets suck.

Finally, some shout outs to some other blogs who give us love, so go give them some love.  
Mets Blog
Amazin’ Avenue
The Kranepool Society
Mets Walkoffs who helps me out with stats whenever I ask.
The ‘Ropolitans (my new twitter buddy) – Mets Police is @metspolice by the way.
and the really cool New Stadium Insider (who are practically the Yankees Police).

I’m Shannon Shark, I paid the $10 for the url.  On top of being chief of Mets Police I’m also writing stuff at Flushing University on Monday, the monthly Flushing9 magazine,  and am the New York Sports Examiner at examiner.com. I also do something else (as Clark Kent, it’s legal) to pay the rent but can’t tell ya.

Thanks for visiting!

www.metspolice.com

Man oh man is this awful.

New Stadium Insider has video from an obstructed seat at Citi Field.   They have VIDEO – don’t take my word for it, watch the video.

Look for yourself, this isn’t being whiny.  Try watching the game from this seat with a silver railing in the way, not to mention a vendor every 5 seconds.  I’d be over at fan relations in a second.

Awful!!!

This is not “obstructed view seating.”  It’s not a discount, it’s not fair-warning.  it’s just bad.

This is the first negative thing rolling in, this one is pretty bad.  I imagine there are plenty of seats with this problem.

Sorry to rain on an otherwise great day, but this is what the Mets Police is for.  Keep ’em honest.

(New Stadium Insider is in the early running blog of the year by the way, what a great effort getting streaming video rocking today)

www.metspolice.com

Another glowing review of the new place which mentions that concessions are cheaper.  Unconfirmed, but here’s what he says…

The Mets have a price comparison available to the media for six frequent purchases:

Cheeseburger — Down $1.50 to $5.75 (21 percent)
Popcorn — Down $0.75 to $4.25 (15 percent)
Knish — Down $1.50 to $3.75 (29 percent)
12 oz. Bud can — Down $1.50 to $6 (20 percent)
20 oz. Pepsi bottle — Down $0.25 to $4.75 (5 percent)
20 oz. Aquafina bottle — Down $0.50 to $3.75 (12 percent)

Mets VP of business operations Dave Howard addressed the price drops:

We’re sensitive to what’s going on in the marketplace and the economy. The building is so efficiently laid-out from a concessions operations standpoint that we have some cost savings and we felt it was an opportunity to pass those through to our fans.

Read more here.

www.metspolice.com

In case you missed it, Matt Cerrone over at Mets Blog posted a cool video tour of C-Field.   I held it a few days because I figured everyone else linked it last week, and I wanted to stay focused on the Opening Night crusade.

www.metspolice.com