Shannon Shark @metspolice – Page 4168

February 21, 2009

Food At C-Field

(Tales of the blogger. Sometimes I write ahead. I try to find something generic that I can use as content on a quiet day. Earlier in the week I decided to revisit the food at C-Field and pre-wrote the first draft of the article below. Then the Mets had to go out and put out a press release on a day when I was busy with my real job. So now I look like I’m late. Dang Mets, you got me this time.)

None of this is new, but as my mind turns to the new season (and I read an article about C-Field on the train) I thought some of the food offerings are interesting.

Gothamist had the following last June (again I’m not saying it’s new info):

Sterling Market: this casual cafe will serve classic, artisanal comfort foods

Sterling Beer & Wine Bar: located inside Sterling Market, this venue will offer specialty brews and an extensive selection of wines from around the world, available by the glass or bottle

Sterling Dining Room: reservations required, with limited seating for walk-in guests, will present a small-plates menu ideally suited to game day dining

Sterling Bar & Lounge: offering guests a view of the large outdoor patio and ball field, the bar and lounge will serve specialty cocktails and small bites

Sterling In-Seat Service: waiter service will feature “Best of Ballpark” food from the outfield concourse

Maybe it’s just my general love/hate relationship with the ‘chise but “Sterling Market” just annoys me. There’s also going to be the Shake Shack, the Taco Place and the fries place.

The Times talked about those:

The taqueria â€” which he will be opening along with a Blue Smoke barbecue restaurant and a Shake Shack stand â€” will have Floyd Cardoz of Tabla as its consulting chef. It will be called El Verano. The Belgian fry stand will be called Box Frites, not Pop Fries, as was previously announced. And Mr. Meyerâ€™s Union Square Hospitality Groupâ€™s will be providing the food and drinks at the Delta Sky360 Club, the premium seating area, including a dining room, beer and wine bar, and cafe.

And the Daily News said:

Blue Smoke is expected to serve up a scaled-down version of Danny Meyer’sGramercy Park restaurant, including Kansas City spareribs and Memphis baby back ribs.

Shake Shack, another Meyer venture, is set to grill up the famed ShackBurgers and vegetarian ‘ShroomBurgers that fans line up for at its Madison Square Parkpost.

Acela is a reservations-required restaurant that Nieporent – also owner of Tribeca Grill – has slotted for a space overlooking the diamond. Named after the high-speed Amtrak train, the fine-dining spot has yet to unveil its menu.

Verano TaquerÃa will feature authentic tacos created by chef Floyd Cardoz of Tabla fame.

Box Frites will serve freshly-cut, Belgian-style fries with a wide selection of dipping sauces.

The Delta Sky360 Club will be another premium-seating dining destination on the Field Level directly behind home plate, offering waiter service and “Best of Ballpark” food.

Wheelhouse Market is expected to be a casual cafe serving speciality brews and “classic, artisanal comfort foods,” which usually means hand-crafted cheeses and cured meats.

Zachys will be run by Westchester wine merchants Andrew McMurray and Jeff and Don Zacharia, offering fine wines from around the world.

Um, do airlines and Amtrak scream “good food” to anyone? Why not go all in and have the Mt. Sinai Grill?

www.metspolice.com

February 21, 2009

Why This Mets Fan Doesn’t Wish Death Upon The Yankees

I’m a Mets fan. I want the Mets to win the World Series for the next twenty years. They tend not to.

Sometimes I’m seen at Yankee Stadium. I even have a partial ticket plan at both stadiums. Yes, I spend money in the Bronx. Horrified?

I know for a ton of Mets fans you have to wish death upon the Yankees. I don’t.

The Yankees only matter to following the Mets six times a year, and every 50 years they show up to face “us” in the World Series. My choice for the 2000 series would have been Mets in 4. It didn’t happen. My choice in every subway series game: Lets Go Mets.

There’s still 156 other games. You can hate. I root. Yeah I said root.

I live in New York. It’s more interesting and better television for me to have the Yankees be good. It makes my use of sports radio more interesting. It’s better reading in the Post. It gives me stuff to write about and things to talk with friends about. The Mets spent last week doing nothing and not signing Manny, so I followed the A-Rod & Torre stories.

Sometimes, on a random Wednesday night in August if the Mets are down 17 to nothing and SNY goes to commercial, I even change the channel. I know you don’t Mr. Die Hard Mets Fan. You sit and wait for the 18 run rally that Willie Randolph just knew was coming (otherwise why else would he chase losses and use the bullpen the way he did? – but I digress). I switch over and see what’s going on, and often come right back to listen to Keith Hernandez rip lousy baseball.

When the Yankees played in the series in 2001 I was there. Game 5 was the best baseball game I’ve ever been to. The Brosius home run gave me the same rush that Tom Seaver did when he walked in from right field on opening day 1983.

I went to the final game at the Stadium. I’m a baseball fan. It was a cool event.

My Met friends gave me a hard time back then, and I told them that they’d be the first ones reading (a madeup book I called) “The Jeter Yankees by Mike Lupica.” I got the title and author wrong, but they are all reading Torre’s book now.

So I don’t hate the Yankees. Yeah they have a lot of steroids up in the Bronx. I’m not convinced that the Mets have dodged that bullet.

The Yankees can go 156 and 6 for all I care, just make sure the six are against the Mets. Go ahead, hit the comments button, call me names. I just choose to enjoy baseball in New York.

www.metspolice.com

February 21, 2009

Verducci’s…I Mean Torre’s Book "The Yankee Years"

I got through a big chunk of The Yankee Years over the weekend and it’s not at all what the Post would have us believe.

It’s really a Tom Verducci book. There is a great sidebar chapter about steroids and another about the Red Sox coming of age.

The book quotes Torre at length, but it might as well say “Tom Verducci with David Cone, Mike Mussina and Joe Torre.” Cone gives the players perspective for the first half, and then Mussina for the post-Dynasty years.

This book is right there with Summer of ’49 for great baseball books. You don’t have to be a Yankee fan to relive all those post-seasons especially 2001.

Grab it.

www.metspolice.com

February 20, 2009

Citigroup donated to certain House members (Newsday)

Your tax dollars at work. You pay tax, Citi gets a bailout, Citi donates to politicians.

Newsday reports the below. Sorry for the cut and paste but I’m busy and they’ll say it better anyway:

By now it is well known that Reps. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) and Ted Poe (R-Texas) urged Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to demand Citigroup cancel its $400 million, 20-year deal to put its name on the new New York Mets ballpark in Queens. Their rationale is the $45 billion the bank received in federal aid.

It is also well known by now that six regional members of Congress countered with a letter of their own stating that they “strongly disagree” with their out-of-town colleagues on the naming of the new Shea ‘Citi Field’.

Now for the followup, which is not as well known: Federal records posted on the Web show that three of the six House members who signed the local letter â€” saying “it is deceitful and unreasonable to single out Citigroup for an agreement signed several years ago” â€” received campaign contributions in the last two election cycles from the corporation.

Rep. Steve Israel (D-Huntington) logged $6,000 from Citigroup in the 2005-6 cycle; Rep. Greg Meeks (D-Queens), $10,000 total in 2005-6 and 2006-7, and Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-Queens, Bronx), $20,000 total in the two cycles. (For the record, on Long Island, Citigroup also contributed during that period to Long Island Reps Peter King, total $1,000, and Carolyn McCarthy, total $4,500.)

Full story here: http://weblogs.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/politics/blog/2009/02/citigroup_gave_to_signers_of_m.html

February 20, 2009

Mark Teixeira was on the 2003 Rangers

I am told that if you call the Yankees main number today you are greeted by Sterling & Suzyn calling Teixeira home runs (presumably edited from the past and not phony play by play).

Been reading a lot about how Tex is the future of the franchise and the right one to follow in the steps of Donnie & Tino.

I hope so.

I observe he was on the 2003 Texas Rangers.