Author: Shannon Shark @metspolice

I’ll be getting a new Mets cap this year. Fitted (7 5/8). All blue of course.

I decided towards the end of last season that it was time to retire my old cap. That cap was Shea, the new one will be Corporate Field.

The decision did not come about lightly. I’ve had that cap for about 13 or 14 years – can’t exactly remember when I bought it, but I know it was before the late 90’s good years.

It fits my head like a glove. The blue isn’t quite the shade of Mets blue it was when it was new – sweat and dirt will do that over the years. During the 2007 season the soon-to-be Mrs. CyclonesFan took note of how “seasoned” the hat was and offered to wash it. Thankfully our relationship survived that incident. She still doesn’t quite understand why it was wrong to even suggest that, but she accepts it.

MLB changed their caps a few years back. No longer are they 100% wool. The manufacturers claim that the new blended caps breathe better. Is it really that big of a difference? All I know is that my new cap when I get it won’t feel or look the same as my old one.

I wore that cap in rain outs and playoff games. It traveled with me to other parks and other countries. I’ve thrown it, squeezed it, and turned it inside out – sometimes all at once.

The last time I wore the cap was the other day as I saw that Shea was no more. Standing there in the parking lot, I took the cap off my head for the last time. I’ll keep the cap – but it now becomes a souvenir, a memory of something gone but never forgotten.

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I have the solution to the baseball record book as it applies to the “steroid age.”  It’s actually quite simple.

When I was growing up I heard about “The Modern Age” of baseball, which started around 1900 or 1901 or 1904 depending on who you asked.  What was clear was that the baseball of Ruth and Maris and Mazzilli was a different game than Charley Radbourn winning 59 games in 1884 or twelve home runs being the all-time home run record.

Most people agree that the numbers have changed again, probably because of steroids.  What has also changed is second place teams winning the World Series, relief pitching in excess, smaller parks, arguably a juiced baseball, better training, better lighting etc.

So here’s the solution to the record book.  We are going to close it, and we are going to close it in 1994.   Close it when baseball shut down.   Your home run leaders for what I will now refer to as “The Golden Age” are Hank Aaron and Roger Maris.

When baseball came back in ’95 it had a new format, realignment and likely rempant steroids.  We’ll start the “Neo-modern Age” or “The Silver Age” or whatever you want to call it in 1995.   Career stats will be assigned to the final year (and age) in which a player played.

Most home runs in a season and career in the Neo Age?   Bonds.   Most career wins by a pitcher, Greg Maddux (that will please people).   The hit king?  I’m too lazy to do the math but it very well could be Ichiro.

This keeps the “Golden Age” as pure as it can be, and allows us to separate 73 home runs the same way we separate 20 game winners and 59 game winners.  A-Rod can hit as many homers as he wants, his records will never count in the Golden Age, and that’s OK.

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