Shannon Shark @metspolice – Page 4191

January 26, 2009

Joe Torre’s New Book: For the money?

(This is a re-post from yesterday. The sense I’m getting is that people are just hearing about the book for the first time this morning).

Joe Torre, I’m not here to bury you. I’m not here to claim that I’m better than you (I’m even posting a link to your book, I too am a capitalist.). I’m here to ask why did you do it Joe?

Joe you somehow swam in shark infested waters for a decade and emerged as Saint Joe. You even left town looking classy while turning down a job that would have paid you millions. You gave one of the greatest exiting press conferences of all time. Joe Girardi & Brian Cashman helped to make you look even smarter in 2008.

Now you write a book. Why?

It can’t be the money can it? The Daily News says you make two million a year in speaking engagements. The Dodgers are paying you around four million dollars a year. It can’t be the money. Can it?

Did the Steinbrenners hurt you that much? Did making the playoffs yet again last year (while the Yankees missed) not make you feel like a million bucks?

Are you that hurt? Are you that mad at Brian Cashman for not sticking his neck out for you?

Was “A-Fraud” that horrible to you?

Why would you release the book on February 3rd and create a media stir right at the start of spring training? You were always so good at diffusing such things. Now you go and create one. It can’t be for the money can it?

Why not just continue to hold your head high, say little, ride out your days with the Dodgers and then show up at the new Stadium on the wrong side of 161st street some sunny Sunday afternoon and let them hang a #6 on the fence? Were you that hurt that they ignored you at the final game at the old new Stadium? Are you looking for a hug?

The synopsis for the book doesn’t sound like you. Are you really going to call out a grown man for crying? That’s not the Joe Torre I knew.

The high-priced ace who broke down in tears and refused to go back to the mound in the middle of a game. Constant meddling from Yankee executives, many of whom were jealous of Torreâ€™s popularity. The tension that developed between the old guard and the free agents brought in by management. The impact of revenue-sharing and new scouting techniques, which allowed other teams to challenge the Yankeesâ€™ dominance. The players who couldnâ€™t resist the after-hours temptations of the Big Apple. The joys of managing Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera, and the challenges of managing Alex Rodriguez and Jason Giambi. Torreâ€™s last year, when constant ultimatums from the front office, devastating injuries, and a freak cloud of bugs on a warm September night in Cleveland forced him from a job he loved.

The book is out on February 3rd from Doubleday Publishing, and Tom Verducci is credited as co-author. It can’t be for the money, can it?

…

Author’s note: I don’t claim to be better than Joe Torre. Yes I am selling the book on my blog. Yes I am doing it for the money. I never claimed to be anything more than a loudmouth with a keyboard. I just thought Joe was a better man than I am. We’ll wait until the book comes out, maybe he is.

www.metspolice.com

January 25, 2009

Fun With "New Jets Stadium.com"

Oooh this should be fun, I just found out that http://www.newjetsstadium.com/stadium.php exists.

From the ease of travel to the increased legroom of the seats, it was designed from the start with the fan in mind.

Ease of travel, hmmm. I think I will click the transportation tab.

Improvements include:
â€¢ 40 traffic lanes into and out of the stadium, nearly triple what you have today
â€¢ A newly-engineered loop road system to streamline your entrance to and exit from the lots
â€¢ Dedicated parking lots and access roads for club seat PSL owners
â€¢ Reconfigured parking lots with over 28,000 spaces

Well that sounds nice. Of course you bozos in the upper deck can sit in traffic while the factcats use the express lane.

No car? No problem. Hop a train from New York’s Penn Station or New Jersey’s Hoboken to Secaucus Junction, and in less than 20 minutes you will arrive right at the southeast gate â€“ just 100 feet from the new stadium. You will be in good company: this new 2.5-mile-long train line can accommodate over 7,000 people an hour.

It only took 35 years for someone to think to add a train to the Meadowlands. Well done. Let’s see what else we find. Oh, the PSL payment calculator!

It wants me to pick a section. Let’s pick section 337. Cool, no PSL. Oh but it will cost me $125/game to sit on the 40 yard line in the uppers. Let’s be cheap and sit in the end zone: 90 bucks.

These “lower prime” seats look nice. The PSL is “only” $20,000 but the Jets are nice and will let you pay it off as part of a 15 year payment plan for just $1,869 a year. I’m bad with math but 15 times $1,869 is $28,035 so I hope you have an extra 20 G’s sitting around to save yourself some interest. Maybe one of you finance guys can tell me if the Jets are providing a good rate (apparently it’s 8% for this option).

The waiting list, if you’re interested, is free. I seem to recall there once being a $50 charge to be on the list, but there isn’t today.

This interests me from the FAQ section:

HOW LONG DOES A PSL LAST?

PSLs are good for as long as the Jets play in the new building in its
current configuration.

So say you had paid for a PSL all those years ago, and it now had one season left on it. Would you have kept the tickets this year or last, or would you have tried to pawn the PSL off on some loony Favre fan?

WHAT IS THE TIMELINE FOR THE SELLING PROCESS?

^{Seat selection is a rolling process over the next few months. It will happen in two phases, each ordered by seniority. In Phase 1, season ticket holders are being offered the opportunity to purchase PSLs for clubs in order of seniority. If club seats are}

^{available after all current season ticket holders have had the chance to purchase them, club seats will be offered to waitlist members in order of when they joined the waitlist. In Phase 2,}

^{season ticket holders who did not purchase a club seat PSL will be offered PSL and non-PSL seats in seniority order, followed by waitlist members in order of when they joined the waitlist.}

Below is one of the great non-answers of all time. It’s so lame you have to laugh.

WILL TICKET PRICES GO UP IN THE NEW BUILDING?

Ticket prices for the 2010 season can be viewed here.

Finally don’t forget, $20,000 will get you “upscale cusine offerings” mentioned below. No more beer and a dog for you. Enjoy your sushi as you sit out in the cold wondering why the hell the NFL didn’t insist they build a retractable dome.

WHY SHOULD I PURCHASE PSL CLUB SEATING RATHER THAN NON-CLUB SEATING?

^{All club seats offer:}

^{â€¢ The best seats in the house}

^{â€¢ Access to VIP parking}

^{â€¢ Climate-controlled lounges that let you come in from the elements}

^{â€¢ Cushioned, spacious seating}

^{â€¢ Upscale cuisine offerings}

^{â€¢ The opportunity to purchase tickets to certain concerts and other stadium events (subject to availability)}

^{â€¢ The right to transfer or sell your fully-paid club seat PSL after March 1, 2011 (see PSL Agreement for details)}

Oh, one more thing:

ARE THE JETS NEW STADIUM POLICIES SUBJECT TO CHANGE?

All policies that relate to the new Jets stadium are subject to change.

www.metspolice.com

January 25, 2009

Most Popular Stuff From The Week

People still like making fun of the patch, and uniform talk and p ictures of Yankee Stadium and a dying Shea (also here) continue to be popular.

Those of you who vacation every weekend and don’t surf the internet may have missed hearing about Joe Torre’s book. He must have done it for the money, right? My guess is Joe will be a big topic on sports talk in the morning since the Super Bowl matchup is awful.

www.metspolice.com

January 25, 2009

Hey Hockey, Long Time No See

There used to be a great sport around these parts, and it was called hockey. A lot of us used to enjoy it.

Back in 1994 my cousin was a big Rangers fan. I liked blue and orange teams so I rooted for the Islanders. The Rangers were on their way to winning a cup, and I needed to stop that from happening at all costs. The Isles were useless in the playoffs that year but I fell in love with a scrappy Devils team and their awesome goalie Martin Brodeur – and these Devils seemed like they would be the ones to stop the Rangers from ever winning so I could keep on chanting 19-40 every time I walked past the cousin’s house.

We were really into hockey 15 years ago. I bought a Devils jersey. I would watch every game at his house. I’d show up with Devil horns and bring Devil dogs. Anything to keep 19-40 alive. Back in those days I had to get up at 3:30 in the morning for work. It didn’t matter, I stayed up for the NHL playoffs.

We all know that the Rangers won, and I lost – but hockey was alive. It’s good for leagues when the team from New York is good despite what those in the flyover states think. Hockey had a brand new contract with FOX, and FOX was proving itself to be really good at this sports thing.

Then the geniuses had a lockout and started the 1995 season late. The Devils won it, but they swept in the finals which didn’t help the cause. Neither did threatening to move to Nashville in the middle of a cup run.

Still we loved our hockey. We played NHL 95 on the Sega Genesis like you couldn’t believe. Messier came and went and came back. Even the great Wayne Gretzky came to New York. However, little by little hockey was slipping away.

Eventually the NHL decided not to play a season and nobody cared.

Tonight is the All-Star game. It’s 90 minutes away and I only now got excited enough to write about it. I’m going to check it out and I hope I last more than five minutes. I couldn’t tell you who is playing, I don’t know if I get Versus in HD (they keep telling me “you gotta see hockey in hi-def!”) and I bet I won’t recognize any of the players.

I have heard of Niklas Lidstrom but he decided he isn’t playing and the league has decided to make him sit out a regular season game as punishment. I’ve heard of Sydney Crosby, but he isn’t playing either.

Well, I bet Martin Brodeur made the team. Oh what’s that – he’s been out with an injury all season? The Devils are somehow in first with the Rangers just a point behind. You’d think someone would notice.

www.metspolice.com

January 24, 2009

Looking For Writers

Hi there. If you’d like to join the Mets Police, maybe you have the occasional idea but can’t be bothered to start your own blog contact me at the email address which you can find all the way at the top of the page up above the Mets Police banner. I don’t want the spam-bots to get me so I won’t include it here. You can also just hit comments below.

If you’re a fellow blogger and would like to do the occasional post-exchange (some of us do that and it helps all) hit me up.

At this point in this blog’s growth I have nothing to over you but gratitude and the ability to annoy the Wilpons – but for some of us that’s enough.