Gammons on Young Teams

A pretty good Peter Gammons column the other day that included this observation (useful to GMs that like 41 year old outfielders).

Dave Studenmund has a great piece in this year’s Hardball Times Annual about how the game is getting younger. Studenmund points out that the decline in average age between 2007 and 2008 was the largest in major league history and that 24 of the 30 teams got younger between 2007 and 2008. The Twins were the youngest team in the major leagues at 25.5, and won 88 games — one fewer than the New York Mets — without the great Johan Santana.



Also:


The Yankees are going to be really good, but as Joe Posnanski points out, for all the talk of a salary cap, only twice in the past 30 years has a team won the World Series with a $100 million payroll: the 2004 and 2007 Red Sox.


In those 30 years, 20 different teams have won World Series titles, and it would likely be 21 without the 1994 strike that cost the sport’s best team — the Montreal Expos — a chance to win it all. In those 30 years, 14 different teams have won the Super Bowl, 13 have won the Stanley Cup, nine have won the NBA championship.

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Another Reason To Ditch The Black Uniforms: Money!

Around these parts we really really hate the Mets black uniforms.  Unfortunately the Wilpons don’t care and only like money.  Today I appeal to their greed.

Assume every dopey 20 year old already has a black Piazza shirt and a black Wright jersey.  It’s time to sell them some new items, and Wilpons I propose to you that there’s money in that there blue and orange.

NHL reveals top-selling third jerseys entering holiday season 

Look what made the list.  The good old blue and orange Islanders jerseys.  Not the new dark blue ones, the traditional ones.  I think the article says it best when it says:

Two observations: First, and rather obviously, is that these teams released third jerseys with a distinct retro and/or traditional look. For many of them, that meant literally recycling older jerseys with a tweak here and there. In fairness to the other teams that released alternate sweaters this season, sometimes it’s easier to remake a classic than to create an original.

Second, if these are the top sellers according to the NHL, then there’s only one black jersey (Boston) among the top six. Which actually fills our hearts with hope, even if for a moment, that teams will shy away from the dark side in creating new duds.

How about it Fred & Jeff?  Roll out the pinstripes (no names) for a few years and let teenagers buy some #5 jerseys.   I’ll meet you half-way and you can wear whatever you want on Sunday.

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Fun Stuff From The Week

Our weekly look back at the most popular posts on metspolice.com

The The Future Look Back At 2009 made it onto Fark so that was the big winner of the week.  Read it to find out who wins the 2009 World Series.  

Some people agreed that The Mets Should Go Get The Guy Who Hit .158.

It’s just a link but people enjoy Photos of Dying Shea & New Yankee Stadium

All I did was link to the Daily News blog who got ripped by most bloggers for posting what we all think is an inaccurate report – that got lots of hits – but since none of actually know if it’s wrong I wondered Why Are Mets Uniforms A State Secret? which got me into rant mode and made me revisit my reminder to the Wilpons that The Mets Never Played In Brooklyn.

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Why Are Mets Uniforms A State Secret?

I was thinking about Mets uniforms the other day and realized how annoying it is to never quite be sure what the team is going to wear.

It seems like every year in the spring I’ll get a call from fellow MetsPoliceman Osh41 where we discuss what they are wearing because we’re caught off guard.  

The call goes something like, “Hey check out the “New York script” on the road jerseys.”  (We just won the World Series, let’s change the uniforms!)  The next year,  “Hey they changed the road jerseys again to rip off the Yankees look.”  “Hey look at the hideous new swoosh jerseys with the underline.”  “Hey look at the white Mets hats!”   Even last year when they played the Civil Rights game I wasn’t sure if the charcoal jerseys they showed up were “real” or not.

This week this was a little flurry over the Daily News blog reporting this new black jersey.   The consesus is that the News was wrong.   The point is that none of us are quite sure.

Why don’t we know what the 2009 Mets will wear?  We hear rumor of a patch.  We hear the unsubstantiated “Charcoal” rumor.  

Why can’t they just tell us.

Anyone want to know what the Yankees are wearing this season?  Oh yeah that’s right they sell tons of stuff without ever changing it (plus or minus a patch or armband).

How about Boston?  Oh yeah they held a press conference to tell everyone – and I betcha that translated into jersey sales.

The Mets Police continue to beg the franchise to go back to what Casey is wearing on the left.  Borrow some font from the Giants (remember them Fred Wilpon?) and some color(ish) from the Dodgers.   See the nice road jersey peeking out?   At home where pinstripes with no black trim.   On both don’t have names.   You can read a name from the upper deck, on radio it doesn’t matter and on TV there is chiron and an announcer.   Our compromise is that the Mets can wear whatever they’d like on Sunday (pink uniforms with shorts – go for it!) and sell whatever pleases the Wilpons.

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Great Job Out Of Michaels & NBC In OT

I witnessed the most amazing thing on television last night right after the Chargers won in overtime.  

They let the pictures do the talking.

For a longgg Michaels & Madden said nothing.   “…and the Chargers win the game!” and then nothing.  Pure professional.

Below is the video but don’t be surprised if Youtube has pulled it down.

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