Author: Shannon Shark @metspolice

Shannon Shark is the founder of MetsPolice.com, tweets as @metspolice, is an avid fan of Lee Mazzilli and Daniel Murphy, hates black uniforms and is the author of "Send The Beer Guy" available at Amazon.com. #imwith28
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Rep. Elijah Cummings Statement (and some Mets Police comments)

from Huffington Post the following are the wods of Rep. Elijah Cummings.


After reading yesterday morning that Citigroup–which has already received $25 billion in bailout money–is adamant in maintaining its $400 million naming rights to the new New York Mets stadium, I was shocked to learn that the company came to the federal government asking for an additional multi-billion dollar lifeline. Surely, if the company has the funds to paste its name to a recreational facility, it has the money to maintain its operations and keep the 52,000 jobs it announced last week it would be eliminating.
While I understand that Citi is under a contractual obligation with the Mets, I cannot understand why the organization seems to be refusing at the very least to explore options out of that contract. This type of spending is indefensible and unacceptable to Citigroup’s new partner and largest investor: the American taxpayer. My constituents in Maryland did not turn over their hard-earned wages to fund a baseball stadium in New York.
One would think that the Mets would be open to finding a new sponsor, as well. Why would any team want its new stadium, the symbol of a new era of victories, to be named after and symbolized by a company claiming to be on the brink of collapse?
I strongly urge Citigroup to find a way out of this contract and instead spend that $400 million on retaining its employees and restoring confidence in its operations. Furthermore, I encourage Citigroup and every other corporation depending on taxpayer dollars to stop the reckless spending, and I again insist that Secretary Paulson and Chairman Bernanke start holding these companies accountable. We cannot continue to pour taxpayer dollars into buckets with holes.
…
Congressman Cummings is likely not aware of the ways of the Mets.   This is a s***storm brewing, and the Mets have a tendency to head right for the eye of the storm.
Sure it’s really hard to walk away from $20 million.   However the economy has gone to hell and people are losing jobs left and right.
The Mets and MLB should look into ways to be the good guys.  Work it out with Citi that they don’t have to pay the $20M this year.   MLB can float the Mets the budget for a year.  You don’t want Congress taking a look at that anti-trust do you?  The Mets can make some statement that they stand by their good friends at Citi but now is not the time to make people lose jobs just so Rafael Furcal can be paid to be in the DL all year.
Mets, I’m telling you, get this done today.   Work it out.  Keep the name, you’ll get your money down the road, but cashing a 20M check today is a bad bad idea.  That other team you’re endlessly compared to has figured out how to make a go of it with a new stadium and no naming rights, you’ll be able to get by for a year too.


Please visit www.metspolice.com and help stop black uniforms.
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Congress Joins The Mets Police

from abcnews.com

Struggling Citibank just sealed a multi-billion-dollar emergency “backstop” deal with the U.S. government. The financial behemoth, suffering with billions in bad mortgage-related assets on its books, recently shed 53,000 workers and saw its stock price lose over half its value. Yet it’s in a 20-year contract to pay the New York Mets $400 million to name the team’s new stadium “Citi Field.”
“This type of spending is indefensible and unacceptable to Citigroup’s new partner and largest investor: the American taxpayer,” said Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., in a statement Monday.
Please visit www.metspolice.com and help stop black uniforms.
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Feds Bail Out Citi Field Naming Rights

I know a contract is a contract but when you read this:

The Treasury also will invest another $20 billion in Citigroup on top of the $25 billion of taxpayer dollars already invested in the bank this fall.



and you read this:

Citigroup Inc. announced it will cut 53,000 jobs over the next few quarters. The cuts come in addition to the 23,000 jobs the bank already cut in October.

and then you read this:


The 20-year deal, announced two years ago, was reported to be a record $400 million and entailed naming the new stadium Citi Field after it opened in 2009 in the New York borough of Queens, adjacent to the team’s old home, Shea Stadium.

“There is no change in regard to Citi’s commitment to the new ballpark,” Mets spokesman Jay Horowitz said in an email.

don’t you get kind of angry?   
It’s good to see taxpayer money being put to good use.  
God forbid the stadium be called Shea or Willie Mays Stadium or Strawberry Field at Flushing Meadows.  What’s really going to be annoying is when this stadium has a new name in 2 years.
Please visit www.metspolice.com and help stop black uniforms.
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Talking To Mets Fans Makes This Guy Sad

Another generic post while I’m hopefully not stuck at the airport and actually on a plane on my way back to Flushing….I found this last week and share it here so there’s something to keep the blog alive while I travel.

This guy gets sad talking to Mets fans.

I’m tempted to post the entire thing but that’s not cool, so here’s a clip and go visit his site.

So we are talking and he’s trying to tell me that the Mets are going to sign CC Sabathia over the Yankees. I just laughed in his face. I said dude “The Mets will never out spend the Yankees. The only reason they got Beltran and Santana is because the Yankees turned them down. Get Real.” He got all huffy and pompous but all the other dudes who worked in the bank almost pissed their pants. I just hate talking to Mets fans.They have an incredably skewed view of their place in the ecosystem.

Please visit www.metspolice.com and help stop black uniforms.