Paid attendance: 52000
Howie said 'probably was 40000'
Absolutely no way. Howie knows that. Interesting
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Live from the Upper Deck
Guys behind me discovered the sunday game moved to night They aren’t happy.
Nice play by Endy – called a second before by guys in back of me. I like these guys
My Jeff Kent rage came back when I saw #12. To this day I would not trade you David Cone for Ryan Thompson and Kent. And I mean todays david cone.
Cyclones fan is here with me. He’s taking pictures of the crowd. I guesstimate 25000. He says I’m being nice. They will announce 46000 I bet. Pics tomorrow
If Tatis gets to wear #17 I guess that isn’t going on the fence any time soon.
If the mets sign a phenom named James Shea will they take the nameplates off the
unis?
Cyclones fan just asked if they will include the skyline at ‘corporate field’ and if so will it include the twin towers.
Woooo the captain just homered!
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Live from gate e
People watching outside shea
Lots of ugly horrible mets attire has been sold in the last 10 years.
To the guy that bought the I dunno celtic-graffitti font jersey. Yuck.
To the dude with the oversized supergiant ny hat. Yuck
Mets store selling pinstriped 42 jerseys. From memory I think they wore the no-pins on Ron Hodges night. They can't be Hodges jerseys since they have the black shadow. MoVaughn maybe?
Speaking of black jerseys – why can't they just wear old ny giants hats instead of the hideous black (if they insist on black)
Heading inside…
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Mark It Down – Mets Are Practically DONE
What? It’s only May! How can I make such a bold and rash statement. The Mets obviously don’t believe it, they keep saying it’s still early and thay aren’t panicing yet.
Well wake-up guys, baseball is a game of numbers and the numbers don’t lie. The chances of you making the playoffs at this point are slim.
Since 1996, the first full season under the expanded playoff format, 63 of the 96 playoff teams were already in a playoff position (division leader or wild card) on Memorial Day. Only 34% of teams that made the playoffs in the last 12 years overtook other teams after Memorial Day.
It doesn’t get better. Teams that were able to come back and make the post-season were an average of 4 games back in the Wild Card standings on Memorial Day. As of Monday, the Mets found themselves 5.5 out. Only 10 of the 96 playoff teams were 5.5 or more games out at this time – or 10.4%
What about if we look at just the National League, because we know the leagues are very different. At first it does look a bit better – there has been slightly more more volatility as almost 40% of playoff teams were not in position on Memorial Day, including all 4 last year.
But just like before, if we look deeper at the numbers the story only gets worse for the Mets. The average position for these 19 teams was 3.5 games out of the WC. Furthermore, only 5 NL teams – the 96 Cards (6.5), 03 Marlins (8.5), 05 Astros (10.0), 07 Cubs (6.5), and 07 Rockies (5.5) – overcame deficits equal to or greater than the Mets current position.
It’s not just about how many games behind you are though, but also how many teams are in front of you. The 19 NL teams that came back after Memorial Day held an average of 5th place in the WC standings – the Mets are currently in 8th.
What does all this mean? Unless management does something dramatic to turn this team around (such as getting rid of Willie for starters), the last game at Shea Stadium really will be September 29th.
Mets Phony Attendance Numbers
Thanks to Metswalkoffs for tipping me off to this story I had missed. Filip Bondy must read the Mets Police (I take credit for everything) – he wrote a nice article about the phony attendance figures they announce. Over on the left scroll down the archives to April and you’ll see a few postings about that – as the mainstream media knows, bloggers are a bunch of kooks who never write anything meaningful, right?
Anyway a month later, Bondy writes:
The Mets have been adding pretend fans in tens of thousands, each and every night. At their last two games, announced attendances of 51,489 and 47,093 weren’t just exaggerations. They were dreamy fabrications.
I am not a stupid sportswriter. I know that these are supposed to be ticket sale numbers, not an exact turnstile count, and that there inevitably are some no-shows. But the Mets would require a 40% no-show rate to make this believable, and their crowd is working class. Very few Met fans are going to buy expensive tickets and then watch the game on television.
I was at these two games and personally witnessed entire, vast regions of the upper deck devoid of life. This is a stadium that seats 55,601. There were no more than 35,000 fans in the park on Monday, and no more than 25,000 on Tuesday.
A 40% no show rate would be incredible. The Mets Police are attending tonight’s game with camera in hand to do some research and will report on Friday. I hope to see Fred Wilpon there rooting on his Brooklyn Dodgers.
Tangent: when they first did Jackie Robinson night, why didn’t the Dodgers wear B hats at Shea. Fred would’ve loved it. I digress…back to attendancegate.
I do think there are a lot of fans who overbought tickets for whatever reason. Just yesterday I heard of three people who couldn’t give tickets away. In the upper deck I have overheard conversations about people stubhubbing tickets (hey scalping is official now!) or just “eating” tickets.
The weather has been awful and Shea’s not even that nice when it’s 85 and sunny. Of course a smart franchise would have built a retractable dome….
Hit metswalkoffs (and thanks for the heads up guys – bloggers unite!)
http://metswalkoffs.blogspot.com/