Good morning. Just to clear up who wrote what, Shannon here with this paragraph, and the post was put up by Media Goon, but the words are a guest post by Randy @readtheapple Medina that I hope you’ll read all the way through, it’s pretty fantastic. Then I anticipate one more T7L related post today and that should put a bow on this topic. I feel bad for Darren in that all he wanted to do was have some fans attend a baseball game and it’s somehow become a “thing” although it’s probably over-indexed here in the bloggersphere and Mets twitter. I doubt the bankers on Wall Street are talking about Thunder Sticks. Consider ourselves blessed if this is the biggest problem in our world. – SS
By Randy Medina
Before we get started I just want to say I’m not here to defend “The 7 Line Army” because frankly they don’t need to be defended, especially not by likes of an internet oddball like myself. Frankly, I don’t really even like to contribute much these days but there’s been so much 7 Line related nonsense clogging up my various timelines I’d like to come here today and ask you all to stop.
Oh, Those 7-Liners
First off, can we please stop discussing the 7-Line Army as if it’s an actual Army with a leadership structure and marching orders? It’s a group sales party with a clever name and it has gotten huge. There is no initiation or blood oath required to attend a 7 Line outing. I’ve been to a few. It’s a giant revolving door of strangers who wanted to sit in a raucous section for a day. The tone can vary greatly depending on the makeup of the group. Sometimes, some guy tries to start a roll call. Sometimes people join in, most often they don’t.
It’s not unlike the varying crowds I’ve experience in my 30+ years of going to games…just usually louder.
When I have attended a 7 Line “Army” game, I was never assigned a rank or given a squad to command. To be honest, if this was the case I might attend more of them.
The reality of the situation is it’s pretty standard fare. Instead of being shipped off to basic training you merely receive an envelope with your tickets, shirts and thunder sticks along with a note from Darren indicating where people plan to meet up beforehand if that interests you. If the meetup isn’t your bag, you can skip it. There are no court martials in the 7 Line Army to the best of my knowledge.
I have noticed that as attendance at the outings has risen, over 1,300 fans in some cases, the odds of having a “misbehaving few” rises as well. This happens with any massive group and as with any massive group I don’t always agree with how some of these people conduct themselves. I suspect many people who have a problem with the group may have really just had an issue with a couple of people and are lashing out at the group concept as a whole. But this not unique to T7LA and is in no way different from EVERY SINGLE SPORTING EVENT I’VE EVER BEEN TO. Sometimes you sit next to a kid going to his first ballgame and other times you get stuck next to a few guys/girls who have had way too much to drink. Once in a while you end up next to someone who thinks there are two syllables in Mets. It happens.
I get it, on TV or from elsewhere at the park all you see is some crazed group being led by a charismatic leader out to destroy the Mets and turn us all into Yankees fans. Sadly, there is no sinister plot to change the way fans watch baseball, just a bunch of people having a good time banging little inflatable sausages together.
Which brings me to…
Thunder Sticks
Thunder sticks are lame. I would be wrong to try to convince you otherwise. No one should ever defend thunder sticks. If those little inflatable phalluses are the main reason you hate T7LA then nothing I say will change your opinion. But, I will say this, like the vuvuzela or the party favor, people seem to really enjoy making weird sounds by misusing plastic. They always have, they always will. So if that’s what you hate, then what you’re telling me is you really hate fun.
Aren’t They Just Precious In Their Matching Outfits
From what I’ve been reading, some critics seem to take issue with the matching outfits and such, likening the group to a day camp.
To those writers I would ask: Is this really the hill you want to die on?
This is sports. Your criticism of The 7 Line Army is exactly the same thing those people who hate sports have been saying about sports fans forever.
We dress in matching outfits. We dress like we’re might play in the game. We all chant the same chants. I mean stop for a second and go back and read that last line again. WE CHANT. We should all be committed.
When you tell me you hate T7LA because of the matching outfits, what you’re basically telling me is you hate sports.
Also, let’s not forget that the 7 Line is still at its heart a business. Everyone wearing the same thing at your group outing is one of the oldest and most effective tricks in the book. Darren Meenan would be a fool to squander the opportunity he has worked hard to create by NOT outfitting his guests in his gear.
Which brings me to…
That Darren Guy Is Just Out to Promote Himself
In the interest of full disclosure, I know Darren a little bit. We don’t play golf every Sunday but I consider him a friend. Darren is a Mets fan. Like for real. He’s the “makes you put on a rally cap at the bar” kind of Mets fan. The brand was born from his passion for the team and not the other way around.
Is he out to promote himself?
Yes. Yes he is.
And there isn’t a damn thing wrong with that.
Self-promotion is a powerful tool that we should all use in our everyday life. If you aren’t actively promoting yourself in your endeavors, then I wish you good luck because you are in for a long hard life of getting passed over for promotions and not noticed by the girl/guy you have a crush on.
Meenan has built a brand and a livelihood on his 7 Line brand. Every brand name you see splashed across those walls at Citi is trying to use your Mets fandom to get you to notice them so that you’ll spend money and keep them from being homeless. The 7 Line is unique in the fact that, unlike most Citi Field advertisers, the brand was undeniably formed out of a deep passion for Mets baseball.
What makes the 7 Line situation even funnier to me is that there is very little The 7 Line does that the Mets couldn’t do themselves if they only possessed even a fraction of the attention to detail and passion for their own brand that Meenan does. Instead they remain a woefully inept, mostly tone deaf organization that keeps anyone with any passion for the team at arm’s length.
From what I know about Darren, I believe that if it all ended tomorrow for the 7 Line he would quickly move on to another equally successful venture and still be just as big a Mets fan. So you end up with the ironic reality that the Mets need him way more than he needs the Mets. Maybe they should try promoting themselves a little better.
If you don’t want attend a 7 Line Army event because you feel it’s all promotion for a business, more power to you. It’s entirely your right. No one should be able to tell you what brands to buy or support.
But if you hate The 7 Line Army because you believe self-promotion is evil and you want to destroy Darren and everything he stands for, I wish you good luck battling that windmill.
Which reminds me…
But, Punk Rock…
We’ve all been down this road before.
“The shirts used to be edgier!”
This statement isn’t necessarily false either. Early 7 Line product was a lot edgier. Obviously, everything was a lot more underground at the time and Meenan could afford to take more chances and vent his frustrations as he wasn’t on anyone’s radar at the time. But like anything else, as demand grows and popularity increases it draws attention, both positive and negative.
I don’t know the particulars but I’m pretty sure mainstream acceptance has come with some creative constraints, but there is also the highly likely possibility that maybe the guy just wants to make fun shirts and doesn’t feel like he has to be your outlet for your issues about Fred & Jeff.
If you don’t like the new stuff, cool.
But if you hate The 7 Line because it’s too in the mainstream, there’s a simple solution. Channel that hate into something creative. Heck, he’s already given you the blueprint. All you have to do is start your own new brand of angry, edgy Mets shirts. Just make sure to destroy it and start over every time you feel too many people like it.
Those Blue & Orange Jackasses
“Imagine if that same group of Braves fans in New York taunted you, a fan of the home team, when you walked by?”
I read this line today in an article and it made me chuckle. For one reason because the Braves don’t actually have fans, just people who couldn’t find anything better to do that night, but mostly because this very scenario happens to me all the time.
Confession time. I am a huge hockey fan. Often I have to sit in my seats at my home arena and deal with a bunch of blue and orange wearing jackasses. They’re called Islanders fans. This season they lost fewer games than they usually do so their fans descended on The Rock, home of my beloved New Jersey Devils, in droves and brought their misguided enthusiasm and stupid wrestling chants with them. It was annoying, it was aggravating and it was so much fun! Devils fans, who can sometimes be a quiet lot, had to step their game up to compete with all the noise and it led to some good natured back and forth. If the good people of Atlanta have such delicate constitutions that some noisy Mets fans can ruin their day well that’s just too bad.
So if you hate The 7 Line Army because someone in Atlanta might be offended, frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn.
We Don’t Cheer That Way…Or At All
I went to my first Mets baseball game in 1984. In all those years I have never once been given a manual of how I am supposed to enjoy a baseball game. This manual clearly exists though as I constantly see people complain about what others do at Mets home games. I apologize for my ignorance. I was stupidly under the assumption that I was going to a place to watch a bunch of grown men in ridiculous outfits throw a ball back and forth for a few hours.
Clearly this is serious business. If people want to do the wave, or bang on cowbells, or clap thunder sticks I don’t see the problem.
If people attending a 7 Line Army event are breaking some kind of stadium rule they should be dealt with by security. But if your only goal is chasing out people who are trying to enjoy themselves at an overpriced sporting event, only to have them replaced by people who sit on their hands for nine innings, simply because you feel they are violating some kind of unwritten rule, or because you hate a t-shirt company, or the guy who created it, or the people that support it, then you are simply wrong.
The sooner you realize that, the sooner we can all go back to hating Yankees fans.
