Shannon – Page 6 – The Mets Police

May 14, 2013May 14, 2013

A Dad’s Guide To A Lost Mets Season

If you are like me, and you are a father to a five year old whom you’re trying to convert to a Mets fan, the New York Mets did absolutely nothing to help you this offseason. They traded away your favorite player, they spent six dollars on the outfield, and did absolutely nothing to make the team competitive. But, all is not lost, dads! Despite the mediocre play, by being strategic, you can still make a good attempt at developing a life long bond with the ballclub.

MLB.TV is your friend. I get my Mets fix via mlb.tv on the ROKU and APPLE TV. About $125 a year and you get every out-of-market ballgame live. Since I live just outside the Mets territory, I am able to watch every Mets game that isn’t on FOX or ESPN. And the next morning they have two minute recaps of every game as well. My son goes to bed at 7:30, so he doesn’t get to see too many weeknight games live. But we talk about the ballclub all the time, and when the Mets pull one out, I make sure to show him the two minute recap. He knows they are not winning very often, (I don’t lie to him when he asks who won), but in a lost season those two minute recaps of wins makes baseball seem very exciting!

MATT HARVEY is your friend. This weekend Harvey had a “bad game”. He allowed more than one run! But Matt Harvey is exciting, and so I make sure we tune in to see Matt Harvey when he’s on the mound.

EVERYTHING IS EXCITING LIVE. I’ve taken my son to two Mets ballgames this year so far. The Mets are 1-1 in those games, but my son and I are 2-0 in father-son bonding. Even high foul pop ups are really amazing to a young kid. “Wow, that was higher than the scoreboard!”

GO OUTSIDE. Hit the ball off a tee, play catch, play “bases”, race around a little league infield. It doesn’t matter if the real Mets are awful – when you are playing pretend Mets, Lucas Duda always comes through in the clutch.

AVOID WFAN. These guys are not helping your cause.

ART PROJECTS. We draw the teams logos in crayon and he brings home drawings from school. He’s learning the colors of teams around the league, and which logo is the hardest to draw (Indians).

BANNER DAY ALL WEEK. For the past week and a half, we worked on our handmade banner together. Made with markers and crayons, glue and tape, I think it came out pretty swell. Shannon called me out on Twitter for making excuses and not coming to the parade. Of course I would have loved to have taken my son on the field with our banner, but to make the 10AM registration would have meant leaving the house at 8AM. All the weather forecasters not named Shannon Shark had the forecast as iffy at best, and my son was not too thrilled about hustling to get dressed at 7:30AM. I saw rain delays in our future and getting back home 12 hours later, rain soaked. So, I called an audible. We spent the morning hanging out at home, and then left Central Jersey at 11 to head up to Flushing. Definitely the right move this year. We took our banner to the stands and waved it in between innings. The WPIX 11 cameras picked us up after the 7th inning stretch! Great stuff. I know Shannon doesn’t think 99 banners is enough of a showing, but I think Banner Day was a success. The crowd was pretty good for a pretty bad team, the event garnered a lot of coverage in the MSM and social media, and they had the winning banner come on to the field during the game. More importantly, my son and I had a great time. Even though the Mets lost badly, we made some great memories and my son’s fandom is intact.

Look, I know there are no guarantees with this, and I am OK with that. My Dad did everything right when he tried to make me a Yankees fan. Took me to games, bought me cracker jacks and made me T-shirts. Played wiffle ball in the driveway and pretended to be Goose Gossage. But in 1983 I joined Cub Scouts and all of those Long Island kids were Mets fans, and I became one as well. Karma will come back and turn my kid into a Phillies fan, I’m almost sure of it. Damn that Phanatic is quite compelling. But I am really enjoying being a Mets fan with my son, even though the record books will show this as a lost baseball season.

April 6, 2013April 5, 2013

Mike V’s Mets Opening Day Flashback – 2013

Today’s flashback – 2013

Monday, April 1st vs. San Diego Padres

Win, by score of 11-2 to go 1-0 on the season.

Fan morale is probably as low as at any time I can remember, but Opening Day is still special. Despite what the Mets claim, this was clearly not a sellout, but the crowd was pretty healthy for a team with such a dismal season outlook and the exorbitant ticket prices.

The weather was really nice – around 60 – when the wind was blowing it was pretty chilly but when the sun wasn’t obscured by the clouds it was too warm for a jacket.

My cousin came up from Maryland to attend Opening Day and make his first visit to CitiField. We took the NJT up to New York and the LIRR in from the city. We were greeted by a freshly painted homerun apple, and Bobby Valentine doing the pre-game show at the SNY tent on the pavilion.

I have been going to Opening Day for as long as I can remember, and for at least the last 15 years a buddy from college had gone with me. But this December he decided that 2013 would be the year his streak ended. He was fed up with ownership, missed Shea, and didn’t feel connected to the team. But something changed last week. Even though in the time since he’d decided to break the streak, Dickey was traded and Johan went down, last week he decided he couldn’t go through with it. I’d like to think my weekly walk down Opening Day Memory Lane had something to do with it, but on Friday night he paid $62 including fees to sit in the Promenade down the left field line. We met up in the parking lot by our bricks on the fanwalk, and went in together. He even joined us for a few innings with Darren and The 7 Line Army.

To give my cousin the full CitiField experience, we entered through the Jackie Robinson rotunda. We were handed a magnetic schedule on the way in, and they looked very similar to last year – shaped like a flatscreen TV and sponsored by SNY.

There was a big crowd at the 42, and though I couldn’t get close enough to tell, I was toldit was because some real life Mets were signing autographs and posing for pictures with fans. Pretty cool gesture!

We took a walk around the Mets museum, which was updated with some all-star related artifacts to reflect the fact that the All Star Game will be held here this summer. A baseball from Johan Santana’s perfect game was also on display, and we got a look at the Mets Hall Of Fame plaques. We thought they all looked pretty good, but that John Franco’s plaque looked NOTHING like him. Not sure why they didn’t put a mustache on him – it would have helped.

Once in the park I went to Big Apple Brews and bought myself a Goose Island Honkers Ale, and drank it while waiting in line for a Grilled Sausage & Peppers hero. Delicious.

Sitting out in centerfield with the 7 Line was a lot of fun (though the thundersticks were a bit much at times) and gave Opening Day a party atmosphere in a season when Mets fans don’t feel like we have a ton to celebrate.

There was a nice ceremony before the game in tribute to the Superstorm Sandy volunteers, and a moment of silence for the hurricane’s victims as well as those from Newtown, MA. Emmy Rossum sang the national anthem (and looked great doing it), and Rusty Staub threw out the first pitch.

I’ll leave game recaps to other websites, but Neise pitched great, newcomer Collin Cowgill hit a grand slam, and feelgood story of the year Scott Rice closed out the 11-2 win.

Not that I didn’t find things to gripe about, but I will save those for another post on another day. It was a great Opening Day, though even the lousy ones are ones I never want to miss.

More photos after the jump

Continue reading “Mike V’s Mets Opening Day Flashback – 2013”

March 31, 2013March 30, 2013

Mike V’s Countdown To Mets Opening Day – 2010 Flashback

One Day Until Opening Day!

Today’s flashback – Opening Day 2010

Monday, April 5th, 2010 vs. Marlins

Win, by score of 7-1.

I don’t have a magnetic calendar to show for this update, because the Mets didn’t give away a magnetic schedule on Opening Day 2010. They had been giving out these calendars at the Home Opener every year since 1996,but in 2010 they waited until the weekend to give it away. It was like they threw all tradition out the window! I guess it wasn’t too bad, as we got these pretty cool Apple banks instead.

2010, the second season of CitiField, was the season when the Mets started listening to their fans about the lack of Mets-ness at the ballpark. One of the coolest things they did was move the Shea Stadium apple from the caverns of CitiField, out to the pavilion outside the ballpark, where it could serve as a meeting spot for fans as well as a cool place to take a photo. Additionally, the team added Mets decorations all around and inside the park and even opened a Mets museum! Adjacent to the Jackie Robinson rotunda, Mets fans were thrilled to see the original Mr. Met and plaques of all the Mets Hall Of Fame members. So, it was hard to get too upset about the calendar!

It was an absolutely beautiful day for baseball at CitiField. Darryl Strawberry threw out the first pitch. Jason Bay, whom Omar Minya had signed to a four-year, $66 million contract to be the Mets new left-fielder, hit a single and a triple. Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran were both on the disabled list to start the 2010 season, but David Wright hit an opening day homerun for the second straight season. Johan Santana threw six strong innings and the Mets defeated the Florida Marlins, 7-1. The win improved Johan Santana’s Opening Day record to 4-1, in 5 starts, three with the Mets. (He pitched to a no decision on Opening Day 2012, with the Mets winning 1-0, in his return from shoulder surgery)

For the second straight season the Mets finished in fourth place, with a 79-83 record. Omar Minaya and Jerry Manuel would be relieved of their duties at the end of the year, ushering in the Sandy Alderson and Terry Collins Era. The season did not end well, but Opening Day 2010 was a particularly good one.

March 30, 2013March 29, 2013

Mike V’s Countdown To Mets Opening Day – 2006 Panorama Shea Stadium Photo – The Mets Police

Two Days Until Opening Day!

With all the new surrounding Santana, today’s countdown post is a mini version, just a look at this Shea Stadium panorama I took on Opening Day 2006 (with help from of Photoshop Elements).

Heading into the 2006 season, Marty Noble said “If the Mets are going to win a division championship, this is the year. No other team in the NL East seems as well-equipped and the club has been assembled with October in mind.”

Yahoo! Sports said “The New York Mets have good reason to be optimistic this season”

And a new advertisement on the outfield wall simply proclaimed we had “The Strength To Be There*”

*By the way, why am I just now realizing the parallel meltdowns of AIG and the economy and the Minaya-era Mets?

March 29, 2013March 29, 2013

Mike V’s Countdown To Mets Opening Day – 2012 Flashback – Johan Santana Returns!

Three Days Until Opening Day!

Today’s flashback – Opening Day 2012

Thursday, April 5, 2012 vs. Atlanta Braves

Win, by score of 1-0

April 5, 2012 was the club’s 51st Opening Day. It’s hard to say what this Opening Day was really about. Was it about the kickoff to the season-long 50th Anniversary celebration? Was it about the first Mets season in the post-Jose Reyes era, and in which the club was picked by most to finish in last place? Was it about the tribute to Gary Carter, who had passed away during the offseason? Or was it about the return of Johan Santana, who hadn’t pitched in 573 days, attempting to come back from his 2010 surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate capsule in his left shoulder? For me, I’ll always remember it as the game at which my wife and I broke the news that we were expecting our second child.

It was a beautiful blue-skied afternoon for baseball, with 42,080 fans officially in attendance. The magnetic calendar given out wasn’t too bad looking either. It was the return of the die-cut schedule, even if it was still mostly rectangular, designed to resemble a flatscreen TV. A much bigger redesign was in CitiField itself. The outfield walls had been reconfigured, with new walls erected in centerfield and right field. The idea was to make the park slightly less pitcher-friendly, and a bit more David Wright-friendly. Our Mets looked better too, with blue and orange and nary a drop of black on the primary home unis, other than the “Kid 8” patches worn in memory of Gary Carter.

Johan Santana pitched five strong innings for the Mets faithful, allowing just two hits and two walks, with 5 strikeouts. At one point Santana retired 12 straight Braves. David Wright drove in the only run of the game with a single to drive in Andres Torres. It took four Mets relievers from the new-look bullpen to complete the shutout: Ramon Ramirez (who earned the win), Tim Byrdak, John Rauch, and Frank Francisco. The Mets improved to a record of 33-18 on opening day (the best in baseball), a record the team will take to Monday’s home opener against the San Diego Padres.