Category: mets

If you’re bothering to read a site called Mets Police you are probably hip to the Mets defensive woes this season.

I don’t think piling on Jerry Manuel is fair. Someone has to play first base and we all agree Murphy has to play somewhere, and with third base being his best position you kind of have a problem.

I think the Mets should consider bringing in baseball’s first defensive coordinator and it should be Davey Johnson.

Now it’s time for another episode of How I Met The Mets.

Kids…let me tell you about the time Davey played a big fat guy at shortstop and won the world series. If you are under 30 why don’t you go google a picture of Kevin Mitchell (I’m mobile, I can’t he’ll you). I’ll wait ’til you get back….

…Yeah that guy. Big roly-poly guy. Davey figured out which of his pitchers were fly ball pitchers and on the days that he didn’t expect too many grounders he’d stick the fat guy at short to get his bat in the lineup. He got away with it every time. I can’t think of a single “bad error” by Mitchell although I bet the Mets Walkoffs blog guy is about to email me some.

Kids…let me tell you about the big fight in Cincinnati. One night the Mets and Reds didn’t get along. Several players got ejected. Davey, master of half-ass defense, stuck Gary Carter at third base. He got away with it, and I even remember Gary making a great play late in the game, maybe even extra innings (Walkoffs  I need you…)

Davey even platooned pitchers. Jesse Orosco and Roger McDowell took turns hiding in the outfield and pitching. It was a whole new level of lefty-righty. Davey got away with it.

Kids….my mind is foggy about this one now that I’m old but I think it was also Davey who shuttled Rusty Staub between left field and right field one sunny afternoon (cough, Walkoffs  help…).

Rusty was another large fellow and whatever the hell happened, he spent the afternoon shuttling between left and right depending on what type of batter was up It took about half an hour for Rusty (mainly a pinch hitter at the end of his career) to switch positions.

So we need Davey. Let Davey sit next to Jerry and call time out after every play. He can put Tatis where he thinks the ball will be hit, Reed in the likely outfield position and he can hide Murphy batter by batter. Plus we’d have an 86 Met around, it will tick off the opposition, and it will be wildly entertaining.

Jerry if you don’t believe me, ask your hitting coach. Kids, let me tell you about the time Howard Johnson became the Mets starting center fielder. Now that was a disaster….

This time last week I wrote that it would be a very crucial time for Joe Girardi. With the Mets on the west coast and the lazier newspapers telling us "Mets at Los Angeles, night" (that's you Star-Ledger) it's easy for the Mets to turn halfway invisible. It took Vin Scully making fun of them to get daylight yesterday.

But this is a Yankees column. As Craig Carton put it this morning, a hohum late loss for the Mets and the Yankees have won 7 in a row, so it's a Yankees day.

It's funny how when the Yankees are winning and hitting the home runs that you don't hear about winds or empty seats. A-Rod stops being the scourge of the earth when he carries the team and injects Teixeira with a shot of life.

So Girardi and the Yankees picked the right time. With all eyes on the Bronx (unless you caught the season premiere of Beer Money or whatever its called, and who didn't?) the Yankees leave you with the impression that they are a winning team.

Your impression of the Mets? A bunch of Bad News Bears who can't hit, run or field. Don't forget you woke up on Sunday morning 3 and 0 on a road trip with the hottest team in baseball. Today you wake up once again a game behind the Phillies who have won 5 straight.

There will be some solid Mets panic today, and it already is trendy to call Francesca to ask for Manuel's head. It could easily have been Girardi in that situation, but like I said, he picked exactly the right time to start winning.

If you’re like me and bought a (cough) Saturday plan you find yourself stuck with Mets tickets for Monday (Memorial Day) night.

There are tons and tons of tickets available on stubhub for super-cheap prices.  This post won’t help me sell mine (sorry, can’t deal with bridge traffic that night) but you might be able to go on the super cheap.

And Mets – thanks for the Monday holiday game.  Awesome.  Just what I wanted.

www.metspolice.com
@metspolice

Thanks again to Craig Carton for the shoutout on WFAN yesterday morning (tell Boomer I love him but he’s welcome to come upstairs with me and sit behind some plexiglass before he calls me whiny)….the shoutout led to lots of new visitors.

The topic this time around – the uniform survey

How did you come across this survey? Is there any way to cast your vote or do they just send them out at games? Personally, I like the idea of an interlocking NY alternate, although the ones they have are not what I was hoping for. I think even better would be a snow white jersey that says “Metropolitans” on it. 

I’m not crazy about the Metropolitans idea since the nickname of the New York Metropolitan Baseball Club is Mets not Metropolitans….for the survey try here however I notice the URL has a custom tracker at the end so if everyone uses that link they may void it.   On the other hand, they’ll probably notice that a lot of people care about this.  It went out to people who have had season tickets for several years as a Flushing Flash.  Not everyone got the survey.  

David writes:

I just heard about the Mets survey on uniforms. I don’t know if it’s too late to participate, but if you could add my thoughts to their survey, I would be grateful. As a long-time Mets fan, I’ve found the black uniforms so distasteful that it was hard for me to watch. Black may be fine for the Raiders and marketers, but please keep them off the Mets! I’m a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to these things – the home pin strips and road grays with old fashioned lettering – were what I grew up with and enjoyed the best. The Yankees do some things quite well – one is that they remember their traditions and honor them. One of those traditions is their uniform – home and away – you can always count on it


I can only agree with half of the next response:

Honoring the New York Giants is something that they are doing by donning black on the hats and jerseys but I love the Willie Mays idea! It’s about time they should definitely do something cool like that. 


And only some of this one


Bring the blue jerseys back, keep the black jerseys and if your going to have orange jerseys once in a while then I’m game but keep the hats blue and the pants white! 

I like the next suggestion a lot…it would be a nice way to honor a long-time Met…not everything has to be about hall of fame numbers.  What do people think the Mets should name the bridge in center field?

Ed Kranepool Bridge. The guy has never received his due. Look at the numbers
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Regarding the bridge in center, i suggested they knock it down and build a new one that looks like the one on the logo. 

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Heard about your site on 660 this morning, Boomer and Carton. Craig mentioned it with relation to Mookie Wilson’s complaint that the 86 Mets are not represented at the stadium enough (or barely at all?). I completely agree – but it’s worse than that. Don’t get me wrong I love the stadium, but it is so generic, one can barely tell whose home field it is. The exterior has some mini fuzzy black and white pics but I don’t recall anything noticeable that says ‘NY’ or ‘Mets’. On the inside there is what looks to be a tacky, minor league, laughable cardboard cut out under the diamondvision that in tiny letters says ‘Let’s Go Mets’. And where is the blue? How about a little blue? Not to mention the lack of history (outside of the Jackie Robinson rotunda which I am really pleased with, but let’s face it – he’s not a Met). Where are the 69 Mets? Clendenon, Jones, Agee, Hodges? I’ve only been once, so maybe I missed some things but from what I am hearing it seems others feel the same way. I would like to see the Mets organization put a little more of a Mets stamp on the stadium.

In the end I think it’s great that the Mets are asking the fans what we want.  Even if my opinion comes out on the losing end of the black debate, the point of this blog has always been to be an advocate for the fans.   At the end of the day the Mets Police love our team and want nothing more than for them to win the World Series every year (while dressed in blue).

www.metspolice.com
@metspolice

Vegas Rich’s piece Thumbs Down To ESPN struck quite a nerve with you guys, some of the comments are below.


Miller/Morgan/Phillips makes me appreciate the MLB Package that much more. I had the option to watch and listen to Gary, Keith and Ron and it was more proffessional. I get the away games too, and the Marlins, Braves and Nationals are horrible. Dibble may be the worst. Mets broadcast gives credit where credit is due-does not matter what player, from either team does. Other broadcasters look at questionable calls from 3 games ago as an excuse as to why they lost a game and not consider the reason is that they suck. Payroll is no excuse anymore–look at the Rays last year and Colorado the year before. 
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I had to mute the TV last night after listening to Steve Phillips drone on and on about clubhouse “leaders”. Matt Cain is in the middle of a shutout of one of the best teams in the N.L. and this idiot goes on and on about who’s a leader and who isn’t for the Mets. Who cares?. How did he ever get into a broadacast booth? He adds nothing to the game. Idiot. 
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Some different opinions about Miller’s pronunciation of Beltran:

Yeah, to be fair, Beltran’s name is actually properly spelled Beltrán, the accent mark meaning the last syllable gets pronounced. Sure, it’s not how most people pronounce his name, but I really have trouble faulting a guy for pronouncing it right. 

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i’ve heard carlos beltran pronounce his own name. and he says it the same way everyone else says it…except jon miller. 

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First time poster on here, but Jon Miller actually makes an effort to pronounce players’ names properly. Carlos’ last name is indeed pronounced Bell-TRON…Thats what led to the Onion’s “Carlos Voltron” article from last September. 
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www.metspolice.com
@metspolice