Category: Uncategorized

I’m getting a kick out of these..they are fun without being jerky.

One of the things I liked about Fake New Yankee Stadium last year were the pretty colored flags on top of the stadium.   If only the Mets could do something like that…

…oh wait, we had that at Shea for all the years I was there and there were 30+ of those years.

It’s a minor point, and I’m not anti-American flag, but why can’t we have both?

Speaking of flags…this is interesting from the archives, in this article from 1961 how about this quote from someone named Tom Meany who is listed as a “baseball author”:

…put up flagstaffs for 24 pennants.  That’s how many the Dodgers and Giants won….we claim them all.

I don’t know if you saw the SI article about floating realignment:

One example of floating realignment, according to one insider, would work this way: Cleveland, which is rebuilding with a reduced payroll, could opt to leave the AL Central to play in the AL East. The Indians would benefit from an unbalanced schedule that would give them a total of 18 lucrative home dates against the Yankees and Red Sox instead of their current eight. A small or mid-market contender, such as Tampa Bay or Baltimore, could move to the AL Central to get a better crack at postseason play instead of continually fighting against the mega-payrolls of New York and Boston.

Obviously that’s a terrible idea.

Here are my choices for re-alignment, in order:

1.  Leave it alone

2.  Go back to two leagues.  No playoffs, no wild cards, no DH, the Cubs play day games and the Giants move back to Manhattan.   Obviously everyone but me hates this idea.

3.   Re-align to goose the rivalries and maximize the fun.  Years ago my fantasy football league got so big that I proposed such a scheme.  I enjoyed playing Pat more than playing Scott who I didn’t really know.  Instead of picking the schedule out of a hat, we made divisions based upon who hung out together – you played YOUR buddies, not your buddy’s friends.  Now we apply that to baseball.

“Patrick Division” (for those of you of a certain age you know what it means and yes I know Boston wasn’t in it.)

• Mets
• Yankees
• Red Sox
• Phillies
• Toronto

Toronto unfortunately has to go somewhere, and it’s not fair to keep the O’s and strand the Nats.   Mets fans can come to hate Boston and Yankees fans can learn to hate Philly.  Nice easy road-trips for 4 of the fanbases, and like I said Toronto has to go somewhere.

Incredibly Obvious Pacific Division

• Los Angeles of Los Angeles
• Los Angeles of Anaheim
• San Diego
• San Francisco
• Oakland

Is there anything to argue about here?  No.  It’s perfect.

The southwest division:

• Texas
• Houston
• Colorado
• Phoenix
• Seattle: sorry but who told you to be so far north?

This one is a little messy for the Mariners but the two Texas teams together makes sense, as do Colorado and Arizona geographically.  In 25 years the San Anotonio Mariners will love it.

The central division:

• White Sox
• Cubs
• Brewers
• Cardinals
• Royals

Not bad, right?  The Chicago fans hate each other, everyone hates a team associated with Bud Selig, the Cubs still get to hate on the Cardinals, and the Royals get dragged into some Missouri rivalry I may be making up.

The coal division

• Indians
• Reds
• Pirates
• Twins
• Tigers

The Twins are already with Detroit and Cleveland now so you can’t nitpick that.   The Reds and Indians both play in Ohio.  I can throw a frisbee from Pittsburgh to Cleveland and there’s no jumbo market in this division. Go ahead someone and win it.

Southeast division

• Braves
• Miami
• Tampa
• Baltimore
• Washington

I don’t care about any of these teams and they sort of all play down there somewhere.

That’s it.  I’m done.  You know how many tweaks I had to make?  None.  It’s just obvious if you lay it out. Believe me, I killed lots and lots of time in college classes re-aligning sports leagues.  This plan is a winner.

Schedule:

Play 18 games against your 4 division rivals = 72 games

9 games against two other divisions.  Each years these rotate, like the NFL.  = 90 games.

Total = 162 games.   All of Barry Bonds records still stand.

I will leave it to someone else to name the leagues/conferences/divisions/whatever.

Unfortunately all teams will have the DH.  That battle has been lost from here to Japan.

On twitter yesterday (@metspolice) some fans thought the Mets’ division was too tough.  What do you think of the plan?  Again my first choice is leave it alone.

Let’s get right at it:  I’m tempted to buy a 15 game Saturday plan.

You may be surprised.  Heck, I’m surprised.

How did I go from spending the winter saying “no way” to “maybe?”

As I write the blog every day I write from the heart.  From the feedback I get I see that you Mr. Reader “get it” and get me.  You know where I’m coming from: a mix of love and frustration.

My big fear for the Mets Police is that it becomes Mets Bitchfest (and I sure do my share) and my big hope is that it becomes a force for positive change.  I don’t know if MP actually had something to do with the ticket plans being renamed, or a new Hall of Fame being considered, or anything else – but I’m pleased that these things get discussed, and I do know that the site is read out there on 126th street.

Monday night I went out to McFadden’s.  It felt good walking around the ballpark.   Then when I got home I found the cool brochure the Mets sent me.

During our ticket discussions last week, a lot of us chatted about how the best seats might be the Promenade Infield seats.   I decided to click on the 15 game pack and sure enough there’s good seats right behind home plate.  I have some extra bucks, and Junior likes going to games and maybe it would be cool to have Saturday seats the equivalent of Shea Uppers Section 5 (especially long-term) and….I feel flaky.  Then I remember, I actually want to like the team. The goal of all this Mets Policing is to have a good time rooting for the Mets, not to sit on righteous mountain.  How did I get to a place where I am embarrassed to tell my internet friends that I might buy seats?

This is an individual decision for all of us.   Some of you renewed, many of you didn’t.   As of now I have a six-pack, but I am tempted.