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Man oh man I love this show.   It’s 1976 and the 15th season for the franchise, and the 13th at well kept Shea!

As usual, here’s some notes I jotted down while watching.

Great shots of the Mets in the 1976 pillbox caps!  I don’t think I’ve ever seen video of these caps.   So weird!  (As is often the case, thanks Uni Watch.)

Always great to hear Bob Murphy, in this case calling Seaver’s 200th strikeout of the season.

Weird to see Joe Torre as a Mets player (hitting .306!)  I’m surprised he got benched for Roy Staiger (who?).

This is the sentence where I observe the blue uniforms with pinstripes look better, especially with blue undersleeves.  Oh, and no  names on the back. You can’t read the names from the Promenade and on TV they’ll tell you who it is with chiron.  No need for names.  If you don’t know who #7 is just find another team to cheer for.

I like the Phillies blue road uniforms, but the Cubs blue looks poor.

Apparently Felix Millan is underrated, so says Lindsey Nelson.

I know I repeat myself, but every time I see Bud Harrelson I feel bad we booed him out of town.  We as fans need to encourage Buddy to come back into the fold.

Much like I said about Mets Yearbook 1975, Dave Kingman seems really nice.  He had a very poor reputation in the press.  He seems nice in these videos.

Very cool to see Shea’s original coloring (orange seats in the loge?)

Cool to see Ron Hodges, whose #42 has been retired by the Mets.

John Stearns asked to be assigned to AAA Tidewater so he could play every day, after spending 1975 in the big leagues.  I defy you to show someone like that now.

Check out the ushers in their red sportscoats and policeman type hats.   That’s a nice classy look.  I’m going to time travel to 1976, invent blogging, and complain that they are wearing Phillies red.  I guess I’ll have to mail you a carbon copy of what I type on a typewriter.

The Mets have some really ugly numbers on the back of their helmets.

Long time fans of the Mets Police know I got my jollies when Yearbook 76 got to the long Lee Mazzilli section.  So odd to see him wearing #12.  Everyone knows his true number is #16.  Yes I have a man-crush.  Deal with it.

There’s a great shot of Tom Seaver pitching for the Jacksonville Suns.  During that section, Mets Police Junior walked in.  I told him that #41 was the Best Met of all time.  “How many home runs did he hit?”  “I don’t know.  He was a pitcher.  He won 300 games!”  “Only 300?”  Sigh.  Don’t worry, I’m teaching him well.  Someone’s gonna need to bust the chops of Jeff Wilpon’s kids.

Kiner just rattled off the names of some young pitchers, many of whom I’ve never heard of.  He’s excited about Roy Staiger.

Ralph recaps the giveaways: fan appreciation day (looks like they gave stocking caps), jacket day, and some days called “Banner Day” and “Old Timer’s Day” which sound interesting.  Real Mr. Met was at this Banner Day.

As I said this morning, I’m really excited about 1977!  With all this pitching, Kong in right and all these great young players, I bet 1977 turns out to be an unforgettable franchise-changing season!  What could go wrong?

I’ve been a slacker and haven’t watched 1963 or 1968 yet (they were on right before Christmas) but if you care here’s my recap of 1975, 1984 and 1971

If someone from SNY reads this, please show these and not a dopey “game show” during rain delays.  Nobody cares about that show guys.

Now that I’m feeling good I’m going to watch Omar on Hot Stove off the DVR.  I just started the file and man those BP caps look lousy.   Omar time…I suspect I’ll be posting again soon.

Great stuff often comes from the comments.  This morning Yvaithe said:

I remember when the Mets won the division in ‘06 and Jeff Wilpon was interviewed in the clubhouse. I remember him saying “Hopefully in ten years people will say we did it the Mets way.”

Ah yes, the Mets way.  I went into the Google News archives and found this from USA Today from 2006:

Having the resources to sign free agents, make trades and assume contracts give the big-market Mets a huge advantage.

Minaya says there’s more to the equation.

“We had to change the culture here,” he says. “The money is part of it, but you have to spend it wisely. What I’m most proud of are the small pieces we’ve brought in. The strength of this club has been players like Endy Chavez, Chad Bradford, Jose Valentin, John Maine. We’ve been forced to go through 13 starting pitchers.”

Seems Omar has been speaking the same way all along, we just didn’t notice because that team won the NL East.

From that same 2006 article..

Says (Fred) Wilpon: “When I went up to Montreal to finalize the deal with him I said, ‘I want you to model an organization that will not only be successful for a year, but that we can look back as people look back at the Atlanta Braves.’ And that’s what we’re doing. He’s done an outstanding job.”

What is this “Mets Way?”

I think I’ll just open up the floor to comments:

Following my threat to start the Cyclones Police, Tom weighs in.

Shannon,

You have to lay off the Cyclones, because all they are about is enjoying yourself at a ballgame, which is what we once had at Shea, until the whiners and the “boo your owns” arrived en masse.  The Cyclones constantly give away things, every game, often items of better quality than what the Mets or Yankees give out, simply because they usually only have to give out 2,500 of whatever the giveaway is.  As a season tickets holder for six years and a partial plan holder before that back to the very first game on June 25, 2001, I have been treated extremely well.  The list of items that a season ticket holder gets grows every year and is quite impressive (such as multiple food vouchers, free parking on Mondays and Tuesdays ansd this year a team barbecue, which I hope is on a day I can attend).  In addition, I have written e-mails of both praise and complaint overt hr years, and GM Steve Cohen has always answered and been very receptive.  They run a first class minor league operation and all you could possibly complain about is the goofiness of some of their promotions, which is what the minor leagues (in the spirit of master showman Bill Veeck) is all about.  So cut them some slack, kid.  They may do strange things at times, but its all in fun, minor league fun, and I have never had any organization treat me as a fan as respectfully as the Cyclones have – and I’ve been going to Met, Yankee, Rangers (Season tickets from 1976-84) and Knicks games for more than 40 years.  Keep plugging, kid,

Tom

Tom, much appreciated, and I think a good use of this site.  I hope to increase dialog on all topics, always happy to have someone disagree!  On this Jersey Sure promotion though, yuck.

I started this Shannon’s Other Blog which is becoming the place where I post things that don’t really fit over here.  It’s more links than original thoughts, but here are a few things that may interest you:

Peter Gammons making a mention that some in MLB would consider the New Jersey Rays.

Why CBS wants the Jets to lose

Some good A’s Police type work, complaining that they aren’t honoring the 1910 champions. I was daydreaming about being the A’s Police.  I could complain about elephants, and Kansas City, and steroids, and the move out of Oakland and how nobody remembers Jimmie Foxx.

That’s it for now, I have to go be daddy, and then tonight work on the move-over.  Enjoy the Saturday Mets fans.

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Mets promise Bisons will be better : Sports : The Buffalo News

The Mets probably need to do something this year if they want their relationship with Buffalo to continue. The teams’ two-year player development contract and it expires after the 2010 season. Minaya said the parent club is definitely interested in seeing it continue.

Mets General Manager Omar Minaya also spoke before the packed ballroom in the Adam’s Mark and agreed with Collins that the Mets are making it a priority to win in Buffalo this season.

“We’ve been a little bit more aggressive in pursuing those ‘4A’ free agents who can come here and do a good job,” Minaya said. “We’ve made a focus earlier on with guys we feel will play here. We feel it’s important to win here. We have a blend of guys coming up from Double-A and we want them to be with some of those veteran 4A players.”

Main Mets Police page
Subscribe to The Mets Police by Email
Get Mets Police via reader/RSS
Follow us on twitter @metspolice
Facebook page
Contact: shannon at metspolice.com (Guest posts welcome!)
Share Photos: pictures at metspolice.com