What Mets fans talk about when not talking about the actual games.
Since Shannon, Goon, and I have pretty much cleaned out our closets of Mets jerseys (at least for now, we all know there will be more later), I was thinking where can we go from here. Easy answer – who doesn’t love bobbleheads?
Two Hall of Famers on one bobblehead. I miss Murph, and as Shannon has pointed out, we need to really appreciate Ralph while he is still with us.
And for the record, today’s bobblehead is not brought to you or sponsored by any heating company.
The other day Shannon wrote that he was not a fan of the WBC, that he thought it was stupid and a money grab. In the comments section I disagreed with him. I don’t see this as a money grab per se (jersey buying aside – and I am guilty of that as well), any more than the soccer and rugby World Cups. Yes, each of the first 2 tournaments turned a modest profit, and the current tournament has broken attendance marks of the first two. But money is not the immediate short term goal here.
This is an attempt to grow the game on an international level, which is even more important since the Olympics dropped baseball. And you know what? It’s working. There are more teams in the tournament this year than in the first two, and the level of interest (outside the US) is greater than ever before. There’s even a group trying to raise money to build ball fields in Ireland. In fact, the only country where interest is not huge is the US. But that’s ok because we are not the primary audience. We already love baseball here, and there are other ways that MLB can increase participation and interest here.
Now that said, there are ways that the WBC can improve and it’s primarily around scheduling. I don’t think keeping it during Spring Training is the right move. Players aren’t quite ready (how many opted out to get in shape for the season), and neither are the fans. This time of the year is meant to reawaken the baseball spirit that has laid dormant throughout the winter. (A fellow commenter) dismisses the idea of doing the tourney during the All-Star break. I actually think this is a great idea.
Here is how I would plan it. The WBC is a once every four year event so, once every four years the All-Star break is expanded to 2 week period. The preliminary rounds of the WBC are still held during Spring Training but the double elimination round and championship round are moved to mid-summer, when baseball interest is high and it is the only sport going on. Let’s say the first half of the season ends on a Thursday. Then the break would play out as follows:
By doing the tournament in the summer you are not limited to warm weather sites in March. MLB could literally own a city for 2 weeks. The amount of foreign tourism dollars that could be generated would have cities bidding on this similarly to the way they bid on the Super Bowl. The All Star Fan Fest now becomes an International Baseball Festival.
There will be critics who will warn about injuries and such. You are going to have those concerns whenever the WBC is scheduled so that’s a given regardless. So then it comes down to the best time to generate awareness and audience. Baseball is a summer game – the “World Championship” should then be played in the summer.
According to Mets Bro..
Mets Bro suggests that is a good night for The People’s Mercury Mets Night. I’m in.
I really like Hat Club…but buy yourself a respectable cap like this instead.
Hey guys. I have been really under the weather(I think I am fighting the zombie virus) the last week. I have mostly been just checking out the back of my eyelids instead of the interwebs. Thankfully our sometimes contributor MetsBro caught this and posted on his blog. usually we don’t just take whole posts and copy them over here but I’m trying not to eat anyone’s brains.
When I logged onto Mets.com today I noticed a new feature (at least I think it’s new since I don’t recall seeing it before or reading about it on Mets Police). It seems the Mets have added a widget to their homepage that shows you the lowest available ticket for each home game. All you need to do is “arrow” left or right through the schedule and the lowest price will be displayed. I think this is a neat feature to follow dynamic pricing and get a feel of the game’s price without clicking into each one individually.
I am sure Shannon will have stuff to say about this later.
