The Mets Police

So…..what do you think about this? Does it surprise you?

Of lesser importance than a man’s death, this probably ends Matt’s career right? He’s not good enough to bring this circus to your team.

Earlier today I found it odd that Mike Piazza wasn’t involved in the Old Timers’ Day announcement. Well Mike has made like Sean Spicer and cleaned up the messaging.

I’ve been doing this a long time and I’d like to know what really went down here. My guess is someone at the Mets read their favorite website and were like uh oh Optica and jumped on the phone.

There was a time about a decade ago where I would have thought this was awesome.  Since then baseball has gotten worse (long games, openers, no stars) and enough time has passed that I just don’t have the attachment for this that I once had.  You can blame the Wilpons or what, but the reality is here in 2022 this just gets a shrug out of me…..

…and the Mets couldn’t be bothered to send me a press release about it so rather than rush to post it I decided it could wait for this afternoon.  I’m more excited about th two posts from this morning.  (Wow THREE posts of substance in one day?  What is this, 2012?)

Oh and I love how suddenly the Mets care about Daniel Murphy.

Anyway…whatever…

Continue reading “Too Little Too Late: Mets bring back Old Timers’ Day”

Hey it seems like just last week Mike Piazza was speaking like he is “the Mets” and he’s been walking around like Tom Seaver left a note saying “Mike Piazza is The Franchise now” so why isn’t Mike Pizza one of the announced names for Old Timers’ Day.

Suddenly the Mets are trotting out Daniel Murphy like they didn’t try to replace him with Ike Davis, or didn’t resign him after the 2015 run or have announcers that seemingly bashed the guy every night on the telecasts?

WHERE IS MIKE PIAZZA?

Does the guy live in Italy or something?  Is it possible the great Mets Ambassador wants to be PAID to come? (something that notable baseball players do all the time, Joe DiMaggio wasn’t showing up at Yankee Stadium II to be cool).  Maybe it’s as simple as a vaccination card requirement to enter Citi Field.  Who knows?

The Mets’ release mentioned…

Frank Thomas, Ron Swoboda, Jon Matlack, Felix Millán, Mookie Wilson, Howard Johnson, Bobby Ojeda, Robin Ventura, Turk Wendell, Endy Chávez, Cliff Floyd and Daniel Murphy are among some of the over 40 players scheduled to attend. The Mets will be announcing additional former players who will be participating in the game in the coming months.

Also it’s a shame the Mets don’t have access to Ron Darling or Keith Hernandez.  Would be great to see those guys.

The New York Times has possibly the greatest article ever written in the history of mankind.   

Let’s start here…

Take the starting pitcher. He’s the guy who draws you to the ballpark, the TV, the gambling app. He’s disappearing, and that’s a major problem. In 2011, there were 39 pitchers who worked 200 innings. A decade later, there were four. The starter is baseball’s most marketable position; fewer dynamic starters make for a less appealing game.

Now I have proposed for a few years now that the Opener be outlawed.  We will do this as follows….

1. The first pitcher of the game (aka the “Starting Pitcher”) is ineligible to pitch in the next four games (three in the postseason) but must use up an active roster spot.  The player can play another position, pinch hit, pinch run, but cannot pitch.  So if you start JDG on Opening Day, he can play RF in game two but he can’t pitch.  If you use an opener on Opening Day that guy also cannot pitch until Game 5.
2. The Starting Pitcher, like all pitchers, must face three batters.  This is to eliminate some nonsense where some manager let’s their 3B pitch to one batter and then brings in a “Seconder” – so if you want to cowboy this Rays then your 3B is going to have to face the first three batters of the game.

The Times also brings up the thing that will save us all – GAMBLING.   You are more likely to get all excited to bet on Los Angeles Dodgers Pitcher Max Scherzer (check his bio) than on an opener.

Next up, let’s tackle the Baseball Mafia who shouts me down and tells me the game is fine.

But, hey, at least it lasts longer than ever. Baseball achieved two dubious records last season: longest average game time (3 hours 11 minutes) and most pitchers used per team (4.43 per game, tied with 2020). The average time between balls in play was about four minutes. Teams averaged nearly nine strikeouts per game, while stolen bases (0.46 per game) plunged to a 50-year low.

..

Per-game attendance reached an all-time high in 1994 (an average of 31,256 per game), and took 12 years to return to that level. Now it is falling again: In 2019, the last season with full capacity, the average crowd was 28,203, the fourth consecutive year it had dropped.

Baseball has been propped up financially by regional sports networks, but that model is severely threatened as more households alter their viewing habits and drop cable. The most pressing issue for the sport’s leaders should be finding a new broadcast paradigm and a better game to pitch to it.

But hey, what do I know, I am old and stupid.  Keep playing four games.  Play the postseason ones at 8pm Eastern so the Los Angeles Based Sports Fans can see it while the East Coast heads off to bed.  Start an opener for a competitive advantage.

It’s all fine. The baseball mafia says so.

What’s actually most likely to save the game is this news from yesterday that MLB has stopped testing for steroids.  Maybe we will coincidentally see a generation of amazing power hitters and we can all play dumb.  This time though, the record book was already destroyed, so nobody will be upset if someone hits 75 Home Runs…..the baseball mafia will be pleased.