The Mets Police

From the Daily News:

“I know it’s all part of the business, part of the game,” Randolph said, standing outside the Adelphi dugout. “I did my thing there. I’m proud of my time that I spent there and whatever, and what happens after that, you just look at from a distance.”

If you missed it, the best read of the weekend and probably the month is Faith & Fear’s “Can Don Draper Save the Mets.”

I was in love with the article from the get-go because of the Mad Men tie-ins, but once I really started reading I realized how brilliant Greg is:

The 1965 New York Mets needed plenty of help on the field, compiling a record 29 games worse than the benighted 2010 club, but they were plenty popular, all 50-112 things considered. Met attendance 45 years ago totaled 1,768,389, a phenomenal figure considering Shea was no longer brand new and the Mets remained in tenth place.

Greg walks you through “attendance” vs “paid attendance” and it puts in perspective how a lovable franchise has become a mess here in the second decade of Century 21.

Seriously, stop wasting time here and go to Faith and Fear in Flushing.

…

(If a similar post shows up let me know.  I wrote basically this yesterday to lead-off this morning but the post seems to have disappeared.)

On Twitter, @anthonydicomo reports the Tigers have denied permission for the Mets to talk with Al Avila.

I was rooting for you Al.

Now baseball policy will force the Mets to really insult someone by making the Mets interview their second choice diversity candidate…..because the Randolph/Manuel/Minaya years somehow suggest the Mets factor skin tone into hiring.

Again, I hope the best person gets the job (no interest in Kim Ng?) but to do a charade to check off a box is insulting to all

Dan sent this idea in..

I’m sure you got (the letter from Jeff Wilpon) too, but it gave me an idea.

He says, “We will be in contact with you with more information and details soon.”

Wouldn’t it be a great PR move to announce the new hire in an e-mail like this to fans, before announcing that there will be a press conference “to make a major announcement”?    Of course, it seems like such a great idea, there’s no chance that it will happen.

I don’t think the Mets are quite there yet, plus the mainstream media would get all cranky pants on them, but yeah that would be neat.

I love Yankees fans.   They are so so so quick to panic.

Mets fans, we know that the worst will happen.  We know our heroes will be injured, or choke in the last game, or that if we ever successfully pull together a post-season team that fate will pull that team apart (sometimes as quickly as the next morning’s parade).

The next GM will be the wrong hire.  He’ll look good at first but when the Mets finish 4th in 2014 while the Yankees run off another division we’ll know The Wilpons blew it.

Oh these Yankees fans.  Some days Joe Girardi is a better manager than Joe Torre ever was, and then 24 hours go by and the Mike Lupicas of the world can’t wait to second guess not starting Pettitte in Game 2.  Sure Hughes had a great ALDS but now Joe is an idiot.

I’ll have to check in with my Yankees friend Mr. Sunshine to see how pyscho he is, but knowing him he’s throwing a ball against the wall and muttering the word “stupid” over and over.

So spoiled these Yankees fans.   Sunshine even has traditions.  It’s a birthright that he gets to watch baseball in October.   Losers like me and you, we get to see the Mets in the cold about once a decade.

Remember that last World Series – the one 10 years ago – the one we didn’t even get to enjoy to ourselves?  The one that was clinched at Shea Stadium?

I don’t know from postseason tradition.  My postseason tradition is falling asleep during games that I only half care about.

Junior showed up again for Game 2 of the ALCS and watched the entire thing with me on DVR-delay (we ain’t giving up a Saturday afternoon for this stuff.)   Baseball goes much better when you can zip through commercials, pitching changes, and the last three innings when it is obvious the Rangers are going to win.

The NLCS?  I don’t care.   It’s about as interesting to me as Colts-Redskins will be tonight.  No interest.

Sunshine probably has tickets for tomorrow night (he is a master of Yankees ticket lotteries and laughs at Stadium Insider’s inability to ever win the draw).  I expect he’ll be cranky for the next 24 hours or so and then go into pre-game mode around 11am which has something to do with drinking 40’s in a parking lot or something.   I don’t understand these Yankees fans and their October rituals.

The sky is falling.