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Comments about the Mets HOF game debate

The HOF game stirred the emotionsin all of us.  Here’s some good comments that came in…definitely worth clicking through if you’re on the main page (I didn’t want a super-long piece on the main page).  I can’t wait to get home to process the photos.

Scott:

Those left field seats are obstructed view. I had them last year and they sucked…needless to say, I don’t own them again last year as the Mets felt I was wrong and they were right.

The Mets moved the true fans to the upper decks, or out of the stadium, and just like the Yankee Stadium, that causes a big change in the atmosphere at games. Your diehards are nowhere near the field, your corporations are.

The Mets went for the corporate push, starting with Citifield and here is your outcome. Business geniuses they ain’t (I mean, hey they did invest with Madoff, so that says about all you need to know about their business acumen).

Lisa:

Shannon, I agree about the crowd size. Heck, I could make it there with my Met fan blogging partner, and I’m a Yankee fan. But I wanted to see history (and former Mets – and Yankees – Darryl and Dwight)!

And you’re right. When fans don’t show up to things like this (the Mets drew, what, 2000 more than their average attendance for today), it’s really easy for the Mets to not want to spend the money and do such events again.

“Mets2010”:

fans aren’t going for a number of reaosns, and calling them out is your right but I disagree.

Maybe the place would have been filled if the Wilpons didn’t further alienate fans by tacking on worthless “plus” games to ticket plans

maybe the place would have been filled had the Mets not flooded the market with deep discounts and half off offers last year, basically insulting anyone who purcheased tickets ahead of time

Also, and this is out of the Mets control, I think many Mets fans see Doc and Darryl and think of what might have been. Continue reading “Comments about the Mets HOF game debate”

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Why did the Mets wear black on HOF day?

Tantrum over. I have decided to go back to writing about the Mets I’m still pretty annoyed at all of you but the 35,000 because you’ve left me with no ground to stand when it comes to sticking up for team history.

It’s hard for me to take the franchise to task today after yesterday’s poor showing by the fans but why in Gooden’s name did they wear black yesterday?

I know the starting pitcher gets to pick the uniform (and clubhouse music) but couldn’t someone come downstairs and inform Mr. Niese that the team would be wearing pinstripes* for the Hall of Fame Day.

When the Mets honored the Cubans didn’t someone make such a decision? Or last year with the Pseudo-Giants uniforms?

At least Gooden looked nice.

As for the pinstriped uniforms, let’s all agree to stop calling them retros. They are the uniform that the team should wear. Calling them retros makes it sound like they belong in the 1940s. Then again, you don’t care about the past do you? Wear your black and enjoy your shake.

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Former A’s pitcher Jason Isringhausen

Mets fans crack me up.  They always talk  about how smart Bobby Valentine was.  This brings me back to one of the great fleecings of all-time, Billy Taylor for Jason Isringhausen.

Isringhausen began his career as a starter for the Mets near the end of the season, posting a 9-2 record in 14 starts. But a steady progression of serious injuries- tuberculosis, a broken wrist (sustained while punching a dugout trash can) and three major operations on his pitching arm derailed his progression into a major-league rotation.

Consequently, he was forced to miss most of the 1997 season, as well as the entire 1998 season. When he was finally healthy in1999, he was moved to the bullpen after only five starts. After inconsistent play with the Mets, he was infamously traded to theOakland Athletics at the trading deadline for reliever Billy Taylor. Mets manager Bobby Valentine was reluctant to use Isringhausen in relief, saying that it would be akin to “[using] an Indy car as a taxi.”

Yeah Bobby, 293 major league saves later (75 with Oakland) how is that taxi looking?  Taylor went 0-1 with an 8.10 ERA for the 1999 Mets.

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Former A’s great Ron Darling

I hope everyone is enjoying the new format.   I’ll be tweaking the colors to green and gold as soon as I can, but in the meantime let’s take a look back at another great Athletics pitcher, and one of my favorites, Ron Darling.

Ronnie spent 5 seasons with the A’s, posting a 37-44 record.  He spent the earlier part of his career pitching for some long forgotten team that only 35,014 people care about – but for me, I will never forget his start for us in the 1992 ALCS.

The series shifted to Oakland for Game 3, as Juan Guzmán took the hill for the Jays while Ron Darling toed the rubber for the A’s. Toronto struck in the second, when Winfield reached on an error by Athletics’ third baseman Carney Lansford, moved to third on a wild pitch by Darling, and scored on a single by Candy Maldonado. Roberto Alomar hit a solo home run in the fourth to give the Jays a 2–0 lead, but in the bottom half of the inning the A’s tied the game with RBI base hits by Baines and Steinbach.

However, the very next inning, Maldonado hit a solo homer of his own, and after Oakland manager Tony La Russa gave Darling the hook in the seventh, the Jays added two unearned runs due to an error by Lance Blankenship and a triple by Lee, making it a 5–2 game. Although the A’s cut Toronto’s lead down to a run, the Jays tacked on single runs in the eighth and ninth. Henke retired the Athletics in order in the ninth, giving Toronto a 7–5 victory and a 2–1 edge in the series.

2 earned runs in 6 innings, a tough loss for Ronnie.  He always seemed to have tough luck, didn’t he?  I’m not sure what happened to #17 (why would he choose that number? Odd.) but wherever he is, I hope he is well and surrounded by old friends.