What Mets fans talk about when not talking about the actual games.
Woooooo Par-tay!
My friends, the below is “The Party Animal New York Mets Fan Banner”
Man, imagine swinging past my place and you saw that hanging up! Â You would half expect a toga party and Otis Day & The Knights as the house band. Â The Pepsi Party patrol and Mr. Met shooting t-shirts at McFadden’s girls….man does this scream Party Animal or what?! Â Wear your blue swim trunks
I received the email below, which I have slightly edited out particular details so as not to jam up anyone in the ticket office.  I have not verified that the conversation actually happened, but I trust the source.
As always, I’ll remind you the Mets Police is not 60 Minutes, it’s a fat guy on a deck, and you can decide for yourself whether or not you find the site to be accurate.
Shannon, don’t know if you’ve gotten a heads up on this yet but I received a call from (someone) in the Mets ticket office inviting me and a guest to the game on Tuesday July 6. Additionally, they are including a pre-party at McFadden’s from 5-7. I’m paraphrasing… but as a former season ticket holder who chose not to renew, they wanted to invite me to a game and pre-party.’
Now, I’ve never been to a timeshare pitch meeting but I’m thinking this will be the Mets version. Still 2 free tickets to see the 1st place Reds and a pre-party all just to listen? All time shares should have such an outstanding offer.
That’s interesting, and smart. Â Sure we can roll our eyes and be righteous about our off-season ticket sale predictions, but this is a smart pro-active move by the Mets. Â Those Reds tickets might otherwise go unused, so why not invite a former customer out for some drinks and a game. Â Maybe he falls in love with the team again.
Remember back in May David Howard mentioned that some ex-customers were invited to the Subway Series.
Have any other former ticket holders been wooed?
If you pop over to MetsBlog, Matt has posted the audio from Jerry’s post game conference.
As I managed from home last night, I wondered why K-Rod was sitting in the bullpen while the game melted down.
Jerry says, “that’s not what a closer does. Â That’s not his role.”
Why?
I know that if you get out of the inning that you have to bat and field again, but isn’t the point to rack up TEAM WINS not saves?
Why does K-Rod have to be a “closer?” Â He can only pitch to end a game? Â Why can’t he be a late-innings-shut down guy?
Kids, back in the 1970’s before Creeping LaRussa-ism there were what I call “Gossage Saves.” Â If your team was up in the 7th 3-2 and there was a runner on second and the next three hitters were Ruth, Gehrig and Aaron you brought in Gossage to shut the game down right there. Â Who cares about the S column? Â Get those three out and then let someone else get the 7-8-9 guys. Â Gossage often pitched multiple innings (imagine that!)
Let’s look at the week so far:
If I’m managing, I try to get last night’s game to the 10th and then figure it out from there. Â Once that bottom of the 9th starts the game is in Sudden Death Overtime.
I’d rather you guys kill me when I run out of pitchers in the 15th than kill me for a loss in 9. Â If Iggy blows it in the 10th because I’ve already used K-Rod, well that’s extra innings for you.
We all saw that game melting down last night. Â Why give it away so easily?
When a game is on the table to win, win it.
When a game is obviously lost (like Dickey’s last start) then you let the clowns in your bullpen pitch. Â I’d let Ollie rot out there and pitch the last 6 innings of every 10-3 loss. Â Torre had a nice run in NYC using “his guys” in wins and the clowns in losses. Â I’m using all my bench and my reserve catcher. Â If I run out of catchers in the 17th inning I’ll just torture Tatis and make him catch and if we lose on a passed ball, so be it. Â Better that than one of my marquee players sits on his hands because he has some “role.”
The role is to win games.
UPDATED:
Comment from Brendan:
K-rod did pitch Tuesday. He threw a scoreless 8th to keep the Mets in it. Which is exactly how you would want him used. Poor research.
Shannon:
Yep. Â Busted.
Some more fun from Mitchell & Ness…this a “traditional pinstripe t-shirt” back from the days when the Mets were candycanes.
Sometimes I have to step back and remind myself that
a) not everyone reads all the crap I do
b) not everyone reads my dopey blog every day
and c) the site actually picks up new readers.
“News” broke today and I kind of ignored it all day, but enough people have sent it in that I figured I should post it.
Bobby Bonilla will be paid over one million dollars a year by the Mets from 2011-2035.
I guess that it financially made sense to defer it, but the future has arrived (it’s the gosh-darn 2010’s! Â Where’s my robot?) and soon Bobby Bo will be making a million bucks again.
The Wall Street Journal went into some detail of the financials, and CBS Sports also covered it today.
It might make sense but as I gray, a piece of me will die every time I buy a ticket or a hot dog and think that Bobby will get a piece.
Now I’m really looking forward to the 2036 season…which will include nice blue uniforms with 50th anniversary of ’86 patches and a reunion featuring 70 year old Doc Gooden. Â Unfortunately, the Mercury Mets will no longer be in Queens then.