The Mets Police

Thanks to Deadspin for pointing this out to the world:

The Inaugural (Sponsor MetsPolice won’t mention)® First Chance Pre-Sale offers Chicago Cubs fans the first opportunity to purchase individual tickets at a premium for all Cubs home games, including Opening Day, in advance of the February 19th on-sale date.

Starting Monday, February 15th at 10am CT, fans will have first access to all Chicago Cubs 2010 regular season home games by going to Cubs.com and paying a 20% premium on the face value of the ticket. However, if you use a (particular brand of credit) card during this Pre-Sale promotion you will save 5% on the pre-sale price. In addition, you will receive a 20% discount on your next purchase at the Cubs.com Shop when you enter this code (CHC20FEB) and use your (sponsorcard).

Let me translate for you.  Tickets go on-sale on Thursday.  However, if you’d really like tickets today you can pay 20% more.

I’m no lawyer, and I don’t know if these Illinois scalping laws are accurate or up to date, and I’m confident that the Cubs and all MLB teams are honorable folks always well within the law, but if you’re a lawyer and see an opening, hey who am I to tell you what to do with your free time?   To my non-lawyer eyes I imagine the below might cover them:

Nothing contained in this Act was ever intended to prohibit nor shall ever be deemed to prohibit a ticket seller, with consent of the sponsor of such baseball game, football game, hockey game, theatre entertainment or other amusement, from collecting a reasonable service charge, in addition to the printed box office ticket price, from a ticket purchaser in return for service actually rendered.

See, it’s probably just a reasonable service charge.   My opinion is that it is scummy.

Baseball is a business folks.  A business.  You are just a cash register.

Any bets on when this comes to New York City?  I will predict 2011 in the Bronx, and 2013 in Flushing with the All Star Game as bait.

Quickies from the interweb:

Another mention of the All-Star Game coming to Citi Field in 2013.

Braves fans wondering if the Mets will beat out the Nationals.

Even the Denver Post can tell what’s wrong over here:

Will the Mets remain a dysfunctional joke?

Apparently so. This was supposed to be the winter the Mets rebuilt their roster, if not their image. Instead, they took another step backward. They spent all their money on slugger Jason Bay, who proved convincingly in Pittsburgh that he’s a complementary player, not a star. With a ballpark built for flyballs to die, they should have overspent on right-hander John Lackey, pairing him with Johan Santana, grabbed ex-Rockie Jason Marquis and landed a catcher such as Bengie Molina or Yorvit Torrealba. Their alarming inactivity only widened the gap between them and their rival Phillies.

MetsBlog posted this picture.  As I mentioned over the weekend, if you must have black, the black-on-blue looks better than blue on black – this look is close to not being horrible, but ruined by the orange underarms, and the tried-too-hard 2010 batting practice caps.

Here’s the weekly recap of popular posts and those that deserve a second look.  I wondered what an off-season without a new stadium would be like, but the Mets made it easy.  They always do.  I’ve survived another off-season, and now it’s back to pitchers and catchers and actual baseball.  The blog had a great off-season for growth, and traffic picks up once baseball starts.  2010 is looking good so far!

If you’d like to join the Blue Cap Army (it’s free) and join us on Opening Day at Citi, please sign up so I can try to see if someone will give us some freebies.  I don’t know if we’ll have the numbers yet, but this is a building process and has to start somewhere.  Sign up here.

Luis Castillo’s baseball card is pretty funny.

Is this a new alternate logo? Look how the Y is overlayed on top of the N.

The  Mets have quietly admitted there are obstructed views.  Dave Howard, where’s my apology?

Some thoughts about Mascot Races coming to Citi Field.

Why don’t the Mets offer tours of Citi Field?

The Cyclones have a great jersey promotion for Wally Backman.

I thought this discussion was pretty interesting: seems some people think MetsBlog’s commenting system is frustrating.  I think there’s only so many hours in the day.

Joel Sherman has been killing the Mets lately, I am enjoying his work.

Here’s what Jon Matlack’s kid is up to.

Spiderman goes to a Mets game. They lose.

People liked my gift idea for Fred Wilpon

Fun stuff:  Afterlife Shea Stadium was the home of the Puppy Bowl and Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel and now the home of the New Orleans Saints

The Mets added 6-game packs.  Info here and here.

This regularly gets clicked:  It might make financial sense, but it sure is annoying to think Bobby Bonilla will get $1 million a year from the Mets from 2011-2035.

Pictures from the 1986 Tickertape Parade

The Mets respond to a letter from The Mets Police

If you’d prefer to read the Mets Police in a reader or via email click here. It’s free and easy.

I’m still trying to figure out Google Buzz – I think this is how you find me

On Twitter I am @metspolice

Email is [email protected]

I also have started posting non-Mets stuff at Shannon’s Other Blog which is worth checking out like twice a week.  I’ll probably post more during the Olympics and the World Cup, but I’m not nearly as consistent as I am over here.

It seems every day this week there has been something in the paper about Dan Murphy’s defense.   It’s a very boring topic.

Yes he looked like me in left, but I rarely remember throwing anything at my TV when he was at first base.  Is he Keith Hernandez?  No, but not too many are.   Just catch everything thrown to you and that’s fine 99% of the time.

I think the bigger question about first is whether or not the team can live with 12 home runs?   The flip-side is that Murph led the team in 2009 in that category, so it would be odd to not consider him a starter heading into 2010.

How about we just enjoy a home grown player for what he is.  Maybe 12 home runs becomes 18, and the defense is ok.  Unless the Padres are trading Adrian Gonzales for Luis Castillo (oh wait, the Mets didn’t sign Hudson so now Castillo needs to stay) there’s little out there that interests me, so why not Murph?

The Mets made a good move getting Keith Hernandez out there to teach.  They should have done that years ago when they inexplicably didn’t stick Piazza at first for the full 35 games in the spring.

I know this Murph stuff fills column space, so in the end that’s really what we’re reading about.  This week you will read 5 billion generic “can the Mets rebound from injuries?” type stories and another billion “the Mets have question marks” articles.

That’s why I appreciate the different. One blog you should regularly visit is Mets Walkoffs.   Here’s one that thinks about where Strawberry would be in the Mets Pantheon had he not left for LA, and another that points out to you youngsters just how great Gooden was and that he’s clearly the best Mets pitcher of the last THIRTY years.  Seaver is nice and all but think about that, the last THIRTY years.

Or what about Centerfield Maz, who also does his own thing.  Who else would write a column about Tom Veryzer or Sherman Jones (who?).

There’s plenty of great Mets related writing out there, including the newspapers, but the same column over and over (is Reyes healthy?  Can David Wright’s power come back?  Will Jerry/Omar last the season?) bores me.