The Mets Police

I find my brain keeps coming back to Mets mini-camp this morning.  Mets Blog mentioned the players that will be at the camp: Santana, Niese, Ollie, and Murphy.

Reyes is working out on Long Island.

I find I would prefer if Reyes were in camp, but I can’t quite put my finger on why.  Maybe because then the beat writers could report that he looks great and I’d sleep better.

What do you think?

As I catch up on things, a letter from John, and my thoughts below:

Hi,

I enjoy your blog and thought you might be the only one that would write something about how horrible the Mets PR staff is. No one in the media (rightly so) would dare say anything about Jay Horwitz and his staff, but someone really has to question their ability to handle the Mets image in the media. When have they ever been out in front of a story? Why are they the only team that seems to have PR disaster after PR disaster?

I know everyone loves Jay Horwitz and I am sure he is a real mensch, but maybe he is not prepared to deal with the today’s media. The rumors about Beltran last night are a great example. The relations with fans, another. When have the Mets successfully utilized social media to communicate a message?

I understand it is easy to blame the front office (again, rightly so), but why is so much of the Mets internal stuff so public? Why do the Mets (and only the Mets) seem to get into disputes with players and their agents in the press? Why is ever step in the process to sign a player played out in public? The PR staff has to be responsible for this mismanagement, no?

Maybe the Mets Police can ask these questions!

Again, love the blog. Thanks for listening:)

John

As you may have noticed, John fired that off during Beltran-gate.  I’m sorry it took so long to reply, and I know some other site’s discussed Jay, but I wanted to do so here.

I think we’re talking about several things.  Jay is in charge of media relations not public relations.  His job isn’t to make me smile it is as defined below by the always reliable wikipedia:

Media relations involves working with various media for the purpose of informing the public of an organization’s mission, policies and practices in a positive, consistent and credible manner. Typically, this means coordinating directly with the people responsible for producing the news and features in the mass media. The goal of media relations is to maximize positive coverage in the mass media without paying for it directly through advertising.

Don’t get me wrong, I too profess that I don’t “get” Jay, but I assume the reason the (traditional) media love him and I assume the reason he has lasted this long in NYC because he’s good at what he does.  He likely gets the media what they need, in an efficient and professional manner.

As civilians I think we hear the name Jay Horwitz we get angry about how the public faces of management (Jeff, Omar and Dave Howard) often come across as out of touch with reality.  As I understand Jay’s job, his job is to alert the media what time Omar is speaking, and maybe provide a recap of what was said.

I think there are some other folks who might be better targets for frustration.  Some excerpts from the 2009 Mets media guide:

Dave Howard: page 22 says his responsibilities include “marketing, guest experiences, media and community relations…”

Perhaps David Newman who is listed on p.23 as Senior Vice President, Marketing and Communications is another person to consider.

I’m not going to give Jay a complete free pass.  Sometime in the fall of 2001 I was working on a 9/11 related public event at a public place for a company you have heard of.  I made a call to see if any Mets could swing by, as they had a night game and the event was in the early afternoon.   Mr. Horwitz was professional in quickly returning the call, but I felt dismissed and not taken as seriously as my title at the time deserved.  Maybe I caught him on a bad day, maybe one needs to be one of the boys club.

As for “new media” – I think we all agree Mets Blog is great and that Cerrone does a great job of maintaining an independent voice while appearing on SNY from time to time.   I’m unfamiliar with the Mets’ efforts on twitter or Facebook (if any), and I don’t see any evidence that they’ve engaged other blogs in a relationship other than Craig Marino going on the record with Mets Police.  Sure, I’d like to be on the list when Jay sends stuff out, but I haven’t tried so I don’t know what he’d say.

Thanks for writing John, those are my opinions on the subject.  Happy to hear from folks who have different opinions, and I still hope Dave Howard agrees to go to a game with me.

One of the fair criticism’s of this site is that I complain.  I’d like not to complain.  I’d like to go to a World Series game and see a nice team wearing pinstripes, but hey we can’t have it all.

Recently, Hot Foot wrote about what’s worth complaining about.

An excerpt from a fine article:

Not worth complaining about

I’ll get killed for this but here it goes: ticket prices. The Mets will charge exactly how much you are willing to pay for these tickets. If you keep buying the tickets and going to the games at the prices they’re charging, you have nothing to complain about. It sounds like the Mets are having trouble unloading these tickets, according to fans who are being shaken down by various ticket agents. Their behavior, worth complaining about. They can’t question our loyalty, but you have to question your own resolve if you’re complaining and still ponying up for it rather than take a stand and force them to correct the market.

I think it’s a great point.  You don’t want the tickets, don’t buy them.

From time to time someone suggests I organize a fan boycott.  I don’t think boycotts work, and I think each fan needs to decide on their own if they want to support the team.  At a personal level, the goal of this blog is to help the Mets, through ideas and an open change of information.  I do not in any way want to hurt the franchise.

Another series I’m pleased to resume now that I’ve made it to the new design is Meet the Mets Bloggers.  If you’d like to tape part, just answer the three questions below (and as a fellow blogger you’ll know it makes my life easy if you clean it up so I can just cut and paste).  Here’s Taryn.

1.) Who are you and what’s the name of your blog?

My name is Taryn Cooper, but you may know me as Coop, The Coop or The Coopinatrix (as the fellas over at Brooklyn Met Fan have been known to call me). I started the site My Summer Family in the offseason of 2007. MSF is a passionate narrative from a die-hard Met fan who spends WAY too much time at the ballpark(s)* in the summer time (*not just CitiField but following the Mets around as well).

2. What kind of things can we find on your site?

You will find a little bit of everything. Game recaps, feelings on the team and players, traveling (I did a West Coast Trip last year that got me many followers on Twitter), pictures, events. The only thing I don’t claim to be is a stat head, though you might find some elementary number crunching to support my theories. I am a passionate fan, so I’ll call out anyone from fans to media to players themselves. You may hear about my “fan girl crushes” as I talk about freely, which include Tim Lincecum and my all-time favorite baseball player Cal Ripken. Just a note: it’s all purely professional. I do the Roll Call each year which is devoted to the special people I am able to meet because of our Mets community (hence the whole “summer family” thing). I also have a mouth like a truck-driver, so my site is not for the faint of heart.

3. Expectations for 2010?

Each year, I have lowered my expectations for various reasons and after the abysmal 2009 campaign, I feel like they cannot possibly get any worse at this point. The way the line up is constructed now (after the Bay signing and assuming Reyes comes back full-strength with Beltran 100% healthy), I would say they are a “solid” third place team, which could give a legit run at some point to the Wild Card in 2010 (of course, with a floundering in September). Add a Jon Garland-type pitcher, I would say they are a legit Wild Card candidate. Add a Jon Garland-type along with an incentive laden Ben Sheets deal, and I think it’s Mets/Phillies duking it out for first place. But of course, if Omar is able to get any warm body in a Luis Castillo-deal, that is addition by subtraction right there.