The Mets Police

January 23, 2010

Dinged Corners: 1983 Topps Mets baseball cards

If you’re new to Mets Police, on Saturday morning I often post old baseball cards so I can relive my youth. I’m trying to stay focused on fan advocacy stuff, but with the coffee and donuts on a Saturday morning, I like to take a look back. Today, it’s a visit to Dinged Corners: 1983 Topps Mets baseball cards

The shape of the ballplayer sure has changed. Rusty Staub was known for being “fat” at the end of his career. Not in this picture. Let’s put him side by side with a McGwire. Rusty would look like a little kid.

I once sat next to Rusty at a concert. He had the two hottest chicks ever with him and the man was not fat. Go Rusty! Seriously, those were some nice looking friends he had.

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January 23, 2010January 24, 2010

Mets working to make Buffalo Bisons better

Mets promise Bisons will be better : Sports : The Buffalo News

I know almost nothing about minor league baseball, but I wonder about the business side of it and how it spills up to the majors. Two excerpts from the Buffalo News article:

The Mets probably need to do something this year if they want their relationship with Buffalo to continue. The teams’ two-year player development contract and it expires after the 2010 season. Minaya said the parent club is definitely interested in seeing it continue.

Mets General Manager Omar Minaya also spoke before the packed ballroom in the Adam’s Mark and agreed with Collins that the Mets are making it a priority to win in Buffalo this season.

“We’ve been a little bit more aggressive in pursuing those ‘4A’ free agents who can come here and do a good job,” Minaya said. “We’ve made a focus earlier on with guys we feel will play here. We feel it’s important to win here. We have a blend of guys coming up from Double-A and we want them to be with some of those veteran 4A players.”

Will the AAA team be built to keep the AAA affiliate happy, or will AAA be used to have a reserve for the big club? I know the trend is to have the minor league studs at AA, and that the 4-A player is common in the minors, but “aggressive in pursuing those 4A free agents” makes me wonder what kind of cavalry can ride in from Buffalo should an injury big strike the Mets.

I’m still mad at the Bisons for not responding to our several emails. Â I don’t mind a response that says “we don’t credential bloggers” or “we don’t like you and think you are ugly” but it’s courteous to respond.

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January 22, 2010

Metsmerized asks if the Mets brand is damaged

Metsmerized has a good take here, asking if the Mets brand has been damaged.

I don’t know that there is a brand. It’s a little before my time but based upon what I learned in the late 1970s, and what was mentioned in this SI article from April 1970, the Mets brand once was pitching, fun and a new ballpark. Even in 1986 I’m not sure they had a strong “brand.” Plenty of front-runners from the Bronx came by, but it wasn’t like Mets Inc. really had a brand.

The brand in 2010? Right now it’s whatever NBC’s is.

January 22, 2010

Pictures: Inside the Mets fan event (part 2)

Peter hooked me up with some photos of last week’s fan gathering at Citi (jeez I almost typed Shea for like the millionth time).

That’s a nice looking room.

Oh yeah, Peter said to thank Johnql of baseball-fever.com, much thanks John!

I thought that actually was Ebbett’s Field when I first looked at it!

There’s the retro again.

There’s more to come…tomorrow. Thanks again Peter.

January 21, 2010

How bad are the Mets ticket sales?

I’m wondering more and more about the Mets 2010 ticket sales.

I have no actual facts, and I don’t claim anything here is correct, but I’m thinking about some things…

Here’s a story from Chicago Mets Fan. She lives in Chicago. Chicago.

I got a call earlier today from Mike in the Mets ticket office wanting to talk about my opening day options at Citi Field.

He proceeded to ask if I plan to make any games this year and I said yes, but that I wasnâ€™t sure which ones because of other things coming up this spring and summer. I did say the August 1st game is appealing for the Mets Hall of Fame inductions, but that Iâ€™ll see if I can make the trip. He took that opportunity to try and sell a 15 pack that included tickets to that game, which he even said probably isnâ€™t the best option for me since I live out of town.

I then took the opportunity to clear up my mailing address. Even though when I login online and see my Chicago information, they still have my New York information attached to my account (in addition to the Chicago info).

I don’t sell tickets. However, I am going to guess that like many salesmen, Mets ticket agents have some sort of incentive to sell more tickets. Maybe they get a bonus, or a gold star, or a parking spot. Regardless, someone tried to sell a 15 game pack to someone who is in the database as living in Chicago.

That story is harmless enough but then I started thinking about the Christmas gifts many of us got from the Mets this week. If it were one or two of us, hey stuff happens and the guy from Mets Police is busting chops again. However, it seems to be many of us.

Here’s what I think happened. They had a figure for 2009 sales. They aren’t incompetent so they made a downward estimate for 2010. Someone said, hey let’s send everyone who renews a nice gift. You’ll recall the initial renew-or-die cutoff was in mid-December. I’m thinking the plan was to drop these in the mail around December 18th.

Many of us didn’t renew. They pushed the deadline to the 31st. Many of us didn’t renew.

Now it’s around January 15th and someone asks how the ticket sales are going. Must be going gangbusters now that we have retro jerseys and Jason Bay, right? The report isn’t so good.

Someone remembers that there’s all these extra framed photos of Citi Field sitting around in boxes waiting to be shipped. Someone decided to mail the ticket list. Send the Mets fans a nice gift, maybe they’ll remember how much they love the Mets and buy tickets. Good plan actually.

My guess is either someone forgot that every box had a season’s greetings letter in it, or just decided it wasn’t worth the effort/cost of reboxing them. Screw it, send them out.

Like I said at the top, everything here is a total fabrication of my brain. For all I know, the Mets are 99% sold out. I’m just wondering what the actual number is.

Oh, Mets ticket office – my idea for a Seven Game Pack is a really good one. Feel free to use it.
…

Housekeeping stuff: I’m starting to think that the Mets will win the World Series before blogger releases my domain name to my new host. I keep dropping hints about the new design not because the new design is so amazin’ (it will need some work, but it will work better, and I assume most of you come here for the words not the pictures or header image) but because I just want to warn everyone in case the site goes down for an hour while I’m in a meeting with Real Job Boss.

Tomorrow: more pictures from the rally, a really unnecessarily expensive toy Mets car and hopefully a whole new look. I’m starting to think the Mets will retire Keith Hernandez’ number before blogger releases my domain name to my new host. I’m starting to think there’ll be a Tom Seaver statue before blogger releases my domain name to my new host. I’m starting to think the Mets will Ditch the Black before blogger releases my domain name to my new host. Seriously, the new design is nice enough but you won’t be blown away, so again this is more of a warning than a tease that you’ll be amazed. I’m starting to think the Mets will sign a pitcher before blogger releases my domain name to my new host.