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Giveaways: Mets scarf and Mets ski cap

Here are two more images of 2010 promotional items.  How about that scarf!  It is lacking in one of the Mets traditional colors (black).  How dare they issue something that is blue and orange?!

It looks cool.  I’m not nuts about the casino logo but that’s the price you pay, and I wish it were longer – but it’s overall cool.  Looks like you could play Where’s Wally with it.

As for the ski cap?  Not so awesome.

Mets Scarf Mets-Nationals April 10

SKI CAP: Mets-Braves April 23rd

Thanks to Walter for sending over.   [email protected]

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I’d like to see standings flags on top of Citi Field

One of the things I liked about Fake New Yankee Stadium last year were the pretty colored flags on top of the stadium.   If only the Mets could do something like that…

…oh wait, we had that at Shea for all the years I was there and there were 30+ of those years.

It’s a minor point, and I’m not anti-American flag, but why can’t we have both?

Speaking of flags…this is interesting from the archives, in this article from 1961 how about this quote from someone named Tom Meany who is listed as a “baseball author”:

…put up flagstaffs for 24 pennants.  That’s how many the Dodgers and Giants won….we claim them all.

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Leadoff: if MLB must realign, do this.

I don’t know if you saw the SI article about floating realignment:

One example of floating realignment, according to one insider, would work this way: Cleveland, which is rebuilding with a reduced payroll, could opt to leave the AL Central to play in the AL East. The Indians would benefit from an unbalanced schedule that would give them a total of 18 lucrative home dates against the Yankees and Red Sox instead of their current eight. A small or mid-market contender, such as Tampa Bay or Baltimore, could move to the AL Central to get a better crack at postseason play instead of continually fighting against the mega-payrolls of New York and Boston.

Obviously that’s a terrible idea.

Here are my choices for re-alignment, in order:

1.  Leave it alone

2.  Go back to two leagues.  No playoffs, no wild cards, no DH, the Cubs play day games and the Giants move back to Manhattan.   Obviously everyone but me hates this idea.

3.   Re-align to goose the rivalries and maximize the fun.  Years ago my fantasy football league got so big that I proposed such a scheme.  I enjoyed playing Pat more than playing Scott who I didn’t really know.  Instead of picking the schedule out of a hat, we made divisions based upon who hung out together – you played YOUR buddies, not your buddy’s friends.  Now we apply that to baseball.

“Patrick Division” (for those of you of a certain age you know what it means and yes I know Boston wasn’t in it.)

  • Mets
  • Yankees
  • Red Sox
  • Phillies
  • Toronto

Toronto unfortunately has to go somewhere, and it’s not fair to keep the O’s and strand the Nats.   Mets fans can come to hate Boston and Yankees fans can learn to hate Philly.  Nice easy road-trips for 4 of the fanbases, and like I said Toronto has to go somewhere.

Incredibly Obvious Pacific Division

  • Los Angeles of Los Angeles
  • Los Angeles of Anaheim
  • San Diego
  • San Francisco
  • Oakland

Is there anything to argue about here?  No.  It’s perfect.

The southwest division:

  • Texas
  • Houston
  • Colorado
  • Phoenix
  • Seattle: sorry but who told you to be so far north?

This one is a little messy for the Mariners but the two Texas teams together makes sense, as do Colorado and Arizona geographically.  In 25 years the San Anotonio Mariners will love it.

The central division:

  • White Sox
  • Cubs
  • Brewers
  • Cardinals
  • Royals

Not bad, right?  The Chicago fans hate each other, everyone hates a team associated with Bud Selig, the Cubs still get to hate on the Cardinals, and the Royals get dragged into some Missouri rivalry I may be making up.

The coal division

  • Indians
  • Reds
  • Pirates
  • Twins
  • Tigers

The Twins are already with Detroit and Cleveland now so you can’t nitpick that.   The Reds and Indians both play in Ohio.  I can throw a frisbee from Pittsburgh to Cleveland and there’s no jumbo market in this division. Go ahead someone and win it.

Southeast division

  • Braves
  • Miami
  • Tampa
  • Baltimore
  • Washington

I don’t care about any of these teams and they sort of all play down there somewhere.

That’s it.  I’m done.  You know how many tweaks I had to make?  None.  It’s just obvious if you lay it out. Believe me, I killed lots and lots of time in college classes re-aligning sports leagues.  This plan is a winner.

Schedule:

Play 18 games against your 4 division rivals = 72 games

9 games against two other divisions.  Each years these rotate, like the NFL.  = 90 games.

Total = 162 games.   All of Barry Bonds records still stand.

I will leave it to someone else to name the leagues/conferences/divisions/whatever.

Unfortunately all teams will have the DH.  That battle has been lost from here to Japan.

On twitter yesterday (@metspolice) some fans thought the Mets’ division was too tough.  What do you think of the plan?  Again my first choice is leave it alone.

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Mets Yearbook 1963

I decided to stop being a slacker and catch up on the episodes of Mets Yearbook that piled up on my DVR   As I’ve done in the past I’ll just type whatever comes to mind as I watch.

I was enthralled by the opening to Mets Yearbook 1963.   The shots of NYC, where the Empire State Building truly dominated the skyline.  The Grand Concourse actually looked nice (as my parents often told me).  There’s a neat shot of the Verezanno being built.

The film has fake Mets fans!   Hey ma’am can you say “we talk about Mets at our dinner table every night.”  You sir, can you say “we used to be Dodger fans..but now that the Mets are here blah blah.”  So so rehearsed.    And oh the “New York” accent.  Awesome, real, and something you don’t hear these days except in poorly written sitcoms.

Casey Stengel made 80 grand in 1962 bucks.   That seems like a lot, no?

There’s an interesting Mr. Met bobblehead where Mr. Met is wearing a two-tone cap (blue and orange of course.)

The hot dogs actually look edible!

I love how the owner is “Mrs. Charles Payson.”  And of you old guys when women would be known as Mrs. Man’s First Name?

It’s fun listening to the GM (missed his name) trying to BS Lindsey Nelson about how this team is close to winning (this is in the offseason between 63 and 64).

I haven’t seen much film of the Mets at the Polo Grounds (neither has Fred) so that’s always fun.

Holy cow Bob Murphy is young in this!!! I mean it makes sense if you do the math, but it’s a young Bob with dark hair and a few extra pounds.   I didn’t catch much of Lindsey Nelson but it comes through on this film that he was good.  Ralph is at his best stiff self, without the charm that comes from being old and having been on for 50 years.

Next time we whine about advertising on the fence we should look at the walls of the Polo Grounds.  Apparently it’s a Mets tradition that skipped Shea.

Now I’m getting annoyed looking at the Polo Grounds.  The Mets played there, and use the old Giants style NY – so the Mets build a replica of the Dodgers’ stadium and shun the one thing they borrowed from Brooklyn: the blue.    They got everything backward!

Nelson just told me they had a day for Willie Mays!   The active player in San Francisco??!!! And Stan Musial – sure he’s about to retire but he’s a Cardinal.  Why not have a tickertape parade for Sammy Sosa?  Get the time machine – the Mets Police have a newsletter to type in 1963!!! (you can subscribe by sending me a self-addressed stamped envelope, and you should expect issue #1 sometime in December 1963 unless I get distracted.) Continue reading “Mets Yearbook 1963”

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New York Mets St. Patrick’s Day attire Part 1

This will be a multi-part series since there’s a lot of green Mets stuff around this year. St. Patrick’s Day must be a big seller for MLB since there is green stuff for seemingly every team – but we’ll focus on the Mets.

I like the jacket.  I don’t know if you’d get much use out of it after the 17th though.  When and where would you wear it.  Maybe if Ray Knight invited you to The Masters?

I like the idea of the hoodie but it isn’t working for me.

The polo – it’s like you’re trying to be cool and don’t know how.   If you’ve got the itch for something Irish come back tomorrow for a suggestion.