The Mets Police

Over at  Ya Gotta Believe Eddie D’Anna has an open letter to Fred, calling for the return of Bobby Valentine.

We wrote a month ago that part of the 2010 marketing plan will need to be distraction.  While V is not a favorite of mine (I don’t like finishing second), I think he’s a good choice for this offseason.  They can’t try to sell us on “everyone is healthy, really” and head into 2010 with Murphy/Castillo/Reyes/Wright/Someone/Beltran/Francoeur/Santos and Santana and Nobody.

The News also has 2010 on their minds today.

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Don’t forget this weekend is K-Rod Bobblehead Day plus another Mr. Met Dash, both on Sunday.

I took a look at Stubhub this morning…I stay away from the auctions but at 9am you could have bought “buy it now” seats for $10.

If you want to go on Saturday you could get in for $9 last time I checked.

I can’t wait to see how little I will get for the Wednesday and Thursday tickets I can’t use, and I still wish the Mets would adopt a ticket exchange policy similar to the Yankees.

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My favorite Mets executive David Howard was on FBN last night. Mr. Howard maintains the Mets will not be for sale.  Click here for the video: Madoff Strikes the Mets?

Jim Duquette also appears in the video.

I don’t know what’s true or not, but to my eyes where there is smoke there is often fire, and the Mets seem testy about this one.  

New topic:  Is Richard Sandomir in the Times an unofficial Mets mouthpiece?  Maybe it’s the randomness of my google searches, but it caught my eye that he was the one who had the “NOT for sale” story and now he’s the one with the semi-official spin on the training camp moving.

Once again, we’re talking about everything about winning baseball.  In the Bronx the conversation is playoff tickets.  We’re arguing over sales and training camps.

From the official Yankees release below.  Basically it sounds like if you don’t have a season plan good luck getting tickets, and if there are tickets left there will be a few five dollar seats.  I imagine very few.

The Yankees have successfully got the media to report that playoff tickets are cheaper than regular season tickets – the Post can walk you through that.

You may want to jump on Stubhub now – outfield seats are already going for $100.  Get them while you can.

Regular season ticket prices for full-season ticket licensees (non-Suites) will be replicated for the 2009 American League Division Series (i.e., a Main Level ticket that costs a full-season ticket licensee $60 in the 2009 regular season will cost the same licensee $60 for the ALDS), however, full-season ticket licensees (non-Suites) of $325 Field Level seats may purchase their seats for the ALDS at the lower price of $275 each.

For full-season ticket licensees (non-Suite), prices will range from $5-$275 per ticket for the ALDS, $10-$350 per ticket for the ALCS, and $50-$425 per ticket for the World Series.

Full-season Suite licensees in the Legends Suite, Delta Sky360° Suite and Jim Beam Suite, have all already paid their Suite license fees. Accordingly, they will only be required to purchase their Suite tickets, which will range from $65-$275 per Suite ticket for the ALDS, $115-$350 per Suite ticket for the ALCS, and $150-$425 per Suite ticket for the World Series. As with the regular season, Legends Suite licensees will also be required to pay a per-game food and beverage fee, but not a Suite license fee.

All ticket purchasers must also pay a Major League Baseball-sanctioned handling fee, which ranges in price from $1 for each ALDS ticket priced at $5 to a maximum of $6 for each ALDS ticket priced at $40 or more. The handling fee for each ticket will be set based upon ALDS ticket pricing and remain the same for all subsequent postseason rounds, regardless of the ticket price.

Please note that the quantity of postseason tickets available to those who are not 2009 season ticket licensees will be limited and vary for each postseason round. Yankee Stadium has a seating capacity of 50,235, excluding standing room. For each postseason game, the first opportunity to purchase tickets is provided to current season-ticket licensees, which represent in excess of 37,000 full-season equivalent ticket licenses. Major League Baseball directs clubs to dedicate approximately 3,000 tickets per game for players of the participating clubs and to accommodate the media. In addition, Major League Baseball requires approximately 5,500 tickets per ALDS game, 7,000 tickets per ALCS game and 9,500 tickets per World Series game.

Subject to availability, non-Suite tickets for public sale will range from $5-$375 per ticket for the ALDS, $10-$400 per ticket for the ALCS, and $50-$425 per ticket for the World Series, and in all cases the handling fee will be added. The date of any public on-sale has not been determined at this time.

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On Monday I write a weekly column on Flushing University. (and this is this weeks piece…) Should be a piece of cake, right? New stadium, team heading to the playoffs. Plenty to write about!Here I am at the start of September wondering how I will fill column space. Sort of like Jerry Manuel trying to come up with 8 healthy names and a pitcher. Nearly impossible.So I can’t write about how awesome the team is, because it isn’t. I can’t write about the stars or the core or the Fab 4 or 5 depending on your perspective because they aren’t around.Prospects – hey how about that Jon Niese? Oh he’s hurt. Hey how about that Fernando Martinez he could be the centerfielder for years? Oh he’s hurt. How is that Bobby Parnell experiment coming? We must have some cool September call-ups right? Yep Josh Thole mania is right up there with Ya Gotta Believe. Maybe Thole will be a Hall of Famer, but his first appearances won’t be enough to get me to tune in.The rotation? Imagine trying to win with Mike Pelfrey as your ace, and then some combination of Figs, Misch, Parnell and Redding. Let me get 1978 on the phone, I would take a rotation of Jerry Koosman, Nino Espinosa, Mike Bruhert, Craig Swan and Pat Zachry over the September 2009 guys any day. It takes guts to lose 35 games in two years like Kooz. No 2009-10 Met could do that because for one thing, you need to actually pitch every 5th day without getting hurt.Let’s look at the lineups. 1B: Willie Montanez or Dan Murphy. Willie in a heartbeat.2B: Doug Flynn or a guy who dropped a popup with 2 out against the Yankees. I’ll take the guy we traded Seaver for.SS: Tim Foli or the cast of clowns. I would take Cora over Foli but the 2009 Mets have started guys I can’t even remember now.3B: I will not insult you by comparing Lenny Randle to David Wright.LF: Steve Henderson vs seemingly 15 guys. 10 homers and 65 rbi. Them there’s Sheffield numbers. Plus we traded Seaver for him.CF: Lee Mazzilli vs anyone. I like Lee Mazzilli. You can put Willie, Mickey and the Duke plus Joe D and I’m taking my boy.RF: Elliot Maddox vs Francoeur. I like this Francoeur, which means he’s due to go down for the season.C: John Stearns vs Santos/Schnedier. You’d cream your pants if a Mets catcher hits .264 with 15 and 73 plus 25 steals.The minors? The ’78 Tides had Mike Scott (who would stink as a Met and scare the Cy Young out of us in the 1986 Playoffs), Neil Allen who we would trick St. Louis into giving us Captain Keith Hernandez for, and a bunch of other guys who made the majors – but making the majors as a 1979 Met is kind of like Lance Broadway being called up because he isn’t dead.There you have it. I have scientifically proven that the 1978 Mets were better than the September 2009 Mets. Shea stadium was only 15 years old then and about to be renovated. Soon we’d have cool plastic seats, a Diamondvision, a picnic area and a Frusen Gladje ice cream stand. I think I’d take a Frusen Gladje over a Shake Shack about now. Shorter line anyways.

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