The Mets Police

I thought the finale was great – but the Times had an article yesterday with some interesting perspectives.  I saved it for today because I had a ton of posts yesterday that I wanted to give daylight.

This lazy “Field of Dreams” derivative starred team workers dressed in retro uniforms pretending to be the Yankees’ starting lineup on April 18, 1923, the day the Stadium opened, and assorted other greats. A security guard played Babe Ruth. A former batting-practice catcher played Casey Stengel. A tour guide played Allie Reynolds.

What’s next, Ronan Tynan played by me?

On ESPN and on the YES Network, which each broadcast the ceremony, the directors never chose close-ups, as if long shots with camera flashes bestowed majesty. The reaction shots of some current Yankees, save for an entranced Mariano Rivera, seemed to say, When I’m dead, which concession worker or usher will play me?  

I disagree with the criticism.  No matter who you get, someone is going to say “that doesn’t look like Babe Ruth” – so you hook someone up, and keep the cameras back.  I was in the upper deck and it looked “babe Ruth enough” for me.  People said it was lame on TV.  Everyone at the stadium said it was amazing andI got many text messages during the ceremony.

You can read the rest for yourself here:

>Always a good thing when someone remembers that there was a baseball team in New York called the Giants.   Fred Dodgers Wilpon likes to ignore them (unless there’s a Mel Ott statue at Citi Field I haven’t been told about, and no “green seats” doesn’t honor the Giants any more than the Orioles do).

Merkle’s Boner.  You’ve heard of it, but what is it.   The Times hooks it up….

On Wednesday, Sept. 23, 1908, the New York Giants and the Cubs were embroiled in a 1-1 tie before 20,000 fans at Harlem’s old Polo Grounds. It was a critical contest, the Giants clinging to a one-game lead over Chicago. With two outs in the bottom of the ninth and New York’s Moose McCormick on first, Merkle, a 19-year-old rookie first baseman making his first start, slammed a single into right field that sent McCormick to third.

“At that, I could have gone to second easily, but with one run needed to win and a man on third, I played it safe,” Merkle remembered later. It was a decision that would haunt him for the rest of his life.

A hundred years later, think Chuck Knoblauch meets Steve Bartman, and you will have some idea of the enormity of Fred Merkle’s blunder.

>I did not realize that the Evil Money Grubbing Football Giants From New Jersey played their final game at Yankee Stadium mid-season…and apparently a tie!  They finished the season at the Yale Bowl.  Weird, right?  35 years later the Giants would sell their soul to the devil by screwing their fans with PSL’s – and creating the Curse of The PSL’s which forbids the Giants from ever winning the Super Bowl until New Meadowlands is torn down.

I learned this today because it was the trivia question on YES.

Learn more here.

>On my TV now, the SNY guys are complimenting Bobby V.  Why?

Bobby Valentine is the king of finsihing second.  You want your team to underachieve – bring in V.  I keep hearing this nonsense that he got teams to the playoffs that had no business being there?  Really????

Is it not revisionist history to suggest the Mets weren’t favorites to win the East most of those years?

Is Bobby not at fault for several awful Aprils?  Isn’t prepping the team in the spring part of the job?   When you are 8 games out on May 1st it makes for along year – so when you “bring the team back” don’t go crowing.

The Wild Card covered for a lot of V’s failings.   In ’99 they needed a play-in game.  3rd place in 2001.  5th in 2002.    He’ll manage the Yankees some day and it will be majorly entertaining.