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5-1 Homestand Still Alive

I wanted the Mets to go 5-1 on this homestand to claw their way back to respectability.   If they lose the first one, the third one, or the 6th one, the resulting record is the same.  I’m sure the Mets understand this, but I’m going to head out to Flushing tomorrow to make sure they start winning again.  (Follow me for in-game thoughts and pictures from around Citi Field)

 

While it’s still April and very early, the longer the Mets play losing baseball the better they’ll have to play, for longer, to make up for it.  While I still believe the Mets are a good team, and certainly better than this, there does come a point where they’re going to have to show it.  They don’t have to come out blazing to a 10-1 stretch and just destroy everyone, but they do have to play consistent baseball and win more games than they lose.

 

They just need to win, and it doesn’t need to be pretty.  It could  be a 9-walk complete game shutout.  A 4-error game where the opposition fails to capitalize.  Jose Reyes could power the offense with three home runs in a 9-8 slugfest.  At this point they just need to start putting up Ws.  It starts with not giving free bases, not giving up outs, and not making too many dangerous mistakes in the field.  But it also starts with picking up your teammates when they do make a mistake, such as Wright did diving to get Lee at third base after Turner’s error.  Pitchers need to start striking out a batter after an error and not getting rattled by it and the fielders need to stop thinking they need to get two outs at once and stop panicking in the field.

 

Divisions are not won in April.  In fact, three of last years playoff teams were at or below .500 on May first.  There is still time for the Mets to settle down and start playing better.   There’s plenty of time for Collins to stop playing guys that tend to suck, and for Alderson to wish those that suck away into the cornfield for players from the minors or other clubs that suck less.

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Play Two, Win Two

Something you’ll hear a lot today:

“It’s hard to win both games of a doubleheader”

Don’t listen to them. This is just an excuse to temper expectations. The Mets can win both ends of the doubleheader today, if they pitch and hit the ball. Dickey on the mound for the first game with a healthy nail should be the starting point for a win. In my mind you never settle for a situation that includes losing, and accepting a split would be just that. If the Mets win the first game, should they just go home and concede the second? It’s hard to win both anyway right, so why burn out the pitchers? If you concede you solve the “Who pitches Friday?” problem as well, slotting in Capuano.

The Mets split the first doubleheader in Citi Field history on July 30th, 2009 against the Rockies. They swept the Rockies in a doubleheader on 8/19/04 in Colorado.

It’s still early and the Mets are still getting used to each other and the new leadership and the new season. Obviously you’d have preferred a rip-roaring start to this putrid mess of a homestand, but they’ve got a big series against the Braves this weekend and then six games at home against bad teams. Plenty of time to get the ship righted.

Upcoming Milestones:

Carlos Beltran is 1 double away from sole possession of 8th place on the Mets All-Time doubles list. He’s at 182 right now, tied with Cleon Jones.

Reyes, tied with Edgardo Alfonzo at 1136 hits for fourth in franchise history, needs 1 for sole possession. He’ll have a tough time catching up to #3, David Wright with 1163, but they’re both poised to pass Cleon Jones’ 1188 this summer.

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What’s New At Citi Field? Keith’s Grill and More!

Unfortunately, the worst part of Opening Day was the play on the field.  Hopefully that doesn’t continue.   There are a handful of changes at Citi Field to note.

 

The bad first.  There are no longer Brooklyn Beers on tap at the Taste of NY center field concourse.  No Shackmeister Ale, no Blanche de Brooklyn, no Blue Smoke Ale and no Sabroso Ale.  Not even a Brooklyn Summer Ale.  You can still get the Brooklyn Lager around the park, but the loss of these specialty brews is disappointing.  I haven’t even seen Brooklyn’s Pennant Ale anywhere, which you think would be a given for a ballpark, never mind a team with Brooklyn roots.  I’m going to try to keep a full list of the Mets beer selections at Citi Field, and hopefully one day will add the stuff that’s hidden behind club doors this season.  If you know a blogger and beer lover that roots for a different team, I’d love to talk with him or her about creating a beer list for other stadiums.

 

The highlight of the changes to me was a new concession stand on the field level in the left fielder corner called Keith’s Grill.  It features a Gold Glove burger which is described as having been created by Keith Hernandez.

“Exactly how Keith eats his burger; A 6 oz. Brooklyn Burger on a toasted sesame bun, w/ cheddar cheese, topped w/ lettuce, tomato, two dill pickles, raw onions mayo & extra ketchup on top, mustard spread on the bottom bun.  Burger served with house made kettle chips & Keith’s favorite candy; a Tootsie Roll Pop”

I didn’t try it; the line was too long and I figured I’d go back on a less crowded occasion, but it sounds yummy.  I heard that their was a new Pastrami on Rye sandwich somewhere, but I think I remember seeing that at the Kosher cart last year.

 

There was two new beers from Hometown Brewery.  A New York Lager and a light.  the NY Lager wasn’t bad, but didn’t seem like anything special.  They were available from a couple of different carts around the park. It seems like it might be contract-brewed by the Lion Brewery in Wilkes-Barre, PA.  Which is where the Yankees AAA team plays and is in Pennsylvania, so don’t be too excited by the NY name.

 

Two new menu items at Blue Smoke.  Chipotle wings are back after a 2010 absence (I learned in 2009 that eating wings in cold weather when your hands are chapped is a bad idea) and also a fried chicken sandwich.

 

There’s an organic dark chocolate frozen yogurt bar at the Burgers and Fries concession from Stonyfield, and also a chipwich at the same place.

 

Box Frites has a sauce, rosemary ranch, which I think is a new choice.

 

There appears to be knishes available at more locations this year.

 

There are probably a couple of other changes that I missed, so be on the lookout!

 

As usual, plenty of advertising  turnover.

 

 

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My Opening Day: A Journey With Pictures

I started my day at the Apple’s tailgate.  Starting the day with beer and burgers and Mets fans before heading into the park is a fun way to go.  I had a burger and tweeted this picture at Ted Berg, which (along with the Apple’s invitation to come visit) drew him out of Citi Field.  It was great that he could find time to hang with us a bit; personally I would’ve been too nervous about getting to interview Ralph Kiner to eat much.

 

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Ceetar’s Back At Citi Field! Opening Day!

Despite six games in the books, baseball doesn’t feel real until I return to a baseball stadium for a real game.  (Spring Training was nice and all, but it’s not the same)

 

Starting at noon today, I will trek out to Citi Field for Opening Day against the Washington Nationals.  First order of business: Read the Apple tailgate!  Following that, I intend to do a lap around Citi Field on the outside, and then a lap around Citi Field on the inside.  I like to take in the tiny minutia that changes from year to year.  Ralph Kiner will throw out the first pitch.  The Mets will bat in the bottom of the order.  Hopefully the Mets will win.

 

Tomorrow’s high is 53 degrees, and with the usual wind at Citi Field it’ll probably feel colder than that. I’ll be wearing my Dickey shirt, covered by an orange sweatshirt under my cream colored Pagan jersey.  And a blue cap.

 

One of the things I intend to focus on is the beer selection.  I’ve heard there are some new brews at Citi Field, to complement the nice selection that already exists.  I floated the idea that Citi Field has the best beer selection in the majors, but I”m thinking that’s probably not entirely true.  After I do Citi Field’s list, I’m going to do some research on other parks I attend, and other parks I don’t attend, and try to come to researched opinion on beer at baseball stadiums.

 

I’ll have a lot of pictures from Opening Day to share this weekend, and perhaps scattered among posts throughout the season.  And to top it off, I get to go back to Citi on Sunday!

 

To follow my tweets and updates directly from Citi Field before, during, and after the game, follow me on Twitter.

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Mets New Fundraising Plan: Sell The Blogs

Much has been made of the Mets current financial woes, but I’ve recently learned of a new plan they have to raise some money.  Starting on Opening Day the Mets are going to start a new concession booth at Citi Field out in the center field concourse.  This new stand will sell new and used Mets blogs at a reasonable price.

 

First up is the esteemed blog, Read the Apple.  In what is perhaps a misinterpreted understanding of common adages, the Mets believe if they sell an Apple a day, it’ll keep the doctors away.  Health is a key component to a successful Mets season, and they’re doing everything they can.

Eat The Apple

 

All articles featuring The Apple are fictitious. No Mets were harmed in the writing of this story.  Optimistic Mets Fan would like to thank The Apple, and the Academy, for awarding us a prestigious Fonzie award.

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Mr. Mets Landing and Pyrotechnics

The Mets announced this weekend that they will have Pyrotechnics night again this year.  They also announced that they renamed the last two sections of the Left Field Landing seats to Mr. Mets Landing, and will be discounting them.

Mr. Met’s Landing is a new, specially priced area of the ballpark.

Sections 338 and 339 in Citi Field’s Left Field Landing are priced at $10 for kids 12 and under and $20 for adults ($20 and $30 respectively for four Marquee game dates)

Mr. Met will visit both sections during every home Mets game.

I sat in the future Mr. Mets Landing section late last year.  That post has some pictures, and I’ll share some here as well.  What I was most shocked about was how much I actually enjoyed the seats.  I’d previously been under the assumption that the Landing may have been the worse section in the ballpark due to the overhang above you making it tough to see the scoreboard, and the Landing itself blocking you from seeing the left fielder.  This is still probably the case if you’re beyond rows 5-6 or so, but otherwise I think Mr. Mets Landing will end up being pretty popular.  You get a view of the game from nearly dead center, which is similar to the view you get on the TV cameras at home.  You get the view from behind the pitcher as he throws his pitch, as opposed to watching from behind the batter.  You’re more a part of the team on the field than the team at the plate, and I think this is one of the best things Citi Field has going for it that we didn’t get to experience at Shea Stadium.

I was at the inaugural Pyrotechnics night last year, and I had a good time.  I was initially skeptical; Fireworks night had been my favorite promotion growing up and I was sad to see it go.  I turned out to be pleasantly surprised; given the name change I did not expect fireworks, but the Pyrotechnic display that we did get was pretty good.  Not that there weren’t issues with it, but it was new and exciting and I had fun.  I’m planning to go again this year.

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Broke Mets Spend $7500 on Dirt

I saw this link earlier.    Apparently Chip Hale suggested that the Mets should practice on a similar infield to what they do in Citi Field, so the team and the county purchased the dirt used in New York to use at Digital Domain Park.

 

“It seemed like a no-brainer to me,” Hale said. “Why not make it as close to New York as possible? If it can help even a little bit, why not do it?”

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I’d Buy This: R.A. Dickey Jersey

Dickey is awesome. He’s such a fun player to root for.   He’s a  smart guy, he truly cares and appreciates the game.  He’s finally finding success after a middling career.  So why aren’t the Mets promoting more gear with his name on it?  Even without the puns?  Sure, you can customize stuff online, but that’s not the same as being able to walk into the Mets shop and buy a variety of Dickey jerseys and gear.  The Mets also don’t get the same profits due to revenue sharing if it’s personalized and bought online compared to in their shops.  This niche does get filled, but it’s filled via third party retailers like the7line.com.
The same could be said for Pagan.  This team needs to get better at embracing fan favorites, even if they’re not the best players on the team or signed to long term contracts.  Joe Smith came up and had a good April and fans were excited.  I’m sure some would’ve bought a shirt. Pedro Feliciano was a reliever, but he was a very good one and he’d been here long enough that maybe some fans would’ve wanted to honor that.

Have some fun with it. Make a promotion out of it.  Declare it Dickey day.  It would be similar to the foam fingers the Mets made that said “Make Wright #1” as part of an All-Star campaign.  It’s quirky and a bit silly, but it’s also fun and harmless attention.  Give out halos, or free Angel Pagan t-shirts, and have an “Angels in the outfield” promotion.

Addendum:  Modells had a huge online sale a couple of weeks ago. (Mets Police, via Media Goon, notes a sale on jerseys today) So I purchased items you won’t find at Citi Field.  I got myself a Pagan jersey (The new cream alternate from last year), and a blue Dickey name and number shirt.  Also, an “I Like Ike” shirt, because..well you know.   In addition to this I bought two shirts for my wife.
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Is It Time For a New Generation of Mets?

As I sit here wondering if the Mets will extend Reyes’ contract, and how I hope David Wright and Jose Reyes spend their long successful careers only with the Mets, I started thinking the bridge between different Mets generations.  In my eye, generations are roughly defined by the ‘core’ or the handful of top players on a team that stay together for a couple of years.  You had Mike Piazza, Edgardo Alfonzo and John Franco leading us into David Wright,Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran.  There was an overlap, or bridge, between these two generations as some of them played together.  One midseason story line was even when Wright would, or should, move ahead of Piazza in the batting order.  What if the bridge between generations was not so obvious?
We are Mets fans because we love the Mets.  We love the Mets because we are Mets fans.  It’s emotional, fanatical, and probably illogical, but it’s what we do.   We have an emotional connection to the team, and to the players.  We all know that you “root for the laundry” and that it doesn’t matter who is wearing the uniform because if it says “Mets” on it, we want them to succeed.

There is talk out there about breaki

ng up the Mets core: If the Mets haven’t won with Wright and Reyes, maybe they are part of the problem and not the solution.  How would the fanbase, the one that includes the millions of fans not on Twitter or in the blogosphere, react to the Mets rebuilding?  Would fans actually be excited for a team that had Tejada at shortstop, Zach Lutz at third, an outfield of Lucas Duda, Fernando Martinez and Kirk Nieuwenhuis with a rotation led by Niese, Gee and Meija? Especially if it took that group 2-3 years to really start to show any talent, if they do at all.  Perhaps Mets fans are too used to a group of players getting only one or two shots at the postseason and now mentally preparing for the next groups opportunity.  

Fans may enjoy a prospect or two, especially one that’s doing well, but watching a group of players lose consistently while going through the growing pains of trying to be a great major league baseball player is not what sells or excites fans.  Half of those guys probably won’t stick around long term in the big leagues, certainly not with the Mets, and they’ll make mistakes and boneheaded plays and go through slumps that will not enamor them to fans.  We love the team, but rooting for lovable losers is not what being a Mets fan is about.  For every fan that loved Ty Wigginton while he

was a Met there are a hundred or more that love Benny Agbayani because he was a part of a run of success.  Rustyjr of The Real Dirty Mets Blog asked for reader submissions of their top 50 Mets of all time, and has been counting down the tabulated results.  If you’re paying attention you’ll notice that the list hardly follows any statistical reasoning.  Ray Knight comes in at #37 for example despite his numbers across a mere 254 games with the Mets not being anything amazing.  Perhaps his baseball-reference sponsor has some insight:

“What a worthy ’86 Series MVP! He embodied those championship Mets. Who can forget his fire, his jubilation scoring the winning run on Buckner’s error?”

We cling the players that come through for us in big moments.  Endy Chavez made an unbelievable catch in a key moment of the biggest Mets game of the last decade.  For his Mets career he was at best a serviceable 4th outfielder and an amazing defensive replacement, which aren’t usually the guys that go down in history and get remembered.  Endy’s catch is immortalized in the left field gate at Citi Field and in the fan walk outside, and it’s one of the few parts of the building that has never been criticized by fans.  We form bonds and connections with these guys, and while winning makes them all look nicer, sometimes it’s just the emotion and effort of one player or series that makes us love them.  Endy’s catch was in a losing effort and Robin Ventura’s memorable Grand Slam Single was the last win the Mets would get in that series.


Would fans really pay to see a team of prospects?  My guess is no.  If the Mets fail to put a winning team on the field again in 2011, it won’t draw any more fans in August and September if they trade off every piece they can at the trading deadline.  While the removal of players that we have a negative association with may sound like a good idea, It doesn’t actually create more interest in watching that players replacement.  Sure there might be a boost in attendance if a fire-balling starter is doing well, or some rookie outfielder is smashing home runs all over the place, but those things will be passing novelties as most Mets fans find entertainment elsewhere that season.  Some cit the early 90s as some of the worse Mets seasons in history.  The ‘86ers retired, moved on, got into trouble and were no longer Mets. There were a couple of flashy prospects here and there that didn’t really pan out.  There was some brief excitement with Generation K, which shows us that a philosophy of “We might be pretty good in a couple of years!” is not a selling point.  There was no clear bridge to the next eneration and a lot of Mets fans in the 90s noticed that there _was_ still winning baseball in New York.  I wonder what the younger Mets fans that are in love with Wright and Reyes would do if they were no longer Mets in the next year or two?