NY Mets 'Borough Race'

[metirish]

Oh boy

Mets Introduce Five New NYC-Themed Mascots for Citi Field 'Borough Race'

Mr. and Mrs. Met have some company with the introduction of five iconic new Citi Field racers.

Dan Lyons | 1 Hour Ago

https://www.si.com/mlb/mets-introduce-five-new-nyc-themed-mascots-citi-field-borough-race#:~:text=The%20five%20racers%2C%20representing%20each,and%20the%20subway%20(Queens).

[Gwreck]

Oh no

1. Please, can this team just for once, have an original idea? This is like when they were playing Sweet Caroline.

2. Those costumes are hideous

3. If this replaces the “Queens Crew,” still a net positive.

But overall, this is just bad.

[MFS62]

I know Stearns came here from Milwaukee.

This is the equivalent of their sausage race.

But we are NOT Milwaukee.

We do not need small town hokey crap to keep the fans interested here.

This is New York.

Disgraceful.

Later

[metirish]

Well ,today they announced this too, so I see the mascot race as fan engagement, it will likely rock the place , especially evening games when the lights are all flashing and the place is going wild

The Mets have announced that their 2025 season ticket packages have sold out.

The team also says that it has its highest recorded membership base in franchise history entering the season

Source SNY

[Gwreck]

The Mets have announced that their 2025 season ticket packages have sold out.

The team also says that it has its highest recorded membership base in franchise history entering the season

Source SNY

 

No offense to Metirish who’s reporting the news but I find both of those claims hard to believe:

1. The Mets were still selling season tickets as of Monday at 5 PM. The idea that they moved every last one? I guess it’s possible…

2. The Mets were drawing well over 3M in the last few years at Shea and even cracked 3M during the first year at Citi Field (the post-2009 attendance peaked at 2.8M

in 2016). It would be quite remarkable for season ticket memberships to now exceed what they were back in the 2006-2009 timeframe. I guess it’s possible…but seems unlikely.

[metirish]

Yeah, I think that are using some deception here with wording

 

[TWEET]

[/TWEET]

[Frayed Knot]

I know Stearns came here from Milwaukee.

This is the equivalent of their sausage race.

But we are NOT Milwaukee.

We do not need small town hokey crap to keep the fans interested here.

This is New York.

Disgraceful.

 

Stearns is responsible for the on field product. I highly doubt this is his doing.

Cast your gaze instead towards Uncle Steve and his smoke machine blowing/fireworks spewing/dugout roof dancing/retired number-of-the-month promotional crew.

[Frayed Knot]

"Season ticket base" could have several interpretations.

Maybe more partial plans have been sold meaning that more names are now attached to season tickets without necessarily meaning more tickets sold.

[MFS62]

I know Stearns came here from Milwaukee.

This is the equivalent of their sausage race.

But we are NOT Milwaukee.

We do not need small town hokey crap to keep the fans interested here.

This is New York.

Disgraceful.

 

Stearns is responsible for the on field product. I highly doubt this is his doing.

Cast your gaze instead towards Uncle Steve and his smoke machine blowing/fireworks spewing/dugout roof dancing/retired number-of-the-month promotional crew.

Maybe you're right.

But it still smells like braunschweiger to me.

Later

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

maybe not as bad as the Ford truck race, but bad.

The sausages & presidents work because they're people. These are objects. Objects aren't funny.

[Gwreck]

Bring back Randall Simon and it might be funny.

[metirish]

maybe not as bad as the Ford truck race, but bad.

The sausages & presidents work because they're people. These are objects. Objects aren't funny.

 

Right, The Freeze works in Atlanta for this reason,and it's different ( they are currently looking for a new sprinter)

[Frayed Knot]

Plus, if you're going to have a race rip-off at least have a little more originality with the runners.

Like maybe a Brooklyn Hipster racing against a Staten Island Mobster (and I mean real hipsters and mobsters, not just someone in costume)

against a Bronx Rapper and an actual Drag Queen from Queens, maybe from that airport bar Big Al was at all those years ago.

And for Manhattan you entice the subway pizza rat from several years back out of retirement. I mean, he'd never win (particularly while

dragging that slice with him everywhere) but folks would root for him for sure.

P.S. I hope they're not expecting G, K & R to enthusiastically support this.

[metirish]

Oh yes can't wait to see what GKR think, we know Gelbs will be all over it ( it's his job I guess)

[Lefty Specialist]

Omigod this is unimaginably stupid. I'm guessing from the looks of the outfits that every one of them will trip at least once before reaching the finish line.

[Fman99]

I'd like it more if the Bronx giraffe was always wearing a different MFY jersey, all of which had both the number and the name written on the back, like their dumb ass fans wear.

[Marshmallowmilkshake]

You guys are harsh. This looks kind of fun.

A lot of teams are doing this. Just in the games I went to last year, the Diamondbacks and White Sox had racers like former players, the Tigers have cars, the Pirates had perogies.

Keep in mind, the demographic posting here is not the intended audience. The old guys like me who still buy a program and keep score will barely look up when this is going on. They're aiming at the kids.

As far as the "small town hokey crap" and "This is New York" stuff, dude, we had Grimace hailed as a hero last season.

The racing presidents thing in Washington is brilliant. It was cool to see them roaming around before the game. I posed with TR.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Yeah, this is dumb, but who cares? And the Mets have been doing silly between-innings entertainment for years. There's no point pretending that New York City is above this kind of thing.

[Edgy MD]

It seems like a dumber idea than it did yesterday.

The interesting part of it is that it clearly is a product of a strategy to aim for the whole city as a fanbase, rather than just a niche within it.

I salute the mission, but not so much the execution (a slice of pizza racing a giraffe racing a skyscraper?).

I also wonder if they looped Jeffrey Goldberg in on the strategy sessions.

[Centerfield]

I think the idea is fun.

I think the costumes are a miss. In the other parks, it’s all sausages or all Presidents. Here the mascots are too much of a jumble.

There are so many things we could have done.

Buildings. ESB vs Chrysler vs Freedom Tower vs Statue of Liberty.

Mayors. Rudy. Bloomberg. Koch. La Guardia.

Foods. Pizza. Bagel. Apple. Knish. Taco. We could even use offensive stereotypes for this one.

[Centerfield]

Musicals.

Cat vs phantom vs French revolutionary vs chorus line

Maybe work in a rockette somehow.

[kcmets]

Racing a slice of pizza against a subway car? Really.

[Lefty Specialist]

Still think it's a dumb idea. It's also, as noted, been done many other times in many other places. How about something original?

[whippoorwill]

I like the idea but the costumes look very low budget

[kcmets]

In the short video I saw the first thing I thought of

was, "pick me Monty, pick me!"

[metirish]

Has Phil Mushnick slammed this yet?

[Edgy MD]

In the short video I saw the first thing I thought of

was, "pick me Monty, pick me!"

 

[whippoorwill]

Hahaha!

[metsmarathon]

I too like the idea but not the execution.

But cmon… oh noes there’s a ballpark race - how can this be in a big serious important city like New York!?

Hey, old guys! How long have we had various incarnations of computer animated video races like the delta dash or whatever else, up on the scoreboard? Have you been ****ing all over that, too, for the past 20, 30 years? **** I can’t even remember how long ago they started.

Jeezus alooo! What a bunch of old fussy ruddies. Sorry. Auto correct. What a bunch of old fuddy-duddies!

My only complaint is that the costumes are a miss, in that they look like they were each designed and built by a different committee of non-artists. There’s no stylistic unity across them.

They’re gonna be awkward and hilarious and awesome trundling around the warning track, careening to and fro. I love the idea of borough-authentic foodstuffs - it’s where I thought they were going with the pizza - but these are still pretty fun. Remember fun!?

It’s ****ing baseball, not a funeral for a kid who drowned saving a puppy from a frozen lake.

[Bob Alpacadaca]

I like the food idea!

If you are keeping the pizza for Brooklyn, Queens gets a glorious poppy seed bagel, and Manhattan gets a giant deli sandwich or a pretzel from a street cart, what are you noshing on in the Bronx or Staten Island?