Official Shea Stadium Countdown Tracker Thread

[G-Fafif]

Today's 65 in the "real" countdown was Gretchen Randolph and Willie's Kids, for Mother's Day. Nice enough gesture, borderline significance to the scheme of the things. Better than bringing out the regional manager for Toyota, sponsor of the pink caps.

[G-Fafif]

I appreciate Steve's kind words and, more to the point, the attempt he made to track what the Mets are doing, even if what the Mets are doing is half-hearted and half-assed. Bringing back the Jets (which got rained out), bringing Ed Charles back on Jackie Robinson Night, bringing three '64 Mets in on the anniversary of the stadium opening -- fantastic. Random sponsors, Kids Clubhouse hosts who just got the job, Cyberchase mascots -- oy.

Thank you for indulging the Countdown Like It Oughta Be. Highlights will continue to be presented here and, as Steve indicated, CLIOB continues in real time at Faith and Fear.

[Gwreck]

Steve gets a lot of shit on this board (some deserved, some undeserved) but I too second and appreciate his contribution here in this thread. And wish that he would continue.

Steve, I think the second game saw the Premio Sausage guys who were supposed to do the Friday game that got rained out.

[HahnSolo]

I like the thread too. Particularly when comparing G-Fafif's brilliant list with what the Mets are actually doing.

[G-Fafif]

If you like climate-driven irony -- and commerce-driven reality -- then tonight, amid forecast 40-degree wind chills and probably not quite enough rain to wash the damn thing out (he says as a ticketholder who wouldn't mind staying home as a nor'easter batters the area), 64 is slated to be revealed by "a representative from Bermuda Tourism". Perhaps Casey and Gil will make it rain out of vengeance for this blatant placement of sponsorship grabass amid what should be a sacred exercise.

In Oughta Be land, we assigned this date and the removal of originally scheduled 63 to Anthony Coscia, chairman of the Port Authority, the agency that runs LaGuardia Airport, so as to acknowledge all those incoming and outgoing flights that have forced all those batters and pitchers to call time out and all those fans to pause their conversations.

And because nobody knows who the hell Anthony Coscia is, we have him joined by the Met who disrupted more air traffic than anyone else, David Arthur Kingman.

He hit 73 Shea home runs in two tours as a New York Met, and seemingly each and every one of them was a cause for concern among pilots flying into and out of LaGuardia.

Edited May 12, 2008 by Guest

[Benjamin Grimm]

Let's see if we can't get Pete Tucci on the list.

[Guest AG/DC]

Even if only counting his home runs at Shea, Kong's got to be credited with his homers there as a guest. I count 15 more.

[G-Fafif]

Yeah, I originally wrote 154 and realized that was off, though you know, if Sky hit 'em in Philadelphia they went up on the LGA radar.

He did hit a bus in the parking lot as a Giant youngster.

[Guest AG/DC]

And he was a giant youngster.

[soupcan]

[stevejrogers]

Well they got the countdown back on their official Game Notes, but tonight's is quite infuriating, some suit from Bermuda Tourism!

Couple of things;

Tonight is ASIAN heritage night (and the first of the Heritage dates for 2008) One would think the tourism board for anywhere in the Far East from Macau to Japan would provide the corporate tie-in!

Second, it infuriates me to think that the Cardinals threw in some opponents whenever they didn't have a current Red Bird or a Red Bird from the past do the flipping. For instance JUNIOR GRIFFEY did it one series when the Reds were in town. It would have been neat to see good old JB pull down a number, representing the Big Red Machine that the Mets defeated in 73.

Okay, we are playing the Nationals tonight so not much in the way of historic ties that are with the current Nat franchise (despite the members of the 2006 Mets on the roster and as the skipper) but come on, HAVE SOME FUN WITH THIS METS? Stop treating your fanbase as if they only started following the team in 2005!

And this rant isn't just based on a silly countdown. This rant is for; the "Everybody Clap Your Hands" song,
the 8th inning sing-a-long,
the Pepsi Party Patrol shirt launch,
the need to do silly, minor league-esque contests throughout the game,
the fact that the Mets do what stupid gimmick MLB directs them to do, such as the idiotic campaigning for whomever is in second in the all star balloting, deserving or not, during the final week or so of the voting period (Call me a Yankee fan all you want, but they DO NOT do that at Yankee Stadium)
"Who Let The Dogs Out" and the Baja Men playing on the field before Game 3 of the 2000 World Series.

Not to mention that certain people (Randolph for example) seem to want to label the "real fans" as the ones who buy into all this nonsense because they are the ones actually cheering despite the quality on the field, clapping the hands, playing along with whatever insipid thing the Mets are throwing at them, singing along to whatever dreck is played in the 8th inning and such.

Somewhere in the late 1990s, probably whenever David Howard took over as the Mets marketing guy, this franchise just became bush in terms of how they've treated their fanbase. Rather than treating the fans as knowledgeable about the history of the franchise as a whole, they've only lived in the here and now, and act as if 1969 and 1986 are the ONLY years worth a damn (Yes I know there aren't that many other years but still, lets not act like the only years worth noting are the world championship seasons). To that end, they treat the fans as if they are nothing but johnny come latelys.

You know, we Met fans, Red Sox fans, and other Yankee haters love to crack jokes about how a good portion of Yankee fans became Yankee fans after 1996 (obviously not counting youngsters who just started watching baseball around that time) but you know what, there really is a core of Yankee fans who DO care about history and tradition. There are Yankee fans who can tell you Roberto Kelly was traded for Paul O'Neill and that Jay Buhner for Ken Phelps was one of the worse deals in recent times. There are Yankee fans that use the names Kevin Mass and Horace Clarke as badges of courage, as in "Hey I rooted for them when they stunk" and the Yankees marketing staff GET THAT, and they treat their fans accordingly. The Mets are sorely lacking in this regard, no wonder the Mets and their fans seem to get laughed at by morons like Colin Cowherd of ESPN Radio.

[stevejrogers]

From the Mets Game Notes for this evening's game, yet another suit from Lincoln Mercury!

Why not have whomever wrote "Mercury Blues" do it then?

To quote Billy Walsh, SUITS SUCK!

[Benjamin Grimm]

[stevejrogers]

Then they should have said so on the dopey game notes press release package.

Just to add to the rant, in 2012 the Mets will be celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the franchise. I'm getting the feeling that if the same marketing crew that is around now is around 4 years from now, 1986's 25th Anniversary would blow the 2012 one away in terms of how things are celebrated.

[Willets Point]

Damn, Steve Jeets dissed the Premier of Bermuda.

I wonder if he wore shorts with his suit.

[stevejrogers]

[Benjamin Grimm]

This will probably provoke an international incident.

Before the summer is out, I'll bet we're at war with Bermuda.

[G-Fafif]

Maybe if Lincoln Mercury manufactured the ol' bullpen cart...

Speaking of which, tonight's scheduled Countdown Like It Oughta Be number is 62 and it's being taken down by your bullpen coach/tomato tender of yore, Joe Pignatano.

He was the planter, the farmer and the inspiration, to say nothing of a pretty fair tutor of relief pitchers across 14 seasons.

[HahnSolo]

Which corporate sponsor gets the lowest number of the countdown? I'm guessing somebody from Keyspan, or whatever it's called now. I figure they'll come in around #12.

[Guest themetfairy]

[Guest Edgy DC]

And good cream soda.

[Guest themetfairy]

Cream soda?

I think you mean ginger beer.

Oh, THAT Dr. Brown!

[stevejrogers]

Never mind...

Great that he is a Met fan, but again, the game notes listed him as "Representive for Bermuda Tourism" so that to anyone who wasn't there, or paying attention to the TV would assume they were doing a complete random person. Hence part of my frustration of how the Mets are handling this whole thing.

Edited May 13, 2008 by Guest

[Guest themetfairy]

Edited, based on Steve's edit.

[HahnSolo]

Boomer Esiason and Craig Carton of the WFAN morning show will do the honors before tonight's game.

[Guest AG/DC]

Esiason didn't even play at Shea as a guest.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I'm starting to think that everyone, us, the media, the bloggers, everyone, should just ignore this thing except for on the rare occasions when they have someone worthwhile pulling the sign.

A Lincoln Mercury dealer from Staten Island? Ignore it! Completely!

Guiseppe Franco? Ignore it!

Jerry Koosman? Talk about it! Write about it! Celebrate it!

[G-Fafif]

="Benjamin Grimm"]I'm starting to think that everyone, us, the media, the bloggers, everyone, should just ignore this thing except for on the rare occasions when they have someone worthwhile pulling the sign. A Lincoln Mercury dealer from Staten Island? Ignore it! Completely! Guiseppe Franco? Ignore it! Jerry Koosman? Talk about it! Write about it! Celebrate it!

Giuseppe Franco? COOL!

We snuck Boomer in back at 73 as one of the April 17 babies (led by NJ Devil legend Ken Daneyko, b. 4/17/1964) who took down a number on April 17 -- same birthday as Shea. The connections were tenuous, but as indicated earlier, it was a fanciful choice.

As for tonight's Oughta Be pick, 61 is to be removed by Shea visitor turned cause celebre Mike Andrews, the Oakland Athletic Charlie Finley tried to elbow off the roster for making three errors in Game Two of the '73 World Series. A firestorm erupted (this was the same month as Spiro Agnew's resignation and the Saturday Night Massacre; firestorms erupted easily then) and Bowie Kuhn would not allow Finley's on-the-fly rejiggering. Andrews became a victimized hero.

Mets fans recognized the raw deal Mike was receiving from Charlie Finley, so when he came to bat as a pinch-hitter in the fourth game of that Fall Classic, Mets fans rose as one and supported him with a long and loud ovation. They gave him a second round of applause as he made his way back to the Oakland dugout after he grounded out.

Mike never forgot the reception he got at Shea, normally a tough place for visitors to play, that much more intense with a world championship on the line. Mike would say of Mets fans, "The ovations gave me chills, it surprised me. I don't think I've ever had a standing ovation in my life. To me that meant everything."

[batmagadanleadoff]

="G-Fafif"]As for tonight's Oughta Be pick, 61 is to be removed by Shea visitor turned cause celebre Mike Andrews, the Oakland Athletic Charlie Finley tried to elbow off the roster for making three errors in Game Two of the '73 World Series.

In Game Three of that Series, (Andrews +1) Felix Millan grounded a single off the body of Oakland Third Baseman Sal Bando. Millan's grounder was apparently botched by Bando, notwithstanding the Official Scorer's interpretation. Sign Man Karl Ehrhardt followed with this sign: "You're Fired!"

Edited May 14, 2008 by Guest

[Guest themetfairy]

It annoys me that the Phillies made every number count in 2003, and the Mets are pissing away this wonderful opportunity.