City Agency Hats NOW!!!! (split from Mets Uni Changes)

[Centerfield]

Edgy DC wrote: *Restore the tradition of city agency hats on September 11. Announce defiantly that you intend to do it in perpetuity, and whatever fine MLB gives the team, they will gladly pay it plus an equal amount to a September 11-related orphan scholarship fund. It's personal, MLB.

This, a hundred times. Give me a manager that will send the team out there in these hats no matter what the penalty. I want Selig to threaten a forfeit if the players don't don the MLB sanctioned hats, and I want our Manager to respond with "Then we forfeit. We're wearing our hats."

An easy way to do this would be to bring back Bobby as the manager. There is no way Bobby lets them take the field in anything but the city agency hats. This doesn't even belong in a uniform thread, where it's mainly about taste. This belongs in a "The Way Things Must ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY Be" thread. Those city agency hats were a symbol of how active the Mets were post-9/11. Bobby Valentine out there in the parking lots, Joe McEwing driving that forklift. When Shea Stadium's parking lot became a staging ground for the relief efforts. I've never been prouder to be a Mets fan. It's idiotic not to wear them. In fact, we should start a movement right now to make sure the Mets wear them on the tenth anniversary.

We need blogger help. Bombard everyone with emails. We have less than a month. We have to make this happen.

Edited August 16, 2011 by Guest

[Guest Edgy DC]

Bloggers? What say you?

[seawolf17]

Ab-so-goddamn-lutely.

[Centerfield]

I emailed Matt Cerrone at MetsBlog.

mattcerrone@metsblog.com

Anyone with email addresses for Rubin, tracksuit, etc. should post them here so we can flood their inboxes.

Seawolf, do you want to put something on your patch?

[TransMonk]

Yes, yes, yes!

[Guest Edgy DC]

Centerfield wrote: I emailed Matt Cerrone at MetsBlog. mattcerrone@metsblog.com Anyone with email addresses for Rubin, tracksuit, etc. should post them here so we can flood their inboxes.

Go for their Twitter feeds.

[Ceetar]

Edgy DC wrote: I emailed Matt Cerrone at MetsBlog. mattcerrone@metsblog.com Anyone with email addresses for Rubin, tracksuit, etc. should post them here so we can flood their inboxes. Go for their Twitter feeds.

most of their email addresses are fairly easy to find.

I don't like the City Agency hats though. I'm watching the Mets, not the FDNY.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Neither are you watching the New Yorks.

But I certainly applaud my team for sublimating their effort in something greater than themselves, and am disappointed when they fail to.

[Centerfield]

Do I have to be on twitter for me to tweet them?

[Ceetar]

Edgy DC wrote: Neither are you watching the New Yorks. But I certainly applaud my team for sublimating their effort in something greater than themselves, and am disappointed when they fail to.

Isn't altering hats/uniforms, even for limited occasions, affecting the brand? why do they need to go beyond recognizing the servicemen they've invited to the game and all the other _off the field_ things they do?

[Ceetar]

Centerfield wrote: Do I have to be on twitter for me to tweet them?

yeah.

Adam.Rubin@espn.com is Rubin's. Most of them are along those lines. (amartino@nydailynews.com i'd imagine, or something like that.) Steve Popper and Bobby Ojeda actually still use AOL mail. I laughed.

[Centerfield]

Adam,

I have been following you since your days at the Daily News. Thanks for your great coverage of the Mets.

I am writing to see if you will help my friends and me in our efforts to get the Mets to wear the city agency hats on the tenth anniversary of 9/11 as they did in that first game after the tragedy and for many years thereafter. I thought it was a touching tribute and a great symbol of what we suffered together as a city.

I was amazed at the efforts the Mets made during the aftermath of the tragedy. From Bobby Valentine working to all hours of the night, to Joe McEwing driving that forklift, to Shea Stadium's parking lot being a staging grounds for the recovery effort, I have never been more proud to be a Mets fan.

There will be many tributes on the tenth anniversary of this tragedy, but I thought the wearing of the hats, spurred by John Franco's personal connection, was spontaneous and heartfelt. I'd love to see this return this year.

I realize that MLB has sanctioned special hats, but 9/11 holds special meaning to the Mets, and I'd love to see them defy any regulation and return to their tradition.

Thanks Adam.

Feel free to cut/paste/edit if so inclined.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Ceetar wrote: Neither are you watching the New Yorks. But I certainly applaud my team for sublimating their effort in something greater than themselves, and am disappointed when they fail to. Isn't altering hats/uniforms, even for limited occasions, affecting the brand?

Yes, in a most powerful way.

Ceetar wrote: why do they need to go beyond recognizing the servicemen they've invited to the game and all the other _off the field_ things they do?

They don't need to. Some of us found this particar gesture to be honest, moving, powerful, spontaneous, defiant, unifying, and spirited. We continued to find it so in the following years. And when it was discontinued, we found it to be false, draining, weak, coersed, capitualting, divisive, and deflating.

[Centerfield]

Rubin responds:

Thanks for your note. I'll forward your email to David Newman, the Mets VP for marketing, who is involved in those types of decisions. Adam

Now looking for Newman's email.

[Ceetar]

Rubin responds: Thanks for your note. I'll forward your email to David Newman, the Mets VP for marketing, who is involved in those types of decisions. Adam Now looking for Newman's email.

Of course, you could've emailed Newman directly (I'd be shocked if it wasn't dnewman@nymets.com) , but probably would've gotten ignored.

[Centerfield]

His email:

dnewman@nymets.com

[HahnSolo]

Newman once responded to me within an hour by phone after I emailed the team through Mets.com about how shitty I thought their Shea Stadium Countdown was.

I wouldn't be shocked if you got a response.

[Centerfield]

I didn't get a chance to email him. He called me after getting Rubin's email.

Nice guy, said he can't disclose any details, but they are working on something special blah blah blah.

I think he needs to hear from you guys.

How about Adam Rubin? Very cool of him to respond.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Wow, great.

Thing is that we had something special. Something really special, spontaneous, and unique to the team.

[Guest themetfairy]

Centerfield wrote: I didn't get a chance to email him. He called me after getting Rubin's email.

CF once again establishes why he's king!

[seawolf17]

Please. I'm sure any time a lawyer contacts the Mets these days, an EMERGENCY red light and alarm start going off.

[metirish]

Outstanding all around , kudos to CF.

Agree totally in the city agency hats.

[metirish]

I sent a tweet to Dickey and Turner.

[ashie62]

The Mets did not corner the market on post attack support..Many, many help..I don't see why you to change a hat to honor them. It's like name dropping.

[ashie62]

Edgy DC wrote: Wow, great. Thing is that we had something special. Something really special, spontaneous, and unique to the team.

We???

[Guest Edgy DC]

Yeah.

[Centerfield]

It's official. This board can and will argue any topic. You guys are certainly entitled to your opinions, but it boggles my mind there is any disagreement on this.

The hats were not name-dropping. They weren't part of some organized, pre-planned effort. It was not done for the brand, or to suggest they had cornered the market on helping victims. They wore the hats to honor those that had fallen, and to honor those who were still doing the job, notwithstanding that the dangerous nature of their work had just been horrifically demonstrated to them. They wore them because they looked at the firemen and cops wearing Mets hats and said, "You know what, we're fans of your's. We're going to wear your hats."

I liked the fact that they wore them in the years afterwards because it reminded me how great that 2001 team was. Not in the standings, but in what they did for the community. I liked it because they swore never to forget, and every time they wore those hats it demonstrated that they hadn't. I like seeing those hats because they wore them in one of the biggest games in Mets history. Even Chipper Jones said afterwards he was glad the Mets won.

When they dropped that tradition it was incredibly disappointing. Something real and heartfelt was replaced by something fabricated. For the ten year, I want the Mets to buck convention and go back to a tradition that was dropped way too early.

[Ceetar]

Sure, and breast cancer is a horrible disease, and pink bats are a nice idea.

The recent equalization of marriage was a huge deal. Should the Mets wear hats celebrating that on the anniversary every year?

Noble cause or not, the team is being used to promote a cause. Maybe in a couple of years MLB attendance is down and the commissioner figures what's really the difference between FDNY caps and Pepsi caps?

It's one thing to have a one-off remembrance as baseball returns and the city/country grieves, but life goes on. Baseball has weathered World Wars and Depression and all sorts of catastrophes. The idea of wearing the caps is to remind everyone, every second, about the event. That's not what baseball is about. Baseball is the game, it's the escape, it's the balm for the wound. You can remember, and celebrate those people. Have them on the broadcast, mention their names, put it up on the scoreboard, have them throw out the first pitch. Do the same gimmicks you do for everything else, but leave the game itself alone.

[metirish]

Ceetar is a terrorist , he's gotta be, probably hates America too.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Ceetar, I'm going to honorably ask you to go back and read the post before yours a little more closely, because I think you missed a lot.