2013 All-Star Game

[Edgy MD]

Um, YEAH!

[Edgy MD]

So, rooting for a team that hasn't hosted one of these things in my lifetime, I have to ask... who goes to All-Star games? Are the seats filled by fans of the local team delighted with the opportunity to host the greatest players or is it all out-of-town swells cashing in on one more entitlement?

Not that we don't have plenty of in-town swells.

[Ceetar]

Edgy DC wrote: So, rooting for a team that hasn't hosted one of these things in my lifetime, I have to ask... who goes to All-Star games? Are the seats filled by fans of the local team delighted with the opportunity to host the greatest players or is it all out-of-town swells cashing in on one more entitlement? Not that we don't have plenty of in-town swells.

In 2006 I spotted jerseys of every major league team, except the Rockies. We hung out in the left field twirling ramp hoping for a just fair home run during the derby with two Cubs fans and just generally had a good time.

For the game we stood out in left field. It was fun, people were into it. It certainly wasn't electric or anything like that, but it felt focused on the field and the action. It felt like a lot of baseball fans just enjoying the game. We knew it didn't really mean much, but baseball is awesome, so it always means something. And there were a lot of cool players on the field to watch, that you could actually appreciate without feeling guilty. It's okay to watch and root for Pujols at the All-Star Game, even though when you normally see him in person it's because he's visiting NY and you want him to fail horribly.

I might equate it to what an early Spring Training game would be like with 45k people that know all the players. You're tangibly excited to see whoever stride up to the plate or pitching, but you're not living or dying with whether or not Josh Johnson strikes out David Ortiz with one out and Michael Young on third.

I'm sure there were suits and celebrities everywhere too, but it the ballpark and concourses were not obviously full of them. More baseball jersey density than you get at even a normal baseball game. The percentages might obviously be different next year given it's New York over Pittsburgh, but I think it'll be a good time.

[Gwreck]

Edgy DC wrote: who goes to All-Star games? Are the seats filled by fans of the local team delighted with the opportunity to host the greatest players or is it all out-of-town swells cashing in on one more entitlement

A little from category A, a little from category B.

MLB gets about 10,000 tickets for the game, which are distributed to sponsors, other teams, guest tickets for players in the game, etc. Needless to say these are not the crappy seats.

The team's season ticket holders get to buy seats, and the Mets are extending a purchase offer to partial plan holders as well.

No matter what, a very small allotment (less than a thousand) seats are put on sale to the general public.

In the case of the Mets, there will probably be some additional seats for sale to the general public above the MLB-mandated minimum given the size of the season-ticket base.

Even if you should be so lucky to purchase tickets, you are required to buy them as a "strip" of seats - that is to say, a ticket for the Game, Home Run Derby, Futures Game, plus 2 fanfest tickets and the official All-Star Program all at once. Depending on seat location, the "strip" will run you at least several hundred bucks.

[Ceetar]

I think the Pittsburgh strip was $190, but I think it'll probably be at least twice that.

I assume the Mets will also sell a couple of thousand SRO tickets, and that'll probably be the vast majority of what's available to the masses without a plan.

[Gwreck]

$190/strip for standing room in 2006? Sounds about right. I figure maybe $250/strip for that in 2013, and maybe $400/strip for the worst seats.

[Ceetar]

Gwreck wrote: $190/strip for standing room in 2006? Sounds about right. I figure maybe $250/strip for that in 2013, and maybe $400/strip for the worst seats.

yup, I actually tossed them up on ebay or stubhub or something the week before and didn't get a bite. (I'd bought them on a whim figuring I could easily make a $100) So I took off from work (that didn't go real well, but they're assholes so..) with a friend Monday morning and drove to Pittsburgh.

[nymr83]

MLB was never going to give Shea the sendoff that it gave that rundown shithole in the Bronx.

[Frayed Knot]

Nymr83 wrote: MLB was never going to give Shea the sendoff that it gave that rundown shithole in the Bronx.

The Mets also didn't want the game.

[nymr83]

Frayed Knot wrote: Nymr83 wrote: MLB was never going to give Shea the sendoff that it gave that rundown shithole in the Bronx. The Mets also didn't want the game.

Were they offered it?

[Benjamin Grimm]

I think you have to put in a request, and the Mets just never did that.

[Frayed Knot]

I don't believe it ever got around to the point of being offered the game because the Mets simply communicated to the league office that they had no interest in hosting one while still in Shea.

[Edgy MD]

By all reports, the Mets' management was embarrassed in hosting the World Series at Shea in 2000 and were looking down the road past Shea every moment since. And likely were for at least a decade before that.

I would have loved the All-Star game at Shea, but Fred Wilpon (and Doubleday, to a lesser extent) saw it as being the belle of the ball but not having a nice frock to wear.

[Guest Mets � Willets Point]

Edgy DC wrote: By all reports, the Mets' management was embarrassed in hosting the World Series at Shea in 2000 and were looking down the road past Shea every moment since.

So they made sure that the Mets would never host a World Series again. They probably even drugged Beltran so he wouldn't be able to swing the bat.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Edgy DC wrote: By all reports, the Mets' management was embarrassed in hosting the World Series at Shea in 2000 and were looking down the road past Shea every moment since. And likely were for at least a decade before that.

I'm having trouble reconciling that these same bozos who signed off on one of the most aesthetically unimaginative of the new stadiums, with the ugliest scoreboards, the 19th brick wall backstop backdrop and the same fucking erector set lattice gridwork that holds together just about every other scoreboard in baseball were ashamed of Shea Stadium. And the thing of it is that the late '90's/early '00's was the perfect time to have the ASG at Shea. Back then, the Mets were virtually entitled to the ASG, given the amount of time that passed since the last and only Shea ASG. Instead, these selfish pricks deprived an entire generation of Mets fans, some of whom are without doubt, no longer here, of another Shea ASG.

There's no way MLB would've awarded the Mets a Shea ASG send-off, even if the Mets wanted it. MLB wouldn't let NYC host the game two straight years.

[Ceetar]

well, i'd rather be the team with the nice pretty new stadium that's fun to watch a game with than the team forcing MLB to wade through standing water and cram into a crappy building. You're right, 5 years apart is probably already pushing it for NYC All-Star Games, and having it at Citi is going to be a much better experience.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Ceetar wrote: well, i'd rather be the team with the nice pretty new stadium that's fun to watch a game with than the team forcing MLB to wade through standing water and cram into a crappy building. You're right, 5 years apart is probably already pushing it for NYC All-Star Games, and having it at Citi is going to be a much better experience.

What are you talking about? The Mets coulda hosted the ASG during the Bobby V era and still host it next year or soon after.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Ceetar wrote: well, i'd rather be the team with the nice pretty new stadium that's fun to watch a game with than the team forcing MLB to wade through standing water and cram into a crappy building. You're right, 5 years apart is probably already pushing it for NYC All-Star Games, and having it at Citi is going to be a much better experience.

Ya know ... giving Citi Field points because it's more functional than Shea, which it is, isn't saying much, is it? It's like shooting fish in a barrel.

[Ceetar]

batmagadanleadoff wrote: Ceetar wrote: well, i'd rather be the team with the nice pretty new stadium that's fun to watch a game with than the team forcing MLB to wade through standing water and cram into a crappy building. You're right, 5 years apart is probably already pushing it for NYC All-Star Games, and having it at Citi is going to be a much better experience. What are you talking about? The Mets coulda hosted the ASG during the Bobby V era and still host it next year or soon after.

yes, but when it came around 2005 and all that the stadiums were going away and it was the last chance for such, given that it seemed very unlikely for the Mets to host the game at Citi Field for decades if they did it at Shea, i'm glad it went this way.

I wasn't giving credit to Citi for being functional, I was cringing at the idea of being at Shea with 60k people and trying to do anything but stay glued to my seat. And I know that's generally the point of a baseball game, but it's not quite the point of the All-Star days imo.

[Ceetar]

some logo stuff.

Supposedly at the 42nd street Mets Clubhouse

http://metspolice.com/2012/08/03/does-the-2013-mets-all-star-game-logo-look-like-the-one-on-this-t-shirt-allegedly-at-the-mets-store/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheMetsPolice+%28The+Mets+Police%29



here too: http://news.sportslogos.net/2012/08/03/first-look-at-2013-mlb-all-star-game-logo/

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

It's a shame the same two or three guys design every WS/ASG/MLB logo these days, but not a bad design I suppose.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Doesn't evoke an all-star game. Other than that it says "All Star Game".

[batmagadanleadoff]

Tough act to follow, scoreboard wise.

Good


Bad


Ugly

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

I like it!

I was fearing the worst after the "Inaugural Year" debacle.

[Ceetar]

metsguyinmichigan wrote: I like it! I was fearing the worst after the "Inaugural Year" debacle.

well that was Citi designed.

Can we stop with the scoreboard stuff in every thread about Citi Field in any way? I get it, you don't like it.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Are you the guy that hates Dan Warthen?

[Ceetar]

batmagadanleadoff wrote: Are you the guy that hates Dan Warthen?

He's bad at his job, I don't hate him.

[metirish]

it's subtle but that crown on the KC scoreboard has me thinking Burger king.....

[Ceetar]

metirish wrote: it's subtle but that crown on the KC scoreboard has me thinking Burger king.....

I go more court jester.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Ceetar wrote: batmagadanleadoff wrote: Are you the guy that hates Dan Warthen? He's bad at his job, I don't hate him.

Well I don't hate the Mets scoreboard. I just think it's the ugliest in all of baseball.