Random Mets Jibber Jabber

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Was reminded recently that Wright's last HR helped 5 to overtake 18 in all-time HRs by uni number. No. 5 now trails only 20, which is currently unoccupied, 388-378.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I went to MBTN to peek at the list of Mets who wore number 5 as I was completely drawing a blank on previous 5's, other than Davey Johnson. I should have remember Olerud, but I was really surprised about Steve Henderson. I had no recollection that he was a 5. If somebody had asked me his number, I would have been dumbfounded to realize that I had no idea. I'm no longer good at retaining current uniform numbers (Dillon Gee? No idea! John Maine? Can't recall!) but back then I knew that stuff cold. I can't believe that at some point my brain decided that Steve Henderson's uniform number was no longer important.

[Edgy MD]

Others of the top of my head; Ed Charles, Mark Johnson, Mike Howard, Chico Escuela.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I'm getting worse as I age. Gee is 35. Maine 33.

[Ceetar]

I've always been bad with numbers.

But I made a sporcle quiz.

here you go.

http://www.sporcle.com/games/Ceetar/2012-mets-uniform-numbers

[Benjamin Grimm]

I got 17 right.

I had no idea for Niese, Parnell, Rauch, Beato, Byrdak, Batista, Quintanilla, and Torres.

I got Justin Turner and Kirk Nieuwenhuis' numbers by accident, because I must have been too slow in typing Ike Davis' number, but I would have known both of those anyway.

It seems like I do a lot better with position players than pitchers.

[Ceetar]

is 1 minute good or is that too fast?

[Benjamin Grimm]

It seemed reasonable.

[Ceetar]

btw I roughly clocked myself at 18 while making the quiz. I got all the position players except Torres, missed most of the relievers and a couldn't remember which number Gee and Niese were.

[batmagadanleadoff]

This is a coincidence. A few of us were playing Mets trivia last week and one of my friends asked the others to name as many Mets as we could that wore #5.

I won that one easily. I named almost 10 Mets before anyone else could name even one.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Got all but 4, only held up on Batista, didn't get to the last 3 on time.

[Ceetar]

It was 'reported' that Mets-Yankees could be home and home 2-2 series, but that's not entirely true.

It can either be 2-2, or just 3. Unless the Mets are playing the AL East that year, and then it can be 3-3.

(1) There will be no more than 20 Interleague games. The bulk of Interleague play will be based on a rotating division format, but may include no more than one series against a prime inter-league rival unless they play two two-game series. In the years when the corresponding divisions are scheduled for Interleague play, two series of three or fewer games against the prime inter-league rival may be played.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Here�s a photo of the Mets latest program, featuring the obligatory David Wright cover shot. I�ve got nothing against promoting the face of the franchise, but it�d be nice to see Dickey make the program cover just once. He�s been the team�s best pitcher throughout his entire Mets stint and even Turner and Gee made scorecard covers recently. Jon Niese made the cover twice in the last 12 months. There's still two months left in this season, and presumably, two more scorecards for release.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Yeah, because if there's one thing Read About-me Dickey needs, it's more attention.

[batmagadanleadoff]

R.I.P. Marylou Belles of Bethel, Connecticut, whose obituary reads, in part:

"She was also a lifelong NY Mets fan though surprisingly, that wasn't what killed her."

http://www.thepostgame.com/blog/daily-take/201207/mets-fan-dies-doesnt-blame-team

[batmagadanleadoff]

This may not be as prestigious as landing the cover of a national news magazine, or even a Mets program, but it's a start.

[Guest The Second Spitter]

Only 6 Mets, 24% of the active roster, played in Shea Stadium as a Met. Parnell and Niese only twice. Murphy only for that last two months. Santana, Pelfrey, and Wright are the only three that even really remember 'collapsing'. When the other three showed up they were already falling down. . Muffy played an integral role in this doggie doodie game. (Seriously considered giving up baseball after that game).

That's the game I go back to again and again, it really turned me against the whole franchise. After that, it was nothing but regrettably bad ideas and bad luck, demolishing Shea, rehiring jerry and Omar, the economic collapse and madoff mess, the idiotic putz trade, the bernazard affair, the thud with which Citi field opened, etc etc.

I was going through an old hard drive and managed to find a vid of Bucket and Ceetar sitting next to each other at said game:

[Edgy MD]

Nice. Unflappable Met Fan should be a meme.

[Ceetar]

nah, I don't smile.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Does anybody here really think that the choice seats at Citi Field, field level at and around home plate are mostly sold out, as the Mets claim? Those sections are way too empty, too often, for the Mets' claims to hold any water. And if the Mets really did sell out (or mostly sell out) all of their choice seats, why the hell are they running ads for the Champions Club with the all you can eat buffet, like every two or three innings on every SNY broadcast?

[Ceetar]

batmagadanleadoff wrote: Does anybody here really think that the choice seats at Citi Field, field level at and around home plate are mostly sold out, as the Mets claim? Those sections are way too empty, too often, for the Mets' claims to hold any water. And if the Mets really did sell out (or mostly sell out) all of their choice seats, why the hell are they running ads for the Champions Club with the all you can eat buffet, like every two or three innings on every SNY broadcast?

Champions Clubs are different seats.


and yes. I do. despite what the media tells you, the club (and other clubs) don't actually care if those seats look empty on TV. These are the rich people seats. They leave early, they come late. They eat tickets when the team sucks and they're busy. They hang out in the Sterling Club in the air conditioning. They give away the tickets as perks, to people that rarely ever get to sit down there, that want to check out the Sterling Club while they have the option to.

And those people probably deserve at least part of the blame for not being able to go behind the dugouts to watch batting practice.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Ceetar wrote: Does anybody here really think that the choice seats at Citi Field, field level at and around home plate are mostly sold out, as the Mets claim? Those sections are way too empty, too often, for the Mets' claims to hold any water. And if the Mets really did sell out (or mostly sell out) all of their choice seats, why the hell are they running ads for the Champions Club with the all you can eat buffet, like every two or three innings on every SNY broadcast? Champions Clubs are different seats. and yes. I do. despite what the media tells you, the club (and other clubs) don't actually care if those seats look empty on TV. These are the rich people seats. They leave early, they come late. They eat tickets when the team sucks and they're busy. They hang out in the Sterling Club in the air conditioning. They give away the tickets as perks, to people that rarely ever get to sit down there, that want to check out the Sterling Club while they have the option to.

What's different about Champions Club seats? They're choice seats, close behind home plate more or less, and among the most expensive at CF.

From first hand experience, (but not as a rich master of the universe, I regret) I disagree with your characterization of what those "rich" owners do with their seats, and how it explains swaths of virtually empty choice seating. You're just repeating a stereotype. Are you saying that if you were gifted a pair of field level seats 75 feet from home plate, you wouldn't sit in them?

Ceetar wrote: And those people probably deserve at least part of the blame for not being able to go behind the dugouts to watch batting practice.

Nah. That's on the Mets.

[batmagadanleadoff]

OE -- There's some truth to what you wrote. I'm not dismissing it outright. But there's also, I think, a lot of urban legend to your post, and it doesn't account for the level of vacancy you see in those choice sections at CF, game after game after game. Even when Dickey pitches. By contrast, ticket prices for seats in the section behind home plate underneath the netting at Shea Stadium reached prohibitively expensive levels by the late 1990's. And those sections were never as empty as the choice sections at CF. Not even during the Art Howe years.

[Ceetar]

I'd definitely get up and check out the club (sorry, it 's the Delta Sky _Lounge_ not Club. I've been to the Club, which has slightly more liberal access, though not by much) behind the plate, especially if the game sucked/was meaningless, which it has more often than not since Citi Field opened. And I go to 15-20 games a year anyway, so it's not like it's my only chance to see live action. But here's the twist..what if I was offered these seats to a Yankee game? Or a Yankees fan was offered Citi Field seats. I'm definitely taking them, but then have virtually zero interest in the game.

It's true, i'm probably stereotyping the rich folk. Plenty of rich folk, and likely a similar percentage as not-rich folk, are baseball fans. I don't know what types of people own those seats, and if they do in fact look at it as an investment/perk of sorts and don't mind not going/giving away the seats when it's not worth it. The people that do go balked in 2009 when the Mets discounted some of the expensive seats a lot to get people to go. I imagine this same philosophy is why we don't see any contests that give you those seats if there are in fact any available. I do think that fans in those seats as visible by the cameras are a poor representation of how sold they are though. You can usually get an inkling of the more common sections by how spread out people are. massive swaths of empty seats usually means unsold, whereas a couple of people per row usually means no-shows/walkers/standers. (There are great places to stand after all)

*checks*

in fact, they are available, so you're right. section 15 row 6 seat 7 and 8 are available for the 'home stretch' if you click through the season ticket links on mets.com. Do the Mets claim these seats are mostly sold? I clicked for 4 in the second to highest section, delta silver or whatever(only $2,881.00 per seat for the rest of the year..), and found spots for that too.


I only say the Champions Club is different because it's sorta that weird overhang area behind home plate and feels separate than the others. Too expensive for regular fans, but not seemingly worth it for folks that can afford it. I suspect this is why they tried the all-inclusive party feel to it for this year. You even have to go up the general escalator in the Rotunda to get there and not the special Delta one. But the CC sucks. I went in there last year when it was more 'general' admission. It's just a bar, one on either side. some nice pictures (and they're screwed if they get a third Champion to celebrate..where are they going to put it?) and then the ramp up to the seats in that section.



I think the difference at Shea was (besides the economy obviously. I think prohibitively expensive didn't come until mid-2000s, but I guess it depends on prohibitively for who) that people already owned those seats and were sitting there. The jump season to season was never enough to make enough people say no, I'm not renewing. And no real clubs to hide in. I bet more of those people were just Mets fans too, versus corporations/businesses that saw a perk. Citi Field's price jump, coupled with the economy in some situations, scared people away. As they adjusted (same for the Yankees too, so this is probably not a 'Mets suck' thing) the prices it was harder to draw people in to buy new seats. The people that really wanted them chose other sections, other areas. Also, I'm not sure what he numbers are, but I think there are probably a lot more of these seats at Citi Field. The Mets gambled that the people sitting in the outer parts of the Field level at Shea would upgrade to sit at the nice seats at Citi Field, but it doesn't seem that way.

[bmfc1]

I love Amazin' Avenue's regular column, "This Week In SNY." Here's the latest:

http://www.amazinavenue.com/2012/8/3/3214475/this-week-in-sny-featuring-terry-collins-bad-habit-snys-spelling

[seawolf17]

Only 6 Mets, 24% of the active roster, played in Shea Stadium as a Met. Parnell and Niese only twice. Murphy only for that last two months. Santana, Pelfrey, and Wright are the only three that even really remember 'collapsing'. When the other three showed up they were already falling down. . Muffy played an integral role in this doggie doodie game. (Seriously considered giving up baseball after that game). That's the game I go back to again and again, it really turned me against the whole franchise. After that, it was nothing but regrettably bad ideas and bad luck, demolishing Shea, rehiring jerry and Omar, the economic collapse and madoff mess, the idiotic putz trade, the bernazard affair, the thud with which Citi field opened, etc etc. I was going through an old hard drive and managed to find a vid of Bucket and Ceetar sitting next to each other at said game:

That was my last Shea game. Like I needed another reason to be in tears that night, jackwads.

[G-Fafif]

Mookie Wilson received only one tenth-place selection in MVP voting through his entire career -- and it was for the last two months of 1989 that he spent as a Blue Jay.

[G-Fafif]

batmagadanleadoff wrote: OE -- There's some truth to what you wrote. I'm not dismissing it outright. But there's also, I think, a lot of urban legend to your post, and it doesn't account for the level of vacancy you see in those choice sections at CF, game after game after game. Even when Dickey pitches. By contrast, ticket prices for seats in the section behind home plate underneath the netting at Shea Stadium reached prohibitively expensive levels by the late 1990's. And those sections were never as empty as the choice sections at CF. Not even during the Art Howe years.

Reminds me of an episode Bob Costas recalled in Loose Balls, Terry Pluto's enormously entertaining oral history of the ABA. He challenged the PR guy from the Miami Floridians on inflated attendance figures. Whatever the number he was given dwarfed the actual fannies in the seats, which Costas could count for himself during the game. The PR guy insisted all those folks were here, they're just up buying refreshments or using the washroom. Costas finished his reminiscence with some crack about how the plumbing would burst (or something like that) if this was true.

Anyway, I often think of that passage when I see the Mets report an attendance of 30,000.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Steak sandwiches coming to Citi Field.

http://newyork.mets.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20120806&content_id=36221706&vkey=pr_nym&c_id=nym

Pat Lafrieda to debut Original Filet Mignon Steak Sandwich tomorrow at Citi Field
New York City's Top Meat Purveyor Will Unveil The Pat LaFrieda Original Steak Sandwich, Available Exclusively at Citi Field

FLUSHING, N.Y., August 6, 2012 - The New York Mets today announced that Pat LaFrieda of Pat LaFrieda Meat Purveyors will introduce his Original Filet Mignon Steak Sandwich to the public at Citi Field tomorrow, Tuesday, August 7 when the Mets host the Miami Marlins at 7:10 p.m. The original LaFrieda family recipe features hand-cut 100% black angus seared filet mignon topped with Monterey jack cheese and sweet caramelized onions, served with a secret au jus on a custom-made and toasted French baguette (see attached photo). The sandwich will be available in LaFrieda Meats' own stand in Taste of the City on the Field Level behind the centerfield scoreboard near section 139. This officially marks LaFrieda Meats' first and only retail location. Prior to Citi Field, LaFrieda's steak sandwich was only available to lucky family and friends. "We are honored to be the first public venue to sell Pat's signature sandwich," said Jeff Wilpon, Chief Operating Officer, Mets. "Pat, with his long family history in the meat world, well-respected work ethic and choice of quality meats, is a perfect addition to the All-Star lineup of world-renowned restaurateurs and chefs at Citi Field." "Partnering with the New York Mets to bring our steak sandwich to the fans at Citi Field is a dream come true for our family," says Pat LaFrieda. "While at a game recently, I noticed a great steak sandwich was the only thing missing from the phenomenal food line-up, and thought our LaFrieda family recipe would be a perfect fit. We are honored to be able to open our first retail location at the home of the Mets where the Pat LaFrieda Original Filet Mignon Sandwich will take its place amongst the superior quality of food at one of New York City's most iconic venues." Pat LaFrieda Meat Purveyors will also supply Citi Field's Delta Sky360 Club and Acela Club. LaFrieda, known as the "Magician of Meat," owns and operates New York City's most prestigious and valued meat packing facility, Pat LaFrieda Meat Purveyors, which supplies the finest restaurants in NYC, DC, Philadelphia, Ohio, Las Vegas, Miami, Chicago and more. His family stars in the reality show "Meat Men" on The Food Network, which debuted in April. The third generation meat supplier is famous for its aged steak program and over 50 custom hamburger blends. LaFrieda is the mastermind behind such burgers as the famous "Black Label Burger" and aged steaks at Minetta Tavern (the reigning haute burger in NYC), as well as signature custom blends at hot spots such as Shake Shack, Spotted Pig, Union Square Caf�, and Blue Smoke.

******


Bullpen help is on the way. Mets recall Garrett Olson.

http://www.nj.com/mets/index.ssf/2012/08/mets_lefty_garrett_olson_calle.html
*********

Psychic help may be one the way, too. The Amazing Kreskin (amazing that he's still alive) sez he can help Mets.






http://www.amny.com/urbanite-1.812039/the-amazing-kreskin-i-can-help-amazin-s-1.3887032

[Guest Swan Swan H]

I know what I'm having tomorrow night. Thanks, batmags.