Drive in Style

[batmagadanleadoff]

Sotheby�s is auctioning something else on April 1 that is more portable and probably more fun to own than tall stadium letters: a Mets bullpen cart that used to deliver relievers to the pitching mound at Shea Stadium. For $20,000 to $30,000 � the price range estimated by Sotheby�s � a fan with money to burn can fantasize about being Tug McGraw.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/10/sports/baseball/reggie-jackson-to-auction-off-sign-from-old-yankee-stadium.html

[Guest cooby]

Or Bud Harrelson.

I'll bet they could get more $$$ than that.

[Lefty Specialist]

Buying one of these is on my bucket list.

[Frayed Knot]

Sigh ... if only it were street legal.

[G-Fafif]

Some info is about to come to light that will make this thread explode.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Bitter Bill Price is buying the Mets buggy?

[G-Fafif]

I'd be aqua green with envy.

[Edgy MD]

I was thinking Metfairy was bidding.

[Guest themetfairy]

Nah - I'm electing to go broke on MK's education instead.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

G-Fafif wrote: Some info is about to come to light that will make this thread explode.

Winning bidder also gets a Manufacturers Hanover Anycar?

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

long live avi

Edited March 19, 2015 by Guest

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

G-Fafif wrote: Some info is about to come to light that will make this thread explode.

Oh should have guessed. Seller's name rhymes with Jed + Freff Nilpon.

[G-Fafif]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: G-Fafif wrote: Some info is about to come to light that will make this thread explode. Oh should have guessed. Seller's name rhymes with Jed + Freff Nilpon.

They'd only sell off something fans hold dear that they already have in their possession -- like the hopes and dreams of a half-decade or possibly more.

But they wouldn't lift a finger to buy something fans hold dear...

Besides a lefty reliever, I mean.

[G-Fafif]

Q&A with the cart guy (I'm one of the Q'ers), who reveals Wilpon & Co. haven't returned his inquiries vis-vis "you guys want it back?" Very cool details on how the cart rolled from Doubleday to this guy & what it's been doing since.

http://metspolice.com/2015/03/19/how-the-mets-bullpen-cart-went-private-and-why-i-dont-expect-the-mets-to-get-it-back/

[batmagadanleadoff]

G-Fafif wrote: Q&A with the cart guy (I'm one of the Q'ers), who reveals Wilpon & Co. haven't returned his inquiries vis-vis "you guys want it back?" Very cool details on how the cart rolled from Doubleday to this guy & what it's been doing since. http://metspolice.com/2015/03/19/how-the-mets-bullpen-cart-went-private-and-why-i-dont-expect-the-mets-to-get-it-back/

If I posted this information when I started this thread, you might've asked him about it:

About 10 or 11 years ago, I remember seeing the Mets bullpen cart being offered on eBay. The "Buy it Now" price was either $200K or a quarter million dollars, although the seller stated that the selling price was negotiable. I remember that the seller indicated that he was in possession of the cart and that it was at his house on Long Island. Pictures showed the bullpen cart outdoors at what appeared to be the seller's nice-sized and very grassy backyard.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Q&A with the cart guy (I'm one of the Q'ers), who reveals Wilpon & Co. haven't returned his inquiries vis-vis "you guys want it back?" Very cool details on how the cart rolled from Doubleday to this guy & what it's been doing since. http://metspolice.com/2015/03/19/how-the-mets-bullpen-cart-went-private-and-why-i-dont-expect-the-mets-to-get-it-back/ If I posted this information when I started this thread, you might've asked him about it: About 10 or 11 years ago, I remember seeing the Mets bullpen cart being offered on eBay. The "Buy it Now" price was either $200K or a quarter million dollars, although the seller stated that the selling price was negotiable. I remember that the seller indicated that he was in possession of the cart and that it was at his house on Long Island. Pictures showed the bullpen cart outdoors at what appeared to be the seller's nice-sized and very grassy backyard.

___________

Sean O�Shea: What happened to the old hat? Shannon Shark: or is that the same/old hat? Same old hat. They re-painted to logo before I got it � so more than 15 years ago. You can see that up close.

Same old cloth hat? Because the cart Franco used to drive in Tug had a hard hat. Does "Jamie" own the hard hat car? Is the hard hat car the original cart with the cloth cap replaced? Or is the hard hat car a new car that was never used by the Mets during their bullpen cart era? I'm confused.

OE: I doubt that the Mets had a brand new cart built just so that Franco could drive Tug around for 2 minutes in 2003. The Mets probably borrowed cart guy's cart. And in 2003, the cart had a hard plastic cap, not the original cloth cap.

[G-Fafif]

Might be worthy of a followup. I didn't lead the inquiry (I was just invited to send in some Q's), but I'll see about contacting him.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

This whole business is gross.

Let's not let this guy off the hook for bleeding some other vain asshole for $30K. That the Mets aren't going to pay Sotheby's memorabilia auction prices for a golf cart they don't need or want anymore isn't a crime, or a surprise. You can't watch them chop Shea into tiny pieces to feed their own memorabilia riches then act surprised this doesn't happen.

Couldn't the guy do right by everyone and loan it to the museum before selling it?

[G-Fafif]

That, too, is a reasonable question.

If anybody else wants to throw a few more in the pot, I'll forward them. (Maybe he'd be willing to come here for himself and do his own direct answering.)

[batmagadanleadoff]

What's this business about cart guy having to get to Doubleday's within 30 minutes to close the deal? What if cart guy agreed over the phone, then got stuck in traffic or got a flat tire or something and was delayed? Delayed enough that he arrived at Doubleday's at precisely the same time as the other potential buyer got there? I can't believe Doubleday would make such a kooky arrangement.

I suppose that once cart guy promised to show up to buy the cart, Doubleday could have called off the first potential buyer to avoid that kooky scenario imagined above. But then there'd be no need for cart guy to have to get to Doubleday within half an hour.

[batmagadanleadoff]

How could cart guy loan it to the Mets when they won't even return his calls/emails?

[batmagadanleadoff]

Fuck the Wilpons.

Like they need to be loaned out something that might go for tens and tens and tens of thousands of dollars. I bet that Jeff Wilpon and his wife and kids couldn't last two weeks on $50,000.00

[batmagadanleadoff]

Besides, if the Wilpons got the cart on loan, they'd probably strip it and sell the parts out the back door, then claim the cart was stolen.

More entitlements. Let 'em buy the damn cart. Haven't they gotten enough free billion dollar lands from the city? They need a free golf cart, too?

[batmagadanleadoff]

"Got any ideas on how we could get to keep that bullpen car without paying for it? Make yourself useful, son."
[fimg=788]https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRFYg0z6-HWHghy4JGyCwaJ5FCicaefsmK33qxft2H0SHQF2tKh[/fimg]

Edited March 19, 2015 by Guest

[G-Fafif]

We don't necessarily know whether his intention was sell to the Mets, give to the Mets, temporarily loan to the Mets or permanently loan to the Mets.

Personally, I'd love to see it in the Bullpen Plaza, where there is currently nothing (plus it probably has a homing device that wouldn't stop sounding its alarm until it got back where it spiritually belongs). Folks would take pix with it and the TV cameras would pick it up every time a reliever got loose and merriment would abound and Bobby Grich's small heart would grow three sizes that day.

Or something like that.

[batmagadanleadoff]

G-Fafif wrote: We don't necessarily know whether his intention was sell to the Mets, give to the Mets, temporarily loan to the Mets or permanently loan to the Mets. Personally, I'd love to see it in the Bullpen Plaza, where ....

Me too. But I'm not gonna get on cart guy's case like it's on him to make that happen. Because if it's supposed to be cart guy's fault when that cart sells at auction, then just the same, you can blame the new buyer for not gifting the thing to the Mets two days after he takes possession of it from cart guy.

[G-Fafif]

I've been told (not about this specifically) that the Mets will and have bid for particular items, including some that have been displayed in their HOF. Maybe not something as physically big, but then again, how many things like this come rolling along.

I want to give both sides a little benefit of the doubt. Yes, the Mets were pillagers and pirates of their own history in 2008 and negligent about spotlighting their heritage in 2009, but they've stepped up their game since (they couldn't step it down). I don't know Cart Guy's circumstances, but if I had something to sell that might net me five figures, I'd consider all offers. If I was the Sultan of Frances Lewis Blvd., I might be reflexively giving of my largesse, but I'm not and I don't know that Cart Guy is.

It is a beautiful object. It was such a lift to see Tug getting a lift in it all those years removed from when he and his peers would use it for business trips. It's one of those things, like the original Apple, that you just know would make people light up with recognition and wonder in its (almost) native habitat.

[Guest cooby]

Personally, I wish they still used it.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

The Mets will. They just need to see 6 or 8 other teams do it first.

[dgwphotography]

Fred would have bought it if it had a white 'B' on the hat....