Drive in Style

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Don't buy it. Retrofit an electric golf cart with the vintage trimmings, and say you're aiming to take the "LEED" in bullpen transportation. Trot it out on the nearest home game to Earth Day, and invite schoolkids to show off their enviro-projects.

Guess how many interns it took me to come up with that?

[batmagadanleadoff]

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: Don't buy it. Retrofit an electric golf cart with the vintage trimmings, and say you're aiming to take the "LEED" in bullpen transportation. Trot it out on the nearest home game to Earth Day, and invite schoolkids to show off their enviro-projects. Guess how many interns it took me to come up with that?

Nothing wrong with that idea. It's done all the time. Just past the Shea Stadium entrance to the Diamond Club, the Mets had a Willie Mays NY Giants jersey on display. The jersey wasn't an original one. It was a Mitchell & Ness jersey with the M&N tags removed so that it wouldn't look so obviously fake. The Mets weren't trying to deceive anybody either. The corresponding signage indicated that the jersey was a replica. Art museums commonly display copies instead of the original artwork. I wouldn't mind seeing a replica cart at Citi made to look as close to the original as possible.

[G-Fafif]

More pix and a bit of a followup from MetsPolice.

http://metspolice.com/2015/03/22/i-talked-to-the-mets-bullpen-car-owner-and-hes-awesome/

[batmagadanleadoff]

It's on. Which means that the Wilpons aren't interested enough in acquiring the cart for display in their stadium. Unless they want the cart but don't wanna pay for it. Even though whatever the cart ultimately sells for is lunch money to the owners. Or they believe that they can get it at auction for less than it was offered to them.

[fimg=1000]https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7611/16885641076_f399889bdc_o.jpg[/fimg]

[fimg=1000]https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8696/16885641066_278f11253f_o.jpg[/fimg]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-YORK-METS-BULLPEN-CART-EM-CIRCA-EM-1967-Mets-Bullpen-Car-/181688322437?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a4d77c985

My guess is that the Mets first used a baseball cap bullpen cart in 1971, because that style cart first appeared in a World Series in '71.

[batmagadanleadoff]

batmagadanleadoff wrote: It's on. Which means that the Wilpons aren't interested enough in acquiring the cart for display in their stadium. Unless they want the cart but don't wanna pay for it. Even though whatever the cart ultimately sells for is lunch money to the owners. Or they believe that they can get it at auction for less than it was offered to them.

Personally, this issue of the owners apparent disinterest or ambivalence in acquiring the cart doesn't stoke my passions much, one way or the other. But I couldn't pass up the opportunity to comment on their indifference to the Mets history.

I'm surprised that Sotheby's would incorrectly date the cart to 1967. If true, the cart would've appeared in the 1969 WS. I doubt that any team was using that cap style cart in '67.

[Edgy MD]

Went for 90,000 according to ebay. Sotheby's says $112,500. Probably a premium the house puts on it.

I can build my own for about $2,000.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Make of this what you want but while the Mets thingy appreciated sixfold the old YANKEE STADIUM letters also up for auction did not sell.

[Edgy MD]

batmagadanleadoff wrote: 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.

The story seems to go was that Doubleday was selling the cart through an intermediary � the garage where it was being stored. The intermediary found a would-be buyer and then recalled that the current owner had made regular inquiries through the years. He called the current owner and said that he could get it if he matched the price and showed up first.

Not a particularly honorable way to operate, but not that different from the standard way New York auto mechanic garages work, in my experience. I wouldn't be surprised if he the agreement included a tax-free transaction if he paid in cash.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Make of this what you want but while the Mets thingy appreciated sixfold the old YANKEE STADIUM letters also up for auction did not sell.

Yeah, things may be getting weird in the next couple of years.

[Frayed Knot]

The thing about those YSII letters is that Reggie Jackson is the guy who bought them in the sell-a-thon when they (finally got around to) dismantling the stadium and now wants to sell them.
no telling what ol' Reg wanted them for, and it's possible that he's dumping them now after he found out that he didn't get the right combination of letters to spell out REGGIE in ten foot high neon blue letters in his bedroom