Baseball Things I Miss

[Benjamin Grimm]

The way Glen Miller played.

Songs that made the hit parade.

When girls were girls and men were men.

Mister, we could use a man like Herbert Hoover again!

When we didn't need no welfare state.

When our old LaSalle ran great.

[seawolf17]

49-cent "cello" packs and dollar "rack" packs of Topps cards.

[Guest d'Kong76]

Catcher could stand wherever he wanted after the ball was put in play

[Edgy MD]

Pitcher warmup circles, cut into the foul ground behind home plate and near the dugouts.

Actual foul ground behind home plate and near the dugouts. God bless Oakland Alameda County Coliseum or whatever it's called now.

[Guest themetfairy]

Seeing people in the stands all dressed up in suits and ties and fancy dresses.

[Guest themetfairy]

Mrs. Payson

[dgwphotography]

seawolf17 wrote: 49-cent "cello" packs and dollar "rack" packs of Topps cards.

49 cents? They were a quarter in my day, you whipper-snapper!

[dgwphotography]

[youtube:1jpzmadt]aL8SKUqzEzM[/youtube:1jpzmadt]

[dgwphotography]

[youtube:1mxo0at7]ElNwYTepz1E[/youtube:1mxo0at7]

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Centerfield wrote: I don't know that I can say I miss them, since I have very little memory of them, but I wish they would bring back bullpen cars. I think it's funny what it says about the attitude toward pitchers. "Can he pitch multiple innings, multiple days? Of course. Why not?" "Can he run in from the bullpen? Hell no! Get that man a ride!"

Not jumping on the bullpen car thing is a ridiculously-obvious missed opportunity for management. Easy in-game goofiness to engage the kinder, a readymade sponsorship slot, a chance to feature an enterprising local firm that would be willing to engineer, say, a green bullpen hovercraft (so as to avoid grass damage), opportunity for a driving-related Met theme song. IT'S RIGHT THERE.

I miss Shea knishes. As much as I like the new food/beer options, I also miss nothing but crap (save Mama's and the knishes) at the games, because it means much less business for the awesome torta dude and his ilk on Roosevelt.

I miss actual cheap seats.

[Ceetar]

you can still get knishes usually. they're the same 'eh' as at Shea.

never had Mamas. even at Shea seemed the most boring option.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Tortas, though. Tortas as big as your HEAD, man.

I miss giveaway bats. I was never around for it, but I miss three baseball teams in New York.

d'Kong76 wrote: Beat writers and columnists not having Twitter

I get the annoyance with the way that this has changed some of the shape and tone of reporting, but, really, this is just silly Luddite oldguygrumble. If you like the perpetual baseball coverage, this-- and other information-sharing breakthroughs-- are the reason that exists, and the fuel allowing it to continue.

Edited December 30, 2015 by Guest

[Guest themetfairy]

dgwphotography wrote: [youtube]ElNwYTepz1E[/youtube]

That was the only day that I cut classes in college.

[Benjamin Grimm]

The turkey-and-mozzarella hero at Mama's, with the marinated mushrooms and red peppers, is the number two reason I go to Mets games.

[Guest d'Kong76]

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: but, really, this is just silly Luddite oldguygrumble.

#getLWFSane
I'm a lot of things, a Luddite is certainly not one of them! I'll give you
silly, old and occasionally grumble(y)...

[Edgy MD]

Shea knishes with a mess of mustard that you can't not all over you are a perfect example of not-particuarly-well-executed ballpark food that nonetheless tastes great because it's ballpark food.

My dad taught me to wish the relief pitcher luck as the bullpen car drove past. Kinderengagement!

[MFS62]

The Polo Grounds, Ebbets Field, Forbes Field and Sportsman's Park.
Les Keiter recreating SF baseball games back to New York, and rushing to squeeze the games into his time slot.

Later

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

d'Kong76 wrote: LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: but, really, this is just silly Luddite oldguygrumble. #getLWFSane I'm a lot of things, a Luddite is certainly not one of them! I'll give you silly, old and occasionally grumble(y)...

Fair enough. After all, you didn't post this via, you know, post.

Yeah, the Mama's sandwich is a matter of simplicity well-executed producing nicely complicated flavor. Little bit of acid from the peppers, thin-sliced mootsadell, marinated-but-not-too-punchy 'shroom, and a little bit of cured meat to round things out.

[Edgy MD]

d'Kong76 wrote: Lindsey Nelson's sports jackets

[batmagadanleadoff]

Ceetar wrote: black uniforms.

It figures.

[ashie62]

Saturday NBC game of the week when we had color TV long ago.

[Edgy MD]

Licensing and marketing mostly handled by the team, rather than MLB, making it clear that teams wanted to beat each other from the brand on down.

Relatedly, I miss different teams having philosophies and approaches that distinguished them from each other, on and off the field.

[Lefty Specialist]

World Series games [u:i3lhwhie]not[/u:i3lhwhie] done by Fox.

[stevejrogers]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Speaking of afternoon games, I'd like to see World Series games on Saturday and Sunday played during the day. If I remember correctly, the last time that happened was a 4 p.m. start for a Saturday game in 1987.

IIRC, the game was played in the Metrodome! SMH.

[MFS62]

Karl "The Sign Man" Ehrhardt.
"No Pepper" signs

Later

[batmagadanleadoff]

Edgy MD wrote: Licensing and marketing mostly handled by the team, rather than MLB, making it clear that teams wanted to beat each other from the brand on down.

Good one. I guess MLB can't trust one of its renegade owners to go and fuck up the brand. They can start with post-season tickets and programs. At least a team's still allowed to print its own regular season programs and yearbooks. Not that the Mets yearbooks are great shakes. I swear that the last two I bought, I did so out of habit and one of those, I still haven't even bothered to look at. Really. Still, they probably weight four or fives times what a 70's yearbook weighs and aren't remotely as interesting or engaging.

So put me down for another one. Mets yearbooks like they were in the 60's and 70's. And Willard Mullin. And Bruce Stark.

Whatever happened to sports cartoonists?

[Guest themetfairy]

I miss the teams controlling their own websites instead of relying upon the cookie cutter MLB template.

[Lefty Specialist]

T-shirts that said straightforward things like 'National League Champs' instead of stupid things like 'The Pennant Will Rise'....(as Jason deGrom is wearing)

[Guest Mets Guy in Michigan]

seawolf17 wrote: 49-cent "cello" packs and dollar "rack" packs of Topps cards.

Dating myself here, but I remember when the cello backs were a quarter and the rack packs were 50 cents. Back in 1974, my friend's mom was horrified that we one day each spent $1 on baseball cards. And we were in awe at what we thought was a massive pile of cards we had accumulated -- and traded doubles the rest of the afternoon.

[batmagadanleadoff]

1974 Rack packs were 39 cents.

[fimg=444:n6gosvcg]http://www.robertedwardauctions.com/auction/2013images/Item_25272_1.jpg[/fimg:n6gosvcg]

In 1974.

Follow the link to the photo above and you'll discover that this lot of three unopened '74 rack packs sold at auction for $948.00. It couldn't have been the Ron Hodges card driving up the price.