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Ceetar wrote: you're also three hours too late. see Ashie's thread down there | | V Yeah, I just got that.

Ice down the Leinies -- we got a rubber game to win! (Didn't see Ashie started an IGT. Combine or delete or whatever.)

Matt Artus (whom I miss at Always Amazin' because he too often gets lost amid all the content at Amazin' Avenue) did a great job exploring the differences between a Citi Field soccer crowd and baseball crowd, here. Does a great job of capturing the retro-Shea vibe. A hospitality attendant invited me in to look around as none of the clubs would enforce the entrance standards that socially stratify fans attending Mets home games. 39,656 soccer fans could take full advantage of the building's amenities and experience the previously-restricted eggplant parmigiana sandwich in the Delta Sky Club or have a drink in the Caesars Club without fear of expulsion. It didn't matter. When the game was in progress, no one left their seats. There were no lines at the restrooms, the concession stands, the gift shops. The concourses were devoid of the folks you typically need to navigate through at Mets games. Soccer, of course, lacks the commercial break -- and the bathroom or hot dog break that often coincides with it in baseball. And these fans from Queens who presumably attend Mets home games with great frequency did not feel morally obligated to create a queue for a Shake Shack burger. Staying in their seats wasn't the only way to support the game in progress, though. [...] Homemade banners. The banners hung down without rhyme or reason, obstructing the Pepsi, Bob's Furniture, and others advertisements adorning every deck at Citi Field. It probably helped that Tuesday's match did not air on American television, but I found it amazing to see as my first-ever [non] Mets game was the now-extinct Banner Day. Immediately before the match, the audio booth belted out the "Ole" track that frequently supplements the cheers for Jose Reyes at Mets games. They followed it with the "We Will Rock You" chant shortly before the first national anthems were performed. After that, the soundtrack of the evening would be supplied solely by the fans in attendance and the drums, horns, and vuvuzelas they brought with them. [...] Despite the shortcomings of folks who hadn't produced a soccer match in eight years, it all felt very energetic and, more importantly, democratic. Without the constraints of where you can and can't go as well as the blaring chants instructing you to SCREAM LOUD NOW!!! AAAHH!!! and it just felt like Shea used to feel. Like you were there for the game and the game alone. And that there's plenty of hot dogs on the grill if you're hungry.

METS ALL-TIME HIT LEADERS Through 6/8/2011 1. Ed Kranepool 1,418 2. JOSE REYES 1,205 3. Cleon Jones 1,188 4. DAVID WRIGHT 1,182

Paulino 3.0 Pelfrey 2.5 Reyes 2.5 Pagan 0.5 Parnell 0.5 Beltran 0.5 Tejada 0.5

Meanwhile, Dodger Stadium thinks blue...but not the usual kind. From the Times. June 8, 2011 After Beating, Dodgers� Fans See Blue All Over By ADAM NAGOURNEY LOS ANGELES � Baseball in Los Angeles: Dodger Dogs and views of the San Gabriel Mountains from the stands. Perfect California days for the Boys in Blue. A storied franchise playing in one of America�s vintage stadiums. But these days, the boys in blue refer to a different uniformed team. Dodger Stadium is teeming with Los Angeles Police Department officers � on foot, on scooters, in patrol cars and in helicopters, on the lookout for fights and ugly rowdiness during and after games, in a stadium awash in empty seats. As a result, the Dodgers, rich in history and victories and a source of civic pride since Walter O�Malley brought them here from New York in 1958, have become a source of embarrassment for the city this spring, as a parade of indignities tests the loyalty of their anguished fans. The police presence � �Oh my God, it�s like an armed camp in there,� said David Hamlin, a communications consultant who attended a Chicago Cubs game last month � comes in response to an opening-day attack on a San Francisco Giants fan who is still in a coma. The episode was unsettling for its brutality, but it was not entirely a shock, considering that the stadium has become a source of growing complaints about drunken and menacing crowds in the stands and in the streets. The team has other problems, too. The long divorce drama involving the team�s owners, Frank and Jamie McCourt, has threatened the team�s financial viability and led Bud Selig, the Major League Baseball commissioner, to step in and take over to prevent the team from collapsing. The owners, who are already derided here for spending money on luxury homes rather than on new players or security, were in danger of not meeting their payroll; indeed, it was considered something of a milestone when Mr. McCourt was able to meet his payroll at the end of May. A team that used to be associated with championships was mired in the middle of the National League West on Wednesday, struggling to get to a .500 record. Attendance has slipped so much that The Los Angeles Times ran a front-page article last week showing a picture of empty bleachers, with the headline �Dodgers� fans are going, going ...� Can you blame Dodger fans for thinking that it�s time to send the bums back to Brooklyn? �We go to games two or three times a year because of my affection for baseball,� Mr. Hamlin said. �I�d be very surprised if I go back this year. Very surprised. There are police officers on the field. There are police officers in the stands. The parking lot after the game made it look like watching the Mideast on television.� Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa sighed when asked about the team he grew up with, attending the first games at Dodger Stadium and seeing players like Sandy Koufax pitch. �I think the entire city wants to get out of this purgatory,� he said. �I think everyone is frustrated.� Attendance this year is down sharply; through 31 home games to date, it has averaged 35,787, compared with 43,489 last season � the biggest drop in the major leagues, according to ESPN.com. And those numbers may be somewhat overstated, given that many season-ticket holders appear to be leaving their tickets in the drawer and staying home. Asked about all the empty seats, Josh Rawitch, a spokesman for the Dodgers, said, �We believe it is a number of factors.� He declined to elaborate. Many of them, though, are self-evident. The financial turmoil surrounding the McCourts means that the team is essentially bereft of the big-name stars who attract fans even to teams with losing records, which the Washington Nationals were able to do with the pitcher Stephen Strasburg (at least until he hurt his arm last year). And it is tough being a losing team in any city. More than anything, though, the opening day attack and the police presence in the stadium since then has made baseball here seem like anything but a family pastime. Dodger fans say the days when the biggest hassle of going to a ballgame was plotting ways to avoid the traffic, no small challenge for a stadium on the edge of downtown, now seems almost quaint. Fans are beginning to draw unwelcome comparisons to the rough and threatening crowds that used to attend Raider football games before the team decamped to Oakland, Calif., in 1994, many of whom would sport gang colors and tattoos. �When I got here, Dodger fans were unbelievably different than the fans I knew from New York,� said Woody Studenmund, a season-ticket holder and an economics professor at Occidental College who was born in Cooperstown, N.Y. � home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame � and moved here 30 years ago. �They were polite, upbeat and seemed to make an effort to cheer even when good plays didn�t work,� Professor Studenmund said. �Until this sea of blue arrived, it was not surprising to see fights in the left field bleachers or other parts of the stadium. The whole crowd has become tougher.� There seems little reason for hope on this season�s horizon. The McCourts will probably be dislodged as owners, though no one knows when that might happen. No one knows, either, how long it will take the team to repair its bond with the city. �I think the damage is so severe that it will take many years to get past this,� said David Carter, the executive director of the Sports Business Institute at the University of Southern California. �They didn�t create the damage and ill will overnight. You have to go back and look at how amazing the Dodger brand once was. It will bounce back.� �But it won�t bounce back overnight,� he added. �I think fans are interested in just getting past this era and to the point where you can go to a Dodger game and just think about and talk about baseball.�

If the 7 Line suddenly produces OH YAY! WE TRADED JOSE! shirts, I'll agree the whole thing was a scam on the scale of the Springfield monorail. Until then, reasonably pure motives, tied to potential profits.

Edgy DC wrote: But the facts aren't changing (except for Steve) and we're really just going in circles here. Don't trade Jose.

METS ALL-TIME HIT LEADERS Through 6/7/2011 1. Ed Kranepool 1,418 2. JOSE REYES 1,203 3. Cleon Jones 1,188 4. DAVID WRIGHT 1,182

The Second Spitter wrote: Jose strikes me as a "confidence player" (a term I'm not particularly fond of, but I digress) -- he's not the sort of guy that can play somewhere he doesn't feel secure and self-assured. Or somewhere where the natives will turn on you because you like to wear your cap pointing slightly to the left. Safe and secure...New York life for Jose.

Reyes 3.5 Capuano 3.0 Beato 1.0 Isringhausen 1.0 Rodriguez 1.0 Tejada 0.5

[youtube:2mm9tubu]mRmKzxhMzwo[/youtube:2mm9tubu] Makin' our dreams come true would include not allowing Randy Wolf to become the first pitcher to beat the Mets with five different clubs (per last night's Snighcast).

Who cares what straw man MFY fans/impartial observers think? Unless they're scouts or seers, their opinion is as valid or as worthless as yours, mine or anyone's. It's not crazy (I don't think) to maintain reservations about Reyes for the money and years he'll command. If I could be convinced that a Reyes for Incredible Prospect Package trade would set the Mets on the path toward accelerated contention, and that the Mets wouldn't desperately feel the void of missing Reyes at short and at the top of the lineup, I'd be all for seriously considering it. But allusions to People You Know, just because they don't dig Reyes, aren't going to convince me.

Nosaj Yab still skcus.

I just talked to an impartial observer who would rather expose himself to dangerous levels of pollen than the 2011 version of Jeter.

SteveJRogers wrote: Hell, I've talked with several MFY fans and they wouldn't want him, even over the 2011 version of Jeter. For the same reasons I've mentioned; often injured, head case, playing over his head because its a contract year, etc. And in what fucking universe are MFY fans the ultimate arbiter of player value? I've just talked to one Mets fan, and he wouldn't take the 2011 version of Jeter over impetigo.

OTOH, Bay returns to the lineup. Good think Miller Park is where he turned his 2011 around and stopped being Nosaj Yab. Which is what he's been ever since becoming a Met: the opposite of Jason Bay.

My Beltran's back and you're gonna be in trouble... Reyes-6 Turner-5 Beltran-9 Murphy-3 Pagan-8 Bay-7 Thole-2 Tejada-4 Capuano-1

Got ringworm? MFY fans seem to.

It's Time Machine Tuesday at The Happiest Recap. 055: 1980 -- The Magic comes Back, per Steve Henderson 056: 1979 -- Ten Runs come home, per Doug Flynn 057: 1990 -- Wrigley barely stands, per Buddy Harrelson's blistering offense And these aren't too unhappy, either: 055: 1963 -- The Duke of Upper Manhattan reigns 056: 2011 -- Reversing a 7-0 deficit makes for a calm Collins 057: 1963 -- Mets try to give away a game; Cardinals regift it to Mets

BTW, is this MFY uniform party before or after the Chipper Victorino Molina soiree?

Has anybody yet said, "Don't Trade Reyes" today? Because Don't Trade Reyes.

Though I have to say this is the creepiest party I've ever heard of, not counting the tea party.

If they had names on the back, Spec Shea.

Whichever's most flammable, for fuck's sake. But otherwise, Jim Bouton.