batmagadanleadoff

Zvon wrote: d'Kong76 wrote: You should really try to sell that to them somehow. I have no idea how one would go about that. I would prefer at least a tinge of blue in the sky, but that's just spectacular! I really wanted some blue up there too. I tested it with the B&W cityscape, but when I went blue tint I went all out for reproducing the logos correct colors (the initial sky was a white/blue but I changed that to pure white). I will create a sky blue layer see how the sky looks with different shades of blue. Lefty Specialist wrote: Images of the Empire State Building need to be licensed and approved. Don't know about the others. Just saying. Appreciate it. It's something I would need to know. If I wanted to market this there are so many factors that would have to be considered. I may approach The7line and Darren because they have more than a foot in the door these days. This logo work is a spinoff from another project which involves the 2015 Mets and my proposition for a 2015 team slogan. I started that before the Mets Realogo. I collected cityscape pictures for that project and found the B&W one that inspired using photo images of the buildings for the Mets logo. The slogan work also involves use of the Empire State Building, and I wasn't thinking of image rights or anything. Just creating something from a vision. Probably couldn't use it w/o proper licensing and allAdat. That sucks, but I just make the stuff. The marketing part has always been alien to me. This is just a hypothetical question I'm about to ask, for which I don't have an answer. I wouldn't expect you to actually do it. But ... what if you used your own photographs of the Empire State Building and other landmarks? If you used photos you shot, wouldn't you be steering clear of copyright issues? I dunno and I don't feel like googling the answer just yet. I could see a rationale for fair use and also, against fair use.

Zvon wrote: I find this to be hilarious. The Mets media cannot be as clueless as we think. It's a button pushing question for a Mets fan. How could they not know that? It's gotta be any PR is good PR thinking. If not,...that would be amazin'. Amazingly bad. It is hilarious and it's getting worse. Apparently, Mike Francesca is reading out loud -- live -- some of the snarkier tweets on his show. Poetry in motion.

Mets � Willets Point wrote: Mets � Willets Point wrote: I added some nice ones because I'm all about sunshine and light. batmagadanleadoff wrote: There were three positive tweets, however, and upon further review, I noticed that they were all from the same person. Hmm...I wonder if someone just told you that they were adding positive tweets? Could it be? Nah! I went to Twitter to see for myself, instead of relying on the cherry-picking done in the tabloids. And I noticed that the tweets were all negative. Except for three from some "LS" tweeter. I then figured out from seawolf's post that you're LS. Didn't know that until today.

Edgy MD wrote: At this point the campaign itself is the subject of many of the tweets. Predictably.

I just clicked on the hashtag and read through some of the tweets. They were about 100% disparaging. There were three positive tweets, however, and upon further review, I noticed that they were all from the same person. And there was this, too:

I didn't cherry-pick those tweets. I got them from these news articles. http://www.thepostgame.com/blog/mvt-most-valuable-tweeters/201409/new-york-mets-iamametsfanbecause-twitter-campaign-backfires-horribly http://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/mets/mets-start-imametsfanbecause-hashtag-twitter-hijacks-it-1.9384020 Okay, maybe the media orgs cherry-picked those tweets. But they're newsworthy. Because the Mets are in a depression. Because the team is bankrupt, financially, and apparently, morally. And because other fan-bases probably wouldn't have generated those snarky tweets in response to a hypothetically similar social media campaign.

Of course the Mets didn't see this coming. Ownership is just as clueless about social media as it is about their fans and the depressing Mets zeitgeist. They can't get out of their own way.

[fimg=444:3l0zxrep]https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2942/15147595697_5559b8a1dd_c.jpg[/fimg:3l0zxrep] [fimg=444:3l0zxrep]https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2942/15147366119_d59fbaff51_c.jpg[/fimg:3l0zxrep] [fimg=444:3l0zxrep]https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2942/15147416000_a07b6e522b_c.jpg[/fimg:3l0zxrep] [fimg=444:3l0zxrep]https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3866/15147416100_01273cd505.jpg[/fimg:3l0zxrep]

Lefty Specialist wrote: batmagadanleadoff wrote: You know what's ironic about eff Wilpon's now infamous comments to The New Yorker? That he's actually correct for the most part-now. [fimg=555]http://media.tumblr.com/f3c94163c0c3b46e614734170d41d3ed/tumblr_inline_mso8auuUYb1qz4rgp.gif[/fimg]

Second place and the quest for .500: A concise summary of the Mets' Citi Field era in just a few paragraphs. Modicum of Suspense as Mets� Year Winds Down SEPT. 23, 2014 by JAY SCHREIBER and ELENA GUSTINES We interrupt Derek Jeter Week with an unexpected announcement: The Mets � yes, the Mets � have suddenly put some suspense into the final week of their season. Not pennant-race suspense, mind you; that may still take a while. But with a 76-80 record after a three-game weekend sweep of a deflated Atlanta team, the Mets actually have a chance to finish at .500, or even above that mark, something they have not done since 2008. Of course, 2008 is not exactly a source of pleasant memories for Mets fans. That was the year the Mets managed to collapse in the final month of the season in almost identical fashion to the way they threw away a playoff spot in 2007. Even now, it is hard to believe the Mets were able pull off such a miserable feat. But consider what came after that: In 2009, in their first season at Citi Field, the Mets sank to a 70-92 record under Manager Jerry Manuel. Months of bad baseball were encapsulated in one play: the infamous pop-up that Alex Rodriguez hit and Luis Castillo dropped with two outs in the bottom of the ninth and the Mets leading the Yankees by a run in the Bronx. Instead, the Yankees won, 9-8. The following season, the Mets went 79-83. Jason Bay entered the scene with a four-year, $66 million contract and proceeded to hit very few home runs while also sustaining a concussion. He never rebounded. Meanwhile, Oliver Perez dragged the Mets into absurdity. He pitched poorly; refused a demotion to the minors; was, in turn, ignored and rarely used in games; and then, finally, in the final game of the season, was summoned to the mound in the 14th inning of a tie game and proceeded to hit one batter and walk three more as the Mets lost, 2-1. In 2011, Sandy Alderson took over as general manager and tried to make sense of the mess the Mets had become. He brought in Terry Collins as manager as well as all sorts of bargain-bin players, hoping some would make an impression, although few did. Meanwhile, every day of the week he was confronted by the Bernard Madoff financial scandal in which the Mets� ownership had become increasingly ensnared. And in May of that year, Fred Wilpon, the principal owner, only made matters worse in an interview with The New Yorker. Pulling a George Steinbrenner, he gratuitously insulted some of his best players. Of Jose Reyes, he said: �He thinks he�s going to get Carl Crawford money. He�s had everything wrong with him. He won�t get it.� Of David Wright, Wilpon�s verdict was: �A really good kid. A very good player. Not a superstar.� And Carlos Beltran, Wilpon said, was �65 to 70 percent of what he was.� For the season, the Mets went 77-85. And in the final game, Reyes bunted for a base hit in the first inning and then took himself out of the game, thus assuring he would become the first Met to ever win a batting title and also guaranteeing that people would mock him for the way he won it. Not long afterward, he became a Florida Marlin. In 2012, the Mets retreated to 74-88, not that it made a difference. On June 1, Johan Santana threw the first no-hitter in Mets history, but the eye-opening number of pitches he needed to do it � 134 � created a foreboding feeling, since he had missed the entire 2011 season because of shoulder surgery. And sure enough, Santana was never the same after that historic night. Three months later, R .A. Dickey, the literate knuckleballer, notched his 20th victory in the final home game of the season. Not long afterward, he became a Toronto Blue Jay. As for 2013, well, Matt Harvey emerged as a monster until he went down with a torn elbow in his pitching arm. The Mets� final record was 74-88, the same as the year before. And there was one unsightly footnote � a June 8 game in which the Mets took 6 hours 25 minutes, and 20 innings, to lose to the awful Marlins, 2-1. In what may have been the most unwatchable game in their history, the Mets went 0 for 19 with runners in scoring position. Which brings us to 2014. The Mets have had a losing record for much of the season, and have often felt borderline irrelevant, but they have also made real strides in developing a core of talented young players in outfielder Juan Lagares, catcher Travis d�Arnaud and starting pitchers Jacob deGrom and Zack Wheeler. Jenrry Mejia and Jeurys Familia are a decent tandem in the bullpen. Harvey is set to return next season after sitting out a year after Tommy John surgery. The Mets need another corner outfielder who can hit, and if they acquire one, well, who knows? For now, the Mets have three games this week in Washington against the Nationals, a team they rarely beat, and then three more at home against the Houston Astros. Five out of six gives them an 81-81 record and keeps them from a sixth straight losing season, which would leave them just one short of their franchise record. Can they do it? Can they really avoid another losing record? Probably not. But for now, by Mets standards, it qualifies as pretty suspenseful. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/23/sports/baseball/modicum-of-suspense-as-mets-year-winds-down.html?_r=0 And in May of that year, Fred Wilpon, the principal owner, only made matters worse in an interview with The New Yorker. Pulling a George Steinbrenner, he gratuitously insulted some of his best players. Of Jose Reyes, he said: �He thinks he�s going to get Carl Crawford money. He�s had everything wrong with him. He won�t get it.� Of David Wright, Wilpon�s verdict was: �A really good kid. A very good player. Not a superstar.� And Carlos Beltran, Wilpon said, was �65 to 70 percent of what he was.� You know what's ironic about eff Wilpon's now infamous comments to The New Yorker?

It's been a long time coming: 2014 Projected ROY winners. Here's a list of each team's last Rookie of the Year Winner: 2014 Mets Jacob deGrom 2014 White Sox Jose Abreu 2013 Rays Wil Myers 2013 Marlins Jose Fernandez 2012 Angels Mike Trout 2012 Nationals Bryce Harper 2011 Braves Craig Kimbrel 2010 Rangers Neftali Perez 2010 Giants Buster Posey 2009 A�s Andrew Bailey 2008 Cubs Geovany Soto 2007 Red Sox Dustin Pedroia 2007 Brewers Ryan Braun 2006 Tigers Justin Verlander 2005 Phillies Ryan Howard 2004 Pirates Jason Bay 2003 Royals Angel Berroa 2002 Blue Jays Eric Hinske 2002 Rockies Jason Jennings 2001 Mariners Ichiro Suzuki 2001 Cardinals Albert Pujols 1999 Reds Scott Williamson 1998 D�Backs -No D'Back ever won this award- 1996 Yankees Derek Jeter 1996 Dodgers Todd Hollansworth 1995 Twins Marty Cordova 1991 Astros Jeff Bagwell 1990 Indians Sandy Alomar, Jr. 1989 Orioles Gregg Olson 1987 Padres Benito Santiago [crossout]1985 White Sox Ozzie Guillen[/crossout] [crossout]1984 Mets Dwight Gooden[/crossout]

Bring your kiddies, bring your wife ... and a baseball glove ... because according to Time Magazine and idleseat, Citi Field's section 110 might be the likeliest place for a baseball fan to catch a foul ball. http://time.com/foul-ball/ [fimg=644]https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3839/15325024561_bc3cf188db_b.jpg[/fimg]

Ahem. Fix mine, too. I'm still in contention.

[fimg=544]https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-LiTDCK1Yn-g/VB9ZbAMWtYI/AAAAAAAAUZQ/Vtri4C-9D1I/s956/MetsRealogo2015-loTESTS-z14.png[/fimg] This is great! The repeating logos also remind me of a Warhol Pop Art piece. If I owned the Mets, I'd commission a 3-D installation of this to hang at Citi Field. Edgy MD wrote: I'm thinking we're so small nows, and probably fly under the radar enough that few would care. I mean, if we don't put any Crane Pool trademark on it. If somebody sees you in it, and asks where it came from, say, "I found it on that picnic table over there." If Z doesn't use "Mets," and instead uses "Crane Pool Forum," it's a legal parody, right? I think that if you make shirts with Z's "Mets" logo in very small quantities, it might come under fair use. It would also help if no one's profiting from the shirts. Anyway, fair use determinations aren't merely checklists to meet, but are determined case by case. Also. your designated t-shirt manufacturer might slip into CYA mode and not be willing to produce the shirts, even in small quantities, no matter what the circumstances. http://www.copyright.com/Services/copyrightoncampus/basics/fairuse_list.html https://copyright.cornell.edu/policies/docs/Fair_Use_Checklist.pdf

The Jolly Green Giant is now a Superhero?

Make of it what you will, but if it weren't for the lame wild card format, their season would've died about a month before it actually did. When did you think the Mets' season died? They were four games under .500 at the all-star break and haven't been any closer to .500 since. I'm the wrong guy to ask that question. I wasn't as optimistic about this squad as you guys appeared to be. Because I'd tell you that for me, the 2014 season died in 2013, as soon as it was announced that Matt Harvey would miss this entire season due to surgery. And still, a year after the Harvey announcement, I never, not even for one game, ever got my hopes up this year that the Mets would be in meaningful contention -- not even while the Mets played their best ball of the season around the all-star break, and not even after deGrom broke out as a rookie sensation and as a star player worth watching. This season played out, more or less exactly as I thought it would: they'd never be in it, and their outfield would suck a big collective suck, and the big position player free agents, Young and Granderson, would suck. They were without Harvey. And whatever they gained, or recouped from deGrom, they more than gave back again when their star franchise player Wright delivered the worst season of his career -- a terrible season not just by his personal standards, but in comparison to every other MLB third baseman. I thought the Mets improved over the course of the season, but the games in April count just as much as the ones now, and they had a very bad team on the field for far too long to make up the ground, I thought. If they morphed into the '86 Mets, or the Big Red Machine during the course of the season, then maybe they could've overcome their first half. But they morphed into, perhaps, a .500 team -- a notable accomplishment, but not enough to contend, I figured. I wouldn't count them out for next year, though, at least not this early. I could see meaningful improvement for next year -- and the kind you could reasonably hope for -- not the kind where Lucas Duda and David Wright have to hit like MVP's and three Mets pitchers contend for the Cy Young award. This was a tedious season for me, waiting in place for the cavalry to arrive, killing time over what I see as futile and pointless comparisons between dead ends like den Dekker and Nieuwenhuis.

The Mets as a second place team just tells me how weak the rest of the NL is, or how bad the NL East is. On the other hand, the Mets have the sixth best run differential in the NL, so there's that. Make of it what you will, but if it weren't for the lame wild card format, their season would've died about a month before it actually did.

Fangraphs breaks down deGrom's eight straight K's. Rookie of the Year ain't nuthin'. deGrom's already one of the best half dozen pitchers in the NL. Excerpt: I�d like to believe that Jacob deGrom started out as hair. Just hair. Over time, that hair grew into much more than just hair, eventually sprouting a full human figure and developing world-class athletic ability. The hair would go on to play middle infield in college before transitioning into a pitcher and getting drafted by the New York Mets. The hair would then have Tommy John Surgery and never crack a top-1oo prospect list, but nevertheless the hair would reach the majors by age 25. And the hair would dominate.... And, aside from the eight straight whiffs, those numbers aren�t even that shocking when you consider what deGrom has done so far. His ERA actually went up after Monday�s start, from 2.62 to 2.68. His FIP dropped from 2.88 to 2.72. You�ll notice those are both exceptionally low figures. Of all starting pitchers who have thrown more than 130 innings, his ERA ranks 14th, right behind Zack Greinke and a few spots ahead of Jordan Zimmermann. His FIP is ninth, better than that of Jon Lester, David Price and Adam Wainwright. I could go on with more examples like this, but the point is, deGrom will soon finish the season with a sample of work that � while smaller than most � is not small enough to be insignificant. And over that four-month sample, he has been one of the 15 best starting pitchers in baseball. http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/jacob-degroms-breakout-season-in-eight-batters/

ESPN fan poll ranks Mets rock bottom worst in fan experience among MLB teams and 118th out of all 122 American major sports league franchises. [fimg=544]http://newyork.mets.mlb.com/nym/images/fan_forum/wallpapers/1280x1024_nym_od_wallpaper.jpg[/fimg] [fimg=273]https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSQK16rssW0hGiL8ecXPeJGikwWNnITqg1ivGdFf7u1tSiha091mA[/fimg] Gratuitous shot of the ugliest scoreboards in baseball. (And they're so close together, too). [fimg=633]http://images.fineartamerica.com/images-medium-large/citifield-scoreboard-suhas-tavkar.jpg[/fimg]

Powerfully harsh words about Jeff Wilpon and the state of the Mets in light of the Castergine lawsuit: MLB can take stand NFL didn't in vetting Jeff Wilpon accusations with severe potential consequences Jeff Passan By Jeff Passan September 10, 2014 9:56 PM Yahoo Sports [fimg=544]http://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/KWaXl1ciTlnkMzQ3laK49Q--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTYzODtweW9mZj0wO3E9NzU7dz05NjA-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_US/Sports/USA_Today/20131210_ajl_mb2_019-50357b58756c7e3c886be6c3f9fe0385[/fimg] A lawsuit Wednesday alleged that Jeff Wilpon, the chief operating officer of the New York Mets, harassed and later fired one of his senior vice presidents because he didn't agree with her pregnancy. If this is true � if these disgusting, abhorrent acts of misogyny receive even one iota of confirmation � one of Bud Selig's final acts as commissioner must be to rid Major League Baseball of this nepotistic fraud once and for all. Selig, or his successor Rob Manfred, must do this because baseball needs to tell the world it is a safe place for women. That its top executives won't scoff and sneer and bungle the issues that face women every day like the NFL did the Ray Rice case. MLB shouldn't do this as a reaction to Rice; it should because it is the right thing to do. Whether it's a left to the jaw or a barrage of dehumanizing insults, a system that allows any kind of mistreatment toward women is broken. Baseball likes to consider itself a progressive sport, dating back to Jackie Robinson's breaking the color line and through today, with Billy Bean serving as an ambassador to the LGBT community. Women occupy a number of high-ranking positions in baseball. One such woman worked as a senior vice president for the Mets. Her name is Leigh Castergine, and she ran ticket sales for the Mets until Wilpon fired her three weeks ago after demeaning her for nearly a year with churlish comments about being pregnant without being married, according to her lawsuit. The idea of a Wilpon playing moral superior � of someone from the family that profited off the Ponzi scheme Bernie Madoff used to cripple lives holding himself in such esteem � dovetails with the stories of social and emotional incompetence that have chased him during his years running the Mets. It takes a remarkable level of ineptitude to make Jim Dolan look like the more competent of the New York sports scions. For years, Selig's soft spot for the Wilpon family has allowed him to overlook their need for a loan to stay afloat amid the Madoff chaos, their mismanagement of a jewel franchise into the sort that operates like a low-revenue pauper, their public flubs that made #LOLMets a thing. Selig enabled the Mets knowing majority owner Fred Wilpon planned on gifting the franchise to Jeff, an underqualified bully who never would have sniffed sports-franchise ownership were he not bequeathed his last name. Now MLB faces this reality: Jeff Wilpon sits on the board of directors for MLB Enterprises and MLB Network. The former group procures national broadcasting, sponsorship and licensing deals, and the latter is the public face of the sport. It's one thing to have a reprobate in ownership; it's another to give him a position of power in rooms where billion-dollar deals are negotiated. Does a company really want to do business with an entity that confers power on a man who allegedly told a Mets employee he is "old fashioned and thinks [Castergine] should be married before having a baby"? A man who told her that "when she gets a ring, she will make more money and get a bigger bonus"? A man who, in front of a room of executives, laid out two rules for dealing with Castergine, according to the lawsuit: "Don't touch her belly and don't ask how she's doing; she's not sick, she's pregnant"? If this is the sort of behavior MLB represents, it's just as bad as the NFL. Sports can be a miserable place for women, a cesspool of sexual harassment and abuse. It is incumbent on leagues not just to remind women they are a vital part of the sporting experience but actively encourage their involvement. Hopefully, more women in positions of power equal less Neanderthal behavior from a sporting culture awash in it. Because nowhere should a woman have to hear what Leigh Castergine allegedly heard. When considering whether to accept an advertisement from an electronic cigarette company in February, the lawsuit alleges, Wilpon said: "I am as morally opposed to putting an e-cigarette sign in my ballpark as I am to Leigh having this baby without being married." My ballpark. Mine. That's how Jeff Wilpon carried himself for years, as the cock of the walk, the all-knowing executive who, in reality, knew only how to take a proud franchise and run it into the ground. He directs the Mets with the vision of a mole, and people around the sport � from players to agents to executives � wish he would learn to burrow into the ground like one, too. The lawsuit alleges that Wilpon fired Castergine on Aug. 20 because she hadn't met sales goals. He allegedly said "something changed" and she wasn't "as aggressive as she once had been," and all of this came after Castergine went to a woman named Holly Lindvall, the Mets' executive director of human resources, and reported all of Wilpon's remarks. Lindvall's response, according to the suit: "She instead urged Castergine to quit." When she didn't, Wilpon offered Castergine a severance package of five weeks' salary, provided she didn't pursue legal claims, including harassment and discrimination, against the team. She instead sued, and baseball now is in a position of action. An immediate investigation is warranted, and considering the Mets' inner circle of executives is small, it should not take long. Baseball can vet Castergine's claims in short order, and if even one of them is true, do what is necessary. The impact could be massive. Mets fans for years have bemoaned the Wilpon ownership, knowing Fred planned on handing the franchise to Jeff. If MLB makes it clear, as it should, that it will not stand for misogyny of any sorts in its ranks, and Jeff Wilpon is shown to have engaged in systemic abuse, his ouster could alter his father's plans. The Mets long ago deserved better owners, and now is Selig's chance to remedy his own errors or Manfred's to remedy his predecessor's. And, more than that, it's baseball's chance to take a stand. Sports needs people with the courage to say it is not OK for anyone in a position of power, be it physical or political, to use it in the mistreatment of women. Sports is at its finest when it's inclusive, when the Leigh Castergines of the world can go to work without fear their bosses will discriminate against them for the sin of being a woman. The opportunity exists. The time is right. The priority is evident. MLB should be a safe place for women, and that starts with an immediate investigation to see if Jeff Wilpon is as bad a person as he is an executive. http://sports.yahoo.com/news/mlb-can-take-stand-nfl-didn-t-in-vetting-jeff-wilpon-accusations-with-severe-potential-consequences-015709001.html

[fimg=655]http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.1791164.1400031535!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/article_970/2013-star-game-mets.jpg[/fimg] "Of course the Mets finances are fine. If you don't believe me, just ask Fred Wilpon, standing to my far left. Or ask Baseball's next Commissioner, standing between me and Fred".

Caption this: [fimg=755:3qqfwkea]http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.1791164.1400031535!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/article_970/2013-star-game-mets.jpg[/fimg:3qqfwkea]