batmagadanleadoff

batmagadanleadoff wrote: What if we named the escalator in the Rotunda the Polo Grounds Staircase? "Hey! I meant what I said. And we wouldn't just name it the Polo Grounds Staircase and leave it at that. No ... we'd have a sign. And the sign would say "Polo Grounds Staircase". Or Escalator. Or it could be a plaque instead of a sign. Whatever".

Boras zings Mets on frugal payroll November, 13, 2013 By Adam Rubin | ESPNNewYork.com "The Mets are like NASA," Boras said Wednesday afternoon at the GM Meetings. "They have big rockets, a lot of platforms and very few astronauts. Astronauts are hard to find. They've got one guy with the 'Wright' stuff. That's for sure. And they've got a lot of 'Arm'-strongs, too. But they're certainly a club that I'm sure is in a pursuit of a higher level of talent." Will the Mets actually spend money this offseason? "Well, I think the ability to spend and actually spending are two different things," said Boras, who represents free agents including Jacoby Ellsbury, Shin-Soo Choo and Stephen Drew. "And that's only for the Mets to diagnose. Certainly their franchise value has gone through the roof -- they're in the well over $2 billion. They're a very successfully run business operation. The Mets have the ability to pretty much do what they want to do. But it's hard to find astronauts." Responded Alderson: "I don't think his intergalactic metaphor is exactly right. I'm not sure, because I've got to first understand it." Boras said he did not intend to meet with the Mets during the GM Meetings, although he has spoken with Sandy Alderson by phone. Reacting to Alderson's comment that the Mets were not in the market to have a second $100 million player alongside David Wright, Boras said: "The hardest thing about limits is that it doesn't limit others. It limits you." Asked if it were odd for a New York team to be making such a proclamation, Boras said: "I can't address that. I can only tell you it's a process where in this paradigm, I don't think anyone will want to hear that revenues are limited. I don't think anyone will want to hear that the next television contract [is limited] or maybe that I'm going to limit the price of tickets. But limits are normally in a process where you have many, many variables. It's hard to unilaterally apply a limit." Boras underscored the importance of paying for players in the NL East. "The NL East is going to be a lot more difficult than it was a year ago," he said. "I think there's a couple of teams that could be very, very different and a lot more competitive. And even the teams that are not considered to compete are going to be a lot better. So it's going to be a lot harder to get wins in the National League East." http://espn.go.com/blog/new-york/mets/post/_/id/79496/boras-zings-mets-on-frugal-payroll That Boras has to resort to shame the Mets into spending, pretty much clinches that the Mets ain't getting Choo.

Vic Sage wrote: it's just money, and it's not mine. if you're as flush as you say, Freddie, then sign him. Agree. Besides, Granderson should be a huge upgrade over any other current Mets outfielder, barring a significant decline. He'd be their best outfielder, and best home run hitter. I still doubt the Mets'll win half their games next year but that probably won't be Granderson's fault.

G-Fafif wrote: batmagadanleadoff wrote: Mascot races? And they're polling fans on this? I didn't even know about this but what another embarrassment. This was 2010, so it wasn't yet stale, only done. But not done the Mets way! Now that's a mascot race I'd pay to see.

The Mets don't necessarily have to be groundbreaking trendsetters. They don't have to be the first. But they're not exactly progressive either. They're clearly followers -- and the worst kind. They follow bad trends, dated trends, dead trends, dumb trends. They're like the Statue of Liberty of trends. Give us your tired, your poor, your dumb and stupid. We'll try everything. Especially if you already tried it. And we'll not only try it, but we'll dumb it up, cheap it up, philistine it up in ways that you didn''t know were even imagineable. I mean, if they ever copycatted something cool, it'd be a hundredfold improvement. Mascot races? And they're polling fans on this? I didn't even know about this but what another embarrassment.

What if we named the escalator in the Rotunda the Polo Grounds Staircase?

Centerfield wrote: Agree a thousand percent with JCL. With the first responder hats .... If I'm remembering correctly (and I might not be) the responder hats was a player/team inspired thing. I ain't giving Wilpon credit for that, if there's credit due.

Ceetar wrote: John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: For god sakes Ceets, just look at anything the Mets do and you can trace it back to someone else's idea. Black unis. Camo unis. Their ballpark. There's hardly a thing the Mets do that is in the least bit innovative or unique unto themselves anymore and much of what did distinguish them (banners, service dept hats, their 1960s heritage) has largely been ignored and/or forgotten. They were polling fans on whether they should have a mascot race for god sakes. Are you really so in the dark on this? Home Run apple, Lazy Mary, Orange foul poles, Shea Bridge, etc. I'm in favor of a mascot race. My point was, this is how sports are. it's not unique to the Mets. Look at all the ridiculous mascot races out there for example. I don't know if the Mets home run apple was unique in the sense of HR celebrations, but the Marlins home run thing is an extension of that, as much as it's artsy and "original". Home Run apple -- Bill Veeck's exploding scoreboard; Astrodome Scoreboard goes nuts; dg1ApY8niNk Lazy Mary -- continues a 100+ year tradition of baseball stadium sing a longs. Orange foul poles -- foul poles gotta be some color. Shea Bridge -- This is a contrived PNC knock-off. I didn't know Shea even had a bridge. This one makes no sense unless you're Jeff Wilpon.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: The Mets in the meantime lack the courage to do anything innovative or original or meaningful on their own (the service department hats for example) and wait instead to follow someone else's lead on a uniform tweak. Stadiums too. Not just uniforms.

Mets' interest in Curtis Granderson is growing The Mets desperately need power at the corner outfield spots, and with Marlon Byrd coming off the board at two years, $16 million to the Phillies Tuesday, the market is shaping up to be limited. Comments (8) By Kristie Ackert / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS ORLANDO � Who can make the sun shine at Citi Field? The Grandy Man can. That seems to be what the Mets believe, as a team source told the Daily News Tuesday that the club is growing more and more intrigued with outfielder Curtis Granderson, who turned down a one-year, $14.1 million qualifying offer from the Yankees on Monday. The Mets desperately need power at the corner outfield spots, and with Marlon Byrd coming off the board at two years, $16 million to the Phillies Tuesday, the market is shaping up to be limited. �Given what we have seen so far, I wasn�t surprised,� Mets general manager Sandy Alderson said about the Byrd deal. �Had you asked me the question three or four months ago, I might have been surprised, but not in light of what�s happened since the end of the season. There haven�t been that many signings. This one is consistent with the others, I think.� After the second day of the GM meetings here, Alderson also confirmed that the Mets intend to meet with Scott Boras before Thursday. Boras, of course, represents the two top outfielders on the free agent market: Shin-Soo Choo and Jacoby Ellsbury. Granderson�s agent, Matt Brown, is not here this week, Alderson said, so no meeting is expected anytime soon. Since the Mets have about $30 million to spend this offseason and have many holes to fill, Choo and Ellsbury, who are expected to get mega-contracts, are not seen as likely fits. Boras also represents Stephen Drew, a shortstop who could take care of another Met need. As The News reported Monday, bringing Byrd back was not a priority for the Mets. Byrd, 36, had a resurgent year with the Mets, one of the few teams willing to give him a chance after he served a 50-game suspension for violating baseball�s joint drug program in 2012. Byrd, who signed for $700,000 last season, hit .285 with a career-high 71 RBI for the Mets before being traded to the Pirates in late August. Alderson may be looking for another bargain. Saying that the slow start to the offseason is playing out as expected, he is evaluating a competitive and fluctuating market. �We might bring in more than two starting outfielders. Who knows how things are gonna break? I�d be surprised if that happens, (with) so much interest in corner outfielders among other clubs,� Alderson said. �I�d be surprised if we were that successful, because of the demand at the position.� Alderson made it clear the Mets could live with Eric Young Jr., who led the National League in stolen bases last season, in left field. There is also some thought within the organization that Young could move back to his natural position at second base if the Mets were to deal Daniel Murphy. �Eric is gonna be a part of our team. What his exact role might be will depend on our final roster,� Alderson said. �It depends a little bit on how things go in spring training. I expect he will be a valuable part of the team.� Alderson again labeled shortstop a priority, but played down the need for a veteran catcher. Despite an initial wish list that included a durable veteran backstop who could play every day in case Travis d�Arnaud suffers yet another injury, Alderson said Anthony Recker can do the job. �Ultimately, if we have to go with Recker and d�Arnaud, it would be nice to have somebody else available to us,� Alderson said. �(Juan) Centeno is the only other catcher we have under contract at the Triple-A level, so we�d like to have somebody else, but it�s not a high priority.� http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/mets/sandy-s-interest-grandy-growing-article-1.1515001

batmagadanleadoff wrote: batmagadanleadoff wrote: batmagadanleadoff wrote: Extreme left (standing) Don Shaw throws a hard high one and chooses this V-neck, raglan sleeve pullover knitted completely in ribbed stitch. The yarn is knitted worsted. Extreme left (sitting) Sandy Alomar goes deep in the hole to field this Danish pullover with a patterned yoke. Stitch is stockinette; yarn is a mixture of wool and vinyon. Standing next to Alomar - coach Harvey Haddix calls for a hit and run in this classic cardigan with cables and two color ribbed band. Yarn is machine washable Orion acrylic. Standing behind Haddix's left shoulder - Larry Stahl finds a perfect can of corn as he catches this wide turtleneck in an allover zigzagdesign. Stitch is stockinette; yarn is wool, mohair and vinyon. Standing to Stahl's left - Don Bosch has to hustle to catch up with this comfortable coat sweater. Stitch is stockinette; yarn is machine-washable crylor and mohair. Extra fabric for the growing center-fielder to grow into.

Hint: Four of these Mets already appeared in this thread. Extreme left (standing) Don Shaw throws a hard high one and chooses this V-neck, raglan sleeve pullover knitted completely in ribbed stitch. The yarn is knitted worsted. Extreme left (sitting) Sandy Alomar goes deep in the hole to field this Danish pullover with a patterned yoke. Stitch is stockinette; yarn is a mixture of wool and vinyon.

Saying Good-bye As the Braves Leave Atlanta for 'Atlanta' By Rembert Browne on November 11, 2013 5:34 PM ET http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-triangle/post/_/id/82022/saying-good-bye-as-the-braves-leave-atlanta-for-atlanta

I didn't know that the military was broke and that the Pentagon needed baseball's money. Besides, don't they just print more money whenever they need it? If the Mets really wanted to help out, why not a Soup Kitchen Saturday? The homeless could get in for free on select Saturdays (with proof of homelessness, obviously) and receive free soup and potato chips. Maybe the Mets'll even let Paul Lukas's readers design the Soup Kitchen Saturday Mets unis.

Watch McCann at the 3:47 mark. Also, don't know if any commentators mentioned this, but at about the 3:37 mark, it appears that Fernandez spit on third base as he was rounding that bag.

If I were the Mets, I'd wanna camouflage myself.

Ceetar wrote: Gwreck wrote: "Military Mondays" with free tickets to servicemen and women? Great. . Like they didn't do this stuff already without inflicting it on the actual game. There are plenty of opportunities to use your status of being a major league baseball team for good and for promotion of good causes without mixing it with the actual game. But fine, let's get more silly stuff going then. Can we get spiderman uniforms for the next movie release? cause that'd be neat. But it's only 5 games at least. Wait a second! There's something about the Mets you don't like? Did you just criticize something Metly?

Zvon wrote: McCann is a doosh with big balls. I like that he said something. He rep's his team. I thought McCann did more than simply say something. For a few steps, McCann was obstructing Fernandez's path back to the Marlins dugout. It was hyper-aggressive.

Who Was the Biggest Douchebag? Jose Fernandez? Brian Mcann? Chris Johnson? Watch the four minute video and decide for yourself. http://ftw.usatoday.com/2013/09/the-braves-response-to-jose-fernandez-made-the-braves-look-stupid/

Frayed Knot wrote: Not sure what your point is here. Among other points, mainly that Grandy would be the Mets best HR hitter, based on the numbers. Of course, he'll be 34 next season and is coming off an injury that cost him more than half of 2013. George Foster and Jason Bay also came to the Mets as not only their best HR hitter, but as one of the best HR hitters in all of baseball.

What a tease. This just raises my unrealistic hope that Citi Field'll be demolished and replaced in my lifetime.

... Granderson hit 47 home runs at home during those recent healthy seasons, and 37 on the road, a fairly equitable split. Not sure I'd define 27% more at home v on road as "fairly equitable". Then throw in the idea that CitiField might mean a 10% or so decline - meaning that 84 over two seasons (H=47 + R=37) turns into maybe 70 (H=33 + R=37) and that's even if there's not a decline due to age, injury, surrounding line-up, league change, sun spots, whatever. From 2011-2013 Granderson hit 42 road HR's in 730 AB's. No current Met has hit as many road HR's as Granderson has over that period. Coincidentally, David Wright also has exactly 730 AB's from 2011-2013: Wright has 29 road HR's in that period. Rate-wise, Ike Davis's road HR pace is close to Grandy's (29 HR in 512 road AB's). Barring any other additions, Granderson would appear to be the Mets best HR hitter, Citi Field or no Citi Field. If the stadium is gonna reduce CG's home HR's, then it's probably already reducing the home HR rates of some current Mets. And to the extent HR's at Citi Field are scarce, that just makes 'em more valuable anyway. So should the Mets sign The Grandy Man? Beats me. If the goal is a shortsighted one to win as many games as possible next season at any cost, then yeah ... why not? Just sign the best players out there. If the main goal is to sign a player that'll make significant contributions to a pennant contending team, then I'd pass. CG turns 34 next year, and the Mets are probably at least another year or two from serious contention. Grandy'll probably suck by the time the Mets are ready for prime time. This post naturally assumes that the Mets can afford CG. Not that they'd ever admit to not being able to afford him if they don't sign him. They've got an unlimited number of plausible deniablilty excuses for not signing CG or any other free agent. And those excuses might even be true. But how would we know?

Edgy MD wrote: But who? Depends. What's the goal? To win the World Series next season? To win the World Series in three years? To make the playoffs next season? To build a team that'll contend for several seasons? To make more money? To draw more fans? How many more fans? I suppose I'm simplifying because there's probably more than one goal. I'd guess that the owners mainly wanna make money, and to the extent that they might then try and build a championship caliber team, it's only because they must believe that championship caliber teams make more money than crappy teams. There's an old Walter O'Malley story about some Dodgers insiders talking baseball in the aftermath of the '66 World Series. The Dodgers had just been swept in four games by the Baby Birds, and the insiders speculated that O'Malley was dissapointed in the Series outcome -- not because his Dodgers lost the World Series, but because the Series only went the minimum four games, thus depriving O'Malley out of millions of dollars in revenue.

This is grand. The media deliberates on whether it's sound for the team from NY that won't finish in first place next season, and probably won't even win half of its games to sign a 33 year outfielder that, despite his flaws, is aces over anyone else they have. And they probably can't afford him anyway.

Should the Mets ever win a World Series and then decide to play their next home opener in gold-trimmed uniforms, here's a mock-up of what those unis might look like.