OPENING DAY 2010

HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL. I bought one ticket to todays game. Nobody would go with me! I won't be at many games this year. You don't want to KEEP looking at a train wreck! But I have to be there today. I was at the Polo Grouns back on opening day 1962. A Friday the 13th versus the Pirates. Sat behind home plate for $3.50. Some businessmen in suits and ties kept offering me a hit on their flask. I declined. I was only 14 and hadn't discovered the demon rum yet. I had discovered the amazin'Mets though.
Today I will sit in fair territory in the upper level (Promenade) and root,root, root for the home team. I probably will only go to games that Santana is starting. Makes sense because our second stater couln't be the fifth starter on some MLB teams. I have only missed 5 opening day games since that day at Coogan's bluff in 1962. I continue to maintain that this will be one of the saddest years in Mets history. I will leave you with an excellent article from the NY Times today which sums up my emotions.
For Mets, Gloom and Doom Instead of Sunshine and Smiles
By GEORGE VECSEY
“Abandon hope, all ye who enter here.”

That’s what I would write if I felt like paying $395 for a commemorative brick outside the Mets’ ballpark.

That sentiment from the poet Dante Alighieri’s “Inferno” is applicable to the new baseball season, normally a time of hope, but not in Queens, not this year and maybe not anytime soon.

Baseball is usually a joyous time just because the weather brightens. The Yankees open at Fenway Park on Sunday night — those words never really do grow old, do they? But baseball could go back to the traditional Monday afternoon opener in good old Cincinnati, and that would be cool, too.

The sad reality remains that the grand baseball towns like Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and Kansas City have been shut out of contention because of the cable-television income gap, but fans can always hope for promising rookies, gritty veterans, sweet summer nights, great smells from the concession stands, fireworks after the game.

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But what has the glut of cable money — the Mets had the second-highest payroll in the majors last year — done for that increasingly sad-sack franchise?

In my hometown, April is greeted warmly this year if only because it means the Knicks and the Nets will soon go away for many months. But now we have the warm-weather version of those sluggards, the Mets.

To make things worse, the Mets appear to be falling farther behind, while teams in the East are upgrading. Imagine competing for attention in the same time zone as the Red Sox, Yankees, Phillies, Braves and Rays.

The Braves are starting a genuine phee-nom, Jason Heyward, in right field. The Phillies have imported Roy Halladay, perhaps the best pitcher in baseball. And that is just in the Mets’ division. The loyal fans must trudge over the $395 bricks in the plaza sidewalk to witness the stirring season-long battle with Florida for third place. (The Mets are better than Washington. Aren’t they?)

Fans in other regions are not expected to have sympathy for anything New York. But imagine the horror of competing in the city where the Yankees seem poised to make Joe Girardi’s new uniform, No. 28, a one and done.

No other team could discard two of the resourceful heroes of the recent championship — Johnny Damon and his enlightened dash to third base, Hideki Matsui and his power that ended the Series — and possibly improve themselves.

From Massachusetts to Florida, teams have reason to think about being gainfully employed in late October. The Mets? Well, they have become something I never thought I would ever see when I attended the rusted Polo Grounds for their cold and rainy yet heartwarming first home game back in 1962.

The Mets have become irrelevant.

Their fans won’t think so, bless their hearts. They pay $395 per brick to perpetuate epic games, dearly departed rooters, beautiful evenings, ghastly events, unforgettable bites of sausage, sweet or spicy. But everything has lost its sizzle in recent years.

Last season, I named the new ballpark (supported by naming rights from a propped-up financial institution) after Marvin Eugene Throneberry, the beloved bumbler of the first season. The Yankees won the World Series in 1962, but the Mets were more fun, except maybe to Yankees fans, who have weird standards, anyway.

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Marvelous Marv missed bases and dropped throws and stared at third strikes, but the Mets were fun, at least most of the time. Now they just mostly get hurt. It’s hard to blame anybody for the ludicrous skein of injuries that has Carlos Beltran, Jose Reyes and Daniel Murphy on the disabled list to start the season.

Call me a pessimist, but I’m not sure the Mets will ever have a Reyes era. At this rate, he will never have great years the way Don Mattingly and Nomar Garciaparra did before they fell apart.

It’s easy to blame ownership, because the franchise does not feel or act as pleasant as it used to. Did Bernie Madoff siphon off too much money and attention span? Could be. Omar Minaya, whom I like, is supposed to be a shrewd judge of talent, but how come Phil Hughes and Joba Chamberlain, who competed for the fifth spot on the Yankees, are better than the second starter on the Mets, whoever that is?

Good grief. The Mets are opening the season with Angel Pagan or Gary Matthews Jr. in center, Mike Jacobs at first, Rod Barajas catching and Alex Cora at shortstop. Cora is the respectable role player the Mets have always had, in good years and bad, someone knowledgeable fans could appreciate. So is Fernando Tatis. Queens people.

They fill a psychological need for the Paytons and Agbayanis of the Bobby V years — how they resonate — and the Santanas and Backmans of 1986, the Charleses and Weises of 1969. But the Mets are not haimish anymore.

It is growing late. Too much cable money is being squandered. Jerry Manuel’s laughter has run out its novelty. He is probably set up to fail, waiting for the next era, whatever that will be. In theory, it’s always nice to have a new baseball season, but at Dante Alighieri Stadium, abandon hope.


E-mail: geovec@nytimes.com

WHISPERS AND LIES

Lets get into the current and past injury situations of the Metropolitan baseball club. I feel very strongly that as a customer of this team I should (within all legal privacy laws) be told the ABSOLUTE truth about illness and injury to our team. You just know this is not being done by the Mets ownership! And I am sick (pun) and tired of it!
Whats really up with Jose and his thyroid? Notice the word ends in roid. But that is a later discussion. Jose says he has a sore throat, the team claims an overactive thyroid. Carlos Beltran claims he needs surgery, the team claims rest will work. Bravo to you Carlos for going out and listening to your doctor and having the surgery. Carlos Delgado last season has hip surgery. OUT FOR THE SEASON. A-ROD CAME BACK IN A MONTH FROM HIP SURGERY! Nine months later Delgado had to quit his comeback and have more surgery on the same hip. Who did the Mets send him to last year? Dr. Ruth?
Have you EVER read an injury report that said your favorite player will be out 2 to 8 weeks. He could be back in 4 weeks if they REMOVED his thyroid.Dr.Omar this morning claimed that there is no medicine for Jose's overactive thyroid. The Mayo clinic website says "Several treatment options are available if you have hyperthyroidism. Doctors use anti-thyroid medications and radioactive iodine to slow the production of thyroid hormones. Sometimes, treatment of hyperthyroidism involves surgery to remove part of your thyroid gland". I'm going to go with the Mayo clinic.
LIES. Over and over again. The whispers of course are the famous 3 letters HGH. Hey if Jose went to A-Rod's doctor I understand the whispers. Who's running this medical ward? We must establish that Omar is just the puppet. Jeff W. pulls the strings and hands the words to Minaya to say.It is a real shame too because Omar is still one of the best baseball men today. But he doesn't get to make the decisions any longer. It's fred's favorite son beating this franchise into the ground.
One day this summer they will call a press conference and fire Omar. And he will take his talent and build a winner somewhere else.
This organization has been beset with terrible injuries . Bad luck? I think not. Terribe ownership? Now thats the (overpriced) ticket ! When was the last can't miss pitching prospect who didn't go down with season or career ending arm problems? Jon Matlack? And he didn't have a long career either. Maybe we should hire Tommy John as pitching coach. Lies. Have you ever heard of a 3 week case of pink eye. PLEASE!! WHAT DO THEY TAKE US FOR? Idiots?
We must come back to this issue in the next post. Any comments on your favorite Mets injury will be fun. Until then I am "waiting for visiting hours".

TICKETS ANYONE ?

Citi Field: Seating and Pricing mets.com: Ballpark

Lets just say you want to take in a ballgame. You want to go see your favorite team: the Mets. It's a sunny warm June afternoon and Johann is scheduled to pitch. You go to the web to buy a ticket or you call Citifield or you take the #7 train to Flushing. Now you have to decide among the 39 different seating areas. 39 ! That's right. 39. And then in these 39 categories to figure out the price of today's game you need to know if the game is : Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze or Value. What the #@&*#. Ill make it a little easier for you. The Platinum games are only opening day and the 3 Yankee games. After that --Good Luck.
Does it really have to be this way? Fred Wilpon keeps talking about the good old days. About catching a game at Ebbitt's field to see his beloved Dodgers. You walked up to a kiosk on Sullivan place and bought a box seat or a grandstand seat or a bleacher seat. That was easy! Then you went in and took your seat and root, root rooted for the home team.
Forget the price differences from 1955 to 2010. The fan at least knew where he wanted to sit and where that ticket would place him. I've been to Citifield 20 times and all I know on the above list is the Promenade. And I know that I can't get into the Promenade club unless its printed on my ticket ( it isn't in most cases). And I know that if I have tickets in the best , right behind the plate Promenade seats I can't take my friend who is in a wheelchair because those sections can only be reached by climbing 14 steps from the Promenade food court! ( my heart is still beating fast from last summers game there)
What is a "baseline box gold"? How close to a "baseline box siver" is it? the price difference is after all DOUBLE!. But a baseline box seat is a bargain at $36
I'm sorry -on value days!
Is all this confusion necessary? Can't the Wilpons find an accountant who can figure out how much they need to earn per game and come up with lets say 4 or 5 price levels. And lets lose the OLYMPIC'S color coding system. 5 colors!! the Olympics only give out 3 medals. If the IOC follows the Wilpon method the USA takes home 96 medals this year! " hey mom see my VALUE medal". How proud she will be!
So click on the link above and prepare to be AMAZED. Or so confused you go see the Brooklyn Cyclones instead.

Just checking in.

Just a month to go to start the 2010 season. This one , I fear , may go down in history as the culmination of the fall of the Mets franchise. The fall began with the bat on Carlos Beltran's left shoulder in game 7 in 2006. Until that moment we just knew the season was ours. We just knew the Omar Minaya moves were about to bring glory to the team ,the fans, our beloved manager Willie Randolph and the ownership . We just knew that 2 hits and the tigers could prepare to be the last crushed team on our way to a year for Mets history books. Instead the franchise has been on an unprecedented free-fall since
What happened?
Where did it all go wrong?
See the title of this blog! Mismanagement by ownership. Arrogance of Jeff wilpon. Head in the ground by Fred Wilpon. A General Manager who has become a babbling puppet of Jeff W. A loss of a fortune by Fred W. A beautiful new ballpark which no real Mets fan can afford. With fancy clubhouses for the rich only! A Medical and training staff with less skills and medical knowledge than the school nurse we had to see to go home sick. ( in fact that is what the majority of the team did last year---go home sick)
So I have turned to the bloggersphere to vent and reach other Met fans who are as sick as I am of this turn of events. Oh, I have been here since 1962. I have witnessed the 13 and 17 game losing streaks. I have seen the double header losses of 17-3 and 13-0. I can remember the 120 loss season with the 4 starting pitchers who lost at least 20 games each.
We understood in those days . We laughed and were only a little frustrated.
But today we are saddled with the Wilpons and we can not laugh. We can not understand.
We can not bear under the weight of the Minaya's, the Bernazzrd's, the wierd smile and press conferences of the Manuel's. We can not spend another day involved with a team owned and (mis)run by the WILPON'S!!
i HAVE MORE $$ IN MY POCKET TODAY BECAUSE I DID NOT RENEW MY SEASON TICKETS. This is a season ticket ( sometimes 2 seats-sometimes 4 seats ) which I have owned since 1987. In 1986 I bought individual games -often on game day- to 34 games and went to a playoff game and a world series game. Try that little trick in this market today. Last year the team was so bad I sold 60 % of my games. I am tired of being a ticket broker!
The Wilpon's turned me into a ticket broker and a disappointed fan
THEY MUST SELL! So we -the true fans can come back.
I will be in touch